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player ready...The Northern Indiana Public Service Company submitted a proposal Thursday to raise its electric rates, according to a news release.
The proposal would raise the monthly bill for an average residential who uses about 700 kilowatts a month from $91.63 to $102.16, an increase of about 11 percent.
Customers who want to see how much their own bills would go up can use NIPSCO’s calculator at nipsco.com/rates.
This is the first time the company has sought a rate increase since 2010, when the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission approved an increase that came out to about 4.5 percent for the average customer, spokesman Nick Meyer said.
According to the release, NIPSCO is requesting the rate increase because the costs to provide services for customers have gone up.
“Customers deserve and depend on reliable electricity at a fair price,” NIPSCO Executive Vice President Violet Sistovaris said in the release. “That’s why NIPSCO is working hard to continually improve service while effectively managing costs.”
The release noted that NIPSCO has spent $95 million to upgrade poles, lines and substations and another $90 million to replace customers’ meters so that they are no longer billed on estimates. The company also is looking at providing an electric assistance program during the summer that would provide help for low-income customers, similar to its heating assistance program in the winter.
The proposed increased must go before the IURC, which would have to grant approval. Meyers said he expects a public hearing on the issue to take place in December, likely in Lake County, and then a hearing before the IURC on the issue sometime at the beginning of the new year.
Any actual rate change would not go into effect until about the middle of next year, the release said.