Regulatory Assets and Liabilities

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2024

Regulatory Assets and Liabilities Disclosure [Abstract]

(4) Regulatory Assets and Liabilities

We prepare our Consolidated Financial Statements in accordance with the provisions of ASC 980, as discussed in Note 2 - Significant Accounting Policies. Pursuant to this guidance, certain expenses and credits, normally reflected in income as incurred, are deferred and recognized when included in rates and recovered from or refunded to customers. Regulatory assets and liabilities are recorded based on our assessment that it is probable that a cost will be recovered or that an obligation has been incurred. Accordingly, we have recorded the following major classifications of regulatory assets and liabilities that will be recognized in expenses and revenues in future periods when the matching revenues are collected or refunded. Of these regulatory assets and liabilities, energy supply costs are the only items earning a rate of return. The remaining regulatory items have corresponding assets and liabilities that will be paid for or refunded in future periods.


	Note Reference	Remaining Amortization Period	December 31,
			2024		2023
			(in thousands)
Flow-through income taxes	12	Plant Lives	$	596,265	$	553,452
Pension	14	See Note 14	62,096		79,638
Excess deferred income taxes	12	Plant Lives	45,620		51,404
Employee related benefits	14	See Note 14	17,877		21,926
Deferred financing costs	11	See Note 11	17,754		20,028
Wildfire mitigation		Undetermined	17,368		1,623
Supply costs		1 Year	11,441		7,317
Environmental clean-up	18	Undetermined	11,257		11,131
State & local taxes & fees		1 Year	8,924		2,733
Other		Various	15,663		24,319
Total Regulatory Assets			$	804,265	$	773,571
Removal cost	6	Plant Lives	$	537,210	$	523,744
Excess deferred income taxes	12	Plant Lives	125,878		136,382
Supply costs		1 Year	20,933		19,691
Gas storage sales		15 years	6,205		6,625
State & local taxes & fees		1 Year	251		30,576
Other		Various	2,726		1,537
Total Regulatory Liabilities			$	693,203	$	718,555

Income Taxes

Flow-through income taxes primarily reflect the effects of plant related temporary differences such as flow-through of depreciation, repairs related deductions, and removal costs that we will recover or refund in future rates. We amortize these amounts as temporary differences reverse. Excess deferred income tax assets and liabilities are recorded as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and will be recovered or refunded in future rates. See Note 12 - Income Taxes for further discussion.

Pension and Employee Related Benefits

We recognize the unfunded portion of plan benefit obligations in the Consolidated Balance Sheets, which is remeasured at each year end, with a corresponding adjustment to regulatory assets/liabilities as the costs associated with these plans are recovered in rates. The MPSC allows recovery of pension costs on a cash funding basis. The portion of the regulatory asset related to our Montana pension plan will amortize as cash funding amounts exceed accrual expense under GAAP. The SDPUC allows recovery of pension and postretirement benefit costs on an accrual basis. The MPSC allows recovery of postretirement benefit costs on an accrual basis.

Deferred Financing Costs

Consistent with our historical regulatory treatment, a regulatory asset has been established to reflect the remaining deferred financing costs on long-term debt that has been replaced through the issuance of new debt. These amounts are amortized over the life of the new debt.

Enhanced Wildfire Mitigation Plan

We have developed an Enhanced Wildfire Mitigation Plan addressing five key areas: situational awareness, operational practices, system preparedness, vegetation management, and public communications outreach. Because of ever-increasing wildfire risk, our plan includes greater focus on situational awareness to monitor changing environmental conditions, operational practices that are more reactive to changing conditions, increased frequency of patrol and repairs, and more robust system hardening programs that target higher risk segments in our transmission and distribution systems. The MPSC has approved the deferral of incremental operating costs related to this Enhanced Wildfire Mitigation Plan.

Supply Costs

The MPSC, SDPUC and NPSC have authorized the use of electric and natural gas supply cost trackers that enable us to track actual supply costs and either recover the under collection or refund the over collection to our customers. Accordingly, we have recorded a regulatory asset and liability to reflect the future recovery of under collections and refunding of over collections through the ratemaking process. We earn interest on natural gas supply costs under collected, or apply interest to an over collection, of 6.7 percent in Montana; 6.8 percent and 6.9 percent for electric and natural gas, respectively, in South Dakota; and 8.5 percent for natural gas in Nebraska. For our Montana electric supply tracker, the PCCAM, the interest rate we earn on supply costs under collected, or the interest rate we apply to an over collection, is based on the monthly interest rate for three month commercial paper as published by the Federal Reserve.

Environmental Clean-Up

Environmental clean-up costs are the estimated costs of investigating and cleaning up contaminated sites we own. We discuss the specific sites and clean-up requirements further in Note 18 - Commitments and Contingencies. Environmental clean-up costs are typically recoverable in customer rates when they are actually incurred. When cost projections become known and measurable, we coordinate with the appropriate regulatory authority to determine a recovery period.

State & Local Taxes & Fees

Under Montana law, we are allowed to track the changes in the actual level of state and local taxes and fees and recover the increase, or refund the decrease, in rates, less the amount allocated to FERC jurisdictional customers and net of the related income tax benefit.

Removal Cost

The anticipated costs of removing assets upon retirement are collected from customers in advance of removal activity as a component of depreciation expense. Our depreciation method, including cost of removal, is established by the respective regulatory commissions. Therefore, consistent with this regulated treatment, we reflect this accrual of removal costs for our

regulated assets by increasing our regulatory liability. See Note 6 - Asset Retirement Obligations, for further information regarding this item.

Gas Storage Sales

A regulatory liability was established in 2000 and 2001 based on gains on cushion gas sales in Montana. This gain is being flowed to customers over a period that matches the depreciable life of surface facilities that were added to maintain deliverability from the field after the withdrawal of the gas. This regulatory liability is a reduction of rate base.