Financial and Other Derivative Instruments

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2011

Financial and Other Derivative Instruments [Abstract]

FINANCIAL AND OTHER DERIVATIVE INSTRUMENTS

NOTE 4 — FINANCIAL AND OTHER DERIVATIVE INSTRUMENTS

The Company recognizes all derivatives at their fair value as Derivative Assets or Liabilities on the Consolidated Statements of Financial Position unless they qualify for certain scope exceptions, including the normal purchases and normal sales exception. Further, derivatives that qualify and are designated for hedge accounting are classified as either hedges of a forecasted transaction or the variability of cash flows to be received or paid related to a recognized asset or liability (cash flow hedge), or as hedges of the fair value of a recognized asset or liability or of an unrecognized firm commitment (fair value hedge). For cash flow hedges, the portion of the derivative gain or loss that is effective in offsetting the change in the value of the underlying exposure is deferred in Accumulated other comprehensive income and later reclassified into earnings when the underlying transaction occurs. For fair value hedges, changes in fair values for the derivative are recognized in earnings each period. Gains and losses from the ineffective portion of any hedge are recognized in earnings immediately. For derivatives that do not qualify or are not designated for hedge accounting, changes in the fair value are recognized in earnings each period.

The Company’s primary market risk exposure is associated with commodity prices, credit, interest rates and foreign currency exchange. The Company has risk management policies to monitor and manage market risks. The Company uses derivative instruments to manage some of the exposure. The Company uses derivative instruments for trading purposes in its Energy Trading segment and the coal marketing activities of its Power and Industrial Projects segment. Contracts classified as derivative instruments include power, gas, oil and certain coal forwards, futures, options and swaps, and foreign currency exchange contracts. Items not classified as derivatives include natural gas inventory, unconventional gas reserves, power transmission, pipeline transportation and certain storage assets.

Electric Utility — Detroit Edison generates, purchases, distributes and sells electricity. Detroit Edison uses forward energy and capacity contracts to manage changes in the price of electricity and fuel. Substantially all of these contracts meet the normal purchases and sales exemption and are therefore accounted for under the accrual method. Other derivative contracts are recoverable through the PSCR mechanism when settled. This results in the deferral of unrealized gains and losses as Regulatory assets or liabilities until realized.

Gas Utility — MichCon purchases, stores, transports, distributes and sells natural gas and sells storage and transportation capacity. MichCon has fixed-priced contracts for portions of its expected gas supply requirements through March 2014. Substantially all of these contracts meet the normal purchases and sales exemption and are therefore accounted for under the accrual method. MichCon may also sell forward transportation and storage capacity contracts. Forward transportation and storage contracts are not derivatives and are therefore accounted for under the accrual method.

Gas Storage and Pipelines — This segment is primarily engaged in services related to the transportation, gathering and storage of natural gas. Fixed-priced contracts are used in the marketing and management of transportation, gathering and storage services. Generally these contracts are not derivatives and are therefore accounted for under the accrual method.

Unconventional Gas Production — The Unconventional Gas Production business is engaged in unconventional natural gas and oil project development and production. The Company may use derivative contracts to manage changes in the price of natural gas and crude oil.

Power and Industrial Projects — Business units within this segment manage and operate onsite energy and pulverized coal projects, coke batteries, landfill gas recovery and power generation assets. These businesses utilize fixed-priced contracts in the marketing and management of their assets. These contracts are generally not derivatives and are therefore accounted for under the accrual method. The segment also engages in coal marketing which includes the marketing and trading of physical coal and coal financial instruments, and forward contracts for the purchase and sale of emission allowances. Certain of these physical and financial coal contracts and contracts for the purchase and sale of emission allowances are derivatives and are accounted for by recording changes in fair value to earnings.

Energy Trading — Commodity Price Risk — Energy Trading markets and trades electricity and natural gas physical products and energy financial instruments, and provides energy and asset management services utilizing energy commodity derivative instruments. Forwards, futures, options and swap agreements are used to manage exposure to the risk of market price and volume fluctuations in its operations. These derivatives are accounted for by recording changes in fair value to earnings unless hedge accounting criteria are met.

