PRESENTATION OF FINANCIAL INFORMATION

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2024

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

The accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (“GAAP”) for interim financial information and pursuant to the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and footnotes required by GAAP for complete financial statements. These unaudited consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the financial statements and notes thereto included in our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023 filed with the SEC. In the opinion of management, all adjustments, consisting of normal recurring accruals considered necessary for a fair presentation, have been included. Our consolidated financial position as of March 31, 2024, results of operations for the three months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023, and cash flows for the three months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023 are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for an entire year or any other period.

Basis of Consolidation

We are a taxable wholesale electric power generation and transmission cooperative operating on a not-for-profit basis serving large portions of Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico and Wyoming. We were incorporated under the laws of the State of Colorado in 1952. We have three classes of membership: Class A - utility full requirements members, Class B - utility partial requirements members, and non-utility members. As of March 31, 2024, we had forty-two electric distribution member systems who are Class A members to which we provided electric power pursuant to long-term wholesale electric service contracts. We currently have no Class B members. We have three non-utility members (“Non-Utility Members”). Our Class A members and any Class B members are collectively referred to as our “Utility Members.” Our Class A members, any Class B members, and Non-Utility Members are collectively referred to as our “Members.” Our rates are subject to regulation by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”). On December 23, 2019, our stated rate to our Class A members was filed at FERC and was accepted by FERC on March 20, 2020. On August 2, 2021, FERC approved our settlement agreement related to our stated rate to our Class A members.

We comply with the Uniform System of Accounts as prescribed by FERC. In conformity with GAAP, the accounting policies and practices applied by us in the determination of rates are also employed for financial reporting purposes.

The accompanying financial statements reflect the consolidated accounts of Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, Inc. (“Tri-State”, “we”, “our”, “us” or “the Association”), our wholly-owned and majority-owned subsidiaries, and certain variable interest entities for which we or our subsidiaries are the primary beneficiaries. See Note 16 – Variable Interest Entities. Our consolidated financial statements also include our undivided interests in jointly owned facilities. We have eliminated all intercompany balances and transactions in consolidation.

Jointly Owned Facilities

We own undivided interests in two jointly owned generating facilities that are operated by the operating agent of each facility under joint facility ownership agreements with other utilities as tenants in common. These projects include the Yampa Project (operated by us) and the Missouri Basin Power Project (“MBPP”) (operated by Basin Electric Power Cooperative (“Basin”)). Each participant in these agreements receives a portion of the total output of the generating facilities, which approximates its percentage ownership. Each participant provides its own financing for its share of each facility and accounts for its share of the cost of each facility. The operating agent for each of these projects allocates the fuel and operating expenses to each participant based upon its share of the use of the facility. Therefore, our share of the plant asset cost, interest, depreciation and other operating expenses is included in our consolidated financial statements.

Our share in each jointly owned facility is as follows as of March 31, 2024 (dollars in thousands):


	Tri-State Share		Electric Plant in Service		Accumulated Depreciation		Construction Work In Progress
Yampa Project - Craig Generating Station Units 1 and 2	24.00	%	$	392,510	$	360,890	$	—
MBPP - Laramie River Station	28.50	%	535,241		348,326		6,319
Total			$	927,751	$	709,216	$	6,319

Accounting Pronouncement - Not Yet Adopted

In December 2023, the Financial Accounting Standards Board ("FASB") issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2023-09 – Income Taxes (Topic 740): Improvements to Income Tax Disclosures. The purpose of ASU 2023-09 is to enhance the transparency and decision usefulness of income tax disclosures by providing additional information related to the following:

(1) Rate reconciliation: ASU 2023-09 requires a tabular rate reconciliation using both percentages and dollar amounts of the reported income tax expense (or benefit) from continuing operations to the product of income (or loss) from continuing operating before income taxes and the applicable statutory federal income tax rate of the county of domicile using specific categories. The following specific categories are required to be disclosed in the rate reconciliation; state and local income tax (qualitative disclosure required for states that make up over 50% of this category), foreign tax effect, effect of changes in tax laws or rates enacted in the current period, effect of cross-border tax laws, tax credits, changes in valuation allowances, nontaxable or nondeductible items, changes in unrecognized tax benefits, and any other item that meets the 5 percent threshold.

(2) Income taxes paid: ASU 2023-09 requires all reporting entities to disclose the year-to-date amount of income taxes paid (net of refunds received) disaggregated by federal, state, and foreign jurisdictions. It also requires additional disaggregation of income taxes paid to an individual jurisdiction equal to or greater than 5 percent of total income taxes paid (net of refunds). Entities are required to disclose pre-tax income (or loss) from continuing operations disaggregated by domestic and foreign along with income tax expense (or benefit) disaggregated by federal, state, and foreign components.

ASU 2023-09 is effective for public business entities for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2024, with early adoption and retrospective or prospective application permitted. We have evaluated the impact of ASU 2023-09 and believe that the adoption of this update will not have a material impact on our consolidated financial statement disclosures.