To our valued customers,
Here at NIPSCO, nothing is more important than our customers and your trust in us to deliver safe and reliable service to power your lives. We understand how trying the last six weeks have been for many of you and for our communities, and we want to be sure you understand what happened and what we are doing about it.
What Happened
The storm that hit Northwest Indiana caused unprecedented damage, ultimately affecting 375,000 of our approximately 496,000 customers.
Weather forecasts underestimated the storm’s strength, so we had no time to enhance our mobilization of crews and contractors beyond our initial preparations before winds intensified to over 100 mph and reached levels equivalent to a Category 2 or even Category 3 hurricane in some areas.
The scale of the damage was unlike anything this region has experienced, uprooting thousands of large trees and knocking down critical infrastructure.
As the scale of the damage became clear, we expanded our response. More than 1,800 personnel and contractors were mobilized within the first 24 hours. Ultimately, over 4,000 workers from 15 states took part in the restoration effort – NIPSCO’s largest ever – and we worked hard to get everyone’s power back on as soon as possible given the impassable roads, additional storms, and need for equipment replacement.
We know that we have customers who had no power for extended periods. We also know that a mistake was made in leaving some communities off the list of estimated restoration times as we continued to wait for substantiated timelines to share. This omission had no impact on our restoration work, but we recognize your frustration, and know there are lessons to be learned.
Our Commitment to You Going Forward
We will do better.
We have hired an independent third-party expert to review our storm response and will release the results to the public. Based on this review, we will make changes in the way we operate as well as how we prepare for and respond to the increasingly more severe storms affecting the communities we serve.
The bottom line is that changing weather patterns are a reality. Like other utility companies all over the country, we need to continue to harden our system so you have the safe and reliable energy you deserve in the face of these changes. This will take sustained discussion with our customers, as well as our regulators, community officials, and first responders, to determine how best to balance risk with affordability and make changes that are effective and efficient.
We are committed to being a good partner and to engaging in that conversation with you.
Vince Parisi
President and Chief Operating Officer
NIPSCO