Energy Trading — Foreign Currency Exchange Risk — Energy Trading has foreign currency exchange forward contracts to economically hedge fixed Canadian dollar commitments existing under power purchase and sale contracts and gas transportation contracts. The Company enters into these contracts to mitigate price volatility with respect to fluctuations of the Canadian dollar relative to the U.S. dollar. These derivatives are accounted for by recording changes in fair value to earnings unless hedge accounting criteria are met.

Corporate and Other — Interest Rate Risk — The Company uses interest rate swaps, treasury locks and other derivatives to hedge the risk associated with interest rate market volatility. In 2004 and 2000, the Company entered into a series of interest rate derivatives to limit its sensitivity to market interest rate risk associated with the issuance of long-term debt. Such instruments were designated as cash flow hedges. The Company subsequently issued long-term debt and terminated these hedges at a cost that is included in other comprehensive loss. Amounts recorded in other comprehensive loss will be reclassified to interest expense through 2033. In 2011, the Company estimates reclassifying less than $1 million of losses to earnings.

Credit Risk — The utility and non-utility businesses are exposed to credit risk if customers or counterparties do not comply with their contractual obligations. The Company maintains credit policies that significantly minimize overall credit risk. These policies include an evaluation of potential customers’ and counterparties’ financial condition, credit rating, collateral requirements or other credit enhancements such as letters of credit or guarantees. The Company generally uses standardized agreements that allow the netting of positive and negative transactions associated with a single counterparty. The Company maintains a provision for credit losses based on factors surrounding the credit risk of its customers, historical trends, and other information. Based on the Company’s credit policies and its June 30, 2011 provision for credit losses, the Company’s exposure to counterparty nonperformance is not expected to have a material adverse effect on the Company’s financial statements.

Derivative Activities

The Company manages its mark-to-market (MTM) risk on a portfolio basis based upon the delivery period of its contracts and the individual components of the risks within each contract. Accordingly, it records and manages the energy purchase and sale obligations under its contracts in separate components based on the commodity (e.g., electricity or gas), the product (e.g., electricity for delivery during peak or off-peak hours), the delivery location (e.g., by region), the risk profile (e.g., forward or option), and the delivery period (e.g., by month and year). The following describe the four categories of activities represented by their operating characteristics and key risks:

• Asset Optimization — Represents derivative activity associated with assets owned and contracted by DTE Energy, including forward sales of gas production and trades associated with power transmission, gas transportation and storage capacity. Changes in the value of derivatives in this category economically offset changes in the value of underlying non-derivative positions, which do not qualify for fair value accounting. The difference in accounting treatment of derivatives in this category and the underlying non-derivative positions can result in significant earnings volatility.

• Marketing and Origination — Represents derivative activity transacted by originating substantially hedged positions with wholesale energy marketers, producers, end users, utilities, retail aggregators and alternative energy suppliers.

• Fundamentals Based Trading — Represents derivative activity transacted with the intent of taking a view, capturing market price changes, or putting capital at risk. This activity is speculative in nature as opposed to hedging an existing exposure.

• Other — Includes derivative activity at Detroit Edison related to FTRs and forward contracts related to emissions. Changes in the value of derivative contracts at Detroit Edison are recorded as Derivative Assets or Liabilities, with an offset to Regulatory Assets or Liabilities as the settlement value of these contracts will be included in the PSCR mechanism when realized.

The following tables present the fair value of derivative instruments as of June 30, 2011:

(in Millions)	Derivative Assets		Derivative Liabilities
Derivatives designated as hedging instruments:
Interest rate contracts	$	—	$	(1	)
Derivatives not designated as hedging instruments:
Foreign currency exchange contracts	$	16	$	(26	)
Commodity Contracts:
Natural Gas		1,239		(1,337	)
Electricity		503		(463	)
Other		37		(22	)
Total derivatives not designated as hedging instruments	$	1,795	$	(1,848	)
Total derivatives:
Current	$	1,277	$	(1,312	)
Noncurrent		518		(537	)
Total derivatives	$	1,795	$	(1,849	)

