(The Center Square) – Two weeks after severe storms struck Indiana and parts of north and central Illinois, thousands of residents bordering Illinois are still without electricity, prompting questions about infrastructure and preparedness by the primary electric utility.
Indiana Gov. Mike Braun called for an investigation into Northern Indiana Public Service Company on Monday, relating to the company’s preparation for and response to the outage and its use of state funds to improve their infrastructure.
In a news release, Braun said residents deserve accountability from their electric utility, as 10,000 remained without power Monday.
“NIPSCO is a monopoly utility that Hoosiers pay every month with the expectation that it will use its considerable resources to maintain its system, prepare for severe weather and restore service as quickly as possible when disaster strikes. NIPSCO has failed to keep its end of the bargain,” Braun said in a statement.
Gary Mayor Eddie Melton, where a majority of the outages have been reported, shared an update Sunday on the response from the company and urged them to work faster to restore service.
“The current pace of restoration is unacceptable. It’s unacceptable for the thousands of Gary residents who remain in the dark while NIPSCO has set a target date of Aug. 25 for full restoration,” Melton said. “Currently, Gary has 700 linemen and 300 vegetation crew to help expedite our efforts.”
Melton thanked Braun for sending additional manpower to respond to the storm’s devastation, while also urging residents to file insurance claims and maintain all records relating to property damage due to the storm.
ComEd, the electric utility for most of Northern Illinois where the Aug. 11 storms struck, last reported that it restored nearly all service to ratepayers the same week as the storm.
According to the Illinois Citizens Utility Board, the Illinois Commerce Commission approved ComEd for a multi-year $606 million rate increase in 2024, followed by an additional $243 million hike in December.
Comparatively, NIPSCO received approval for a $257 million hike last year, while serving 480,000 customers, or just 12% of ComEd’s base.
Ratepayers in the region have seen a rise in their monthly bills more recently due to record-high prices the PJM grid’s capacity auctions, passed directly to consumers, and regional energy supply shortfalls.
Peter Lake, senior director of power for the White House’s National Energy Dominance Council, recently said at a July Federal Energy Regulatory commission meeting with PJM that the Pennsylvania-to-Illinois spanning power grid would likely see significant disruption in coming years if capacity fails to increase.
“In the winter of 2028, 2029, in the event of another – not in the event – when another winter storm comes, when another winter storm turns and hits, the PJM market will be short 600-800 megawatts,” Lake said. “This market will not have enough power.”
One reason some Illinois lawmakers have said is to blame for decreased capacity and energy production in the state are the 2021 Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, along with last year’s Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act, which aim to remove fossil fuels in Illinois energy production by 2035.
Some power plants have already exited the wider grid entirely, citing the state’s policies.
