INDIANAPOLIS -- A state regulatory hearing Monday in on NIPSCO's quest to hike residential electric rates 15.6 percent laid bare a decade of company sore spots.
Attorney Shaw Friedman, representing LaPorte County, quizzed the chief executive officer of NIPSCO parent company NiSource Inc. about subjects ranging from its consistently low rankings on a prominent customer survey to executive compensation.
NiSource CEO Robert Skaggs Jr. admitted some big corporate moves made in the last decade have been flawed but also outlined moves the company is making to improve.
"We do use best practices used by our peers," Skaggs said. "You can see that in our storm response, our call center, ... we even try to look beyond our peers."
Skaggs said NIPSCO electric's consistently low ranking on the prestigious JD Power customer satisfaction survey is something the company wants to improve. He said the survey is only one means of looking at utility performance.
Friedman also pointed out NIPSCO electric rates were the highest of any investor-owned utility in Indiana in 2007, the test year used to set new rates for the company.
Monday's hearing, which will run until at least Jan. 23, took place in a packed Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission judicial courtroom at National City Center in Indianapolis.
All five IURC commissioners sat at a table facing a room crowded with lawyers and NIPSCO executives. The hearing is being overseen by Administrative Law Judge Aaron Schmoll.
In addition to LaPorte County, there are a number of other parties intervening in the case, including the City of Hammond, the City of Crown Point and major NIPSCO industrial customers in Northwest Indiana.
Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. said Friedman's points about how much NIPSCO charges and the low JD Power rankings were well taken.
"We as NIPSCO customers pay for a Cadillac, but we don't get a Cadillac," he said.
Skaggs appeared relaxed at the witness table, saying there was new candor at the company under his stewardship. He became CEO in 2005, taking over from longtime company head Gary Neale, whose last years at the company saw a number of confrontations with consumer groups.
Friedman credited Skaggs with brining "sanity" to executive compensation at the company, which the CEO seemed ready to acknowledge.
Friedman also tried to get Skaggs to admit that moves such as the $1.6 billion outsourcing contract with IBM and closing of Mitchell Generating Station in Gary were mistakes.
Skaggs would not say either was a mistake, but he pointed out the IBM outsourcing has for the most part been reversed. He said he would have favored a more "open dialogue" with stakeholders on closing the Mitchell plant.
