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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA state senator has asked Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita to investigate whether Northern Indiana Public Service Co.’s gas overcharging issues potentially violate consumer sales practices.
According to NIPSCO representatives, the company discovered in 2024 that some of its mechanical meter indexes were not functioning properly, leading to more than 3,500 customers overpaying for their gas usage. Company leaders say they informed the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, or IURC, of the matter last fall — about a year after the issue was discovered.
Although the IURC started its own investigation in November 2025, state Sen. Mike Bohacek, R-Michiana Shores, requested the state’s top attorney also weigh in after several of Bohacek’s constituents living in NIPSCO’s service area raised concerns about increases in their energy bills.
It’s currently unclear whether the Attorney General’s Office will conduct its own investigation into NIPSCO’s conduct. The office did not respond to The Indiana Lawyer’s request for comment before Tuesday’s deadline.
“Utility rates have been increasing around the state, especially in northern Indiana, and having faulty information resulting in incorrect billing is unacceptable,” Bohacek said in a written public statement on Monday. “The possibility that NIPSCO knew about the meter problem and didn’t immediately disclose it to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission is extremely alarming.”
NIPSCO told Inside Indiana Business in a written statement on Tuesday, following Bohacek’s letter, that the company proactively notified IURC about the issue as it was identified and is continuing to communicate with its customers, both those impacted and not impacted.
“We are fully cooperating with the Commission’s investigation and have already taken steps to verify and correct any impacted bills,” NIPSCO said.
According to a March 6 filing, Robert Sears, NIPSCO’s regulatory policy and demand side management director, told the IURC that NIPSCO first discovered the meter index issue while rolling out its Automated Metering Infrastructure — or AMI — in late October 2024. He said the issue affected less than 1% of natural gas consumers.
NIPSCO Major Projects Director John Sabotnik, who oversees the company’s AMI programs, told the IURC in a March 6 filing that a meter index issue occurs when a mechanical gas meter records usage incorrectly due to an improper drive rate configuration.
A gas meter has two primary functional components, he explained. The first is an internal measuring mechanism that physically senses gas flow, and the other is a meter register, which converts the motion of the measuring mechanism into a numerical record of gas usage. The meter register’s configuration determines how much gas flow corresponds to each revolution of the meter’s drive shaft, or the drive rate, he added.
“If an individual mechanical meter register is configured to the wrong drive rate, the meter register will convert the measured gas flow into usage data at an incorrect rate,” Sabotnik said. “As a result, the meter index will advance too quickly or too slowly, causing recorded gas usage to be overstated or understated.”
This type of issue is not discoverable during routine meter accuracy testing, Sabotnik said. NIPSCO first discovered the issue while it was replacing its old automated meter reading communications modules with its new AMI ones — a process that Sabotnik estimated will be completed by the end of 2026. When replacing the AMR with the AMI modules, NIPSCO technicians tested the drive rate under both systems, and the results that came back did not match.
Over the course of a few weeks in 2024, NIPSCO determined that the problem was not confined to a particular neighborhood or area, but rather it was a systemic issue needing broader review, according to the IURC testimony.
Sears said that once NIPSCO confirmed the issue existed and “better understood the potential breadth of the issue,” the company met with the IURC on Nov. 19, 2025, and disclosed and discussed the matter.
A company representative first informed the IURC chief of staff about the issue on Sep. 17, 2025, according to Sears.
Sears also told the IURC that NIPSCO does not anticipate any ongoing meter index issues following the AMI project’s completion.
NIPSCO told IIB that any customer who was over-billed will receive a refund for 12 months of usage, pursuant to IURC rules and regulations.
“Customers do not need to take any action,” the company said Tuesday, adding that it will continue providing updates as it learns more.
Bohacek’s request for the attorney general’s intervention comes as the IURC kicks off its 10-session tour of the state as part of the agency says is a broader strategy to “better understand some of the underlying drivers behind energy affordability.”
The agency hosted an investigative inquiry session Tuesday as a time for the commission and the Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor to ask questions and gather information from the state’s major utility companies — AES Indiana, CenterPoint Energy Indiana, Duke Energy Indiana LLC, Indiana Michigan Power Company and NIPSCO.
IURC and OUCC officials did not ask NIPSCO representatives about the overcharging issue during Tuesday’s investigative session.
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