	Derivative Assets						Derivative Liabilities
	Current			Noncurrent			Current			Noncurrent
Reconciliation of derivative instruments to Consolidated Statements of Financial Position:
Total fair value of derivatives	$	1,277		$	518		$	(1,312	)	$	(537	)
Counterparty netting		(1,168	)		(463	)		1,168			463
Collateral adjustment		—			(6	)		34			—
Total derivatives as reported	$	109		$	49		$	(110	)	$	(74	)

The following tables present the fair value of derivative instruments as of December 31, 2010:

(in Millions)	Derivative Assets		Derivative Liabilities
Derivatives designated as hedging instruments:
Interest rate contracts	$	—	$	(1	)
Derivatives not designated as hedging instruments:
Foreign currency exchange contracts	$	20	$	(30	)
Commodity Contracts:
Natural Gas		1,986		(2,118	)
Electricity		766		(716	)
Other		76		(71	)
Total derivatives not designated as hedging instruments	$	2,848	$	(2,935	)
Total derivatives:
Current	$	2,011	$	(2,041	)
Noncurrent		837		(895	)
Total derivatives	$	2,848	$	(2,936	)

	Derivative Assets						Derivative Liabilities
	Current			Noncurrent			Current			Noncurrent
Reconciliation of derivative instruments to Consolidated Statements of Financial Position:
Total fair value of derivatives	$	2,011		$	837		$	(2,041	)	$	(895	)
Counterparty netting		(1,871	)		(760	)		1,871			760
Collateral adjustment		(9	)		—			28			25
Total derivatives as reported	$	131		$	77		$	(142	)	$	(110	)

The income effect of derivatives not designated as hedging instruments on the Consolidated Statements of Operations for the three and six months ended June 30, 2011 and June 30, 2010 is as follows:

		Gain (Loss)						Gain (Loss)
		Recognized in						Recognized in
		Income on						Income on
	Location of Gain	Derivatives for						Derivatives for
	(Loss) Recognized	Three Months Ended						Six Months Ended
(in Millions)	in Income	June 30						June 30
Derivatives Not Designated As Hedging Instruments	On Derivatives	2011			2010			2011			2010
Foreign currency exchange contracts	Operating Revenue	$	1		$	14		$	(5	)	$	3
Commodity Contracts:
Natural Gas	Operating Revenue		9			17			15			27
Natural Gas	Fuel, purchased power and gas		(4	)		1			(10	)		(6	)
Electricity	Operating Revenue		30			(22	)		29			49
Other	Operating Revenue		2			1			8			1
Other	Operation and maintenance		—			(1	)		—			(1	)
Total		$	38		$	10		$	37		$	73

The effects of derivative instruments recoverable through the PSCR mechanism when realized on the Consolidated Statements of Financial Position were $4 million and $3 million in gains related to FTRs recognized in Regulatory liabilities for the three and six months ended June 30, 2011, respectively.

The following table presents the cumulative gross volume of derivative contracts outstanding as of June 30, 2011:

Commodity	Number of Units
Natural Gas (MMBtu)		567,029,409
Electricity (MWh)		56,162,251
Foreign Currency Exchange ($ CAD)		96,943,647

Various non-utility subsidiaries of the Company have entered into contracts which contain ratings triggers and are guaranteed by DTE Energy. These contracts contain provisions which allow the counterparties to request that the Company post cash or letters of credit as collateral in the event that DTE Energy’s credit rating is downgraded below investment grade. Certain of these provisions (known as “hard triggers”) state specific circumstances under which the Company can be asked to post collateral upon the occurrence of a credit downgrade, while other provisions (known as “soft triggers”) are not as specific. For contracts with soft triggers, it is difficult to estimate the amount of collateral which may be requested by counterparties and/or which the Company may ultimately be required to post. The amount of such collateral which could be requested fluctuates based on commodity prices (primarily gas, power and coal) and the provisions and maturities of the underlying transactions. As of June 30, 2011, the value of the transactions for which the Company would have been exposed to collateral requests had DTE Energy’s credit rating been below investment grade on such date under both hard trigger and soft trigger provisions was approximately $236 million. In circumstances where an entity is downgraded below investment grade and collateral requests are made as a result, the requesting parties often agree to accept less than the full amount of their exposure to the downgraded entity.