Indian Gaming

The Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut is getting smarter with power at Mohegan Sun, Intelligent Utility reports:

The power games started for the Mohegan tribe in 1996 when the tribe obtained its federal recognition and decided to go into the gaming business—and, by default, the power business. (For the casino, the tribe purchased property on the Thames River, which was placed into trust; that property no longer falls within the franchise area of a larger investor-owned-utility. So, the tribe created its own utility.)

That’s a lot of space, and running that space requires a lot of load—nearly 25 MW (with a peak load that can get near 30 MW). Keeping that giant casino’s power structure up and running is the responsibility of an eight-man team known as the Mohegan Tribal Utility Authority (MTUA), with the reliability and revenue metering responsibilities going to the utility’s electrical engineer Paul Woronik. Woronik has worked for utilities in the public power and private arenas for over thirty years, but the tribal authority gig is different, more personal. (In addition to the electrical services, the MTUA also provides gas, water and wastewater utilities to the reservation.)

An expansion in 2001 pushed that utility past simply serving strictly the casino to servicing retail space and having more “customers” beyond those winners at the blackjack table. (And they serve tribal businesses, agencies and departments as well as these days, including a tribal retirement home.)

“Suddenly, the MTUA was more like a ‘real’ utility,” Woronik said. “We needed to be able to measure and invoice for customers.”

“The Mohegan Tribal Authority, like any tribal authority I’d imagine, is about personal experience,” he added. “Public power and other areas of the industry may talk about how they are part of the community. Here, we ARE the community. There really is no separation.”

Get the Story:
Kathleen Wolf Davis: A tribal authority gets smarter (Intelligent Utility 1/29)