1. NiSource AGA Resource Management Workshop Forecasting and Planning
Washington, D.C.
September 22, 2015
Ken Lockhart
Director, Operations Planning

2. NiSource Overview Who we are? 7 Gas & Electric Distribution Companies
NIPSCO (Gas and Electric)
800K Gas Customers & 500k Electric Customers
Columbia Gas of Ohio
1.4M Customers
Columbia Gas of Kentucky
140k Customers
Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania
400k Customers
Columbia Gas of Maryland
30k Customers
Columbia Gas of Virginia
200k Customers
Columbia Gas of Massachusetts
300k Customers

3. NiSource Journey 2006 – Cross Functional Team Formed Team Goals
Improve data analysis and data integrity
Develop a new process of forecasting and planning work/resources
Eliminate work forecasting and planning in silo’s
Utilize field resources across boundaries
Improved Decision Making
Performance Improvement
Work Plans that meet long term financial strategies

4. NiSource Journey - 2007 2007 - Implementation New Departments Created
Business Intelligence Team
Operations Planning Team
Centralized Scheduling and Dispatch
Purchased/Built a Data Warehouse
Work Plans developed using Excel spreadsheets
Started slowly; one state out of six states
Focused on process, roles and responsibilities
Worked diligently at stakeholder buy-in
Field Managers still the captain of the ship
Planning Leaders are the navigators
Field Managers and Front Line Leadership key to implementation
“Plan the Work, Work the Plan, hit the Budget”

5. NiSource Journey – 2008 thru 2011
Began to have success and rolled out to additional business units
Work Plan spreadsheet grew to 43 tabs of data for each location
Data Warehouse began to populate historical information into the Work Plans
Excel Tools developed to forecast, predict and analyze
Cost to add new employee (including fleet, uniforms and tools)
Assignable hour models (forecasting productive time for assignable work)
Staffing models to determine resource requirements
Transition plans for aging workforce and shifting work
Operations Planning grew from three to nine full time employee’s
Engaging Field Operations monthly; reviewing past month actual and two months future work plans
Reporting out at VP/GM Staff & Budget meetings
Discussing variances to work plan and budget
Very Manual Process

6. NiSource Journey – 2012 thru 2014
Invest in labor (more Planning Leaders) or technology?
Hired a Consultant to collaborate on…
Business Requirements
Software Selection
Outlined business and functional requirements
Identified browser based planning software solutions
Performed best practice visits and gather further data
Made a decision and implemented browser based planning software
Developed browser based software that feeds the Data Warehouse
Reporting from Work Plans
Intra-month work plan analysis

7. NiSource Journey - 2015 Planning staff is at 12 full time employees
Planning for all business units with the exception of NIPSCO Electric
Strong ties to state Presidents, Regulatory Staffs, Finance and Field Operations
Building 5-year grass roots work plans and identifying gaps sooner than ever
Collaborating with Presidents and their regulatory staffs to identify solutions for gaps

8. Questions