Through our subsidiaries, we have the following significant long-term power purchase contracts and transmission services agreement with non-affiliated third-parties:

Subsidiary

Contract Type

Counterparty

Fuel Type

Quantity (MW)

Expiration Date

Colorado Electric (a)

PPA

PRPA

Wind

May 31, 2030

Colorado Electric

PPA

PRPA

Coal

June 30, 2024

Colorado Electric

PPA

TC Colorado Solar, LLC

Solar

200

Pending Completion (b)

South Dakota Electric

PPA

PacifiCorp

Coal

December 31, 2023

South Dakota Electric (c)

Transmission Services Agreement

PacifiCorp

N/A

December 31, 2023

South Dakota Electric

PPA

PRPA

Wind

September 30, 2029

South Dakota Electric

PPA

Fall River Solar, LLC

Solar

Pending Completion (d)

Wyoming Electric (e)

PPA

Happy Jack

Wind

September 3, 2028

Wyoming Electric (f)

PPA

Silver Sage

Wind

September 30, 2029

(b) On January 31, 2022, TC Colorado Solar, LLC (TC Solar) provided termination notice of the PPA to Colorado Electric. Colorado Electric has disputed TC Solar’s right to termination and pursuant to the agreement, has initiated discussions with TC Solar. This agreement relates to a new solar facility to be constructed and would expire 15 years after construction completion.

(d) This agreement relates to a new solar facility currently being constructed and will expire 20 years after construction completion, which is expected by the end of 2022.


Subsidiary	Contract Type	Counterparty	Fuel Type	2021		2020		2019
Colorado Electric	PPA	PRPA	Wind	$	4,246	$	2,791	$	—
Colorado Electric	PPA	PRPA	Coal	$	4,447	$	4,524	$	1,802
South Dakota Electric	PPA	PacifiCorp	Coal	$	8,923	$	5,897	$	7,477
South Dakota Electric	Transmission Services Agreement	PacifiCorp	N/A	$	1,783	$	1,776	$	1,741
South Dakota Electric	PPA	PRPA	Wind	$	596	$	715	$	688
Wyoming Electric	PPA	Happy Jack	Wind	$	3,544	$	4,531	$	3,936
Wyoming Electric	PPA	Silver Sage	Wind	$	4,717	$	6,203	$	5,366

Wyoming Electric had a PPA with Black Hills Wyoming scheduled to expire on December 31, 2022, which provided 60 MW of unit-contingent capacity and energy from Black Hills Wyoming’s Wygen I facility. On October 15, 2020, the FERC approved a settlement agreement in the joint application filed by Wyoming Electric and Black Hills Wyoming on August 2, 2019 for approval of a new 60 MW PPA. Under the terms of the settlement, Wyoming Electric will continue to receive 60 MW of capacity and energy from the Wygen I facility. The new agreement commenced on January 1, 2022, replaced the existing PPA and will continue for 11 years.

Black Hills Electric Generation provides the wind energy generated from Busch Ranch II to Colorado Electric through a PPA, which expires in November 2044.

Black Hills Electric Generation provides its 14.5 MW share of energy generated from Busch Ranch I to Colorado Electric through a PPA, which expires in October 2037.

Colorado Electric’s PPA with Black Hills Colorado IPP, expiring on December 31, 2031, provides 200 MW of power to Colorado Electric from Black Hills Colorado IPP’s combined-cycle turbines.

We maintain natural gas supply contracts with several vendors that generally cover a period of up to one year. Commitments for estimated baseload gas volumes are established prior to the beginning of the month under these contracts on a monthly basis at contractually negotiated prices. Commitments for incremental daily purchases are made as necessary during the month based on requirements in accordance with the terms of the individual contract.

