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Regulatory Matters | 12 Months Ended
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Dec. 31, 2015
Regulated Operations [Abstract] |
Regulatory Matters | Regulatory Matters In accordance with accounting principles for rate-regulated enterprises, Registrant records regulatory assets, which represent probable future recovery of costs from customers through the ratemaking process, and regulatory liabilities, which represent probable future refunds that are to be credited to customers through the ratemaking process. At December 31, 2015, Registrant had approximately $48.9 million of regulatory assets, net of regulatory liabilities, not accruing carrying costs. Of this amount, $19.8 million relates to the underfunded position in Registrant's pension and other post-retirement obligations, $7.1 million relates to a memorandum account authorized by the CPUC to track unrealized gains and losses on BVES's purchase power contracts over the term of the contracts, and $16.2 million relates to deferred income taxes representing accelerated tax benefits flowed through to customers, which will be included in rates concurrently with recognition of the associated future tax expense. The remainder relates to other items that do not provide for or incur carrying costs. Regulatory assets represent costs incurred by GSWC for which it has received or expects to receive rate recovery in the future. In determining the probability of costs being recognized in other periods, GSWC considers regulatory rules and decisions, past practices, and other facts or circumstances that would indicate if recovery is probable. If the CPUC determines that a portion of GSWC’s assets are not recoverable in customer rates, GSWC must determine if it has suffered an asset impairment that requires it to write down the asset's value. Regulatory assets are offset against regulatory liabilities within each rate-making area. Amounts expected to be collected or refunded in the next twelve months have been classified as current assets and current liabilities by rate-making area. Regulatory assets, less regulatory liabilities, included in the consolidated balance sheets are as follows:
|  | December 31,
(dollars in thousands) |  | 2015 |  | 2014
GSWC |  |  |  |  |  |
Water Revenue Adjustment Mechanism, net of Modified Cost Balancing Account |  | $ | 45,171 |  |  | $ | 9,369 |
Base Revenue Requirement Adjustment Mechanism |  | 3,714 |  |  | 7,761 |
Costs deferred for future recovery on Aerojet case |  | 12,699 |  |  | 13,629 |
Pensions and other post-retirement obligations (Note 11) |  | 21,996 |  |  | 43,426 |
Derivative unrealized loss (Note 4) |  | 7,053 |  |  | 3,339 |
Flow-through taxes, net (Note 10) |  | 16,176 |  |  | 17,612 |
Low income rate assistance balancing accounts |  | 8,699 |  |  | 9,109 |
Other regulatory assets |  | 21,954 |  |  | 23,259 |
Various refunds to customers |  | (4,766 | ) |  | (1,800 | )
Total |  | $ | 132,696 |  |  | $ | 125,704 |
Alternative-Revenue Programs: Under the Water Revenue Adjustment Mechanism (“WRAM”), GSWC records the difference between the adopted level of volumetric revenues as authorized by the CPUC for metered accounts (adopted volumetric revenues) and the actual volumetric revenues recovered in customer rates. While the WRAM tracks volumetric-based revenues, the revenue requirements approved by the CPUC include service charges, flat rate charges, and other items that are not subject to the WRAM. The adopted volumetric revenues consider the seasonality of consumption of water based upon historical averages. The variance between adopted volumetric revenues and actual billed volumetric revenues for metered accounts is recorded as a component of revenue with an offsetting entry to an asset or liability balancing account (tracked individually for each rate making area). The variance amount may be positive or negative and represents amounts that will be billed or refunded to customers in the future. The WRAM only applies to customer classes with conservation rates in place. The majority of GSWC’s water customers have conservation rate structures. Under the Modified Cost Balancing Account (“MCBA”), GSWC tracks adopted expense levels for purchased water, purchased power and pump taxes, as established by the CPUC. Variances (which include the effects of changes in both rate and volume) between adopted and actual purchased water, purchased power, and pump tax expenses are recorded as a component of the MCBA to be recovered from or refunded to GSWC’s customers at a later date. This is reflected with an offsetting entry to an asset or liability balancing account (tracked individually for each rate-making area). Unlike the WRAM, the MCBA applies to all customer classes. The recovery or refund of the WRAM is netted against the MCBA over- or under-collection for the corresponding rate-making area and bears interest at the current 90-day commercial-paper rate. GSWC has implemented surcharges to recover its WRAM/MCBA balances as of December 31, 2014. During the year ended December 