Committed Lines of Credit

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2014

Short-term Debt [Abstract]

Committed Lines of Credit

COMMITTED LINES OF CREDIT

Avista Corp.

Avista Corp. has a committed line of credit with various financial institutions in the total amount of $400 million. In April 2014, the Company amended this committed line of credit agreement to extend the expiration date to April 2019. The amendment also provides the Company the option to request an extension for an additional one or two years beyond April 2019, provided there is no event of default prior to the requested extension and the requested extension does not cause the remaining term until the expiration date to exceed five years. The amendment did not change the amount of the committed line of credit.

The committed line of credit is secured by non-transferable First Mortgage Bonds of the Company issued to the agent bank that would only become due and payable in the event, and then only to the extent, that the Company defaults on its obligations under the committed line of credit.

The committed line of credit agreement contains customary covenants and default provisions. The credit agreement has a covenant which does not permit the ratio of “consolidated total debt” to “consolidated total capitalization” of Avista Corp. to be greater than 65 percent at any time. As of March 31, 2014, the Company was in compliance with this covenant.

Balances outstanding and interest rates of borrowings (excluding letters of credit) under the Company’s revolving committed lines of credit were as follows as of March 31, 2014 and December 31, 2013 (dollars in thousands):

	March 31,			December 31,
	2014			2013
Borrowings outstanding at end of period	$	111,000		$	171,000
Letters of credit outstanding at end of period	$	9,614		$	27,434
Average interest rate on borrowings at end of period	0.93		%	1.02		%

As of March 31, 2014 the borrowings outstanding under Avista Corp.'s committed line of credit were classified as short-term borrowings on the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet.

Ecova

Ecova has a $125.0 million committed line of credit agreement with various financial institutions that has an expiration date of July 2017. The credit agreement is secured by all of Ecova's assets excluding investments and funds held for clients.

The committed line of credit agreement contains customary covenants and default provisions, including a covenant which requires that Ecova's “Consolidated Total Funded Debt to EBITDA Ratio” (as defined in the credit agreement) must be 2.50 to 1.00 or less, with provisions in the credit agreement allowing for a temporary increase of this ratio if a qualified acquisition is consummated by Ecova. In addition, Ecova's “Consolidated Fixed Charge Coverage Ratio” (as defined in the credit agreement) must be greater than 1.50 to 1.00 as of the last day of any fiscal quarter. As of March 31, 2014, Ecova was in compliance with these covenants.

Balances outstanding and interest rates of borrowings under Ecova’s credit agreements were as follows as of March 31, 2014 and December 31, 2013 (dollars in thousands):

	March 31,			December 31,
	2014			2013
Borrowings outstanding at end of period	$	42,000		$	46,000
Average interest rate on borrowings at end of period	2.16		%	2.17		%

As of March 31, 2014 the borrowings outstanding under Ecova's committed line of credit were classified as long-term borrowings under committed line of credit on the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet.