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Commitments and Contingencies | 12 Months Ended
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Dec. 31, 2024
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract] |
Commitments and Contingencies | Commitments and Contingencies Commitments Electric Utility Capacity and Energy Requirements. OTP has commitments for the purchase of capacity and energy requirements under contractual agreements, including wind power purchase agreements extending into 2048. Generally, the terms of OTP's wind power purchase agreements require OTP to purchase all of the electricity generated by a particular wind farm, but do not include fixed or minimum payments. The required payments are variable and the amounts due are determined based upon the amount of capacity available or electricity generated. Capacity and energy requirement costs under these agreements totaled $6.0 million, $5.6 million and $13.1 million for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022. Coal Purchase Commitments. OTP has contracts providing for the purchase and delivery of its coal requirements. OTP’s current coal purchase agreement with CCMC for Coyote Station expires on December 31, 2040. All of Coyote Station’s coal requirements for the period covered must be purchased under this agreement. The agreement is structured so that the price of the coal covers all of CCMC's operating, financing and future mine reclamation costs. In the table below, we have estimated the future payments to be made under the terms of the agreement until its maturity. OTP has an agreement for the purchase of Big Stone Plant’s coal requirements through December 31, 2026. There is no fixed minimum purchase requirement, and no amounts for this agreement have been included in the table below; however, under this agreement all of Big Stone Plant’s coal requirements for the period covered must be purchased under this agreement. Coal purchase costs under these two agreements totaled $44.7 million, $43.7 million and $45.1 million for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022. Land Easement Payments. OTP has commitments to make payments for land easements not classified as leases. The contractual terms of these easements are generally 99 years or do not have a stated maturity date; however, per the terms of the agreements, our requirement to make payment ends once we cease use of the land. As such, in the table below, we have included payments under these easements through the estimated useful lives of the facilities associated with the easement. The commitments under these arrangements extend into 2055 and total approximately $62.0 million. Land easement costs under these agreements totaled $1.8 million, $1.8 million and $1.4 million for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022. Other Commitments. As of December 31, 2024, we had commitments under contracts for plant maintenance, software subscriptions and other services extending into 2046 which totaled approximately $10.6 million. Our future commitments as of December 31, 2024 were as follows:
(in thousands) |  |  | Coal Purchase Commitments |  | Land Easement Payments |  | Other Commitments
2025 |  |  | $ | 24,192 |  |  | $ | 1,897 |  |  | $ | 1,817 |
2026 |  |  | 24,416 |  |  | 1,902 |  |  | 1,518 |
2027 |  |  | 25,127 |  |  | 1,941 |  |  | 661 |
2028 |  |  | 25,859 |  |  | 1,981 |  |  | 544 |
2029 |  |  | 27,102 |  |  | 2,021 |  |  | 272 |
Beyond 2029 |  |  | 314,713 |  |  | 52,261 |  |  | 5,758 |
Total |  |  | $ | 441,409 |  |  | $ | 62,003 |  |  | $ | 10,570 |
Solar Development. On October 30, 2024, OTP entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of a solar facility currently under development. The assets to be acquired include real property rights and interests, interconnection agreements, state and local permits, and other development assets. Per the agreement, the purchase price is equal to $23.6 million, plus the reimbursement of certain interconnection costs and costs to purchase and store the main power transformer. Closing of the transaction is expected to occur in late 2025 or early 2026, and remains subject to certain conditions to close, including regulatory and other approvals. OTP would be subject to a termination fee of up to $5.0 million if the seller has satisfied all required conditions to close but the transaction is not consummated. Contingencies FERC ROE. In November 2013 and February 2015, customers filed complaints with FERC seeking to reduce the ROE component of the transmission rates that MISO transmission owners, including OTP, may collect under the MISO tariff rate. FERC issued an order on November 19, 2020, which adopted a revised ROE methodology and set the base ROE at 10.02% (10.52% with an adder) effective for the fifteen-month period from November 2013 to February 2015 and on a prospective basis beginning in September 2016. The order also dismissed any complaints covering the period from February 2015 to May 2016. On August 9, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated the FERC order citing a lack of reasoned explanation by FERC in its adoption of its revised ROE methodology as outlined in its November 2020 order and remanded the matter to FERC to reopen the proceedings. On October 17, 2024, FERC issued an Order on Remand modifying its ROE methodology and establishing a base ROE of 9.98% (10.48% with an adder) effective for the fifteen-month period from November 2013 to February 2015 and on a prospective basis beginning in September 2016, and required MISO transmission owners to provide refunds to customers for collections in excess of the base ROE of 9.98% for the applicable period, plus interest. In addition, FERC concluded the evidentiary record continues to support the ROE established for the period from February 2015 to May 2016. Prior to FERC's Order on Remand, we had deferred recognition of certain revenues and recognized a refund liability which reflected the amount previously collected under the MISO tariff rate that we anticipated would be refunded to customers. Our previous