31, 2015, surcharges of $3.1 million were billed to customers to decrease previously incurred under-collections in the pre-2015 WRAM, net of MCBA accounts. Also during the year ended December 31, 2015, GSWC recorded an additional $38.9 million under-collection in the WRAM account, net of the MCBA. As of December 31, 2015, GSWC had a net aggregated regulatory asset of $45.2 million, which is comprised of a $46.7 million under-collection in the WRAM accounts and a $1.5 million over-collection in the MCBA accounts. The increase in the WRAM balance during 2015 was due, in large part, to water conservation by customers in response to the ongoing drought conditions in California. Due to the state-mandated water-conservation targets, lower water usage has resulted in an increase in under-collections recorded in the WRAM accounts. As required by the accounting guidance for alternative revenue programs, GSWC is required to collect its WRAM balances, net of its MCBA, within 24 months following the year in which an under-collection is recorded. In April 2012, the CPUC issued a final decision which, among other things, sets the recovery period for under-collected balances that are up to 15% of adopted annual revenues at 18 months or less. For under-collected balances greater than 15%, the recovery period is 19 to 36 months. In addition to adopting a new amortization schedule, the final decision sets a cap on total net WRAM/MCBA surcharges in any given calendar year of 10% of the last authorized revenue requirement. As of December 31, 2015, the recovery periods for the majority of GSWC's WRAM/MCBA balances were primarily within the 12 to 18 month period; however, there were some ratemaking areas that had recovery periods greater than 24 months. Based on the current CPUC-stipulated recovery periods, GSWC estimates that approximately $1.4 million of its 2015 WRAM under-collection will not be collected within 24 months as required for revenue recognition under the accounting guidance for alternative revenue programs. As a result, during the fourth quarter of 2015, GSWC did not record $1.4 million of the 2015 WRAM under-collection balance as revenue. This amount will be recognized as revenue in future periods when it is determined that the amounts will be collected within 24 months. In February 2016, GSWC filed with the CPUC for recovery of the 2015 WRAM balances, including the $1.4 million. For BVES, the CPUC-approved the Base Revenue Requirement Adjustment Mechanism ("BRRAM"), which adjusts certain revenues to adopted levels. Surcharges are currently in place to recover the BRRAM under-collections recorded through 2014. The BRRAM under-collection recorded in 2015 was not material and will be filed with the CPUC for recovery in March 2016. Costs Deferred for Future Recovery: The CPUC authorized a memorandum account to allow for the recovery of costs incurred by GSWC related to contamination lawsuits brought against Aerojet and the state of California. In July 2005, the CPUC authorized GSWC to recover approximately $21.3 million of the Aerojet litigation memorandum account, through a rate surcharge, which will continue for no longer than 20 years. Beginning in October 2005, a surcharge went into effect to begin amortizing the memorandum account over a 20-year period. Aerojet also agreed to reimburse GSWC $17.5 million, plus interest accruing from January 1, 2004, for GSWC’s past legal and expert costs, which is included in the Aerojet litigation memorandum account. The reimbursement of the $17.5 million is contingent upon the issuance of land use approvals for development in a defined area within Aerojet property in Eastern Sacramento County and the receipt of certain fees in connection with such development. It is management’s intention to offset any proceeds from the housing development by Aerojet in this area against the balance in this litigation memorandum account. At this time, management believes the full balance of the Aerojet litigation memorandum account will be collected either from customers or Aerojet. Pensions and Other Postretirement Obligations: A regulatory asset has been recorded at December 31, 2015 and 2014 for the costs that would otherwise be charged to “other comprehensive income” within shareholders’ equity for the underfunded status of Registrant’s pension and other postretirement benefit plans because the cost of these plans has historically been recovered through rates. As discussed in Note 11, as of December 31, 2015, Registrant’s underfunded position for these plans that have been recorded as a regulatory asset totaled $19.8 million. Registrant expects this regulatory asset to be recovered through rates in future periods. Previous CPUC decisions in the water and electric general rate cases have authorized GSWC to continue using a two-way balancing account to track differences between the forecasted annual pension expenses adopted in rates and the actual annual expense to be recorded by GSWC in accordance with the accounting guidance for pension costs. The two-way balancing accounts bear interest