Mashantuckets choose Yankee Gas for energy needs on reservation

The Mashantucket Pequot Utility Authority has chosen Yankee Gas Services Co. to be its natural-gas provider and will no longer receive its gas supplies from Norwich Public Utilities, its longtime provider of energy to the reservation.

The Mashantuckets said in a statement today that they have entered into a long-term agreement with Yankee Gas, which is a subsidiary of the Hartford-based Northeast Utilities, to move natural gas from its interstate pipeline to the reservation, saying the decision was based solely on economics and was in the best interests of the tribe, its tribal enterprises and its customers.

The Mashantuckets had a 10-year contract with Norwich Public Utilities, which expired three years ago. Since then, the tribe and the public utility have been in talks to try to reach a new agreement, as well as a new maintenance contract. In mid-July, according to the Mashantuckets, the local publicly owned utility submitted its best, and final, offer, "but it didn't make fiscal sense for the tribe."

The Mashantucket account represents about $500,000 a year, according to NPU, almost 3 percent of the utility's current $18 million annual natural gas revenue.

Once the tribe solicited other bids, it awarded the contract to Yankee Gas. The tribe has just unveiled a large, new co-generation plant on its reservation, which is fueled by natural gas, and provides the majority of electricity to the tribe's Foxwoods Resort Casino and the MGM Grand at Foxwoods as well as its reservation.

Charlene R. Jones, chairwoman of the Mashantuckets' utility authority, said Yankee Gas' energy proposal was a "significant and substantial saving for the tribe." The new agreement was effective Monday, and tribal officials said there were no business interruptions with the conversion. The Mashantuckets did not disclose any financial details of the new energy agreement with Yankee Gas.