8. Commitments and Contingencies

Legal Contingencies

From time to time, TEC and its subsidiaries are involved in various legal, tax and regulatory proceedings before various courts, regulatory commissions and governmental agencies in the ordinary course of business. Where appropriate, accruals are made in accordance with accounting standards for contingencies to provide for matters that are probable of resulting in an estimable loss.

Superfund and Former Manufactured Gas Plant Sites

TEC, through its Tampa Electric and PGS divisions, is a PRP for certain superfund sites and, through its PGS division, for certain former MGP sites. While the joint and several liability associated with these sites presents the potential for significant response costs, as of June 30, 2018, TEC has estimated its ultimate financial liability to be $28 million, primarily at PGS. This amount has been accrued and is primarily reflected in the long-term liability section under “Deferred credits and other liabilities” on the Consolidated Condensed Balance Sheets. The environmental remediation costs associated with these sites are expected to be paid over many years.

The estimated amounts represent only the portion of the cleanup costs attributable to TEC. The estimates to perform the work are based on TEC’s experience with similar work, adjusted for site-specific conditions and agreements with the respective governmental agencies. The estimates are made in current dollars, are not discounted and do not assume any insurance recoveries.

In instances where other PRPs are involved, most of those PRPs are creditworthy and are likely to continue to be creditworthy for the duration of the remediation work. However, in those instances that they are not, TEC could be liable for more than TEC’s currently assessed percentage of the remediation costs.

Factors that could impact these estimates include the ability of other PRPs to pay their pro-rata portion of the cleanup costs, additional testing and investigation which could expand the scope of the cleanup activities, additional liability that might arise from the cleanup activities themselves or changes in laws or regulations that could require additional remediation. Under current regulations, these costs are recoverable through customer rates established in subsequent base rate proceedings.

Long-Term Commitments

TEC has commitments for purchased power, long-term leases (primarily for land, building space, vehicles, office equipment and heavy equipment), other purchase obligations, long-term service agreements and capital projects. In addition, TEC has payment obligations under contractual agreements for fuel, fuel transportation and power purchases that are recovered from customers under regulatory clauses. The following is a schedule of future payments under PPAs, minimum lease payments with non-cancelable lease terms in excess of one year, and other net purchase obligations/commitments at June 30, 2018:

					Long-term Service
	Purchased		Operating		Agreements/Capital		Clause Recoverable
(millions)	Power		Leases		Projects		Commitments		Total
Year ended December 31:
2018	$	17	$	2	$	308	$	248	$	575
2019		0		2		173		230		405
2020		0		2		52		178		232
2021		0		2		26		144		172
2022		0		2		8		136		146
Thereafter		0		36		0		1,122		1,158
Total future minimum payments	$	17	$	46	$	567	$	2,058	$	2,688

Financial Covenants

TEC must meet certain financial tests, including a debt to capital ratio, as defined in the applicable banking agreements and has certain restrictive covenants in specific agreements and debt instruments. At June 30, 2018, TEC was in compliance with all required financial covenants.