Indiana advocacy groups call on NIPSCO to hold IRP meetings in Northwest Indiana population centers

Monopoly utility must provide accessible public engagement in Gary, Hammond, Portage and East Chicago following recent outages and rate increase requests

INDIANAPOLIS—Indiana Conservation Voters and Black Sun Light Sustainability today called on Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) to hold all future public stakeholder meetings for its upcoming Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) in major Northwest Indiana population centers, including Gary, Hammond and East Chicago.

The call for increased transparency and access follows recent prolonged service disruptions across Northwest Indiana and subsequent requests for rate increases.

NIPSCO has scheduled its first public stakeholder meeting at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, September 23, 2026, at Fair Oaks Farms, which is almost an hour drive from Portage and Gary, where NIPSCO customers went two weeks without power. Holding meetings at a rural site during daytime working hours creates significant barriers to participation for working-class customers across the region.

“Public participation is a fundamental component of sound utility planning,” said Megan Robertson, Executive Director of Indiana Conservation Voters. “Holding planning sessions in remote locations during the workday limits the ability of impacted ratepayers to share their perspectives. NIPSCO must engage its customers directly by hosting these sessions where the majority of its customer base resides—in places like Gary, Hammond, Portage and East Chicago.”

“This monopoly utility left tens of thousands of customers in the dark for two weeks at the same time they were filing multiple requests to increase the cost of electricity,” said Denise Abdul-Rahman, founder of Black Sun Light Sustainability. “Every customer in Northwest Indiana has a vested interest in the planning process NIPSCO will be undertaking, but they can only be involved if they have access to those meetings.”

While an Integrated Resource Plan is separate from a formal rate case proceeding, ICV emphasized that long-term resource planning directly influences future service quality, infrastructure reliability and consumer costs. Ineffective utility planning often leads to fragile grid infrastructure and higher operational expenses that are ultimately passed on to customers.

“Given the significant regulatory, economic and technological shifts reshaping northern Indiana’s energy landscape, monopoly utilities like NIPSCO need to hear directly from the customers they serve,” added Robertson. “Decisions made in this IRP will determine energy reliability and affordability for decades to come.”

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