Northern Indiana Public Service Company has announced that it will be providing a one-time credit in the amount of $4.1 million to its natural gas customers.

The credit is the result of a decision made by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission on how costs associated with unaccounted-for-gas are measured and applied to customer bills. NIPSCO is seeking further clarification from the Commission regarding how and when the credit will appear.

Unaccounted-for-gas (UAFG) represents the amount of natural gas that escapes a utility’s pipeline system before it gets used by customers. In Indiana, cost recovery for unaccounted-forgas is part of the rate making process and it must be reviewed by the IURC before being recovered by customers.

The IURC determined that NIPSCO had over collected $4.087 million for Unaccounted For Gas Costs between August 2007 through July 2008.

UAFG cost recovery is standard in gas utility ratemaking. NIPSCO is allowed to collect $3 million annually for UAFG in base natural gas rates, as ordered in its last natural gas base rate case in 1988.