FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 22, 2004

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Julia Van De Water, Manager NIPSCO Communications (574) 284-2151

MERRILLVILLE, Ind. – Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) achieved an overall five point increase on the 2004 Electric Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study released today by J.D. Power and Associates. NIPSCO’s improvement occurred despite a national trend for overall satisfaction of all residential customers that fell by three points. Overall customer satisfaction is based on performance in five factors: power quality and reliability, company image, price and value, billing and payment, and customer service.

“We are pleased with NIPSCO’s improved performance on the 2004 J.D. Power survey,” said NIPSCO President Mark Maassel. “We recognize that improving customer satisfaction is a continuous process and we clearly have more work to do. In a year when we outperformed the index, I want to recognize the hard work of all our NIPSCO employees for their efforts in delivering these results for our customers.”

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 440,000 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.nisource.com.