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Regulated Operations | 3 Months Ended
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Mar. 31, 2022
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 financial statements included in the Registrants' 20 21 Form 10-K appropriately represent, in all material respects, the current status of the Registrants' regulatory matters. Completed Regulatory Matters APSC Proceedings Arkansas 2021 Formula Rate Plan Filing In October 2021, OG&E filed its fourth evaluation report under its Formula Rate Plan, and on February 1, 2022, OG&E, the APSC General Staff and the Office of the Arkansas Attorney General filed a non-unanimous joint settlement agreement, which includes an annual electric revenue increase of $4.2 million. The only non-signatory to the settlement agreement agreed not to oppose the settlement. On March 4, 2022, the APSC issued a final order approving the non-unanimous settlement agreement, and new rates became effective April 1, 2022. Pending Regulatory Matters Various proceedings pending before state or federal regulatory agencies are described below. Unless stated otherwise, the Registrants cannot predict when the regulatory agency will act or what action the regulatory agency will take. The Registrants' financial results are dependent in part on timely and constructive 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 through 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. In February 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 through 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. In March 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 court issued a decision on August 27, 2021, denying review and holding that the SPP was prohibited by the filed rate doctrine from imposing Z2 charges during the 2008 through 2015 historical period. The court further held that the FERC reasonably exercised its remedial authority to order the SPP to refund the retroactive upgrade charge. The court did not direct a time frame or procedures for the SPP to implement refunds. OG&E and the SPP filed a petition for rehearing of the court's decision, which was denied in October 2021. The court returned the matter to the FERC for action in accordance with its opinion in November 2021. If the FERC proceeds to order refunds in full, 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. The SPP has stated in filings it made with the FERC while the appeal was pending that there are considerable complexities in implementing the refunds that will have to be resolved before they can be paid. Payment of refunds would shift recovery of these upgrade credits to future periods. The SPP filed an update on January 4, 2022 confirming that administering refunds would be complex and could take years unless the SPP is allowed to make certain simplifying assumptions. It also urged that all pending complaint proceedings, including four complaints against the SPP, be resolved before the refund process is ordered to begin. OG&E and other parties filed responses to the SPP report, and the matter remains pending at the FERC. Of the $13.0 million, the Registrants would be impacted by $5.0 million in expense that initially benefited the Registrants 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. As of March 31, 2022, the Registrants have reserved $13.0 million plus estimated interest for a potential refund. In January 2020, the FERC acted on an SPP proposal to eliminate Attachment Z2 revenue crediting and replace it with a different rate mechanism that would provide project sponsors, such as OG&E, the same level of recovery, and rejected the proposal to the extent it would limit recovery to the amount of the upgrade sponsor's directly assigned upgrade costs with interest. The SPP resubmitted a proposal in April 2020 without this limited recovery, and with the alternative rate mechanism, and the FERC approved it in June 2020, effective July 1, 2020. No party sought rehearing of the order, and it is now final. This order would only prospectively impact OG&E and its recovery of any future upgrade costs that it may incur as a project sponsor subsequent to July 2020. All of the existing projects that are eligible to receive revenue credits under Attachment Z2, which includes the $13.0 million at issue in OG&E's appeal as discussed above, will continue to do so. Incentive Adders for Transmission Rates The FERC issued a NOPR in March 2020, and issued a supplemental NOPR in April 2021, proposing to update its transmission incentives policy. Among other things, the NOPR proposes (i) the current 50-basis point return on equity adder for RTO/ISO participation would be applicable only to transmitting utilities that join an RTO/ISO, and this incentive would only apply for the first three years in which the utility is an RTO/ISO member and (ii) transmitting utilities that have been members of an RTO/ISO for three years or more, such as OG&E, would be required to make a compliance filing to remove the existing return on equity adder from their rates. OG&E is currently evaluating the potential impacts of this proposed rule. Currently, there is no specific deadline for the FERC to take further action, and it is unknown whether the FERC will address the RTO participation adder individually or as part of a larger order on transmission incentives. APSC Proceedings Winter Storm Uri In February 2021, Winter Storm Uri resulted in record winter peak demand for electricity and extremely high natural gas and purchased power prices in OG&E's service territory. On April 1, 2021, OG&E filed with the APSC