REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2020

Coronavirus Disease – 2019

The global outbreak of COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the WHO and the CDC. COVID-19 has spread globally, including throughout the United States and, in turn, our service territory. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Wisconsin declared a public health emergency and issued a shelter-in-place order, which has since been lifted. On March 24, 2020, the PSCW issued two orders requiring certain actions to ensure that essential utility services were, and continue to be, available to our customers. The first order required all public utilities in the state of Wisconsin, including us, to temporarily suspend disconnections, the assessment of late fees, and deposit requirements for all customer classes. In addition, it required utilities to reconnect customers that were previously disconnected, offer deferred payment arrangements to all customers, and streamline the application process for customers applying for utility service.

In the second order issued on March 24, 2020, the PSCW authorized Wisconsin utilities to defer expenditures and certain foregone revenues resulting from compliance with the first order, and expenditures as otherwise incurred to ensure safe, reliable, and affordable access to utility services during the declared public health emergency. The PSCW has affirmed that this authorization for deferral includes the incremental increase in uncollectible expense above what is currently being recovered in rates. As we already have a cost recovery mechanism in place to recover uncollectible expense for residential customers, this new deferral only impacts the recovery of uncollectible expense for our commercial and industrial customers. The PSCW will review the recoverability and examine the prudency of any deferred amounts in future rate proceedings. As of September 30, 2020, our deferrals related to the COVID-19 pandemic were not significant.

On June 26, 2020, the PSCW issued a written order providing a timeline for the lifting of the temporary provisions required in the first March 24, 2020 order. Utilities were allowed to disconnect commercial and industrial customers and require deposits for new service as of July 25, 2020 and July 31, 2020, respectively. After August 15, 2020, utilities were no longer required to offer deferred payment arrangements to all customers. Additionally, utilities were authorized to reinstate late fees except for the period between the first order and this supplemental order. We resumed charging late payment fees in late August 2020. Late payment fees were not charged on outstanding balances that were billed between the first order and late August 2020.

The PSCW extended the moratorium on disconnections of residential customers until November 1, 2020. In accordance with Wisconsin regulations, utilities are generally not allowed to disconnect residential customers for non-payment during the winter moratorium, which begins on November 1 and ends on April 15. Utilities are allowed to continue assessing late fees during the winter moratorium.

2020 and 2021 Rates

In March 2019, we filed an application with the PSCW to increase our retail electric and natural gas rates, effective January 1, 2020. In August 2019, we filed an application with the PSCW for approval of a settlement agreement entered into with certain intervenors to resolve several outstanding issues in our rate case. In December 2019, the PSCW issued a written order that approved the settlement agreement without material modification and addressed the remaining outstanding issues that were not included in the settlement agreement. The new rates became effective January 1, 2020. The final order reflects the following:


2020 Effective rate increase
Electric (1) (2)	$	15.8	million	/	1.6%
Gas (3)	$	4.3	million	/	1.4%

ROE	10.0%

Common equity component average on a financial basis	52.5%

(1)Amount is net of certain deferred tax benefits from the Tax Legislation that were utilized to reduce near-term rate impacts to our customers. The rate order reflects the majority of the unprotected deferred tax benefits from the Tax Legislation being amortized over two years. Approximately $11 million of tax benefits are being amortized in 2020 and approximately $39 million will be amortized in 2021. Unprotected deferred tax benefits by their nature are eligible to be returned to customers in a manner and timeline determined to be appropriate by the PSCW.

(2)The rate order is net of $21 million of refunds related to our 2018 earnings sharing mechanism. These refunds will be made to customers evenly over two years, with half being returned in 2020 and the remainder in 2021.

(3)Amount is net of certain deferred tax benefits from the Tax Legislation that were utilized to reduce near-term rate impacts to our customers. The rate order reflects all of the unprotected deferred tax benefits from the Tax Legislation being amortized evenly over four years, which results in approximately $5 million of previously deferred tax benefits being amortized each year. Unprotected deferred tax benefits by their nature are eligible to be returned to customers in a manner and timeline determined to be appropriate by the PSCW.

Our rate order allows us to collect the previously deferred revenue requirement for ReACT™ costs above the authorized $275.0 million level. The total cost of the ReACT™ project was $342 million. This regulatory asset will be collected from customers over eight years.

We will continue having an earnings sharing mechanism through 2021. The earnings sharing mechanism was modified from its previous structure to one that is consistent with other Wisconsin investor-owned utilities. Under the new earnings sharing mechanism, if we earn above our authorized ROE: (i) we retain 100.0% of earnings for the first 25 basis points above the authorized ROE; (ii) 50.0% of the next 50 basis points is refunded to customers; and (iii) 100.0% of any remaining excess earnings is refunded to customers. In addition, the rate order also requires us to maintain residential and small commercial electric and natural gas customer fixed charges at previously authorized rates and to maintain the status quo for our electric market-based rate programs for large industrial customers through 2021.

2018 and 2019 Rates

During April 2017, we, along with WE and WG, filed an application with the PSCW for approval of a settlement agreement we made with several of our commercial and industrial customers regarding 2018 and 2019 base rates. In September 2017, the PSCW issued an order that approved the settlement agreement, which froze base rates through 2019 for our electric and natural gas customers. Based on the PSCW order, our authorized ROE remained at 10.0% and our capital cost structure remained unchanged through 2019.

In addition to freezing base rates, the settlement agreement extended and expanded the electric real-time market pricing program options for large commercial and industrial customers. Additionally, the agreement allowed us to extend, through 2019, the deferral for the revenue requirement of ReACT™ costs above the authorized $275.0 million and other deferrals related to our electric real-time market pricing program and network transmission expenses.

Pursuant to the settlement agreement, we also agreed to adopt, beginning in 2018, the earnings sharing mechanism that had been in place for WE and WG since January 2016, and agreed to keep the mechanism in place through 2019. Under this earnings sharing mechanism, if we earned above our authorized ROE, 50% of the first 50 basis points of additional utility earnings were required to be refunded to customers. All utility earnings above the first 50 basis points were also required to be refunded to customers.