MERRILLVILLE, Ind. - Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO), a subsidiary of NiSource Inc and a provider of natural gas and electrical service to the northern third of Indiana, announced today that the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) has determined that NIPSCO is ready to meet the energy needs of its customers on January 1, 2000.

NERC, in its last quarterly report released today to the Department of Energy (DOE) on the Year 2000 (Y2K) readiness of electric utilities, said NIPSCO and 251 other North American electric utilities are already Y2K compliant in the critical functions needed to deliver electricity to their customers. NERC is a non-profit industry group that sets electric reliability standards for the electric systems of North America.

NIPSCO, with the exception of three Y2K projects to be finished in tandem with scheduled maintenance work this fall, has successfully completed its remediation of all mission critical Y2K systems.

"Based on our diligent evaluation and testing of NIPSCO's plans, personnel and equipment, we believe it will be highly unlikely that our customers will experience service interruptions based on the Year 2000 computer issue," said Patrick Mulchay, NIPSCO's president and chief operating officer. "In addition, contingency plans have been developed as added insurance and will be in place to ensure the reliability of energy service to our customers during the transition to the Year 2000."

Since 1996, NIPSCO has spent in excess of $18 million rigorously inventorying, testing, remediating and evaluating all of its Y2K sensitive systems. In addition, NIPSCO has locally tested its contingency plans and will participate in a national Y2K drill sponsored by NERC on Sept. 9, 1999, which will further test NIPSCO's contingency plans and communications systems.

Additionally, NIPSCO, as a part of its Y2K contingency planning, will have extra personnel on duty over the New Year's holiday weekend to handle any unplanned events.

A copy of the last quarterly NERC Y2K status report to DOE, "Preparing the Electric Power Systems of North America for transition to the year 2000: A Status Report and Work Plan, Second Quarter 1999," is available from the NERC website, www.nerc.com/y2k.

Additional information on the Y2K efforts of NIPSCO and NiSource Inc. is available on the World Wide Web at www.nipsco.com.

Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO), a subsidiary of NiSource Inc. (NI), is a regulated utility that provides natural gas service to nearly 700,000 customers and electrical service to 416,000 customers across the northern third of Indiana. NIPSCO is the largest natural gas distribution company and the second largest electric distribution company in the state of Indiana. More information about NIPSCO and other NiSource Inc. subsidiaries is available via the Internet at www.nipsco.com.