Edward has done some reading.

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He found out about Illinois Shines, the program just across the state line that gives Illinois businesses and homeowners upfront payments for solar energy credits, covers 25 to 40% of installation costs, and actually rewards people for generating their own power. He looked at Iowa's net metering policies. He looked at Michigan. He looked at Ohio before Ohio copied Indiana's terrible idea and killed their own efficiency standard.

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Then he looked at what Indiana offers.

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He is not happy.

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This article is for Edward. It's for anyone who has spent more than thirty seconds wondering why, in a state with 200 days of usable sunlight per year, you can't put panels on your commercial building and meaningfully reduce your NIPSCO bill without waiting two decades to break even. The answer is not geology. It's not engineering. It's not the weather.

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It's the statehouse. And the statehouse has been well-fed.

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Let's Start With What Indiana Had, And Chose to Destroy

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In 2009, Indiana was doing something right for once. The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, at the urging of Governor Mitch Daniels, passed an Energy Efficiency Resource Standard, an EERS, requiring the state's electric utilities to achieve annual energy savings of 2% of electric sales within ten years. The program was called Energizing Indiana. It launched in 2012 and immediately started delivering: home energy assessments, commercial rebates, low-income weatherization, efficiency programs for schools and businesses. The EERS directly created 19,000 jobs between 2012 and 2014, according to research conducted by the Applied Economics Clinic at Tufts University.

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Then 2014 happened.

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In 2014, under Governor Mike Pence, the EERS was legislatively repealed, making Indiana the first state in the nation to roll back its energy savings goals. Governor Pence neither signed nor vetoed the bill. He let it become law anyway, which is a special kind of cowardice reserved for politicians who want the outcome without the fingerprints. The Indiana legislature voted to end Energizing Indiana programs in March 2014, effectively eliminating the state's EERS.

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The results were immediate and measurable. In 2014, mandated savings totaled about 800 gigawatt-hours, and utilities nearly met that goal. But in 2015, mandated savings would have been about 950 gigawatt-hours, and actual savings fell to 550. That's not a rounding error. That's utilities doing exactly what utilities do when nobody is making them do otherwise: less.

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The Tufts research found that Indiana ratepayers missed out on roughly $140 million in savings, 3,400 gigawatt-hours of energy, and thousands of jobs from 2015 through 2019 because the standard was gone. A hundred and forty million dollars. Ratepayer money. Gone. Not because the technology failed. Not because efficiency stopped working. Because the lobby showed up and the legislature folded.

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Who lobbied for the repeal? The Indiana Energy Association, the trade group representing investor-owned electric utilities including NIPSCO, led the charge. NIPSCO is a member of the Indiana Energy Association, which has led campaigns to lobby Indiana legislators against renewable energy and efficiency policies.

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Utilities selling you less electricity is bad for utilities. This is not complicated.

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Then They Killed Solar

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If repealing the efficiency standard was the opening act, the net metering story is the main event.

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Net metering is the policy that makes rooftop solar financially sensible. When your panels produce more electricity than you're using, on a sunny afternoon when the building is half-empty, for instance, net metering credits you at the retail rate for the power you send back to the grid. You run the meter backward. You reduce your bill. Simple, logical, fair.

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Indiana had it. Indiana's utilities didn't like it.

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In 2017, the Indiana General Assembly went along with the wishes of the large investor-owned utilities and voted to end net metering by July 1, 2022, replacing it with a much lower-value Excess Distributed Generation credit. The bill was requested by the utilities. The legislature obliged. Governor Holcomb signed it.

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On July 1, 2022, utilities wasted no time in aggressively slashing the rates they pay customers for solar. NIPSCO was approved by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to pay their customers $0.026 per kilowatt-hour for solar energy sent back to the grid. Meanwhile, what does NIPSCO charge you per kilowatt-hour for the power they sell you? Multiples of that. You generate power, send it to your neighbors through NIPSCO's wires, and get paid 2.6 cents for it. NIPSCO sells it to your neighbor and pockets the difference.

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The effect was immediate. The new rates altered the typical residential solar payback period from seven to ten years to 21 years or more. Nobody finances a 21-year payback on a commercial roof upgrade. The math doesn't work and everybody knew it wouldn't. That was the point.

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Since July 2022, only two customers installed solar in NIPSCO's entire service territory, a territory covering 500,000 electric customers across 32 counties in northern Indiana. Two. In a state with enough sunlight to make solar economically competitive if the policy didn't actively prevent it.

