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Regulatory Matters: | 9 Months Ended
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Sep. 30, 2022
Regulatory Assets and Liabilities Disclosure [Abstract] |
Regulatory Matters | Regulatory Matters We had the following regulatory assets and liabilities (in thousands):
| As of | As of
| September 30, 2022 | December 31, 2021
Regulatory assets |  |
Winter Storm Uri (a) | $ | 392,994 |  | $ | 509,025 |
Deferred energy and fuel cost adjustments (b) | 74,998 |  | 59,973 |
Deferred gas cost adjustments (b) | 18,764 |  | 9,488 |
Gas price derivatives (b) | 10,776 |  | 2,584 |
Deferred taxes on AFUDC (b) | 7,407 |  | 7,457 |
Employee benefit plans and related deferred taxes (c) | 86,335 |  | 88,923 |
Environmental (b) | 1,346 |  | 1,385 |
Loss on reacquired debt (b) | 19,663 |  | 21,011 |
Deferred taxes on flow through accounting (b) | 66,039 |  | 63,243 |
Decommissioning costs (b) | 4,094 |  | 5,961 |
Other regulatory assets (b) | 23,790 |  | 27,549 |
Total regulatory assets | 706,206 |  | 796,599 |
Less current regulatory assets | (290,087) |  | (270,290) |
Regulatory assets, non-current | $ | 416,119 |  | $ | 526,309 |
Regulatory liabilities |  |
Deferred energy and gas costs (b) | $ | 6,283 |  | $ | 6,113 |
Employee benefit plan costs and related deferred taxes (c) | 31,168 |  | 32,241 |
Cost of removal (b) | 174,312 |  | 179,976 |
Excess deferred income taxes (c) | 257,282 |  | 264,042 |
Other regulatory liabilities (c) | 25,715 |  | 20,579 |
Total regulatory liabilities | 494,760 |  | 502,951 |
Less current regulatory liabilities | (24,797) |  | (17,574) |
Regulatory liabilities, non-current | $ | 469,963 |  | $ | 485,377 |
__________ (a) Timing of Winter Storm Uri incremental cost recovery and associated carrying costs vary by jurisdiction. See further information below. (b) Recovery of costs, but we are not allowed a rate of return. (c) In addition to recovery or repayment of costs, we are allowed a return on a portion of this amount or a reduction in rate base. Regulatory Activity Except as discussed below, there have been no other significant changes to our Regulatory Matters from those previously disclosed in Note 2 of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements in our 2021 Annual Report on Form 10-K. Arkansas Gas On December 10, 2021, Arkansas Gas filed a rate review with the APSC seeking recovery of significant infrastructure investments in its 7,200-mile natural gas pipeline system. On October 10, 2022, the APSC approved a partial settlement agreement with all intervening parties for a general rate increase and authorized a capital structure of 45% equity and 55% debt and a return on equity of 9.6%. The APSC’s decision shifts approximately $10 million of rider revenue to base rates and is expected to generate $8.8 million of new annual revenue. The APSC also approved a new comprehensive safety and integrity rider which replaces three former riders. New rates were effective on October 21, 2022. RMNG On October 7, 2022, RMNG filed a rate review with the CPUC seeking recovery of significant infrastructure investments in its 600-mile natural gas pipeline system. The rate review requests $12.3 million in new annual revenue based on a future test year with a capital structure of 52% equity and 48% debt and a return on equity of 12.3%. The rate review also requests a $7.7 million shift of SSIR revenues to base rates. The request seeks to finalize rates in the third quarter of 2023. Winter Storm Uri In February 2021, Winter Storm Uri caused a substantial increase in heating and energy demand and contributed to unforeseeable and unprecedented market prices for natural gas and electricity. As a result, we incurred significant incremental fuel, purchased power and natural gas costs. Our Utilities submitted Winter Storm Uri cost recovery applications in our state jurisdictions seeking to recover $546 million of these incremental costs through separate tracking mechanisms over a weighted-average recovery period of 3.5 years. In these applications, we sought approval to recover carrying costs. We have received final commission approval for all of our Winter Storm Uri cost recovery applications, which will allow full recovery of our incremental fuel, purchased power and natural gas costs. On January 27, 2022, Kansas Gas received approval from the KCC for its Winter Storm Uri cost recovery settlement with final rates implemented in February 2022. In March 2022, Colorado Electric and Colorado Gas received approval from the CPUC for their respective Winter Storm Uri cost recovery settlements with final rates implemented in April 2022. In June 2022, Arkansas Gas received approval from the APSC for its Winter Storm Uri cost recovery application. The APSC had previously approved interim cost recovery effective in June 2021. On October 20, 2022, Wyoming Gas received approval from the WPSC for its Winter Storm Uri cost recovery application. The WPSC had previously approved interim cost recovery effective in September 2021. For three and nine months ended September 30, 2022 and 2021, $3.7 million, $18 million, $1.8 million and $1.8 million, respectively, of carrying costs were accrued and recorded to a regulatory asset. The carrying costs accrued during the nine months ended September 30, 2022 included a one-time, $10 million true-up recorded in the second quarter to reflect Commission authorized rates. For the nine months ended September 30, 2022, our Utilities collected $125 million of Winter Storm Uri incremental costs and carrying costs from customers. As of September 30, 2022, we estimate that our remaining Winter Storm Uri regulatory asset has a weighted-average recovery period of 2.8 years. TCJA As part of Kansas Gas’ 2021 rate review settlement agreement, Kansas Gas will annually deliver $3.0 million of TCJA and state tax reform benefits to customers for three years starting in 2022 (approximately $9.1 million of total benefits expected to be delivered). For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022, Kansas Gas delivered TCJA and state tax reform bill credits to customers of $0.6 million and $2.1 million, respectively. These bill credits, which resulted in a reduction of revenue, were offset by a reduction in income tax expense and resulted in an immaterial impact to Net income for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022. Wyoming Electric On June 1, 2022, Wyoming Electric filed a rate review with the WPSC seeking recovery of significant infrastructure investments in its 1,330-mile electric distribution and 59-mile electric transmission systems. The rate review requests $15 million in new annual revenue with a capital structure of 54% equity and 46% debt and a return on equity of 10.3%. The request seeks to finalize rates in the first quarter of 2023.

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- Definition The entire disclosure for detailed information about regulatory assets and liabilities, including current and noncurrent assets created when regulatory agencies permit the deferral of costs to the balance sheet that would otherwise be required to appear on the company's income statement and would be charged against current expenses or revenues, as well as current and noncurrent liabilities created when regulatory agencies permit. + References No definition available. + Details
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