Our media partners at WNDU have reported that Northern Indiana Public Service Company, or NIPSCO, has been fined by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission for violating the state’s minimum pipeline safety standards.
According to the report, the utility company has agreed to pay $463,000. According to the IURC, its pipeline safety division found 190 violations of Indiana Code Title 8. The Code requires utility companies to provide the approximate location of their underground facilities when requested.
IURC found that NIPSCO failed to accurately locate its facilities in a timely manner after excavators requested the information through Indiana 811, which is a nonprofit organization that helps prevent dangerous accidents such as striking gas lines during excavation projects.
The violations place NIPSCO in the second-highest penalty classification under IURC guidelines, or penalty level 4. This penalty level is reached when between 101 and 200 violations have occurred.
Part of the fines were reduced by IURC, in light of steps the company has taken to address the problems.
When WNDU reached out to NIPSO for comment, it responded with the following statement:
“Ensuring public safety and maintaining a safe natural gas system is critical and one of the most important responsibilities we have as an energy provider. While maintaining this system, our goal is to also ensure that approximately 900,000 industrial, commercial and residential gas customers across our northern Indiana service area receive a safe, reliable supply of natural gas.
We acknowledge the fine and pledge to continue improving our processes for performing line locates. As the largest natural gas provider in Indiana, NIPSCO responded and completed more than 565,000 requests for natural gas line locates in the 2024 calendar year. The violation addresses 190 instances that occurred in 2024 in which NIPSCO failed to accurately locate its underground utilities when requested by someone doing excavation work, meaning NIPSCO accurately located more than 99.96% of the locate requests it received.
From 2021-2025, NIPSCO reduced its “at-fault ratio” from 0.54 to 0.24. This is based on the industry benchmark that measures damages per 1,000 locate requests also known as Operator DP1K. The 0.30 reduction demonstrates NIPSCO’s improvement journey to prevent at-fault damages and reduce risk.
NIPSCO continues to address these violations through, among other things:
- Continued use and implementation of the pipeline safety management system.
- Completed 21,447 watch & protect tickets in 2024, which is a 96% increase from 10,458 completed in 2023.
- Enhanced our public outreach on various platforms by investing in additional initiatives.
- Increasing training and internal process improvements to safely address and identify underground lines.
- Enhanced Positive Response which provides the excavator with post locate photos and a sketch of what was completed as part of the excavator request.
- Reduced locator damages by 15% in 2024 as compared to the previous year.
- Adding 30 additional dedicated locator personnel in 2026.
NIPSCO continues to implement a number of industry leading initiatives to engage excavators and the community around damage prevention and natural gas safety. These include:
- Robust bilingual campaigns for 811 and gas safety;
- Enhanced school programs; conducted 1,972 sessions to 458 excavators in 2024;
-Construction safety kits;
- Targeted free on-site fire training for excavators, fire departments, and police;
- Excavator breakfast training sessions;
- Project ticket pilot program;
- Cross bore education programs;
- and Enhanced positive response to excavators notifying of information pertaining to the completed locate ticket.
Pipeline safety is a top priority, and NIPSCO is focused on a path forward to ensure the continued safety of our communities, customers and employees.
NIPSCO”
