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Pension And Other Postretirement Benefits
 9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2021
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, 2021, we contributed $3.3 million to our pension plans and $15.0 million to our OPEB 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, 2021 and 2020:
Pension BenefitsOPEB
Three Months Ended September 30, (in millions)
2021202020212020
Components of Net Periodic Benefit (Income) Cost(1)
Service cost$7.5 $8.1 $1.5 $1.7 
Interest cost7.9 13.1 2.5 3.8 
Expected return on assets(25.2)(28.3)(3.8)(3.6)
Amortization of prior service credit— 0.2 (0.6)(0.4)
Recognized actuarial loss5.5 8.6 1.2 1.2 
Settlement loss2.9 8.0 — — 
Total Net Periodic Benefit (Income) Cost $(1.4)$9.7 $0.8 $2.7 
(1)The service cost component and all non-service cost components of net periodic benefit (income) cost are presented in "Operation and maintenance" and "Other, net," respectively, on the Condensed Statements of Consolidated Income (Loss) (unaudited).
Pension BenefitsOPEB
Nine Months Ended September 30, (in millions)
2021202020212020
Components of Net Periodic Benefit (Income) Cost(1)
Service cost$22.6 $24.1 $4.5 $4.9 
Interest cost23.5 40.1 7.5 11.6 
Expected return on assets(76.3)(85.1)(11.4)(10.8)
Amortization of prior service credit— 0.6 (1.8)(1.4)
Recognized actuarial loss16.3 26.0 3.6 3.8 
Settlement loss9.5 8.0 — — 
Total Net Periodic Benefit (Income) Cost $(4.4)$13.7 $2.4 $8.1 
(1)The service cost component and all non-service cost components of net periodic benefit (income) cost are presented in "Operation and maintenance" and "Other, net," respectively, on the Condensed Statements of Consolidated Income (Loss) (unaudited).
During the first quarter of 2021, one of our qualified pension plans met the requirement for settlement accounting. A settlement charge of $3.3 million was recorded during the first quarter of 2021. As a result of the settlement, the pension plan was remeasured, resulting in a decrease to the net pension asset of $5.8 million, a net increase to regulatory assets of $2.1 million, and a net debit to accumulated other comprehensive loss of $0.4 million. Net periodic pension benefit cost for 2021 increased by $4.0 million as a result of the interim remeasurement.
During the second and third quarters of 2021, the requirements for settlement accounting were also met, resulting in settlement charges of $3.3 million and $2.9 million recorded for the three months ended June 30, 2021 and September 30, 2021, respectively.
The following table provides the key assumptions that were used to calculate the pension benefit obligation and the net periodic benefit cost at the interim remeasurement date for the plan that triggered settlement accounting:
February 28, 2021
Weighted-average Assumption to Determine Benefit Obligation
Discount rate2.57 %
Weighted-average Assumptions to Determine Net Periodic Benefit Costs for the period ended
Discount rate - service cost2.81 %
Discount rate - interest cost1.57 %
Expected return on assets4.80 %