a Motion for Authority to Establish Special Regulatory Treatment within the Energy Cost Recovery Rider to Defer Extraordinary Fuel Costs Incurred Due to Winter Storm Uri. More specifically, OG&E's motion sought approval to defer, amortize and recover the extraordinary fuel costs over a ten-year period with a carrying charge of OG&E's pre-tax rate of return of 6.60 percent, through a special factor within OG&E's Energy Cost Recovery Rider beginning with the first billing cycle of May 2021. On April 13, 2021, the APSC issued an order allowing OG&E interim recovery at an interest rate equal to the customer deposit interest rate, which is currently 0.8 percent, over a period of ten years beginning with the first billing cycle of May 2021. Recovery is subject to a true-up after the APSC determines the appropriate allocation, length of recovery and carrying charge. On May 4, 2021, OG&E filed testimony further supporting its 10-year amortization period and a carrying charge of OG&E's pre-tax rate of return of 6.60 percent. In April 2021, Arkansas enacted legislation to amend its storm recovery securitization statute to allow for both electric and gas utilities to recover through securitization extraordinary natural gas, fuel and purchased power costs caused by storms. The amended statute authorizes the APSC to issue a financing order for the issuance of securitization bonds upon a finding it is reasonably expected to lower overall costs or mitigate rate impacts as compared with traditional utility financing. Upon the initiation of a securitization application, the APSC has 135 days to issue an order. The requesting utility has two years from the date of the financing order to issue the securitization bonds. The amended statute allows carrying costs at a utility's weighted average cost of capital from the date of when the costs were incurred until the date when bonds are ultimately issued. On May 20, 2021, OG&E filed a motion for suspension of procedural schedule, which the APSC approved, to investigate and evaluate the potential securitization recovery of the Arkansas jurisdictional portion of the Winter Storm Uri costs. OG&E may apply for securitization in mid-2022 if it is deemed to strike the right balance between protecting the credit strength of OG&E and providing customer savings. As of March 31, 2022, OG&E has deferred $86.3 million to a regulatory asset, as indicated in Note 1. Arkansas 2021 Formula Rate Plan Filing - Extension In October 2021, OG&E filed a request to extend its Formula Rate Plan Rider for an additional five years. On April 1, 2022, the APSC issued an order granting OG&E an extension of the Formula Rate Plan Rider under the terms and conditions to be detailed in a subsequent order no later than May 18, 2022. OCC Proceedings Winter Storm Uri In December 2021, the OCC approved a settlement agreement in a final financing order authorizing the issuance of securitization bonds in an amount up to $760.0 million, which includes estimated finance costs and is subject to change for carrying costs, any updates from the SPP settlement process and actual securitization issuance costs. On December 22, 2021, the ODFA requested the Oklahoma Supreme Court to certify the proposed securitization bonds. On May 3, 2022, the Oklahoma Supreme Court issued a decision approving the securitization bonds. OG&E continues to work with the ODFA to issue bonds consistent with the OCC's order. The securitization process is expected to be completed in mid-2022. Oklahoma Retail Electric Supplier Certified Territory Act Causes Several 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. There have been five complaint cases initiated at the OCC, and the OCC has issued decisions on each of them. The OCC ruled in favor of the electric cooperatives in three of those cases and ruled in favor of OG&E in two of those cases. All five of those cases have been appealed to the Oklahoma Supreme Court, where they have been made companion cases but will be individually briefed and have individual final decisions. If the Oklahoma Supreme Court ultimately were to find that some or all of the customers being served are not exempted from the Oklahoma Retail Electric Supplier Certified Territory Act, OG&E would have to evaluate the recoverability of some plant investments made to serve these customers. The total amount of OG&E's plant investments made to serve the customers in all five cases is approximately $28.0 million, of which $11.7 million applies to the three cases where the OCC ruled in favor of the electric cooperatives. In addition to the evaluation of the recoverability of the investments, OG&E may also be required to reimburse certified territory suppliers for an amount of lost revenue. The amount of such lost revenue would depend on how the OCC calculates the revenue requirement but could range from approximately $31.4 million to $42.7 million for all five cases, of which $3.2 million to $5.1 million would apply to the three cases where the OCC ruled in favor of the electric cooperatives. 2021 Oklahoma General Rate Review In December 2021, OG&E filed a general rate review in Oklahoma seeking a rate increase of $163.5 million and a 10.2 percent return on equity based on a common equity percentage of 53.37 percent. The rate review includes a request for recovery of $1.2 billion of capital investment since the last general rate review. On April 27, 2022, initial intervenor testimony was filed with the OCC, and a hearing on the merits is expected to be held toward the end of the second quarter of 2022.

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