In accordance with accounting principles for rate-regulated enterprises, GSWC and BVESI record 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 September 30, 2022, GSWC and BVESI had approximately $60.4 million of regulatory liabilities, net of regulatory assets, not accruing carrying costs. Of this amount, (i) $76.2 million of regulatory liabilities are excess deferred income taxes arising from the lower federal income tax rate under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act enacted in December 2017 that are being refunded to customers, (ii) $3.7 million of regulatory liabilities are from flowed-through deferred income taxes, (iii) $25.5 million of net regulatory assets relates to the underfunded position in Registrant's pension and other retirement obligations (not including the two-way pension balancing accounts), and (iv) $7.6 million regulatory liability related to a memorandum account authorized by the CPUC to track unrealized gains and losses on BVESI’s purchase power contracts over the term of the contracts. The remainder relates to other items that do not provide for or incur carrying costs.

Regulatory assets represent costs incurred by GSWC and/or BVESI for which they have received or expect to receive rate recovery in the future. In determining the probability of costs being recognized in other periods, GSWC and BVESI consider 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 either GSWC’s or BVESI’s assets are not recoverable in customer rates, the applicable utility 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 ratemaking area. Amounts expected to be collected or refunded in the next twelve months have been classified as current assets and current liabilities by ratemaking area. Regulatory assets, less regulatory liabilities, included in the consolidated balance sheets are as follows:


(dollars in thousands)	September 30, 2022		December 31, 2021
GSWC
Water Revenue Adjustment Mechanism and Modified Cost Balancing Account	$	30,869	$	13,326

Pensions and other post-retirement obligations (Note 8)	24,406		25,212
COVID-19 memorandum accounts	5,090		1,663
Excess deferred income taxes	(72,296)		(73,000)
Flow-through taxes, net	(3,429)		(5,552)
Other regulatory assets	16,342		16,949
Other regulatory liabilities	(5,543)		(2,680)
Total GSWC	$	(4,561)	$	(24,082)
BVESI
Derivative unrealized gain (Note 5)	(7,569)		(4,441)
Other regulatory assets	17,160		13,916
Other regulatory liabilities	(9,121)		(8,189)
Total AWR	$	(4,091)	$	(22,796)

Regulatory matters are discussed in the consolidated financial statements and the notes thereto included in the Company’s Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 filed with the SEC. The discussion below focuses on significant matters and developments since December 31, 2021.

In July 2020, GSWC filed a general rate case application for all of its water regions and its general office. This general rate case will determine new water rates for the years 2022–2024. In November 2021, GSWC and the Public Advocates Office at the CPUC (“Public Advocates”) filed with the CPUC a joint motion to adopt a settlement agreement between GSWC and Public Advocates on this general rate case application. The settlement agreement, if approved, resolves all issues related to the 2022 annual revenue requirement in the general rate case application, leaving only three unresolved issues. Due to the delay in finalizing the water general rate case, water revenues billed and recorded for the nine months ended September 30, 2022 were based on 2021 adopted rates, pending a final decision by the CPUC in this general rate case application. When approved, the new rates will be retroactive to January 1, 2022, and cumulative adjustments will be recorded in the quarter in which the new rates are

GSWC filed a cost of capital application in May 2021 currently pending CPUC approval. Hearings on this proceeding occurred in May 2022 and briefs were filed in June 2022. Based on management’s analysis of this regulatory proceeding and associated accounting to date, for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022, GSWC reduced revenues by $1.9 million and $5.0 million, respectively, and recorded a corresponding regulatory liability for revenues subject to refund based on its best estimate, which relates to the impact of GSWC’s lower cost of debt requested in its application. However, at this time, management cannot predict the ultimate outcome of the cost of capital application and the associated impact on 2022 revenues. Changes in estimates will be made, if necessary, as more information in this proceeding becomes available.

GSWC currently records the difference between what it bills its water customers and that which is authorized by the CPUC using the Water Revenue Adjustment Mechanism (“WRAM”) and the Modified Cost Balancing Account (“MCBA”) approved by the CPUC. The over- or under-collection of the WRAM is aggregated with the MCBA over- or under-collection for the corresponding ratemaking area and bears interest at the current 90-day commercial-paper rate.

During the nine months ended September 30, 2022, GSWC recorded additional net under-collections in the WRAM/MCBA accounts of approximately $20.7 million, based on 2021 authorized amounts, pending a final decision on the water general rate case. Once the CPUC issues a final decision on the general rate case, the WRAM and MCBA amounts recorded in 2022 will be updated to reflect the authorized 2022 amounts. Surcharges and surcredits have been implemented for all pre-2022 WRAM/MCBA balances.

As required by the accounting guidance for alternative revenue programs, GSWC is required to collect its WRAM balances within 24 months following the year in which an under-collection is recorded. As of September 30, 2022, there were no WRAM under-collections that were estimated to be collected beyond this 24 month period.

