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Rate Matters and Regulation | 9 Months Ended
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Sep. 30, 2019
Regulated Operations [Abstract] |
Rate Matters and Regulation | Rate Matters and Regulation Except as set forth below, the circumstances set forth in Note 15 to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in the Company's 2018 Form 10-K appropriately represent, in all material respects, the current status of the Company's regulatory matters. Completed Regulatory Matters Arkansas Formula Rate Plan Filing Per OG&E's settlement in its last general rate review, OG&E filed an evaluation report under its Formula Rate Plan in October 2018. On March 6, 2019, the APSC approved a settlement agreement for a $3.3 million revenue increase, and new rates were effective as of April 1, 2019. Approval for Acquisition of Existing Power Plants In December 2018, OG&E filed an application for pre-approval from the OCC to acquire a 360 MW capacity coal- and natural gas-fired plant from AES and a 146 MW capacity natural gas-fired combined-cycle plant from Oklahoma Cogeneration LLC in 2019 for $53.5 million. The purchase of these assets replaces capacity provided by purchased power contracts that expired in 2019 and helps OG&E satisfy its customers' energy needs and load obligations to the SPP. In addition, the filing sought approval of a rider mechanism to collect costs associated with the purchase of these generating facilities. On May 13, 2019, the OCC approved OG&E's acquisition of both plants, the requested rider mechanism for the AES plant and regulatory asset treatment for the Oklahoma Cogeneration LLC plant that will defer non-fuel operation and maintenance expenses, depreciation and ad valorem taxes. On January 23, 2019, OG&E filed an application for Federal Power Act Section 203 approval with a request for expedited consideration. This application requested FERC's prior authorization to acquire the AES and Oklahoma Cogeneration LLC plants. On May 22, 2019, OG&E received authorization from the FERC to acquire both plants. On April 24, 2019, OG&E filed an application with the APSC requesting approval of the acquisition, as well as depreciation rates, of the AES and Oklahoma Cogeneration LLC plants, and on May 8, 2019, OG&E received conditional approval for the purchase of the generating facilities. On August 30, 2019, the APSC issued an order approving issues regarding depreciation rates and prudence of action associated with the acquisitions. Issues regarding prudence of cost will be reviewed in OG&E's 2019 Formula Rate Plan filing. In May 2019, OG&E completed the acquisition of the power plant from AES and placed it into service, which is now named the River Valley power plant. In August 2019, OG&E completed the acquisition of the power plant from Oklahoma Cogeneration LLC and placed it into service, which is now named the Frontier power plant. Fuel Adjustment Clause Review for Calendar Year 2017 In July 2018, the OCC staff filed an application to review OG&E's fuel adjustment clause for the calendar year 2017, including the prudence of OG&E's electric generation, purchased power and fuel procurement costs. On February 1, 2019, the Administrative Law Judge recommended that OG&E's processes, costs, investments and decisions regarding fuel procurement for the 2017 calendar year be found prudent. On May 22, 2019, the OCC deemed OG&E's electric generation, purchased power and fuel procurement costs to be materially prudent. Oklahoma Rate Review Filing - December 2018 In December 2018, OG&E filed a general rate review with the OCC, requesting a rate increase of $77.6 million per year to recover its investment in the Dry Scrubbers project and in the conversion of Muskogee Units 4 and 5 to natural gas, to align OG&E's return on equity more closely to the industry average and to align OG&E's depreciation rates to more realistically reflect its assets' lifespans. On May 24, 2019, OG&E entered into a non-unanimous joint stipulation and settlement agreement with the OCC staff, the Attorney General's Office of Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Industrial Energy Consumers and certain other parties associated with the requested rate increase. The filing was further amended on May 30, 2019 to include Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives as a settling party. Under the terms of the settlement agreement, OG&E would receive full recovery of its environmental investments in the Dry Scrubbers project and in the conversion of Muskogee Units 4 and 5 to natural gas. Base rates would not change as a result of the settlement agreement due to the reduction of costs related to cogeneration contracts and the acceleration of unprotected deferred tax savings over a 10-year period. Further, OG&E's current depreciation rates and return on equity of 9.5 percent for purposes of calculating the allowance for funds used during construction and OG&E's various recovery riders that include a full return component would remain unchanged. On July 1, 2019, OG&E implemented interim rates, which were subject to refund of any amount recovered in excess of the rates ultimately approved by the OCC in the rate review. On September 19, 2019, the OCC issued a final order which approved the settlement agreement. The Dry Scrubbers project, which includes the installation of two dry scrubbers at the Sooner plant, and the conversion of Muskogee Units 4 and 5 to natural gas were initiated in response to the EPA's MATS and Regional Haze Rule FIP. The Dry Scrubber systems on Sooner Unit 1 and Unit 2 were placed into service in October 2018 and January 2019, respectively. Muskogee