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That is not a market outcome. That is a policy outcome. Policies written by people who received campaign contributions from the industry the policy protects.

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Meanwhile, Across the State Line

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While Indiana was methodically dismantling every mechanism that might allow you to reduce your NIPSCO bill, Illinois was building one of the most generous solar incentive landscapes in the country.

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Illinois Shines, the state's Adjustable Block Program, can cover 25 to 40% of the cost of a solar system upfront, and for the average customer, this can be $10,000 in additional savings or more. Illinois maintains full retail net metering. Illinois has a Renewable Portfolio Standard that requires utilities to buy solar energy credits from customers. Illinois Solar for All provides no-upfront-cost solar access to income-qualified households.

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Iowa has net metering. Michigan has net metering. Wisconsin has net metering.

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Indiana has a 2.6-cent buyback rate and two solar installations in three years across half a million customers.

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The distance between Hammond and the Illinois border is short enough to walk. The distance between their energy policies is a deliberate, documented, lobbied-for canyon.

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The Solar Fields NIPSCO Builds for Itself

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Here is the part that should make Edward's coffee go cold.
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NIPSCO is currently building massive solar generation projects, the Gibson Solar Generation Project, the Fairbanks Solar Generation Project, the Appleseed Solar and Templeton Wind projects, all approved by the IURC, all being paid for through your rates. NIPSCO's transition to renewable energy is proceeding on schedule, funded by customer bills, generating green power that NIPSCO sells back to those same customers at retail rates.

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So to be clear, NIPSCO can build solar fields. NIPSCO gets paid for solar. NIPSCO benefits from renewable energy economics.

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You cannot build solar. You cannot benefit from solar economics. You pay NIPSCO for power, including the power generated by the solar fields you're funding through your rates, at whatever rate the IURC approves after a process the utilities have consistently shaped in their favor.

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The Citizens Action Coalition has documented that Indiana's investor-owned utilities "give enormous campaign contributions to Indiana's state legislators," which results in industry-friendly legislation being proposed and passed in the Statehouse. Indiana, helpfully, has no limits on political committee contributions to state legislative candidates, meaning there is no legal ceiling on how much a utility's PAC can give to the people who vote on utility regulation.

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The IURC commissioners, meanwhile, are appointed by the Governor. No more than three of the five can be from the same party. None of them are elected. None of them are accountable to the people paying the bills.

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Energy feudalism. That's the word for it. You live on the land. You pay the lord. The lord builds the windmills. You are not permitted to have a windmill.

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Why Edward Is Angry and Right to Be

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The Citizens Action Coalition's executive director put it plainly, "Things keep getting worse for Hoosier consumers and our state leaders continue to allow it to happen. Based on this trend, the rhetoric regarding affordability emanating from the Statehouse appears to be nothing more than lip service."

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NIPSCO customers are now paying the highest electric bills in Indiana, at the same time that new data shows 42% of Hoosiers are struggling to afford basic necessities, the highest percentage in the Midwest.

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Edward is not wrong to be angry. He is not being paranoid. He is reading the documented record and arriving at the correct conclusion: the system is not broken. The system is working exactly as designed. It was designed by people who are paid to design it this way.

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The question is not whether Edward can fix the statehouse. He cannot. The statehouse is having a very comfortable affair with the utility industry, and they are not accepting feedback from the person paying for the hotel room.

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The question is what Edward can control. And the answer, the only real answer available to a commercial operator in northern Indiana in 2026, is the building.

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What You Can Actually Control

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You cannot change the law. You cannot install solar with a reasonable payback. You cannot negotiate with NIPSCO on rates. You cannot get through to a human being on their phone line even if you try.

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You can change the building.

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The roof is the one variable in this equation that belongs to you, or that you can negotiate access to, as we covered in the last article in this series. The building envelope is the one place where your energy consumption is a function of physics rather than policy. You do not need IURC approval to upgrade your insulation. You do not need a lobbying firm to install a reflective coating. You do not need a favorable rate case outcome to reduce the thermal load on your HVAC system.

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A properly specified commercial roof system, insulation upgraded, membrane reflective, drainage correct, seams sealed, reduces the number of kilowatt-hours and therms you send to NIPSCO every month. You cannot make NIPSCO charge you less per unit. You can buy fewer units.

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That is the only escape hatch that doesn't require a favorable vote from legislators who have been generously supported by the industry those legislators are supposed to regulate.

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It's not a revolution. It's physics. And physics does not have a lobbyist.

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✉️ Can't change the statehouse? Change your roof.

