Indiana Winter Utility Shutoff Rules

Q: Does Indiana have a winter shutoff moratorium with dates?

Not in the form the question usually assumes. The protection is granted to a household that files for it, so the filing, not the calendar, is what switches it on. The short form of it is: Once the household files, Dec 1 to Mar 15. Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, Ind. Code 8-1-2-121 is the rule behind it.

Q: Is there help with the heating bill in Indiana?

Indiana runs Energy Assistance Program through Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority. The heating assistance page for Indiana covers the income test and the front door.

Protection filed for

What the rule runs on

the households that filed, and no one else

Dec 1 to Mar 15

The winter window

December 1 through March 15

Co-ops too

Who the rule reaches

Municipal systems and co-ops too

Act first

The household must

the protection is not automatic

The answer

What Indiana requires of a utility in winter

Protection filed for

Once the household files, Dec 1 to Mar 15

Between December 1 and March 15 a utility may not turn off residential heat for a customer who is eligible for and has applied for the Energy Assistance Program, and the customer still owes the charges that build up during those months.

What switches it on: Indiana's protection is filed for rather than automatic, so a household that has not filed is not covered inside the season.
Utilities named: electric and natural gas
Who it reaches: Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority's rule reaches municipal systems and cooperatives as well as the utilities it regulates.
What the household must do: The household submits an Energy Assistance Program application, and the protection starts on submission, so the household tells its utility that an application is in when a disconnection is scheduled.

That is Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority speaking through its own rule, and the sentence below is the one the summary above was built from. The citation is Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, Ind. Code 8-1-2-121.

The Moratorium law (Indiana Code 8-1-2-121) states that from December 1st through March 15th of any year, a regulated utility company may not turn off residential utility service to any customer who is eligible for and who has applied for the Energy Assistance Program. Moratorium protection applies once a household submits an application and allows the Local Service Provider time to determine eligibility, so please inform your utility provider if you have submitted an application for assistance and you are scheduled for disconnection. This includes utilities that are electric or gas, including municipally owned, privately owned, or cooperatively owned utilities.

Energy Assistance Program (EAP), Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

Do this first

The step that switches the protection on in Indiana

Indiana is one of the states where the rule does not arrive on its own. Households who assume the season protects them find out otherwise in the middle of it, and the difference between the two outcomes is the paragraph below.

The household submits an Energy Assistance Program application, and the protection starts on submission, so the household tells its utility that an application is in when a disconnection is scheduled.

Do it before the disconnection date on the notice rather than after. Several states word the protection so that it stops a shutoff that has not happened yet and says nothing about restoring service that has.

Already off, or a notice has come

Who to call in Indiana today

A household facing disconnection asks its utility for a payment arrangement, which the utility is required to offer once in any twelve month period, and a household with a disconnection notice or one already off notifies its local service provider, which owes a mitigating action within 48 hours in a heating crisis and within 18 hours in a documented life threatening crisis.

Who takes the complaint: Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission
By phone: 1-800-851-4268

Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, how to file

Call your utility immediately and ask if you are eligible to set up a payment arrangement, which is an agreed-upon payment schedule. If you are ineligible for an arrangement, ask about other options that may be available to you. If you are unable to reach an agreement with the utility, you may contact the Commission's Consumer Affairs Division for assistance; however, we cannot guarantee any particular outcome.

Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

A commission’s consumer division is not a courtesy line. In most states a company must hold a disconnection while a formal complaint about that account is open, which is a different and stronger thing than asking the company to reconsider. Ring the utility first, then the commission if the answer is no.

The corner of a shingled house showing the mast and weatherhead where overhead lines land on the roof, and the round electric meter mounted on the wall below — The mast on the roof and the meter under it, on an ordinary house in Washington State. This is where an electric disconnection physically happens, and it is also why the rules are written by a public utility commission rather than a legislature in a good many states: the commission regulates the company that owns this wire. “Residence service drop”, Chetvorno, CC0

Who it covers

Does the Indiana rule cover your utility

Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority's rule reaches municipal systems and cooperatives as well as the utilities it regulates.

Because Indiana writes the rule wider than the companies its commission regulates, a rural electric cooperative and a municipal light department are inside it too. Check the name on the bill anyway: the rule names classes of company rather than every company.

The rule names electric and natural gas service.

Help with the bill

Indiana pays part of the heating bill through Energy Assistance Program

A shutoff rule and a heating grant are separate things, and in several states an approved grant application is itself what satisfies the filing the shutoff rule asks for. Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority runs it. The income test is 60 percent of the state median income or less, measured on the most recent three months of income..

The Energy Assistance Program (EAP) can help you pay your heat and electric bills! EAP provides a one-time annual benefit that can assist you with the high cost of home energy and can help if you are disconnected or are about to get disconnected.

Energy Assistance Program (EAP), Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

The full Indiana page, with the season, the income test and how to apply, is at heating assistance in Indiana.

Indiana winter shutoff questions

Can a utility shut off heat in winter in Indiana?

Does Indiana have a winter shutoff moratorium with dates?

What does a household in Indiana have to do to be covered?

Does the rule cover rural co-ops and city utilities in Indiana?

What can a household in Indiana already shut off do?

A household facing disconnection asks its utility for a payment arrangement, which the utility is required to offer once in any twelve month period, and a household with a disconnection notice or one already off notifies its local service provider, which owes a mitigating action within 48 hours in a heating crisis and within 18 hours in a documented life threatening crisis. Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission publishes the path.

Who handles a winter disconnection dispute in Indiana?

Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission takes consumer complaints about regulated utilities, on 1-800-851-4268. Its own words: "The Commission's Consumer Affairs Division provides dispute resolution services for individual customers of jurisdictional utilities. The types of issues handled by the Consumer Affairs Division include: extension of service and credit, deposits, billing, termination of service, customer rights, and utility responsibilities."

Is there help with the heating bill in Indiana?

A residential natural gas meter with its regulator and shutoff valve, mounted against pale house siding — A gas meter, which is the other half of the question and frequently the other half of the answer. A state rule can reach a regulated gas company and not reach the electric cooperative next door, or the reverse, so the protection you have often depends on which company sends which bill. “Gas meter”, RadRafe, Public domain

Winter shutoff rules in other states

Indiana heating assistanceIndiana's energy assistance program, its season and its income test.Heating assistance by stateWhen each state opens applications, the income test, and where to apply.Heating oil and propane pricesWhat the fuel costs this week in the states that report it.Frozen pipe riskThe forecast that puts pipes at risk, by ZIP.Winter shutoff rules in every stateHow the fifty states differ on whether a window, a forecast or a filing decides it.

Indiana read September 23, 2026 from Energy Assistance Program (EAP), Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, linked above. A commission can order a company to do something its published rule does not require, and rules change between seasons, so the agency page is the one that governs. Every state is on the winter shutoff hub.