Hannah Rattray works nine-hour days at a Merrillville office where she sells cars online. But every month she stresses about utilities: “Do I feed my kids or do I pay my light bill?”
“Some months it goes unpaid,” said Rattray, who has gotten more than one disconnection notice from NIPSCO, the northern Indiana gas and electric utility, since she moved into her Portage home in 2024.
“I’m working my butt off for nothing in a way,” said Rattray, a 27-year-old single mother of two.
Rattray isn’t the only customer struggling: NIPSCO bills for households using 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity reached about $234 last July — nearly 50% higher than in 2023, according to an annual state survey. While NIPSCO now has the highest bills in the state, costs have risen for all five investor-owned utilities.
Statewide, residential electric prices rose almost 19% between April 2023 and 2026, according to federal data.
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High bills are burdening low- and middle-income families. Residents told FPI News they’ve spent thousands on upgrades like new windows and air conditioning units. They’ve switched off lights, relied on space heaters and turned off air conditioning to keep costs down. But for many, bills continue to mount. And some people, like Rattray, must scramble to avoid disconnection.
Jessica Cantarelli, a communications manager with NIPSCO, wrote in a statement that NIPSCO customers use less than 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity on average. Still, the company recognizes rising costs challenge households and it “remains committed to helping customers manage energy bills through assistance programs, flexible payment options and other support resources.”
Cantarelli pointed to local customer care events and a new program that helps some low-income customers by eliminating deposits and waiving certain reconnection charges.
“We have heard directly from customers, and we understand the impact that rising household costs can have on families and businesses. That’s why NIPSCO has made customer support and affordability a key focus, working to connect customers with available resources, expand assistance offerings and provide information that helps customers prepare for periods of higher energy use,” Cantarelli wrote.
Communities help those facing shutoff
“It feels like a very big crisis,” said Traci Donnelly, who co-founded a nonprofit that raises small donations to pay off electric bills and prevent disconnections through a Facebook page with about 2,500 followers. Rattray is deputy director of the organization — called Santa Delivers All Year Round — which has also helped her pay her electric bill.
Santa Delivers offers last-resort help to families in crisis who have tried to get support from other sources like their township trustee, Donnelly said. The organization has helped about 20 families avoid disconnection this year.
As utility prices have risen, a growing number of working families are reaching out for help, Donnelly said.
“There are so many messages coming through,” she said. “I’m having to set our Facebook on automation, our website on automation.”
Helping families in crisis is part of Matt Keiser’s job as trustee of Liberty Township in Porter County. As trustee, Keiser can use township funds to help residents facing hardships like evictions or utility disconnections.
Keiser estimates the township helped about 40 households pay NIPSCO bills last year. The number of families asking for help has remained steady, he said, but families owe more.
“Where typically we would have someone come in and their bill would be $200 to $250 over a winter, now they’re coming in with a $380 to $400 bill over that same winter,” Keiser said.
Statewide challenge
Five hours south in Spencer County, electric bills are frightening for Patricia Hanaway, 61, who is legally blind and relies on disability payments.
She got $450 in energy assistance to pay her bill last winter, but the money was gone in a couple of months, and she doesn’t get help during the summer.
Hanaway is a customer of CenterPoint Energy, a gas and electric company serving southwest Indiana. The utility’s bills for households using 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity were $221 last July, the second highest in the state and up about 34% compared to 2023.
Noah Stubbs with CenterPoint Energy Media Relations said in a statement that the company will keep rates stable through 2027.
“Our highest priority is providing the safe, reliable and affordable energy our Hoosier customers expect and deserve,” Stubbs wrote. “At the same time, because of our vital investments in the local energy system, customers are experiencing fewer and shorter outages in 2026.”
Electric companies encourage households to save money by cutting their usage, comparing their consumption to others and offering rebates on efficient appliances. But many residents feel like they have no control over their bills.
Hanaway lives in a “teeny tiny” apartment, and she doesn’t know how to cut her electric use. She has LED lights, turns the TV off during the day and cooks in an air fryer instead of her oven.
“If it’s a nice day, I’ll leave the air off and open the door and the windows,” Hanaway said, “but it doesn’t seem to affect it as much as it should.”
Hanaway’s son Tyler Montgomery, 34, lives in Evansville with his wife and two young children. Montgomery, who recently learned that his company plans to lay him off from his job as a graphic designer, said rising electric bills are just one way it feels like inflation has made it hard to get ahead.
“CenterPoint has monopolized electricity around here, and they’re just price gouging everybody,” said Montgomery, who signed up for auto pay so he doesn’t have to look at his monthly electric bill. “It’s way too depressing.”
When bills are the problem
Complicated bills and unexpected charges leave some households unsure what they owe.
Tina Brown, 57, and her husband have had months of CenterPoint billing issues with their Newburgh home. Brown shared the online ledger for their account, which shows no new bills for the first four months of 2026. Then, the utility issued all of them on May 1. They owed a balance of $1,543 for gas and electric.
She has so little trust in CenterPoint that she’s started recording her phone calls with the utility.
“I just can’t get over how they can get by with doing what they’re doing to people,” she said.
FPI News asked CenterPoint about Brown’s billing challenges. Stubbs wrote that “when customer concerns are brought to our attention, we take them seriously and work to resolve them as quickly as possible. As soon as we learned about this issue, we immediately took action to resolve it and are in contact with the customer to work together on a solution.”
Brown and her husband are now on a payment plan. If they miss one, their power could be shut off. Brown said she’ll have to put off other bills to pay CenterPoint.
“I have to have electric because of medical issues,” Brown said. “I’ve got asthma, and I have to have electric.”
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FPI News reporter Dylan Peers McCoy covers pressing issues throughout the state and how local communities are tackling those challenges. Reach her at 508-259-4809 or dylan.mccoy@fpinews.org.
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