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Regulated Operations | 3 Months Ended
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Mar. 31, 2020
Regulated Operations [Abstract] |
Rate Matters and Regulation | Rate Matters and Regulation Except as set forth below, the circumstances set forth in Note 16 to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in the Company's 201 9 Form 10-K appropriately represent, in all material respects, the current status of the Company's regulatory matters. Completed Regulatory Matters Arkansas 2019 Formula Rate Plan Filing OG&E filed its second evaluation report under its Formula Rate Plan in October 2019. On January 29, 2020, OG&E, the General Staff of the APSC and the Office of the Arkansas Attorney General filed a settlement agreement requesting the APSC approve a $5.2 million revenue increase, with rates effective April 1, 2020. The settling parties agreed that the Series I grid modernization projects are prudent in both action and cost and that the Series II grid modernization projects are prudent in action only and the determination of prudence of costs will be reserved until the actual historical costs are reviewed. The settling parties also agreed that OG&E will no longer use projections for the remaining initial term or extension of its current Formula Rate Plan and that all costs will be included for recovery for the first time in the historical year. On February 28, 2020, the APSC approved the settlement agreement. 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 Proceedings 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 required the SPP to charge for these upgrades beginning in 2008, but the SPP had not been charging its customers for these upgrades due to information system limitations. However, the SPP had informed participants in the market that these charges would be forthcoming. In July 2016, the FERC granted the SPP's request to recover the charges not billed since 2008. The 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 companies that were net payers of Z2 charges 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 Circuit. In July 2018, that court 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 November 2017 rehearing denial, ruled that the SPP violated its tariff to charge for the 2008 - 2015 period in 2016, held that the SPP tariff provision that prohibited those charges could not be waived and ordered the SPP to develop a plan to refund the payments but not to implement the refunds until further ordered to do so. In response, in April 2019, OG&E filed a request for rehearing with the FERC, and in May 2019, OG&E filed a FERC 206 complaint against the SPP, alleging that the SPP's forced unwinding of the revenue credit payments to OG&E would violate the provisions of the Sponsored Upgrade Agreement and of the applicable tariff. OG&E's filing requested that the FERC rule that the 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 SPP's response to OG&E's filing agreed that OG&E should be entitled to keep its Z2 payments and argued that the SPP should not be held responsible for those payments if refunds are ordered. Further, the SPP has requested the FERC to negotiate a global settlement with all impacted parties, including other project sponsors who, like OG&E, have also filed complaints at FERC contending that the payments they have received cannot properly be unwound. On February 20, 2020, the FERC denied OG&E's request for rehearing of its February 2019 order, denying the waiver and ruling that the SPP must seek refunds from project sponsors for Z2 payments for the 2008 - 2015 period and pay them back to transmission owners. The FERC also denied the SPP's request for a stay and for institution of settlement procedures. The FERC stated it would not institute settlement procedures unless parties on both sides of the matter requested them. The FERC did not rule on OG&E's complaint or the complaints of other project sponsors, or consider the SPP's refund plan. The FERC thus has not set any date for payment of refunds. On March 2, 2020, OG&E petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit for review of the FERC's order denying the waiver and requiring refunds. The appeal will likely be heard later this year. The Company cannot predict the outcome of this proceeding based on currently available information, and as of March 31, 2020 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. The SPP has recently proposed eliminating Attachment Z2 revenue crediting and replacing it with a different mechanism that would provide project sponsors such as OG&E the same level of recovery they would receive if payments continued under Attachment Z2. The FERC rejected that proposal to the extent it would limit recovery to the amount of the upgrade sponsor's directly assigned upgrade costs with interest, finding that providing the possibility of recovering greater than the cost of the investment could serve as an incentive for entities to build merchant transmission projects. The SPP is allowed to resubmit a proposal without this limited recovery. APSC Proceedings Environmental Compliance Plan Rider In May 2019, OG&E filed an environmental compliance plan rider in Arkansas to recover its investment for the environmentally mandated costs associated with the Sooner 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 