NiSource

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Columbia Gas of Ohio headquarters in Columbus, Ohio.

NiSource is an energy supply corporation (a public utility) headquartered in Merrillville, Indiana. It supplies natural gas and electricity. It is listed as a Fortune 500 company.

NiSource companies:

Columbia Gas (Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia)
NIPSCO, "Northern Indiana Public Service Company" (Indiana)
Bay State Gas (Massachusetts)
Columbia Gas Transmission

The CEO is Bob Skaggs.

[edit] History of Columbia Gas

1885: Manufacturers Natural Gas Company, later to become Manufacturers Light & Heat Company, is chartered.
1902: Manufacturers Light & Heat Company, dating from 1899, has 40,474 customers.
1903" Merger of seven companies expands resources and operation of Manufacturers Light & Heat; company has 48,634 customers at year's end.
1903-06: Homes of many Manufacturers customers are piped for gas lighting.
1910: Manufacturers has 77,000 residential customers-additional residential service includes cooking, water heating and space heating.
1914: Company offers to sell Reliable gas ranges to customers in Ohio Valley.
1915: Thirteen affiliated companies which had previously operated separately are merged into Manufacturers Light & Heat. Operations are centered in the highly industrialized area in and around Pittsburgh, the northern panhandle of West Virginia and eastern Ohio around Steubenville and East Liverpool. Natural gas is a popular fuel with the steel, pottery and porcelain plants in this area.
1917: World War I gives added impetus to the use of gas as a fuel in the steel furnaces of Pittsburgh.
1924 Ownership of stock of Manufacturers Light & Heat Company is acquired by a newly-formed corporation, The Ohio Fuel Corporation, headed by George W. Crawford.
1926 Holdings of Ohio Fuel Corporation and Columbia Gas & Electric Company are consolidated to form Columbia Gas & Electric Corporation, which later (1948) becomes The Columbia Gas System, Inc.
1927 Columbia Gas & Electric sets up five operating groups, one of which is the Pittsburgh group. Its principal company is Manufacturers Light & Heat Company, which produces and distributes gas in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. Major cities served are Pittsburgh, New Castle, Wheeling, Steubenville and East Liverpool. George W. Ratclifie, formerly an elected assistant treasurer of the Columbia Gas & Electric Corporation, is president.
1930: Manufacturers continues to expand and now is composed of some 25 companies.
1937: First oversupply of summer gas is piped into underground storage at Cross Creek in Washington County, Pennsylvania to be held in reserve for cold weather delivery.
1940-45: Wartime restriction on homebuilding and new appliances brings a virtual end to requests for gas service.
1944: Manufacturers Light & Heat following its third major merger, this time with Manufacturers Gas Company, Pennsylvania Fuel Supply Company and Greensboro Gas Company, begins direct service to Warren, Pennsylvania and other towns in the area.
1945: War's end touches off an unprecedented demand for gas service, especially gas heating.
1946: Manufacturers begins to meet the needs of its growing markets with gas from the Southwest delivered through the two long-distance pipelines-the "Big Inch" and "Little Inch"-built by the government during the war to move oil from Texas to the East Coast.
1947-54: Supply problems force Manufacturers to impose space heating restrictions.
1948: Manufacturers acquires assets of Gettysburg Gas Corporation, founded in 1928.
1951: Discovery of large volumes of gas in Northcentral Pennsylvania opens another immediate and long-range source of gas supply.
1951: Manufacturers purchases Pennsylvania and West Virginia properties of The Natural Gas Company of West Virginia.
1952: Manufacturers discontinues appliance sales to public, launches expanded program of dealer promotion.
1953: First odorization of gas with mercaptan for safety purposes.
1954: Manufacturers introduces Budget Payment Plan as a convenient way for gas heating customers to ease payment of winter bills.
1954: Gulf Interstate (now Columbia Gulf) makes its first delivery of Southwest gas to Manufacturers Light & Heat via United Fuel pipelines..
1954: Record $30,939,000 invested in new and enlarged pipelines, storage capacity, compressors and other delivery facilities, bringing improvement expenditures since 1945 to a total of $153,730,000.
1955: Program to realign Columbia Gas corporate structure begins, resulting in Eastern Ohio properties of Manufacturers Light & Heat being transferred to The Ohio Fuel Gas Company.
1955: Manufacturers reaches an all-time record 901-million cubic feet of gas delivered in a 24-hour period.
1955: Manufacturers serves 460,000 retail customers, 264,000 of whom are residential heating customers.
1957: Gas deliveries reach one billion cubic feet in a 24-hour period, as well as averaging one billion cubic feet every day for the five-day period January 14-18.
1958: A new Central Warehouse & Repair Facility for Ohio Fuel Gas Company is designed and located in Bangs, OH.
1962: A new company, Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania, assumes responsibility for Manufacturers Light & Heat's distribution operations throughout Pennsylvania.
1966: Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania acquires the properties of Central Pennsylvania Gas Company, serving State College and portions of Centre County.
1969: Artificially low gas prices force drillers to curtail production, leading to an energy crisis.
1969: York County Gas Company, chartered in 1849, is acquired by Columbia and becomes a part of the Pittsburgh group.
1971: The Distribution Company's new computer-based Customer Information System (CIS) is installed in Mt. Lebanon office.
1971: Transmission and production functions of Manufacturers Light & Heat are transferred to Columbia Gas Transmission Corporation in Charleston, W. Va. Manufacturers Light & Heat name becomes history
1972: Country-wide gas supply problems necessitate a complete "freeze" on taking on any new Pennsylvania customers or new load of any kind.
1972: Columbia battles the energy crisis with conservation education and self-help programs.
1973: Further corporate restructuring places all distribution operations under a single management, headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. Pittsburgh group headquarters, operational since 1927, closes.
1973: Pennsylvania's three districts, headquartered in Pittsburgh, Uniontown and York, serve 302,355 residential customers, 28,138 commercial and 378 industrial.
1977: A Charleroi, Pennsylvania serviceman, honored for life-saving use of approved resuscitation methods, is the first Columbia winner of the National Safety Council's President's Medal.
1978: The nation's Natural Gas Policy Act stimulates renewed natural gas exploration and drilling..
1979: Company's supply of natural gas improves to the point where the Public Utility Commission grants its request to take on new residential, commercial and industrial customers.
1982: First company sign to conform to Columbia System's new graphics style is hung at Hanover, Pennsylvania]] service center.
1983: Customers are asked to contribute to company-supported fuel funds to help low-income customers pay their winter heating bills.
1985: Pricing is deregulated on natural gas drilled since 1977.
1985: Company continues to add new customers-year's end shows 305,568 residential, 30,431 commercial and 295 industrial customers served by Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania.
1985: J.W. Partridge Jr. is elected vice president of Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania and executive offices are established in Harrisburg.
1986: Columbia's first customer relations program is introduced in Pennsylvania to offer personalized assistance to customers with payment problems and special needs
1997: The Bangs Operating Center is transferred from Columbia Gas Transmission to Columbia Gas of Ohio and retasked as the Columbia Welding & Fabrication Shop, aka Bangs Fabrication Shop.
2000: The Columbia Gas System and NiSource merge. The new combined parent corporation retains the NiSource name with individual distribution companies and Columbia Gas Transmission retaining the Columbia Gas name for local operations.