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Accounting For Income Taxes (Tables) | 12 Months Ended
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Dec. 31, 2023
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract] |
Schedule of Components of Income Tax Expense | Income tax expense consisted of the following for the years ended December 31 (dollars in thousands):
|  | 2023 |  |  | 2022 |  |  | 2021 |
Current income tax expense |  | $ | 3,207 |  |  | $ | 1,040 |  |  | $ | 807 |
Deferred income tax expense (benefit) |  |  | (36,837 | ) |  |  | (18,231 | ) |  |  | 11,224 |
Total income tax expense (benefit) |  | $ | (33,630 | ) |  | $ | (17,191 | ) |  | $ | 12,031 |
Schedule of Effective Income Tax Rate Reconciliation | A reconciliation of federal income taxes derived from the statutory federal tax rate of 21 percent applied to income before income taxes is as follows for the years ended December 31 (dollars in thousands):
|  | 2023 |  |  | 2022 |  |  | 2021 |
Federal income taxes at statutory rates |  | $ | 28,886 |  |  |  | 21.0 | % |  | $ | 28,977 |  |  |  | 21.0 | % |  | $ | 33,467 |  |  |  | 21.0 | %
Increase (decrease) in tax resulting from: |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Tax effect of regulatory treatment of utility plant differences (1) |  |  | (12,270 | ) |  |  | (8.9 | ) |  |  | (12,366 | ) |  |  | (9.0 | ) |  |  | (13,820 | ) |  |  | (8.7 | )
State income tax expense |  |  | 2,077 |  |  |  | 1.5 |  |  |  | 1,676 |  |  |  | 1.2 |  |  |  | 1,385 |  |  |  | 0.8 |
Flow through related to deduction of meters and mixed service costs (2) |  |  | (47,983 | ) |  |  | (34.9 | ) |  |  | (34,454 | ) |  |  | (25.0 | ) |  |  | (8,678 | ) |  |  | (5.4 | )
Tax credits |  |  | (2,334 | ) |  |  | (1.7 | ) |  |  | (258 | ) |  |  | (0.2 | ) |  |  | (75 | ) |  |  | — |
Other |  |  | (2,006 | ) |  |  | (1.4 | ) |  |  | (766 | ) |  |  | (0.5 | ) |  |  | (248 | ) |  |  | (0.2 | )
Total income tax expense (benefit) |  | $ | (33,630 | ) |  |  | (24.4 | )% |  | $ | (17,191 | ) |  |  | (12.5 | )% |  | $ | 12,031 |  |  |  | 7.5 | %
(1) Prior to 2022, for the depreciation-related temporary differences under the normalization tax accounting method, the Company utilized the average rate assumption method to compute the amounts returned to customers. Beginning in 2022, the Company changed to the alternative method, to comply with the revenue procedure and private letter rulings. (2) The Company's general rate cases included approval of base rate increases, offset by tax customer credits. As the tax customer credits are returned to customers, this results in a decrease to income tax expense due to flowing through the benefits related to meters and mixed service costs.
Schedule of Deferred Income Tax Assets and Liabilities | The total net deferred income tax liability consisted of the following as of December 31 (dollars in thousands):
|  | 2023 |  |  | 2022 |
Deferred income tax assets: |  |  |  |  |  |
Regulatory liabilities |  | $ | 192,099 |  |  | $ | 197,998 |
Tax credits and net operating loss carryforwards |  |  | 76,969 |  |  |  | 74,782 |
Provisions for pensions |  |  | 19,100 |  |  |  | 20,132 |
Other |  |  | 47,839 |  |  |  | 54,903 |
Total gross deferred income tax assets |  |  | 336,007 |  |  |  | 347,815 |
Valuation allowances for deferred tax assets |  |  | (10,461 | ) |  |  | (3,874 | )
Total deferred income tax assets after valuation allowances |  |  | 325,546 |  |  |  | 343,941 |
Deferred income tax liabilities: |  |  |  |  |  |
Utility property, plant, and equipment |  |  | 746,876 |  |  |  | 712,470 |
Regulatory assets |  |  | 268,833 |  |  |  | 281,483 |
Other |  |  | 28,155 |  |  |  | 24,983 |
Total deferred income tax liabilities |  |  | 1,043,864 |  |  |  | 1,018,936 |
Net long-term deferred income tax liability |  | $ | 718,318 |  |  | $ | 674,995 |

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- Definition Tabular disclosure of the components of income tax expense attributable to continuing operations for each year presented including, but not limited to: current tax expense (benefit), deferred tax expense (benefit), investment tax credits, government grants, the benefits of operating loss carryforwards, tax expense that results from allocating certain tax benefits either directly to contributed capital or to reduce goodwill or other noncurrent intangible assets of an acquired entity, adjustments of a deferred tax liability or asset for enacted changes in tax laws or rates or a change in the tax status of the entity, and adjustments of the beginning-of-the-year balances of a valuation allowance because of a change in circumstances that causes a change in judgment about the realizability of the related deferred tax asset in future years. + References Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef -Topic 740 -SubTopic 10 -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Paragraph 9 -Section 50 -Publisher FASB -URI https://asc.fasb.org//1943274/2147482685/740-10-50-9 + Details
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- Definition Tabular disclosure of the components of net deferred tax asset or liability recognized in an entity's statement of financial position, including the following: the total of all deferred tax liabilities, the total of all deferred tax assets, the total valuation allowance recognized for deferred tax assets. + References Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef -Topic 740 -SubTopic 10 -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Paragraph 2 -Section 50 -Publisher FASB -URI https://asc.fasb.org//1943274/2147482685/740-10-50-2 + Details
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