Units 4 and 5 were placed into service in March 2019. Pending Regulatory Matters Set forth below is a list of various proceedings pending before state or federal regulatory agencies. Unless stated otherwise, OG&E cannot predict when the regulatory agency will act or what action the regulatory agency will take. OG&E's financial results are dependent in part on timely and adequate decisions by the regulatory agencies that set OG&E's rates. FERC - Section 206 Filing In January 2018, the Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority filed a complaint at the FERC stating that the base return on common equity used by OG&E in calculating formula transmission rates under the SPP Open Access Transmission Tariff is unjust and unreasonable and should be reduced from 10.60 percent to 7.85 percent, effective upon the date of the complaint. In addition to the request to reduce the return on equity, the Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority's complaint also requests that modifications be made to OG&E's transmission formula rates to reflect the impacts of the 2017 Tax Act, including the 2017 Tax Act's impact on accumulated deferred income tax balances. In May 2019, all parties agreed to a settlement which provides for 10 percent base return on equity, plus a 50-basis point adder, and a five-year amortization period of the unprotected excess accumulated deferred income taxes associated with the 2017 Tax Act. While pending approval by the FERC, rates are currently being applied by the SPP pursuant to the terms of the settlement agreement. FERC Order for Sponsored Transmission Upgrades within SPP Under the SPP Open Access Transmission Tariff, costs of participant-funded, or "sponsored," transmission upgrades may be recovered from other SPP customers whose transmission service depends on capacity enabled by the upgrade. The SPP Open Access Transmission Tariff allowed SPP to charge for these upgrades since 2008, but SPP had not been charging its customers for these upgrades due to information system limitations. However, SPP had informed participants in the market that these charges would be forthcoming. In July 2016, the FERC granted SPP's request to recover the charges not billed since 2008. SPP subsequently billed OG&E for these charges and credited OG&E related to transmission upgrades that OG&E had sponsored, which resulted in OG&E being a net receiver of sponsored upgrade credits. The majority of these net credits were refunded to customers through OG&E's various rate riders that include SPP activity with the remaining amounts retained by OG&E. Several impacted companies sought rehearing of the FERC's July 2016 order; however, in November 2017, the FERC denied the rehearing requests. In January 2018, one of the impacted companies appealed the FERC's decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. In July 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia granted a motion requested by the FERC that the case be remanded back to the FERC for further examination and proceedings. In February 2019, the FERC reversed its July 2016 order and ordered SPP to develop a plan to refund the payments but not to implement the refunds until further ordered to do so. In response, on April 1, 2019, OG&E filed a request for rehearing with the FERC, and on May 24, 2019, OG&E filed a FERC 206 complaint against SPP, alleging SPP's forced unwinding of the revenue credit payments to OG&E would violate the provisions of the Sponsored Upgrade Agreement. OG&E's filing requested that the FERC rule that SPP is not entitled to seek refunds or in any other way seek to unwind the revenue credit payments it had paid to OG&E pursuant to the Sponsored Upgrade Agreement. The Company cannot predict the outcome of this proceeding based on currently available information, and as of September 30, 2019 and at present time, the Company has not reserved an amount for a potential refund. If the reversal of the July 2016 FERC order remains intact, OG&E estimates it would be required to refund $13.0 million, which is net of amounts paid to other utilities for upgrades and would be subject to interest at the FERC-approved rate. If refunds were required, recovery of these upgrade credits would shift to future periods. Of the $13.0 million, the Company would be impacted by $5.0 million in expense that initially benefited the Company in 2016, and OG&E customers would incur a net impact of $8.0 million in expense through rider mechanisms or the FERC formula rate. Fuel Adjustment Clause Review for Calendar Year 2018 In June 2019, the OCC staff filed an application to review OG&E's fuel adjustment clause for the calendar year 2018, including the prudence of OG&E's electric generation, purchased power and fuel procurement costs. A hearing on the merits is scheduled for November 14, 2019. APSC - Environmental Compliance Plan Rider On May 31, 2019, OG&E filed an environmental compliance plan rider in Arkansas to recover its investment for the environmentally mandated costs associated with the Dry Scrubbers project and the conversion of Muskogee Units 4 and 5 to natural gas. The filing is an interim surcharge, subject to refund, that began with the first billing cycle of June 2019. OG&E is reserving the amounts collected through the interim surcharge, pending APSC approval of OG&E's filing. A hearing on the merits is scheduled for December 17, 2019. Arkansas Formula Rate Plan Filing On October 1, 2019, OG&E filed its second evaluation report under its Formula Rate Plan, requesting a $5.9 million revenue increase. If approved, new rates will be effective April 1, 2020.

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