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Regulatory Assets and Liabilities | Nov. 18, 2019
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Regulated Operations [Abstract] |
Regulatory Assets and Liabilities | NOTE 12. REGULATORY ASSETS AND LIABILITIES Regulatory assets and liabilities include the following:
At December 31, |  | 2018 |  |  | 2017 |
(millions) |  |  |  |  |  |
Dominion Energy |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Regulatory assets: |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Deferred cost of fuel used in electric generation (1) |  | $ | 174 |  |  | $ | 23 |
Deferred rate adjustment clause costs (2) |  |  | 96 |  |  |  | 70 |
Deferred nuclear refueling outage costs (3) |  |  | 69 |  |  |  | 54 |
Unrecovered gas costs (4) |  |  | 14 |  |  |  | 38 |
Other |  |  | 143 |  |  |  | 109 |
Regulatory assets-current |  |  | 496 |  |  |  | 294 |
Unrecognized pension and other postretirement benefit costs (5) |  |  | 1,497 |  |  |  | 1,336 |
Deferred rate adjustment clause costs (2) |  |  | 329 |  |  |  | 401 |
Utility reform legislation (6) |  |  | 204 |  |  |  | 147 |
PJM transmission rates (7) |  |  | 192 |  |  |  | 222 |
Derivatives (8) |  |  | 184 |  |  |  | 223 |
Deferred cost of fuel used in electric generation (1) |  |  | 83 |  |  |  | — |
Other |  |  | 187 |  |  |  | 151 |
Regulatory assets-noncurrent |  |  | 2,676 |  |  |  | 2,480 |
Total regulatory assets |  | $ | 3,172 |  |  | $ | 2,774 |
Regulatory liabilities: |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Provision for future cost of removal and AROs (9) |  | $ | 117 |  |  | $ | 101 |
Cost-of-service impact of 2017 Tax Reform Act (10) |  |  | 104 |  |  |  | — |
Reserve for rate credits to electric utility customers (11) |  |  | 71 |  |  |  | — |
Other |  |  | 64 |  |  |  | 92 |
Regulatory liabilities-current (12) |  |  | 356 |  |  |  | 193 |
Income taxes refundable through future rates (13) |  |  | 4,071 |  |  |  | 4,058 |
Provision for future cost of removal and AROs (9) |  |  | 1,409 |  |  |  | 1,384 |
Nuclear decommissioning trust (14) |  |  | 1,070 |  |  |  | 1,121 |
Derivatives (8) |  |  | 25 |  |  |  | 69 |
Other |  |  | 265 |  |  |  | 284 |
Regulatory liabilities-noncurrent |  |  | 6,840 |  |  |  | 6,916 |
Total regulatory liabilities |  | $ | 7,196 |  |  | $ | 7,109 |
Virginia Power |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Regulatory assets: |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Deferred cost of fuel used in electric generation (1) |  | $ | 174 |  |  | $ | 23 |
Deferred rate adjustment clause costs (2) |  |  | 78 |  |  |  | 56 |
Deferred nuclear refueling outage costs (3) |  |  | 69 |  |  |  | 54 |
Other |  |  | 103 |  |  |  | 72 |
Regulatory assets-current |  |  | 424 |  |  |  | 205 |
Deferred rate adjustment clause costs (2) |  |  | 230 |  |  |  | 312 |
PJM transmission rates (7) |  |  | 192 |  |  |  | 222 |
Derivatives (8) |  |  | 151 |  |  |  | 190 |
Deferred cost of fuel used in electric generation (1) |  |  | 83 |  |  |  | — |
Other |  |  | 81 |  |  |  | 86 |
Regulatory assets-noncurrent |  |  | 737 |  |  |  | 810 |
Total regulatory assets |  | $ | 1,161 |  |  | $ | 1,015 |
Regulatory liabilities: |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Cost-of-service impact of 2017 Tax Reform Act (10) |  | $ | 95 |  |  | $ | — |
Provision for future cost of removal (9) |  |  | 92 |  |  |  | 80 |
Reserve for rate credits to customers (11) |  |  | 71 |  |  |  | — |
Other |  |  | 41 |  |  |  | 47 |
Regulatory liabilities-current |  |  | 299 |  |  |  | 127 |
Income taxes refundable through future rates (13) |  |  | 2,579 |  |  |  | 2,581 |
Nuclear decommissioning trust (14) |  |  | 1,070 |  |  |  | 1,121 |
Provision for future cost of removal (9) |  |  | 940 |  |  |  | 915 |
Derivatives (8) |  |  | 25 |  |  |  | 69 |
Other |  |  | 33 |  |  |  | 74 |
Regulatory liabilities-noncurrent |  |  | 4,647 |  |  |  | 4,760 |
Total regulatory liabilities |  | $ | 4,946 |  |  | $ | 4,887 |
Dominion Energy Gas |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Regulatory assets: |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Unrecovered gas costs (4) |  | $ | 1 |  |  | $ | 11 |
Other |  |  | 7 |  |  |  | 6 |
Regulatory assets-current (15) |  |  | 8 |  |  |  | 17 |
Unrecognized pension and other postretirement benefit costs (5) |  |  | 15 |  |  |  | — |
Interest rate hedges (16) |  |  | 33 |  |  |  | 33 |
Other |  |  | 4 |  |  |  | 8 |
Regulatory assets-noncurrent |  |  | 52 |  |  |  | 41 |
Total regulatory assets |  | $ | 60 |  |  | $ | 58 |
Regulatory liabilities: |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Provision for future cost of removal and AROs (9) |  | $ | 9 |  |  | $ | 7 |
Overrecovered gas costs (4) |  |  | 7 |  |  |  | 5 |
Other |  |  | 8 |  |  |  | 9 |
Regulatory liabilities-current (12) |  |  | 24 |  |  |  | 21 |
Income taxes refundable through future rates (13) |  |  | 530 |  |  |  | 551 |
Provision for future cost of removal and AROs (9) |  |  | 113 |  |  |  | 124 |
Unrecognized other postretirement benefit costs (17) |  |  | 106 |  |  |  | 76 |
Other |  |  | 16 |  |  |  | 28 |
Regulatory liabilities-noncurrent |  |  | 765 |  |  |  | 769 |
Total regulatory liabilities |  | $ | 789 |  |  | $ | 790 |
(1) | Reflects deferred fuel expenses for the Virginia and North Carolina jurisdictions of Dominion Energy and Virginia Power’s generation operations. See Note 13 for more information.
