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Regulatory Matters
6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2015
Public Utilities, General Disclosures [Abstract]  
Regulatory Matters
REGULATORY MATTERS
2014 Electric Rate Case Filing
DTE Electric filed a rate case with the MPSC on December 19, 2014 requesting an increase in base rates of $370 million based on a projected twelve-month period ending June 30, 2016. The requested increase in base rates is due primarily to an increase in net plant resulting from infrastructure investments, plant acquisitions, environmental compliance and reliability improvement projects. The rate filing also included projected changes in sales, working capital, operation and maintenance expenses, return on equity and capital structure. On July 1, 2015, DTE Electric self-implemented a rate increase of $230 million consisting of $190 million related to the December 19, 2014 rate request and $40 million associated with the required elimination of a credit surcharge. A final order is expected in December 2015.
PSCR Proceedings
The PSCR process is designed to allow DTE Electric to recover all of its power supply costs if incurred under reasonable and prudent policies and practices. DTE Electric's power supply costs include fuel and related transportation costs, purchased and net interchange power costs, nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide emission allowances costs, urea costs, transmission costs and MISO costs. The MPSC reviews these costs, policies and practices for prudence in annual plan and reconciliation filings.
2012 PSCR Year — In March 2013, DTE Electric filed its 2012 PSCR reconciliation that included purchased power costs related to the manual shutdown of the Fermi 2 nuclear power plant in June 2012 caused by the failure of one of the plant's two non-safety related feed-water pumps. The plant was restarted on July 30, 2012, which restored production to approximately 68% of full capacity. In September 2013, the repair to the plant was completed and production was returned to full capacity. DTE Electric was able to purchase sufficient power from MISO to continue to provide uninterrupted service to customers. On June 30, 2015, the MPSC issued an order that disallowed approximately $19 million of Fermi 2 related purchased power costs. DTE Electric recorded the impact of this disallowance in the second quarter of 2015.
Customer Settlement
In July 2014, an industrial customer of DTE Electric filed a complaint with the MPSC alleging they had been overcharged for the period of February 2008 through March 2014, and sought payment from DTE Electric of $22 million, plus interest. In July 2015, the MPSC issued an order that found the customer is entitled to a refund in the amount of $20 million, plus interest calculated at 7% per annum, until the refund is paid in full. Approximately $16 million of the refund obligation is expected to be recovered through the PSCR and other regulatory mechanisms. DTE Electric does not expect this order to have a material impact to its financial statements.