Our Gas Utilities segment has commitments to purchase physical quantities of natural gas under contracts indexed to various forward natural gas price curves. A portion of our gas purchases are purchased under evergreen contracts and are therefore, for purposes of this disclosure, carried out for 60 days. At December 31, 2021, the long-term commitments to purchase quantities of natural gas under contracts indexed to the following forward indices were as follows (in MMBtus):


	2022	2023	2024	2025	2026	Thereafter
El Paso - Bondad Station	31,000	—	—	—	—	—
Kern River - Opal	9,300	—	—	—	—	—
El Paso - San Juan Basin	182,550	—	—	—	—	—
Enable East Pipeline	1,825,000	450,000	—	—	—	—
Northern Natural Gas - Demarc	1,614	—	—	—	—	—
Northern Natural Gas - Ventura	1,810,000	1,840,000	1,820,000	—	—	—
Northwest Pipeline - Wyoming	1,531,700	1,510,000	910,000	—	—	—
ONEOK - Oklahoma	5,475,000	5,475,000	5,490,000	4,560,000	—	—
Southern Star Central Gas Pipeline	113,130	—	—	—	—	—
Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line	1,609,680	2,737,500	—	—	—	—
	12,588,974	12,012,500	8,220,000	4,560,000	—	—

Our Utilities also purchase natural gas, including transportation and storage capacity to meet customers’ needs, under short-term and long-term purchase contracts. These contracts extend to 2044.

The following is a schedule of unconditional purchase obligations required under the power purchase, transmission services and natural gas transportation and storage agreements (in thousands):


	Power purchase and transmission services agreements (a)		Natural gas transportation and storage agreements
2022	$	23,985	$	143,750
2023	$	11,678	$	119,923
2024	$	2,738	$	82,428
2025	$	—	$	58,669
2026	$	—	$	36,503
Thereafter	$	—	$	60,429

•On July 1, 2020, Colorado Electric entered into a PSA with the City of Colorado Springs to sell up to 60 MW of wind energy purchased from PRPA under a separate 60 MW PPA discussed above. This PSA with the City of Colorado Springs expires June 30, 2025.

•During periods of reduced production at Wygen III in which MDU owns a portion of the capacity, or during periods when Wygen III is off-line, South Dakota Electric will provide MDU with 25 MW from our other generation facilities or from system purchases with reimbursement of costs by MDU. This agreement expires January 31, 2023.

•South Dakota Electric has an agreement to provide MDU capacity and energy up to a maximum of 50 MW in excess of Wygen III ownership. This agreement expires December 31, 2023.

•During periods of reduced production at Wygen III in which the City of Gillette owns a portion of the capacity, or during periods when Wygen III is off-line, South Dakota Electric will provide the City of Gillette with its first 23 MW from its other generating facilities or from system purchases with reimbursement of costs by the City of Gillette. Under this agreement, which has an initial term through September 3, 2034 and would be renewed annually on September 3 thereafter, South Dakota Electric will also provide the City of Gillette their operating component of spinning reserves.

•South Dakota Electric has an amended agreement, effective January 1, 2019, to supply up to 20 MW of energy and capacity to MEAN under a contract that expires May 31, 2028. The contract terms are from June 1 through May 31 for each interval listed below. This contract is unit-contingent based on the availability of our Neil Simpson II and Wygen III plants, with decreasing capacity purchased over the term of the agreement. The unit-contingent capacity amounts from Wygen III and Neil Simpson II are as follows:


Contract Years	Total Contract Capacity		Contingent Capacity Amounts on Wygen III		Contingent Capacity Amounts on Neil Simpson II

2020-2022	15	MW	7	MW	8	MW
2022-2023	15	MW	8	MW	7	MW
2023-2028	10	MW	5	MW	5	MW

•South Dakota Electric had an agreement that expired December 31, 2021 to provide 50 MW of energy to Macquarie Energy, LLC during heavy and light load timing intervals.

•Black Hills Wyoming sold its CTII 40 MW natural gas-fired generating unit to the City of Gillette, Wyoming on September 3, 2014. Under the terms of the sale, Black Hills Wyoming entered into ancillary agreements to operate CTII, provide use of shared facilities including a ground lease and dispatch generation services. In addition, the agreement includes a 20-year Economy Energy PSA that contains a sharing arrangement in which the parties share the savings of wholesale power purchases made when market power prices are less than the cost of operating the generating unit.

