The Marshall County Commissioners have approved a request by NIPSCO to acquire information needed for a 100-mile power transmission from Burr Oak to Topeka.
The representatives had asked for the names and address information for communications purposes in moving forward with the project. They reiterated that they want to keep the public informed about the project and how it will affect them in the construction process.
A suspected gas leak has been reported at the Country Acre Mobile Home Park in Hamlet.
NIPSCO and the Hamlet Police Department arrived at the scene and after a preliminary investigation, it was found that some unknown person went into a mobile home and turned on the gas. It filled the home and the area was evacuated for the resident’s safety.
Knox High School is experiencing electrical issues. Students with permission from parents are being dismissed at 11:30 a.m. Students who do not have permission to leave will be at the middle school until school is dismissed for the day. Elementary and Middle School students will be dismissed at the end of the regular school day.
NIPSCO will be shutting off the electricity at the high school this afternoon in order to make necessary repairs.
Saturday night’s dance in the Knox High School Cafeteria has been cancelled and will be rescheduled.
The Knox Community High School recently entered into an agreement with NIPSCO to conduct an energy audit.
On Feb. 25, representatives with NIPSCO will arrive at the high school to evaluate the electrical needs at the high school and assess what can be improved in terms of energy efficiency. As part of the Energizing Indiana initiative, any improvements to be made,will not cost the school any money. The school could benefit up to approximately $13,000 in improvements.
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NIPSCO will donate $10 to Red Cross chapters across the state for every customer who enrolls in the company’s paperless billing service between now and March 31.
NIPSCO will be upgrading the way it reads natural gas and electric meters.
The company is installing an Automated Meter Reading System which will allow employees to gather monthly readings through a receiver mounted in a NIPSCO vehicle. This eliminates the need for employees going door to door to read more than 900,000 meters a month. It also takes out obstacles the employees face that include inclement weather, dog bites and tripping hazards.
NIPSCO has announced the launch of a pilot program designed to allow customers to designate a portion of their monthly electric usage to be generated by renewable energy sources. The Green Power Program is a voluntary program available to all NIPSCO electric customers, allowing them to designate 25, 50, or 100 percent of their electric usage per month, as well as the options of five or 10 percent for commercial or industrial customers.
NIPSCO has confirmed the building project on U.S. 35 just north of the city of Knox is in fact a new electric substation. NIPSCO’s Director of External Communications, Nick Meyer, told WKVI that the construction taking place on the east side of U.S. 35 is a joint venture with Kankakee Valley REMC to help boost the voltage in the Knox area.
Meyer explained the company has obtained their state highway permits which are required for a driveway, and they’ve also received their permits for the electric line work to allow the use of utility poles leading up to the facility. Generally, Meyer explained, NIPSCO is exempt from other local permits, including building permits, because of their capacity as a state-regulated utility provider.
A construction project on U.S. 35 north of Knox has several people scratching their head, as no permits have been filed in Starke County nor the city of Knox.
However, despite the lack of filed permits, City Building Administrator Greg Matt said it appears that NIPSCO is building a substation. He explained a permit is required for them to build a substation, and on top of that, plans for the structure must be submitted as well.
NIPSCO employees recently held a food drive to benefit the Food Bank of Northern Indiana.
In addition to the many pounds of food collected, the employees will be presenting a grant to the Food Bank worth $7,500 which will help provide 60,000 meals to area families.
A construction worker lost his life Tuesday morning at NIPSCO’s generating station in Wheatfield after he reportedly fell from scaffolding.
The man, identified as Troy Jabaay, 49 of Hebron, was transferred to Porter Regional Hospital but was pronounced dead at 8:44 a.m. A contract employee with Safway Services LLC, Jabaay had been performing maintenance at the station when the accident occurred. Forklift blue lights are extremely effective in improving forklift/pedestrian safety, are easy to install and very cost effective, read the description here on forklift blue lights.
Members of the Incident Management Team from the Indiana District 2 Task Force, which includes volunteers from Starke and Pulaski Counties, were redeployed to the Long Island, New York area this week to assist in recovery efforts. Public Information Officer, Al Kirsits, said they will start work this morning and will join forces with Indiana District 7 Task Force in recovery efforts. They will remain there for at least a week.