at the current 90-day commercial paper rate. As of December 31, 2015, GSWC has a net $2.2 million under-collection in the two-way pension balancing accounts, consisting of a $2.5 million under-collection related to the general office and water regions, and a $319,000 over-collection related to BVES. Low Income Balancing Accounts: This regulatory asset reflects primarily the costs of implementing and administering the California Alternate Rates for Water program in GSWC’s water regions and the California Alternate Rate for Energy program in GSWC’s BVES division. These programs mandated by the CPUC provide a discount of a fixed dollar amount which is intended to represent a 15% discount based on a typical customer bill for qualified low-income water customers and 20% for qualified low-income electric customers. GSWC accrues interest on its low income balancing accounts at the prevailing rate for 90-day commercial paper. As of December 31, 2015, there is an aggregate $8.7 million under-collection in the low income balancing accounts. Surcharges have been implemented to recover the costs included in these balancing accounts. Other Regulatory Assets: Other regulatory assets represent costs incurred by GSWC for which it has received or expects to receive rate recovery in the future. These regulatory assets are supported by regulatory rules and decisions, past practices, and other facts or circumstances that indicate recovery is probable. Other Regulatory Matters: Procurement Audits: In December 2011, the CPUC issued a final decision adopting a settlement between GSWC and the CPUC on its investigation of certain work orders and charges paid to a specific contractor used previously for numerous construction projects primarily in one of GSWC’s three main geographic water regions. As part of the settlement reached with the CPUC on this matter, GSWC agreed to be subject to three separate independent audits of its procurement practices over a period of 10 years from the date the settlement was approved by the CPUC. The audits cover GSWC’s procurement practices for contracts with other contractors from 1994 forward. The first audit started in 2014 and covered almost a 20-year period from January 1, 1994 through September 30, 2013. In March 2015, the accounting firm engaged by the CPUC to conduct the first independent audit issued its final report to the CPUC’s Division of Water and Audits (“DWA”). The final report, which was issued on a confidential basis, included GSWC's responses to the accounting firm’s findings, as well as the firm’s responses to GSWC's comments. DWA informed GSWC that it does not intend to pursue further investigation, refunds, or penalties in respect of past procurement activities as a result of the final report. Furthermore, in June 2015 the CPUC's Office of Ratepayer Advocates ("ORA") notified the administrative law judge in the ongoing general rate case that, having reviewed the final audit report, its potential concerns with the audit report were satisfied and, as such, ORA withdrew its request to have further review of this matter in the pending general rate case. At this time, GSWC does not believe that a loss associated with any disallowances and/or penalties from this first audit is likely. Renewables Portfolio Standard: BVES is subject to the renewables portfolio standard (“RPS”) law, which requires meeting certain targets of purchases of energy from renewable energy resources. In December 2012, GSWC entered into a ten-year agreement with a third party to purchase renewable energy credits (“RECs”) whereby GSWC agreed to purchase approximately 582,000 RECs over a 10 -year period, which would be used towards meeting the CPUC’s RPS procurement requirements. As of December 31, 2015, GSWC has purchased sufficient RECs to be in compliance for all periods through 2015. Accordingly, no provision for loss or potential penalties has been recorded in the financial statements as of December 31, 2015. GSWC intends to file its 2015 compliance report with the CPUC by the August 2016 deadline. The cost of these RECs has been included as part of the electric supply cost balancing account as of December 31, 2015. In October 2015, the governor of California signed a bill into law requiring, among other things, electric utilities to generate half of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2030. The new requirement is in addition to the existing requirement for electric utilities to generate one third of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020. BVES is currently assessing various renewable energy opportunities to be in compliance with these requirements. Rural Acquisition In October 2015, GSWC completed the acquisition of Rural Water Company, which is near GSWC's Santa Maria customer service area in Coastal California. The acquisition was approved by the CPUC in June 2015 and is not material to Registrant's financial statements.

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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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