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Balancing and Memorandum Account Recovery Procedures (Details) - USD ($) $ in Thousands | 3 Months Ended |
--- | --- | ---
Mar. 31, 2016 | Mar. 31, 2015 | Jan. 05, 2015
Public Utilities, General Disclosures [Line Items] |  |  |
Memorandum Account, Recovery Request |  |  | $ 976
Memorandum Accounts [Roll Forward] |  |  |
Beginning Balance | $ 8,910 | $ (1,377) |
Revenue Increase(Reduction) | 3,511 | 423 |
Refunds (Collections) | (518) | 165 |
Surcharge Offset | (3,014) | 0 |
Ending Balance | 8,889 | (789) |
Balancing Accounts [Roll Forward] |  |  |
Beginning Balance | 36,296 | 48,438 |
Revenue Increase(Reduction) | (163) | 1,144 |
Refunds (Collections) | (5,853) | (3,224) |
Surcharge Offset | 3,014 | 0 |
Ending Balance | 33,294 | 46,358 |
Balancing and Memorandum Account [Roll Forward] |  |  |
Beginning Balance | 45,206 | 47,061 |
Revenue Increase (Reduction) | 3,348 | 1,567 |
Refunds (Collections) | (6,371) | (3,059) |
Surcharge Offset | 0 | 0 |
Ending Balance | 42,183 | 45,569 |
Net under-collected balancing and memorandum accounts | 1,288 |  |
2014 WCMA |  |  |
Memorandum Accounts [Roll Forward] |  |  |
Beginning Balance | 2,944 | 0 |
Revenue Increase(Reduction) | 0 | 0 |
Refunds (Collections) | (517) | 0 |
Surcharge Offset | 0 | 0 |
Ending Balance | 2,427 | 0 |
Balancing and Memorandum Account [Roll Forward] |  |  |
WCMA Reserve | 1,278 | 0 |
2015 WCMA |  |  |
Memorandum Accounts [Roll Forward] |  |  |
Beginning Balance | 5,372 | 0 |
Revenue Increase(Reduction) | (20) | 0 |
Refunds (Collections) | 0 | 0 |
Surcharge Offset | 0 | 0 |
Ending Balance | 5,352 | 0 |
Balancing and Memorandum Account [Roll Forward] |  |  |
WCMA Reserve | 2,343 | 0 |
2016 WCMA |  |  |
Public Utilities, General Disclosures [Line Items] |  |  |
Memorandum Account, Recovery Request |  | 3,014 |
Memorandum Accounts [Roll Forward] |  |  |
Beginning Balance | 0 | 0 |
Revenue Increase(Reduction) | 3,014 | 0 |
Refunds (Collections) | 0 | 0 |
Surcharge Offset | (3,014) | 0 |
Ending Balance | 0 | 0 |
Balancing and Memorandum Account [Roll Forward] |  |  |
Surcharge Offset |  | 3,014 |
Water supply costs |  |  |
Balancing Accounts [Roll Forward] |  |  |
Beginning Balance | 2,771 | 890 |
Revenue Increase(Reduction) | (313) | (12) |
Refunds (Collections) | (22) | (53) |
Surcharge Offset | 0 | 0 |
Ending Balance | 2,436 | 825 |
Drought surcharges |  |  |
Balancing Accounts [Roll Forward] |  |  |
Beginning Balance | (359) | 0 |
Revenue Increase(Reduction) | 0 | 0 |
Refunds (Collections) | (3,167) | 0 |
Surcharge Offset | 3,014 | 0 |
Ending Balance | (512) | 0 |
Pension |  |  |
Balancing Accounts [Roll Forward] |  |  |
Beginning Balance | (552) | 1,412 |
Revenue Increase(Reduction) | 280 | (606) |
Refunds (Collections) | (155) | (383) |
Surcharge Offset | 0 | 0 |
Ending Balance | (427) | 423 |
2012 General Rate Case true-up |  |  |
Balancing Accounts [Roll Forward] |  |  |
Beginning Balance | 33,070 | 44,400 |
Revenue Increase(Reduction) | 0 | 1,876 |
Refunds (Collections) | (2,498) | (2,759) |
Surcharge Offset | 0 | 0 |
Ending Balance | 30,572 | 43,517 |
All others |  |  |
Memorandum Accounts [Roll Forward] |  |  |
Beginning Balance | 594 | (1,377) |
Revenue Increase(Reduction) | 517 | 423 |
Refunds (Collections) | (1) | 165 |
Surcharge Offset | 0 | 0 |
Ending Balance | 1,110 | (789) |
Balancing Accounts [Roll Forward] |  |  |
Beginning Balance | 1,366 | 1,736 |
Revenue Increase(Reduction) | (130) | (114) |
Refunds (Collections) | (11) | (29) |
Surcharge Offset | 0 | 0 |
Ending Balance | $ 1,225 | $ 1,593 |

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- Definition This represents the under-collection or over-collection associated with expense changes and the revenue authorized by the CPUC to offset those expense changes. Pursuant to Section 792.5 of the California Public Utilities Code, a balancing account must be maintained for expense items for which revenue offsets have been authorized. Since the amounts in the balancing accounts must be approved by the CPUC before they can be incorporated into rates, the Company does not recognize balancing accounts in its revenue until CPUC approval occurs. It is typical for the CPUC to incorporate any over-collected and/or under-collected balances in balancing accounts into customer rates at the time rate decisions are made as part of the Company’s general rate case proceedings by assessing temporary surcredits and/or surcharges. + References No definition available. + Details
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- Definition Balancing Account, Refunds (Collections) + References No definition available. + Details
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- Definition Balancing Account, Revenue Increase (Reduction) + References No definition available. + Details
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- Definition Balancing Account, Surcharge Offset + References No definition available. + Details
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- Definition Balancing Accounts [Roll Forward] + References No definition available. + Details
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- Definition Balancing and Memorandum Account, Net + References No definition available. + Details
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- Definition Balancing and Memorandum Account, Refunds (Collections) + References No definition available. + Details
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- Definition Balancing and Memorandum Account, Revenue Increase (Reduction), Net + References No definition available. + Details
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- Definition Balancing and Memorandum Account [Roll Forward] + References No definition available. + Details
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- Definition Balancing and Memorandum Account, Surcharge Offset + References No definition available. + Details
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- Definition This represents the memorandum accounts that track under-collection or over-collection for approved activities as directed by the CPUC. Rate recovery for these memorandum accounts is generally allowed in the next general rate cases. + References No definition available. + Details
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- Definition A request to the regulatory authority for authorization to refund over (under) collected amounts. + References No definition available. + Details
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Namespace Prefix: | sjw_
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- Definition Memorandum Account, Refunds (Collections) + References No definition available. + Details
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- Definition Memorandum Account, Revenue Increase (Reduction) + References No definition available. + Details
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- Definition Memorandum Account, Surcharge Offset + References No definition available. + Details
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- Definition Memorandum Accounts [Roll Forward] + References No definition available. + Details
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- Definition Regulatory Balancing and Memorandum Accounts,, Net Under-Collected + References No definition available. + Details
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- Definition Reserve for Water Conservation Memorandum Account recognized. + References No definition available. + Details
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- Definition Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table. + References No definition available. + Details
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- Details
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