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Allowance for Doubtful Accounts | 12 Months Ended
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Dec. 31, 2017
Allowance for Doubtful Accounts | Note 4: Allowance for Doubtful Accounts Unitil’s distribution utilities are authorized by regulators to recover the costs of their energy commodity portion of bad debts through rate mechanisms. In 2017, 2016 and 2015, the Company recorded provisions for the energy commodity portion of bad debts of $1.3 million, $1.6 million and $2.6 million, respectively. These provisions were recognized in Cost of Gas Sales and Cost of Electric Sales expense as the associated electric and gas utility revenues were billed. Cost of Gas Sales and Cost of Electric Sales costs are recovered from customers through periodic rate reconciling mechanisms. Also, the electric and gas divisions of Fitchburg are authorized to recover through rates past due amounts associated with hardship accounts that are protected from shut-off. The following table shows the balances and activity in the Company’s Allowance for Doubtful Accounts for 2015—2017 (millions): ALLOWANCE FOR DOUBTFUL ACCOUNTS
|  | Balance at Beginning of Period |  |  | Provision |  |  | Recoveries |  |  | Accounts Written Off |  |  | Balance at End of Period |
Year Ended December 31, 2017 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Electric |  | $ | 0.8 |  |  | $ | 1.8 |  |  | $ | 0.3 |  |  | $ | 2.0 |  |  | $ | 0.9 |
Gas |  |  | 0.2 |  |  |  | 1.9 |  |  |  | 0.3 |  |  |  | 1.8 |  |  |  | 0.6 |
Other |  |  | 0.1 |  |  |  | — |  |  |  | — |  |  |  | — |  |  |  | 0.1 |
|  | $ | 1.1 |  |  | $ | 3.7 |  |  | $ | 0.6 |  |  | $ | 3.8 |  |  | $ | 1.6 |
Year Ended December 31, 2016 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Electric |  | $ | 0.6 |  |  | $ | 2.9 |  |  | $ | 0.3 |  |  | $ | 3.0 |  |  | $ | 0.8 |
Gas |  |  | 0.5 |  |  |  | 1.7 |  |  |  | 0.3 |  |  |  | 2.3 |  |  |  | 0.2 |
Other |  |  | 0.1 |  |  |  | — |  |  |  | — |  |  |  | — |  |  |  | 0.1 |
|  | $ | 1.2 |  |  | $ | 4.6 |  |  | $ | 0.6 |  |  | $ | 5.3 |  |  | $ | 1.1 |
Year Ended December 31, 2015 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Electric |  | $ | 1.3 |  |  | $ | 2.5 |  |  | $ | 0.3 |  |  | $ | 3.5 |  |  | $ | 0.6 |
Gas |  |  | 0.4 |  |  |  | 2.8 |  |  |  | 0.4 |  |  |  | 3.1 |  |  |  | 0.5 |
Other |  |  | 0.1 |  |  |  | — |  |  |  | — |  |  |  | — |  |  |  | 0.1 |
|  | $ | 1.8 |  |  | $ | 5.3 |  |  | $ | 0.7 |  |  | $ | 6.6 |  |  | $ | 1.2 |

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- Definition Allowances For Doubtful Accounts [Text Block] + References No definition available. + Details
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Namespace Prefix: | utl_
Data Type: | nonnum:textBlockItemType
Balance Type: | na
Period Type: | duration