About the Trust

In 1887, the forefathers of Indianapolis came up with the idea of operating a natural gas company like a not-for-profit Public Charitable Trust, solely for the benefit of customers and the community. Today, this Trust lives on as Citizens Energy Group, a broad-based utility service company, distributing natural gas to more than 266,000 customers, operating one of the nation’s largest district steam and chilled water cooling systems, and managing a growing utility services business. At Citizens, our vision is fulfilling the promise of the Trust to serve our customers and communities with unparalleled excellence and integrity.

History of the Trust

Citizens Energy Group was founded in 1887 as Consumers Gas Trust at a time when the city began to use natural gas drawn from nearby gas production fields. City leaders such as Thomas Morris, Colonel Eli Lilly and Benjamin Harrison created a structure known as a Public Charitable Trust to protect the gas company assets from takeover by monopolies like Standard Oil and from political patronage. Consumers Gas Trust became Citizens Gas in 1906 when the city purchased the majority of the company’s assets. It became Citizens Gas & Coke Utility in 1935 when the City purchased all of the company’s assets. In 2008, the company was renamed Citizens Energy Group to reflect recent strategic changes in the company including closure of Indianapolis Coke. As long as it fulfills its mission, Citizens cannot be sold. The legal operating name for the Trust is The Board of Directors for Utilities of the Department of Public Utilities of the City of Indianapolis (“The Board”).

The purposes of the public charitable trust are:

to establish and operate a gas utility that is not controlled by private ownership and
to provide light, heat and power to the City and its inhabitants;

The City of Indianapolis, as successor trustee, has two express duties:

to engage in the gas business and
to supply the City of Indianapolis and it inhabitants with light, heat and power.

In 2001, Citizens acquired the Thermal Energy System to control and operate the steam assets and chilled water assets, from Indianapolis Power & Light Company ("IPL") and commenced operation of the Thermal Energy System as a separate system from the Gas Utility Distribution System.

In 2007, Citizens discontinued operations of the Manufacturing Division consisting of the coke oven batteries and related facilities.