Skip to content
Net Metering Program
← Back to the schedule

NIPSCO net metering in Indiana

Northern Indiana, including Gary, South Bend, Hammond and Valparaiso. Northern Indiana Public Service Company, serving the industrial north.

Type
Investor owned
Accounts
480K

What they credit you

Wholesale plus 25%, about a quarter of retail

Published terms

Exports are bought under Excess Distributed Generation at the prior year’s average wholesale price times 1.25, between about 4.2 and 5.6 cents per kWh across the five utilities in 2026, against energy charges of roughly 10 to 20 cents.

Month to month
Per each utility’s own EDG tariff.

Published terms · checked 2026-09-05 · source

Installers serving NIPSCO customers

Pick one. Only the company you choose receives your details, and only that company calls you.

Not sure which to choose?

These are real companies operating in NIPSCO territory. Bold Energy is listed first because it is the company we introduce first. That order is our choice, not a score. The other companies are ordered by reviews, years trading and BBB grade. None of them pays us for placement. Pick the one you want and we will call you to arrange it.

Ordering combines three things we read from primary sources: Google review count and rating, years trading taken from the company’s Better Business Bureau profile rather than its own marketing, and its BBB letter grade. BBB accreditation is shown but never scored, because it is a paid membership rather than a mark of quality.

Check any contractor license yourself at the state register. Do that before you sign anything, with any company, including ours.

What this looks like on a NIPSCO bill

An average Indiana household, against a system sized to cover its year. The energy charge is the part that goes to zero. The fixed monthly charge underneath it is the part that never does, and it is the number that decides whether a system pays for itself.

Meter readingkWh
Energy charge$157.77
$157.77
We have read this provider’s own tariff. What it still bills you at zero is set out below, with the sheet it came from. The energy line above uses the statewide average. See what they still bill
DirectionReading…

Meter reading falling from 41926 to 41675 kilowatt hours. A 901 kilowatt hour month against 1,152 kilowatt hours produced leaves 0 kilowatt hours billed and 251 banked for next month, so the energy charge falls from $157.77 to $0.00 at 17.51 cents per kilowatt hour.

Indiana average household use, 901 kWh a month, at the current published residential price of 17.51¢ per kWh. Your utility still bills a fixed monthly customer charge that no system offsets, so this is the energy part of the bill, which is the part that goes away.

NIPSCO requirementRequired

Battery backup is mandatory
in NIPSCO territory.

NIPSCO does not credit the power you send back at the rate it charges you to take it.

That does not make solar a bad idea in NIPSCO territory. It changes what you should build. When exports are worth a fraction of retail the credit stops being the return, and the job becomes using more of your own production inside the house, which usually means a larger array than a one for one utility would need.

Sizing is where that gets decided, so ask about it directly. Indiana pays roughly a quarter of the retail rate for exports, so the size that makes sense is the size the house can absorb during daylight. Every kilowatt hour beyond that is sold at wholesale plus a quarter. NIPSCO sets its own limits. Ask NIPSCO what it allows before you accept that a bigger system is off the table.

A battery then does two separate jobs. It moves daytime production into the evening so you use it instead of selling it, and it keeps the house running when the grid goes down. That second job is not a bonus. Panels on their own shut off in an outage, by design, so a roof full of them powers nothing during a storm. That is the part we will not refer around.

So we treat it as a requirement, not an upgrade. We will not refer you for a panels-only system in NIPSCO territory, and you should be skeptical of anyone who quotes you one without raising storage first.

Our referral policy, not a legal or utility requirement

What your installer should be telling you

Ask for this utility’s current EDG rate in writing and ask what rate the savings model used for later years. It is reset annually against the wholesale market.

What NIPSCO bills you anyway

In a month when your production covers everything you use, the energy charge can reach zero. This does not. It is the floor under every bill, and it is the number that decides whether a system pays for itself.

The charge
$14.00 a month
How it is set
Rate 611 sets a Customer Charge of $14.00 a month (Second Revised Sheet No. 48, effective 1 March 2026), with every residential kilowatt hour at a flat 20.5 cents before riders. The monthly minimum is “the Customer Charge and applicable Riders”; the one rider with a per-customer amount, the Shared System Credit, is set at $0.00 for Rate 611, so the floor today is $14.00. Exports are bought under the Excess Distributed Generation rider at a Marginal DG Price of 4.9685 cents a kilowatt hour (effective 1 April 2026), recorded on a separate outflow channel, against 20.5 cents to buy before riders: a kilowatt hour used at home as it is made is worth about four times one sent out. The credit can bring a bill down to the minimum charge and no further. Any balance carries forward, and when you stop service at the premises it is forfeited to other customers through the fuel clause.

Northern Indiana Public Service Company, IURC Electric Service Tariff Original Volume No. 16: Rate 611, Second Revised Sheet No. 48, effective 1 March 2026; Appendix A, First Revised Sheet No. 224; Appendix M (Shared System Credit, $0.00 for Rate 611); Rider 689, Excess Distributed Generation, First Revised Sheet No. 209, effective 1 April 2026 · checked 2026-10-01 · source

Applying to NIPSCO

What NIPSCO itself requires, as distinct from what the state rule requires. Read from its own published guidelines on the date shown.

Net metering closed on 1 July 2022
Senate Enrolled Act 309 ended it for new customers at all five investor owned utilities on the same date. Any quote offering Indiana net metering is describing a program you cannot join.
The replacement has a published formula
Excess Distributed Generation credit is the average wholesale price of electricity for the prior year, plus 25%. It is recalculated annually for each utility, so the rate moves with the wholesale market rather than with your bill.
What that works out to, and what you pay
Each utility posts its rate on its EDG rider. In 2026 AES Indiana pays 5.43 cents per kWh, NIPSCO 4.97, CenterPoint 5.56 and I&M 5.47, and Duke’s published sheet still shows 4.15 cents, set in 2024. Energy charges run from about 10 to 20 cents before riders, so an exported kilowatt hour earns between a quarter and a half of one you buy.
The rate is not locked
Because it is reset annually against the previous year’s wholesale average, the figure in your savings model is this year’s number and not a twenty year assumption. Ask what the model assumed for years two onward.
Cooperatives and municipal systems are outside the statute
SEA 309 bound the five investor owned utilities. If your provider is a co-op or a municipal system, ask for its own terms; some are better than the statutory replacement.

From NIPSCO’s published guidelines · checked 2026-09-05 · source

NIPSCO net metering questions

Does NIPSCO offer one for one net metering?
No. Exports are bought under Excess Distributed Generation at the prior year’s average wholesale price times 1.25, between about 4.2 and 5.6 cents per kWh across the five utilities in 2026, against energy charges of roughly 10 to 20 cents.
What does NIPSCO pay for power sent back to the grid?
Wholesale plus 25%, about a quarter of retail. Per each utility’s own EDG tariff.
Do I need a battery with NIPSCO?
Yes, and we treat it as mandatory. Because NIPSCO does not credit exports one for one, the return has to come from using your own production rather than selling it, which after dark means storage and usually a larger array than a one for one utility would need. The other half is backup: panels alone shut off in an outage, so a battery is what keeps the house running in a storm. We do not refer panels-only systems in NIPSCO territory. This is our referral policy, not a legal or utility requirement.
How do I find my NIPSCO bill?
Sign in at nipsco.com. Open My Account, then Billing. Open the latest bill and save the PDF. Or screenshot the summary page. If you cannot get to it, a rough guess at your average monthly amount is enough to start.
What is the catch with NIPSCO?
Ask for this utility’s current EDG rate in writing and ask what rate the savings model used for later years. It is reset annually against the wholesale market.