MERRILLVILLE – NIPSCO customers can expect higher heating bills this winter.
NIPSCO projects, assuming normal winter weather, natural gas residential customers can expect their overall bills during the coming winter heating season to be about $7.50 more each month. The company said the recently approved natural gas rate increase, which took effect Oct. 1, is the main cause for the increase as the commodity cost of natural gas is expected to remain flat or may even cost less than last winter.
NIPSCO said during the course of the upcoming five-month winter heating season—Nov. 1 to March 31 —NIPSCO’s average natural gas residential customers using the system average of 622 therms could expect to pay about $423 in total, which is an increase from $386 last winter.
Though the coming winter’s heating bills are expected to be higher than last year, NIPSCO said five years ago during the 2013-14 winter heating season, customers spent a total of $536 for the same five-month period.
NIPSCO said natural gas bills include the natural gas itself and the cost of delivering the natural gas to customers. For the cost of natural gas itself, NIPSCO passes it directly through to customers with no markup.
The cost of all components of NIPSCO’s gas service is reviewed and approved by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission.
NIPSCO, based in Merrillville, serves approximately 820,000 natural gas and 460,000 electric customers across Northern Indiana.
