FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 14, 2003

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Larry Graham, Manager NIPSCO Communications and Community Relations (219) 647-6375

MERRILLVILLE, Ind. --- Northern Indiana Public Service Company's (NIPSCO) electric system is operating without problem. When the outages occurred in the Northeastern portion of the United States, our system isolated itself, as it is designed to do, to protect our electric supply. We are monitoring the developing situation in the Northeastern area, however, our business is proceeding as normal.

Should there be additional failures on systems other than our own, NIPSCO will take the appropriate steps to protect our system and maintain electric supply to our customers.

Customers should continue their normal routine and report any outages via NIPSCO's customer number at 800-464-7726.

NIPSCO, with headquarters in Merrillville, Ind., is one of the 10 energy distribution companies of NiSource Inc. (NYSE: NI). With nearly 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 3.7 million natural gas and electric customers primarily in nine states. More information about NIPSCO is available at www.nipsco.com.