Revenue and Accounts Receivable

3 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2020

Revenue from Contract with Customer [Abstract]

Revenue and Accounts Receivable

Revenue and Accounts Receivable

Revenue

Our revenue recognition policy is fully described in Note 2 to the consolidated financial statements in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2020. The following tables disaggregate our revenue from contracts with customers by customer type and segment and provide a reconciliation to total operating revenues, including intersegment revenues, for the three months ended December 31, 2020 and 2019.

	Three Months Ended December 31, 2020				Three Months Ended December 31, 2019
	Distribution		Pipeline and Storage		Distribution		Pipeline and Storage
	(In thousands)
Gas sales revenues:
Residential	$	591,834	$	—	$	552,076	$	—
Commercial	208,947		—		211,314		—
Industrial	24,708		—		24,925		—
Public authority and other	13,062		—		13,022		—
Total gas sales revenues	838,551		—		801,337		—
Transportation revenues	27,767		164,761		26,640		152,010
Miscellaneous revenues	2,396		5,148		6,786		5,155
Revenues from contracts with customers	868,714		169,909		834,763		157,165
Alternative revenue program revenues(1)	7,441		(10,196)		(6,751)		(8,989)
Other revenues	495		—		492		—
Total operating revenues	$	876,650	$	159,713	$	828,504	$	148,176

(1)    In our distribution segment, we have weather-normalization adjustment mechanisms that serve to mitigate the effects of weather on our revenue. Additionally, APT has a regulatory mechanism that requires that we share with its tariffed customers 75% of the difference between the total non-tariffed revenues earned during a test period and a revenue benchmark.

Accounts receivable and allowance for uncollectible accounts

Accounts receivable arise from natural gas sales to residential, commercial, industrial, public authority and other customers. Our accounts receivable balance includes unbilled amounts which represent a customer’s consumption of gas from the date of the last cycle billing through the last day of the month. The receivable balances are short term and generally do not extend beyond one month. To minimize credit risk, we assess the credit worthiness of new customers, require deposits where necessary, assess late fees, pursue collection activities and disconnect service for nonpayment. After disconnection, accounts are written off when deemed uncollectible.

As described in Note 2, on October 1, 2020, we adopted new accounting guidance which requires credit losses on our accounts receivable to be measured using an expected credit loss model over the entire contractual term from the date of initial recognition. At each reporting period, we assess the allowance for uncollectible accounts based on historical experience, current conditions and consideration of expected future conditions. Circumstances which could affect our estimates include, but are not limited to, customer credit issues, the level of natural gas prices, customer deposits and general economic conditions.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in March 2020 we temporarily suspended disconnecting customers for nonpayment and stopped charging late fees. We are actively working with our customers experiencing financial hardship through flexible payment options and directing them to aid agencies for financial assistance. Our allowance for uncollectible accounts reflects the expected impact on our customers’ ability to pay when we resume disconnection activity.

A rollforward of our allowance for uncollectible accounts for the three months ended December 31, 2020 is presented in the table below. The allowance excludes the gas cost portion of customers’ bills for approximately 78 percent of our customers as we have the ability to collect these gas costs through our gas cost recovery mechanisms in most of our jurisdictions.

	Three Months Ended December 31, 2020
Beginning balance, September 30, 2020	$	29,949
Current period provisions	6,937
Write-offs charged against allowance	(2,288)
Recoveries of amounts previously written off	491
Ending balance, December 31, 2020	$	35,089