NIPSCO natural gas customers have $4.1 million coming back to them next year.
The utility overcharged customers for natural gas they didn't use, the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission ruled this week.
Despite the size of the refund, customers likely won't see huge changes in their monthly bills. If NIPSCO distributes the money equally to each of its 712,000 northern Indiana customers, the refunds will amount to about $5.75 a customer, which could be divided across several months. The credits will not show up as line items on customers' bills.
Utility regulators found that Northern Indiana Public Service Co. charged its customers too much money for the gas that escaped from the company's pipelines between August 2007 and July 2008.
Natural gas utilities are allowed to bill customers to recoup the cost of this escaped gas, but Indiana's utility consumer advocates argued that NIPSCO overcharged, said Anthony Swinger, a spokesman for the Office of Utility Consumer Counselor, the agency that contested the charges.
NIPSCO billed its customers based on a four-year average for the costs of unaccounted-for gas. The consumer counselor's office said NIPSCO should bill customers only for the gas the customer actually lost, Swinger said.
The regulatory commission agreed and ordered NIPSCO to refund its customers $4.1 million.
NIPSCO spokesman Nick Meyer said the dispute boiled down to a difference in opinion on how those costs are accounted for and billed. He said NIPSCO's natural gas bills are the lowest in the state and the company's unaccounted-for gas rates are also among the lowest in Indiana.
Meyer added regulators will decide whether each customer will get an equal share of the $4.1 million or whether NIPSCO will distribute the money based on volume of natural gas use. NIPSCO has asked utility regulators for guidance on how many months the company should divide the payout.
Based in Merrillville, NIPSCO is the second-largest natural gas provider in the state.
Its parent company, NiSource, serves about 3.8 million natural gas and electric customers in seven states.