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Here's what you CAN control, the thermal performance of your building. We'll show you exactly how much of your current NIPSCO spend is a function of your roof and what a properly specified system would change about that number.

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Subject Property Address: ___________________________

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Drop the address. We'll send you the assessment. No lobbying required.

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[ Email address ] → [ Send Me the Real Stuff ]

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Indiana Energy Policy, Solar, and Why NWI Operators Are Stuck

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Q: Why doesn't Indiana have solar incentives like Illinois?

A: Indiana's investor-owned utilities, including NIPSCO, lobbied the state legislature to end net metering and have consistently opposed robust renewable incentives. The Indiana General Assembly passed SEA 309 in 2017 at the request of those utilities, phasing out net metering by 2022. Illinois chose a different path, building one of the most generous solar incentive programs in the country. The difference is political, not geographic or technical.

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Q: What happened to Indiana's energy efficiency programs?

A: Indiana had a strong Energy Efficiency Resource Standard passed in 2009 requiring utilities to reduce electricity sales by 2% annually. It was creating jobs, saving ratepayers money, and working. In 2014, the Indiana legislature repealed it, making Indiana the first state in the country to roll back an EERS. Research from Tufts University found that ratepayers missed out on $140 million in savings and 3,400 gigawatt-hours of energy conservation as a direct result of the repeal.

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Q: What does NIPSCO pay me if I install solar today?

A: For new installations in NIPSCO's service territory, the Excess Distributed Generation rate, what NIPSCO pays you for solar sent to the grid, is in the range of a few cents per kilowatt-hour, updated annually. NIPSCO charges you significantly more than that for the power they sell you. The solar payback period under these rates stretches to 20 years or more, which eliminates the financial case for most commercial installations.

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Q: Can I do anything to reduce my NIPSCO bill without solar?

A: Yes. Building envelope upgrades, specifically commercial roof insulation and reflective membrane systems, directly reduce the kilowatt-hours and therms your building consumes. Unlike solar, these upgrades don't require a favorable buyback rate or state incentive program to pencil out. The savings show up on the usage side of the bill, which is entirely within your control regardless of what the IURC approves this quarter.

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Q: Who are the IURC commissioners and how are they chosen?

A: The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission has five commissioners appointed by the Governor, serving four-year terms. No more than three may be from the same political party. They are not elected and are not directly accountable to ratepayers. Their decisions on rate cases, buyback rates, and efficiency programs carry the force of law and are extremely difficult to reverse through normal political channels.

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Q: Is NIPSCO building its own solar projects while blocking customer solar?

A: Yes. NIPSCO has multiple large-scale solar and wind generation projects approved by the IURC and funded through customer rates, including Gibson Solar, Fairbanks Solar, and the Appleseed Solar and Templeton Wind projects. NIPSCO benefits from the economics of renewable energy at the utility scale while the retail buyback rate makes customer-owned solar financially unviable for most new installations.

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One Final Thought

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This is not a conspiracy theory. The receipts are public record. The rate cases are filed with the IURC. The legislation has caused numbers. The lobbying history is documented by watchdog organizations like Citizens Action Coalition, whose work appears throughout this article. The campaign contribution rules are set by Indiana statute.

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Edward didn't need a conspiracy. He just needed to read the public record.

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The affair is documented. You're paying for the hotel room. And the one move available to you, the building envelope, doesn't require anyone's permission.

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✉️ What would you save if NIPSCO couldn't reach as deep into your building?

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Subject Property Address: ___________________________

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Drop the address. We'll run the numbers on your specific building and tell you what a proper roof system changes about your monthly energy spend. No calls. No pitch. Just math.

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[ Email address ] → [ Send Me the Real Stuff ]

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Pristine Industrial Roofing — Serving commercial and industrial property owners across Lake County and Porter County.

Liquid-applied Conklin coating systems. FLEXION vinyl membranes. Proactive maintenance programs.

Valparaiso  |  Hammond  |  Portage  |  Merrillville  |  Hobart  |  Gary

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This is Article 4 of our NIPSCO series. And what comes next might surprise you.
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Read Article 1 here, ​​NIPSCO Just Cranked Your Bill, Again. Here's What They’re Hiding.

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Article 2, Your Landlord's Been "Fixing the Roof" for a Decade. You're Still Paying NIPSCO.

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Article 3, Dark Roof? That's 25% of Your NIPSCO Bill Right There.

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Next in the series: Your NIPSCO Bill Went Up 30%. Insulation Drops It 45%. Do the Math.

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