was held in December 2019, and parties submitted additional briefs to the APSC in March 2020. The primary question before the APSC is whether a company can utilize an environmental compliance plan rider while also being regulated under a formula rate plan. OG&E is awaiting a final decision from the APSC. Order Regarding COVID-19 On April 10, 2020, the APSC issued Order No. 1 related to COVID-19 and the provision of safe, adequate and reliable utility service at just and reasonable rates. Among other things, the APSC ordered the suspension of disconnects during the pendency of the Arkansas Governor's emergency declaration or until the directive is rescinded by the APSC, as well as encouraging reasonable payment arrangements once the prohibition is lifted. The APSC also authorized utilities to establish regulatory assets to record costs resulting from the suspension of disconnections. These regulatory assets will be reviewed in future proceedings for reasonableness. The APSC ordered the General Staff of the APSC to consult with utilities to create a quarterly report to be used to report the costs incurred and saved that have been booked to the regulatory asset. OG&E is monitoring the regulatory activity regarding COVID-19 at the APSC and will consider the request for additional regulatory action by the APSC as needed. On May 1, 2020, OG&E filed a Request for Additional Actions and Tariff Deviation seeking relief from the Arkansas General Service Rules and OG&E's Terms and Conditions under the tariff, in order to allow for: more flexible deferred payment agreements for all customer classes, suspension of increased deposits due to non-payment and suspension of the removal of customers from certain billing and extended due date plans for late payments. In addition, OG&E requested that incremental expenses, such as additional personal protective equipment, increased sanitation efforts at facilities, implementing health-screening processes and securing temporary facilities for potential sequestration of critical operation personnel, be tracked in a regulatory asset. OG&E noted that all possible cost categories are not known currently and reserved the right to file subsequent requests as needed. OCC Proceedings Oklahoma Grid Enhancement Plan On February 24, 2020, OG&E filed an application with the OCC for approval of a mechanism that allows for interim recovery of the costs associated with its grid enhancement plan. The plan includes approximately $800.0 million of strategic, data-driven investments, over five years, covering grid resiliency, grid automation, communication systems and technology platforms and applications. A hearing on the merits is scheduled to begin on July 7, 2020. Oklahoma Retail Electric Supplier Certified Territory Act Causes Certain rural electric cooperative electricity suppliers have filed complaints with the OCC alleging that OG&E has violated the Oklahoma Retail Electric Supplier Certified Territory Act. OG&E believes it is lawfully serving customers specifically exempted from this act and has presented evidence and testimony to the OCC supporting its position. If the OCC were to ultimately find that some or all of the customers being served are not exempted, then OG&E would have to evaluate the recoverability of some plant investments made to serve these customers. OG&E may also be required to reimburse certified territory suppliers for an amount of lost revenue. OCC Public Utility Division Motion Regarding COVID-19 On April 28, 2020, the Director of the Public Utility Division filed an application requesting an order from the OCC authorizing action in response to COVID-19. The application requests the OCC to authorize the State's utilities to record as a regulatory asset increased bad debt expenses, costs associated with expanded payment plans, waived fees and incremental expenses that are directly related to the suspension of or delay in disconnection of service beginning March 15, 2020, with the issuance of the Oklahoma Governors' emergency declaration. The application also requests the OCC to allow utilities to defer additional expenses associated with ensuring the continuity of utility service, such as additional personal protective equipment, increased sanitation efforts at facilities, implementing heath-screening processes and securing temporary facilities for potential sequestration of critical operation personnel. The application asks the OCC to consider in future proceedings whether each utility's request for recovery of these regulatory assets is reasonable and necessary and to consider issues such as the incremental bad debt experienced over normal periods, the appropriate period of recovery for any approved amount of regulatory asset, any amount of carrying costs and other related matters. The application is scheduled to be heard by the OCC on May 7, 2020.

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- Definition Describes all of the specific events that have or may impact rates and amortization of regulatory assets and liabilities (for example, pending or recently concluded regulatory proceedings). Specifics may include quantifications related to rates, costs, and earnings. Events may relate to rate moratoriums or price tags. + References No definition available. + Details
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