Regulatory Assets and Liabilities

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2022

Regulatory Assets and Liabilities Disclosure [Abstract]

Regulatory Assets and Liabilities

Regulatory assets and liabilities are created for amounts that regulators may allow to be collected or may require to be paid back to customers in future electric and natural gas rates. Xcel Energy would be required to recognize the write-off of regulatory assets and liabilities in net income or other comprehensive income if changes in the utility industry no longer allow for the application of regulatory accounting guidance under GAAP.

Components of regulatory assets:

(Millions of Dollars)	See Note(s)	Remaining Amortization Period	Dec. 31, 2022				Dec. 31, 2021 (a)
Regulatory Assets			Current		Noncurrent		Current		Noncurrent
Pension and retiree medical obligations	11	Various	$	22	$	1,069	$	77	$	944
Net AROs (b)	1, 12	Various	—		339		—		(112)
Deferred natural gas, electric, steam energy/fuel costs		One to five years	581		299		504		543
Recoverable deferred taxes on AFUDC		Plant lives	—		292		—		289
Excess deferred taxes — TCJA	7	Various	13		205		14		219
Depreciation differences		One to 12 years	17		193		16		173
Environmental remediation costs	1, 12	Various	20		92		14		92
Benson biomass PPA termination and asset purchase		Six years	10		45		10		55
PI extended power uprate		12 years	4		42		4		46
Conservation programs (c)	1	One to two years	16		36		21		35
Purchased power contract costs		Term of related contract	10		36		9		45
State commission adjustments		Plant lives	1		33		1		32
Losses on reacquired debt		Term of related debt	3		32		3		35
Contract valuation adjustments (d)	1, 10	Term of related contract	28		28		22		34
Grid modernization costs		Various	14		24		—		36
Gas pipeline inspection and remediation costs		One to two years	42		13		33		12
Nuclear refueling outage costs	1	One to two years	30		12		37		16
Renewable resources and environmental initiatives		One to two years	50		6		170		48
Texas revenue surcharges		Less than one year	69		—		20		64
Sales true-up and revenue decoupling		One to two years	54		—		33		56
Other		Various	75		75		118		76
Total regulatory assets			$	1,059	$	2,871	$	1,106	$	2,738

(a)Prior period amounts have been restated to conform with current year presentation.

(b)Includes amounts recorded for future recovery of AROs, less amounts recovered through nuclear decommissioning accruals and gains from decommissioning investments.

(c)Includes costs for conservation programs, as well as incentives allowed in certain jurisdictions.

(d)Includes the fair value of certain long-term PPAs used to meet energy capacity requirements and valuation adjustments on natural gas commodity purchases.

Components of regulatory liabilities:

(Millions of Dollars)	See Note(s)	Remaining Amortization Period	Dec. 31, 2022				Dec. 31, 2021 (a)
Regulatory Liabilities			Current		Noncurrent		Current		Noncurrent
Deferred income tax adjustments and TCJA refunds (b)	7	Various	$	9	$	3,110	$	26	$	3,230
Plant removal costs	1, 12	Various	—		1,819		—		1,655
Effects of regulation on employee benefit costs (c)		Various	—		247		—		235
Renewable resources and environmental initiatives		Various	6		173		1		101
Revenue decoupling		One to two years	—		77		9		41
ITC deferrals	1	Various	1		61		—		53
Formula rates		One to two years	32		17		19		11
Contract valuation adjustments (d)	1, 10	One to two years	175		1		56		1
Deferred natural gas, electric, steam energy/fuel costs		Less than one year	39		—		50		—
Conservation programs (e)	1	Less than one year	72		—		42		—
DOE settlement		Various	12		3		14		14
Other		Various	72		61		54		64
Total regulatory liabilities (f)			$	418	$	5,569	$	271	$	5,405

(a)Prior period amounts have been restated to conform with current year presentation.

(b)Includes the revaluation of recoverable/regulated plant accumulated deferred income taxes and revaluation impact of non-plant accumulated deferred income taxes due to the TCJA.

(c)Includes regulatory amortization and certain 2018 TCJA benefits approved by the CPUC to offset the PSCo prepaid pension asset.

(d)Includes the fair value of FTR instruments utilized/intended to offset the impacts of transmission system congestion.

(e)Includes costs for conservation programs, as well as incentives allowed in certain jurisdictions.

(f)Revenue subject to refund of $67 million and $17 million for 2022 and 2021, respectively, is included in other current liabilities.

Xcel Energy’s regulatory assets not earning a return include the unfunded portion of pension and retiree medical obligations and net AROs (i.e. deferrals for which cash has not been disbursed). In addition, regulatory assets included $1,020 million and $1,718 million at Dec. 31, 2022 and 2021 respectively, of past expenditures not earning a return. Amounts are predominately related to purchased natural gas and electric energy costs (including certain costs related to Winter Storm Uri), sales true-up and revenue decoupling, various renewable resources/environmental initiatives and certain prepaid pension amounts.