Citizens Energy projects bigger savings from deal

Citizens Energy Group says savings from combining the city’s water and sewer utilities will be 13 percent larger than expected and come two years sooner than previously predicted.

The company Feb. 28 said it expects to record savings of $68 million—$8 million more than initially projected—by September of this year rather than in 2014.

Citizens bought the city’s water and sewer utilities last year for $1.9 billion.

Critics of the deal had argued that many of the savings projections were bogus and that local oversight of the utilities would be relegated to the scandal-plagued Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission.