FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 16, 2001

FOR INFORMATION CONTACT
Julia Van De Water
NIPSCO Communications Manager
(219) 647-6375

NIPSCO OFFERS INFORMATION ON ADDITIONAL HEATING ASSISTANCE
NIPSCO Voluntarily Extends Moratorium

MERRILLVILLE--Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) encourages customers who are having difficulty paying their winter heating bills to contact the company for information about additional assistance programs that have recently become available.

In addition, NIPSCO has voluntarily agreed to extend through the end of March the moratorium on service disconnections for customers who are receiving energy assistance Under state law, energy assistance customers are protected from interruption of service from Dec.1 through March 15.

"Governor O'Bannon has taken an important step in providing additional financial assistance for individuals who already qualify for energy assistance," said Dan Gavito, vice president, Regulatory and Governmental Policy. "We support his decision and hope that the extended moratorium gives customers additional time to benefit from the winter heating bill assistance programs available."

Approximately 25,000 NIPSCO customers qualify for energy assistance. The extension of this moratorium will affect only those customers. However, NIPSCO strongly encourages any customer who may be having difficulty paying their monthly energy bill to contact the company.

"Our goal is to avoid service disconnections for failure to pay bills. NIPSCO has bill payment options and can identify energy assistance agencies that can help," said Violet Sistovaris, executive director, Customer Service. "If a customer receives a disconnect notice, however, they need to contact us immediately."

To help customers manage their monthly utility costs, NIPSCO offers a flexible BudgetPlan program, which allows customers to spread winter heating costs over an entire year.

NIPSCO's Gift of Warmth program is also available to customers who qualify. For information about these programs and other energy assistance, customers may visit the Web site at www.nipsco.com or call 1-800-4-NIPSCO.

NIPSCO, with headquarters in Merrillville, Ind., is one of the 10 energy distribution companies of NiSource Inc. (NYSE: NI). With approximately 700,000 natural gas customers and 430,000 electric 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. NiSource distribution companies serve 3.6 million natural gas and electric customers primarily in nine states. More information about NIPSCO is available at www.nipsco.com.