(2) | Primarily reflects deferrals under the electric transmission FERC formula rate and the deferral of costs associated with certain current and prospective rider projects net of income taxes refundable from the 2017 Tax Reform Act for Virginia Power and deferrals of costs associated with certain current and prospective rider projects for East Ohio. See Note 13 for more information.
(3) | Legislation enacted in Virginia in April 2014 requires Virginia Power to defer operation and maintenance costs incurred in connection with the refueling of any nuclear-powered generating plant. These deferred costs will be amortized over the refueling cycle, not to exceed 18 months.
(4) | Reflects unrecovered or overrecovered gas costs at regulated gas operations, which are recovered or refunded through filings with the applicable regulatory authority .
(5) | Represents unrecognized pension and other postretirement employee benefit costs expected to be recovered through future rates generally over the expected remaining service period of plan participants by certain of Dominion Energy and Dominion Energy Gas’ rate-regulated subsidiaries.
(6) | Ohio legislation under House Bill 95, which became effective in September 2011. This law updates natural gas legislation by enabling gas companies to include more up-to-date cost levels when filing rate cases. It also allows gas companies to seek approval of capital expenditure plans under which gas companies can recognize carrying costs on associated capital investments placed in service and can defer the carrying costs plus depreciation and property tax expenses for recovery from ratepayers in the future.
(7) | Reflects amounts related to the PJM transmission cost allocation matter. See Note 13 for more information.
(8) | As discussed under Derivative Instruments in Note 2, for jurisdictions subject to cost-based rate regulation, changes in the fair value of derivative instruments result in the recognition of regulatory assets or regulatory liabilities as they are expected to be recovered from or refunded to customers.
(9) | Rates charged to customers by the Companies’ regulated businesses include a provision for the cost of future activities to remove assets that are expected to be incurred at the time of retirement.
(10) | Balance refundable to customers related to the decrease in revenue requirements for recovery of income taxes at the Companies’ regulated electric generation and electric and natural gas distribution operations. See Note 13 for more information.
(11) | Charge associated with Virginia legislation enacted in March 2018 that requires one-time rate credits of certain amounts to utility customers. See Note 13 for more information.
(12) | Current regulatory liabilities are presented in other current liabilities in Dominion Energy and Dominion Energy Gas’ Consolidated Balance Sheets.
(13) | Amounts recorded to pass the effect of reduced income tax rates from the 2017 Tax Reform Act to customers in future periods, which will reverse at the weighted average tax rate that was used to build the reserves over the remaining book life of the property, net of amounts to be recovered through future rates to pay income taxes that become payable when rate revenue is provided to recover AFUDC-equity.
(14) | Primarily reflects a regulatory liability representing amounts collected from Virginia jurisdictional customers and placed in external trusts (including income, losses and changes in fair value thereon) for the future decommissioning of Virginia Power’s utility nuclear generation stations, in excess of the related AROs.
(16) | Reflects interest rate hedges recoverable from or refundable to customers. Certain of these instruments are settled and any related payments are being amortized into interest expense over the life of the related debt, which has a weighted average useful life of approximately 30 years.
(17) | Reflects a regulatory liability for the collection of postretirement benefit costs allowed in rates in excess of expense incurred.
At December 31, 2018, $396 million of Dominion Energy’s, $300 million of Virginia Power’s and $41 million of Dominion Energy Gas’ regulatory assets represented past expenditures on which they do not currently earn a return. With the exception of the PJM transmission cost allocation matter in Dominion Energy and Virginia Power and interest rate hedges in Dominion Energy and Dominion Energy Gas , the majority of these expenditures are expected to be recovered within the next two years .

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- Definition The entire disclosure for detailed information about regulatory assets and liabilities, including current and noncurrent assets created when regulatory agencies permit the deferral of costs to the balance sheet that would otherwise be required to appear on the company's income statement and would be charged against current expenses or revenues, as well as current and noncurrent liabilities created when regulatory agencies permit. + References No definition available. + Details
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