estimated refund amount was larger than the actual amount ordered by FERC in the Order on Remand and was therefore reduced, which resulted in a pre-tax benefit of $2.5 million recognized in our consolidated statements of income for the year ended December 31, 2024. The balance of the recorded refund liability as of December 31, 2024 was $0.5 million. Self-Funding of Transmission Upgrades for Generator Interconnections. FERC has granted transmission owners within MISO and other regional transmission organizations (RTOs) the unilateral authority to determine the funding mechanism for interconnection transmission upgrades that are necessary to accommodate new generation facilities connecting to the electrical grid. Under existing FERC orders, transmission owners can unilaterally determine whether the generator pays the transmission owner in advance for the transmission upgrade or, alternatively, the transmission owner can elect to fund the upgrade and recover over time from the generator the cost of and a return on the upgrade investment (a self-funding). FERC’s orders granting transmission owners this unilateral funding authority have been judicially contested on the basis that transmission owners may be motivated to discriminate among generators in making funding determinations. In the most recent judicial proceedings, the petitioners argued to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that FERC did not comply with a previous judicial order to fully develop a record regarding the risk of discrimination and the financial risk absorbed by transmission owners for generator-funded upgrades. In December 2022, the Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the petitioners remanding the matter to FERC, instructing the agency to adequately explain the basis of its orders. The Court of Appeals decision did not vacate transmission owners’ unilateral funding authority. In June 2024, FERC issued an Order to Show Cause proceeding against four RTOs, including MISO. Within its order, FERC indicates that the transmission tariffs of the RTOs appear to be unjust, unreasonable, and unduly discriminatory or preferential because they allow transmission owners to unilaterally elect transmission owner self-funding, which may increase costs, impose barriers to transmission interconnection and result in undue discrimination among interconnection customers. The order required each RTO to submit filings to either 1) show cause as to why the transmission tariff remains just and reasonable and not duly discriminatory or preferential, or 2) to explain what changes to the tariff it believes would remedy the identified concerns. FERC has received a number of responses to its Order to Show Cause. In September 2024, in separate filings, MISO and transmission owners within MISO, including OTP, filed responses outlining the reasons why the self-funding option remains just and reasonable and not unduly discriminatory or preferential. Other responses have been provided by other RTOs, individual transmission owners, developers of renewable generation facilities and other interested parties. OTP, as a transmission owner in MISO, has exercised its authority and elected to self-fund previous transmission upgrades necessary to accommodate new system generation. Under such an election, OTP is recovering the cost of the transmission upgrade and a return on that investment from the generator over a contractual period of time. Should the resolution of this matter eliminate transmission owners’ unilateral funding authority on either a prospective or retrospective basis, our financial results would be impacted. We cannot at this time reasonably predict the outcome of this matter given the uncertainty as to how FERC may ultimately decide on the matter after RTOs' filings in response to the Order to Show Cause. Class Action Lawsuits. Several class action complaints against certain PVC pipe manufacturers, including OTC, have been filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois alleging violations of antitrust laws. The first of the complaints was filed on August 23, 2024. The various complaints have been consolidated under the caption In re: PVC Pipe Antitrust Litigation (Case No. 1:24-cv-07639). Specifically, the complaints allege, among other things, that beginning in at least January 2021, the defendants conspired and combined to fix, raise, maintain and stabilize the price of PVC municipal water and electrical conduit pipe in violation of U.S. antitrust laws. The plaintiffs are seeking treble damages, injunctive relief, pre- and post-judgment interest, costs and attorneys’ fees. In addition, on August 27, 2024, the Company received a grand jury subpoena issued by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division. The subpoena calls for production of documents regarding the manufacturing, selling and pricing of PVC pipe. The Company is responding to the subpoena and intends to comply with its obligations under the subpoena. At this time, we are unable to determine the likelihood of an outcome or estimate a range of reasonably possible losses, if any, arising from the class action complaints or the DOJ investigation. However, if an antitrust violation by the Company is found, it could have a material impact on the Company’s financial condition, operating results and liquidity. The Company believes that there are factual and legal defenses to the allegations in the complaints and intends to defend itself accordingly. Other Contingencies. We are party to litigation and regulatory matters arising in the normal course of business. We regularly analyze relevant information and, as necessary, estimate and record accrued liabilities for legal, regulatory enforcement and other matters in which a loss is probable of occurring and can be reasonably estimated. We believe the effect on our consolidated operating results, financial position and cash flows, if any, for the disposition of all matters pending as of December 31, 2024, other than those discussed above, will not be material.

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