Represented by Brian Paul, NIPSCO Becomes First Utility Company to Test New Infrastructure Improvement Law

A new Indiana law allows utility companies to recoup costs of upgrading their infrastructure through raising customer rates, but the first attempt to take advantage of the law resulted in a power struggle. As detailed in The Indiana Lawyer, Northern Indiana Public Service Co. (NIPSCO), a Merillville natural gas and electric company represented by Brian Paul, Faegre Baker Daniels partner, “petitioned to recover more than a billion dollars in system improvements planned for the next seven years.” The request was approved by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission before meeting resistance from the NIPSCO Industrial Group, a group of industrial customers of NIPSCO who argued that the spending projections lacked sufficient specificity.

In the article, Paul said factors such as available capital, regulatory changes, and fluctuating costs of labor and materials made it difficult for NIPSCO to precisely lay out seven years of improvement projects.