During 2022, GSWC and BVESI continue to experience delinquent customer accounts receivable due to the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in both GSWC and BVESI increasing their allowances for doubtful accounts during the nine months ended September 30, 2022. The CPUC has authorized GSWC and BVESI to track incremental costs, including bad debt expense, in excess of what is included in their respective revenue requirements incurred as a result of the pandemic in COVID-19 emergency-related memorandum accounts, which GSWC and BVESI intend to file with the CPUC for future recovery.

As of September 30, 2022, GSWC and BVESI had approximately $5.1 million and $454,000, respectively, in regulatory asset accounts related to bad debt expense in excess of their revenue requirements, the purchase of personal protective equipment, additional incurred printing costs, and other incremental COVID-19-related costs. Emergency-related memorandum accounts are well-established cost recovery mechanisms authorized as a result of a state/federal declared emergency, and are therefore recognized as regulatory assets for future recovery. As a result, the amounts recorded in the COVID-19 emergency-related memorandum accounts have not impacted GSWC’s or BVESI’s earnings.

In January 2022, GSWC received $9.5 million in COVID relief funds through the California Water and Wastewater Arrearage Payment Program to provide assistance to customers for their water debt accrued during the COVID-19 pandemic by remitting federal funds that the state received from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to the utility on behalf of eligible customers. GSWC applied these funds to its delinquent customers’ eligible balances. In February 2022, BVESI received $321,000 from the state of California for similar customer relief funding for unpaid electric customer bills incurred during the pandemic.

The CPUC requires that amounts tracked in GSWC’s and BVESI’s COVID-19 memorandum accounts for unpaid customer bills be first offset by any (i) federal and state relief for water or electric utility bill debt, and (ii) customer payments through payment plan arrangements, prior to receiving recovery from customers at large. After these offsets are made, GSWC will file with the CPUC for recovery of the remaining balance. BVESI intends to include the remaining balance in its COVID-19 memorandum account for recovery once all alternative sources of funding have been exhausted and credited to eligible customer accounts.

The CPUC’s moratoriums on service disconnections for nonpayment for water and electric customers have ended. As a result, service disconnections due to nonpayment have resumed with disconnections for delinquent residential customers having resumed in June 2022.

In August 2019, the CPUC issued a final decision on the electric general rate case, which set new rates through the year 2022. Among other things, the decision authorized BVESI to record incremental costs related to vegetation management, such as costs for increased minimum clearances around electric power lines, in a CPUC-approved memorandum account for future recovery. As of September 30, 2022, BVESI had approximately $7.9 million in incremental vegetation management costs recorded as a regulatory asset, which has been included in its general rate case application filed with the CPUC in August 2022 for future recovery. The incremental costs related to vegetation management included in the memorandum account will be subject to review during the general rate case proceeding.

California legislation enacted in September 2018 requires all investor-owned electric utilities to submit an annual wildfire mitigation plan (“WMP”) to the CPUC for approval. The WMP must include a utility’s plans on constructing, maintaining and operating its electrical lines and equipment to minimize the risk of catastrophic wildfire. In September 2021, the CPUC approved BVESI’s most recent WMP submission.

Capital expenditures and other costs incurred as a result of the WMP are subject to CPUC audit. As a result, the CPUC’s Wildfire Safety Division (now part of the California Natural Resources Agency effective July 1, 2021) engaged an independent accounting firm to conduct examinations of the expenses and capital investments identified in the 2019 and 2020 WMPs for each of the investor-owned electric utilities, including BVESI. As of September 30, 2022, BVESI has approximately $4.0 million related to expenses accumulated in its WMP memorandum accounts that have been recognized as regulatory assets for future recovery. In December 2021, the independent accounting firm issued its final examination report, which contains the auditors' results and recommendations. While the final report did not identify any findings of inappropriate costs included in the WMP memorandum accounts under review, the report suggested that the CPUC should evaluate whether some of the costs recorded in the WMP memorandum accounts are incremental to what is being recovered in customer rates in its general rate case proceeding. At this time, BVESI considers the auditor's examination complete and does not expect further developments.

All capital expenditures and other costs incurred through September 30, 2022 as a result of BVESI's WMPs are not currently in rates and have been filed for future recovery in BVESI's general rate case application. These costs will be subject to review during the general rate case proceeding and the CPUC may refer to the recommendations of the independent auditor’s report at that time.

BVESI activated a catastrophic emergency memorandum account (“CEMA”) to track the incremental costs incurred in response to a severe winter storm that occurred in February 2019, which resulted in the declaration of an emergency by the governor of California. Incremental costs of approximately $452,000 were included in the CEMA account and recorded as a regulatory asset. BVESI subsequently filed for recovery of these costs.

In May 2021, the CPUC issued a decision denying BVESI’s request for recovery, claiming that BVESI did not adequately demonstrate that the costs incurred were incremental and beyond costs already included in BVESI’s revenue requirement. The decision allowed BVESI to file a new application on the issue of incrementality. In October 2021, BVESI filed a new application to continue pursuing recovery since BVESI believes the storm costs were incremental and beyond what was included in its revenue requirement. On November 3, 2022, the CPUC adopted a final decision authorizing BVESI’s request to recover the full amount included in this CEMA account through a twelve-month surcharge, which resolves this matter.