We lease from third parties certain office and operation center facilities, communication tower sites, equipment and materials storage. Our leases have remaining terms ranging from less than one year to 34 years, including options to extend that are reasonably certain to be exercised. Our operating and finance leases were not material to the Company’s Consolidated Financial statements.

We lease to third parties certain generating station ground leases, communication tower sites and a natural gas pipeline. These leases have remaining terms ranging from less than one year to 34 years. Lease revenue was not material for the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019.

We are subject to costs resulting from a number of federal, state and local laws and regulations which affect future planning and existing operations. Laws and regulations can result in increased capital expenditures, operating and other costs as a result of compliance, remediation and monitoring obligations. Due to the environmental issues discussed below, we may be required to modify, curtail, replace or cease operating certain facilities or operations to comply with statutes, regulations and other requirements of regulatory bodies.

For our Pueblo Airport Generation site, we posted a bond of $4.1 million with the State of Colorado to cover the costs of remediation for a waste water containment pond permitted to provide wastewater storage and processing for this zero discharge facility. The reclamation liability is recorded at the present value of the estimated future cost to reclaim the land.

Under our land leases for our wind generation facilities, we are required to reclaim land where we have placed wind turbines. The reclamation liabilities are recorded at the present value of the estimated future cost to reclaim the land.

Under its mining permit, WRDC is required to reclaim all land where it has mined reserves. The reclamation liability is recorded at the present value of the estimated future cost to reclaim the land.

In 2008, we acquired whole and partial liabilities for former manufactured gas processing sites in Nebraska and Iowa, which were previously used to convert coal to natural gas. The acquisition provided for an insurance recovery, now valued at $1.2 million recorded in Other assets, non-current on our Consolidated Balance Sheets, which will be used to help offset remediation costs. We also have a $1.4 million regulatory asset for manufactured gas processing sites; see Note 2 for additional information.

As of December 31, 2021, we had $2.6 million accrued for remediation of Iowa’s manufactured gas processing site as the landowner. As of December 31, 2021, we had $0.6 million accrued for remediation of Nebraska’s manufactured gas processing site as the land owner. These liabilities are included in Other deferred credits and other liabilities on our Consolidated Balance Sheets. The remediation cost estimate could change materially due to results of further investigations, actions of environmental agencies or the financial viability of other responsible parties.

In the normal course of business, we are subject to various lawsuits, actions, proceedings, claims and other matters asserted under laws and regulations. We believe the amounts provided in the consolidated financial statements to satisfy alleged liabilities are adequate in light of the probable and estimable contingencies. However, there can be no assurance that the actual amounts required to satisfy alleged liabilities from various legal proceedings, claims and other matters discussed, and to comply with applicable laws and regulations will not exceed the amounts reflected in the consolidated financial statements.

In the normal course of business, we enter into agreements that include indemnification in favor of third parties, such as information technology agreements, purchase and sale agreements and lease contracts. We have also agreed to indemnify our directors, officers and employees in accordance with our articles of incorporation, as amended. Certain agreements do not contain any limits on our liability and therefore, it is not possible to estimate our potential liability under these indemnifications. In certain cases, we have recourse against third parties with respect to these indemnities. Further, we maintain insurance policies that may provide coverage against certain claims under these indemnities.

We have entered into various parent company-level guarantees providing financial or performance assurance to third parties on behalf of certain of our subsidiaries. These guarantees do not represent incremental consolidated obligations, but rather, represent guarantees of subsidiary obligations to allow those subsidiaries to conduct business without posting other forms of assurance. The agreements, which are off-balance sheet commitments, include support for business operations, indemnification for reclamation and surety bonds. The guarantees were entered into in the normal course of business. To the extent liabilities are incurred as a result of activities covered by these guarantees, such liabilities are included in our Consolidated Balance Sheets.


	Maximum Exposure at
Nature of Guarantee	December 31, 2021
Indemnification for reclamation/surety bonds	$	55,867
Guarantees supporting business transactions	$	370,558
	$	426,425