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Pension And Other Postretirement Benefits
 9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2020
Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits Cost (Reversal of Cost) [Abstract]  
Pension And Other Postretirement Benefits Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits
We provide defined contribution plans and noncontributory defined benefit retirement plans that cover certain of our employees. Benefits under the defined benefit retirement plans reflect the employees’ compensation, years of service and age at retirement. Additionally, we provide health care and life insurance benefits for certain retired employees. The majority of employees may become eligible for these benefits if they reach retirement age while working for us. The expected cost of such benefits is accrued during the employees’ years of service. We determined that, for certain rate-regulated subsidiaries, the future recovery of postretirement benefit costs is probable, and we record regulatory assets and liabilities for amounts that would otherwise have been recorded to expense or accumulated other comprehensive loss. Current rates of rate-regulated companies include postretirement benefit costs, including amortization of the regulatory assets and liabilities that arose prior to inclusion of these costs in rates. For most plans, cash contributions are remitted to grantor trusts.
For the nine months ended September 30, 2020, we contributed $2.1 million to our pension plans and $16.7 million to our other postretirement benefit plans.
The following table provides the components of the plans’ actuarially determined net periodic benefit cost for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2020 and 2019:
Pension BenefitsOther Postretirement
Benefits
Three Months Ended September 30, (in millions)
2020201920202019
Components of Net Periodic Benefit Cost(1)
Service cost$8.1 $7.3 $1.7 $1.3 
Interest cost13.1 18.1 3.8 4.8 
Expected return on assets(28.3)(27.2)(3.6)(3.3)
Amortization of prior service credit0.2 — (0.4)(0.8)
Recognized actuarial loss8.6 11.3 1.2 0.5 
Settlement loss8.0 1.9 — — 
Total Net Periodic Benefit Cost $9.7 $11.4 $2.7 $2.5 
(1)The service cost component and all non-service cost components of net periodic benefit cost are presented in "Operation and maintenance" and "Other, net", respectively, on the Condensed Statements of Consolidated Income (Loss) (unaudited).
Pension BenefitsOther Postretirement
Benefits
Nine Months Ended September 30, (in millions)
2020201920202019
Components of Net Periodic Benefit Cost(1)
Service cost$24.1 $21.9 $4.9 $3.9 
Interest cost40.1 54.5 11.6 14.4 
Expected return on assets(85.1)(81.6)(10.8)(9.9)
Amortization of prior service credit0.6 — (1.4)(2.4)
Recognized actuarial loss26.0 34.1 3.8 1.5 
Settlement loss8.0 1.9 — — 
Total Net Periodic Benefit Cost $13.7 $30.8 $8.1 $7.5 
(1)The service cost component and all non-service cost components of net periodic benefit cost are presented in "Operation and maintenance" and "Other, net", respectively, on the Condensed Statements of Consolidated Income (Loss) (unaudited).
During the third quarter of 2020, three of our qualified pension plans met the requirement for settlement accounting. A settlement charge of $8.0 million was recorded during the third quarter of 2020. These pension plans were remeasured as a result of the settlements of all three plans, as well as the transfer of employees into and out of two qualified pension plans transferred to Eversource at the closing of the sale of the Massachusetts Business. The remeasurements led to a decrease to the net pension asset of $6.1 million, an increase to the pension benefit obligation, net of plan assets, of $0.2 million, a net decrease to regulatory assets of $1.4 million, and a net credit to accumulated other comprehensive loss of $0.2 million. Net periodic pension benefit cost for 2020 decreased by $1.4 million as a result of the interim remeasurement.
The following table provides the key assumptions that were used to calculate the pension benefit obligation and the net periodic benefit cost for the plans that triggered settlement accounting:
September 30, 2020
Weighted-average Assumption to Determine Benefit Obligation
Discount rate2.28 %
Weighted-average Assumptions to Determine Net Periodic Benefit Costs for the period ended
Discount rate - service cost3.39 %
Discount rate - interest cost2.65 %
Expected return on assets5.20 %