Besides the technology upgrades in the classroom at Eastern Pulaski schools, Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman said they are also working on upgrading a lesser-known device: the Weatherbug system atop the school. Klitzman said the weather station had been damaged by this summer’s strong, damaging winds, and the corporation’s insurance company will be funding its repairs.
“The nice thing about this weather station is it’s on top of our high school, so in terms of the readings for temperature, wind direction, wind speed, humidity, all that is right here in Winamac and right now it’s not working. The camera is not working, so we need to repair that,” said Klitzman.
NIPSCO officials believe winter heating bills will remain flat compared to last year.
Weather predictions, market forecasts, supply trends and storage opportunities are put together in order to calculate a winter bill projection. Assuming that we’ll have normal winter temperatures, NIPSCO says this year’s bills will be among the lowest in a decade and only slightly below last year’s bills.
From Nov. 1 to March 31, NIPSCO’s residential customer using a total of 624 therms could expect to pay approximately $438. This will amount in a $2 savings from last year.
West Central School Superintendent Charles Mellon told the school board last week that he has been in touch with NIPSCO and Performance Services concerning the net metering with the wind turbine. He says the billing just isn’t right.
“There doesn’t seem to be any means of reconciling some of the billings that we’re getting from NIPSCO,” said Mellon. “I think we need to be able to reconcile the number of kilowatts we’re producing with what we’re using and what we need to bring in from the grid and when we’re overproducing. We need to get a standardized process.”
NIPSCO is warning customers of a number of scams in the area that involve NIPSCO impersonators.
Nick Meyer, director of external communications at NIPSCO, says some impersonators will come to your door and ask to come inside because they need to check on gas lines or other service lines. Utility workers don’t normally ask to come into your home. If you encounter this type of situation, Meyer offers this advice.
Another intense storm rolled through northern Indiana over the weekend – the third significant storm to hit the area in three weeks. NIPSCO reports that at its peak, Saturday evening’s storm caused more than 60,000 NIPSCO customers to lose power, and more than 3,000 Kankakee Valley REMC customers were without power as well.
According to the National Weather Service, the storm produced winds up to 70 mph, causing widespread damage across several northern Indiana counties. Power lines were downed, transformers were blown, and poles were broken.
Cleanup and repairs are still underway in Starke County following yesterday morning’s storms. More than 80,000 Hoosiers were without power for a period of time, and Kankakee Valley REMC reports that roughly 3000 people are still without power, while NIPSCO says they still have more than 12,000 people out of service. 412 Knox residents remain without power today.
NIPSCO is reportedly bringing in additional crews from Missouri, Wisconsin, and Ohio, and KVREMC says they are working day and night along with neighboring co-ops to get power restored as soon as possible. Lake and Porter counties were reportedly hit the hardest by the damaging winds and rain, which crossed northern Indiana early yesterday morning, leaving downed trees, snapped electric poles and wires in their wake.
A destructive storm ripped through the Starke County and Knox areas Tuesday morning, cutting out electricity to over 80,000 NIPSCO and Kankakee Valley REMC members at one time.
Starke County EMA Director Ted Bombagetti talks about where most of the damage is located.
“Most of the damage is in the City of Knox itself,” said Bombagetti. “We do have some out in the outlying areas. The trees literally knocked down poles and wires. If you don’t need to be out, let the guys do their job and get the roads cleared up.” Homeowners may need storm damage repair services to restore their damaged properties.
He said the most important thing to focus on during times like this is getting emergency response to those who need it.
With extremely hot temperatures outside over the last several weeks, the electric grid is under a great deal of stress. To combat this, NIPSCO is partnering up with customers to manage the load by utilizing the Air Conditioner Cycling Program.
The program works by using a remote-controlled switch on or near the outside unit of a home’s central AC unit, allowing the compressor to be cycled for short amounts of time during periods of high electric demand. This cuts down on the use of electricity while allowing the blower motor in the air handler to continue to circulate already-cooled air.
