REGULATORY ASSETS AND LIABILITIES (Notes) |
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SCHEDULE OF REGULATED ASSETS AND LIABILITIES [Line Items] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Schedule of Regulatory Assets and Liabilities |
The table below presents a summary of regulatory assets, net of amortization, and liabilities for the periods indicated:
(a) Included in other deferred credits in our Balance Sheets. Regulatory assets on our Balance Sheets, as authorized by the various regulatory authorities, are probable of recovery. Base rates are designed to provide a recovery of cost during the period rates are in effect but do not generally provide for a return on investment for amounts we have deferred as regulatory assets. All of our regulatory assets recoverable through base rates are subject to review by the respective regulatory authorities during future rate proceedings. We are not aware of any evidence that these costs will not be recoverable through either rate riders or base rates, and we believe that we will be able to recover such costs, consistent with our historical recoveries. Purchased-gas costs represent the natural gas costs that have been over- or under-recovered from customers through the purchased-gas cost adjustment mechanisms, and includes natural gas utilized in our operations and premiums paid and any cash settlements received from our purchased natural gas call options. We amortize reacquired debt costs in accordance with the accounting guidelines prescribed by the OCC and KCC. Weather normalization represents revenue over- or under-recovered through the WNA rider in Kansas. This amount is deferred as a regulatory asset or liability for a 12-month period. Kansas Gas Service then applies an adjustment to the customers’ bills for 12 months to refund the over-collected revenue or bill the under-collected revenue. Ad-valorem tax represents an increase or decrease in Kansas Gas Service’s taxes above or below the amount approved in a rate case. This amount is deferred as a regulatory asset or liability for a 12-month period. Kansas Gas Service then applies an adjustment to the customers’ bills for 12 months to refund the over-collected revenue or bill the under-collected revenue. Recovery through rates resulted in amortization of regulatory assets of approximately $3.8 million, $1.6 million and $6.4 million for the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively. We collect, through our rates, the estimated costs of removal on certain regulated properties through depreciation expense, with a corresponding credit to accumulated depreciation and amortization. These removal costs are nonlegal obligations; however, the amounts collected that are in excess of these nonlegal asset-removal costs incurred are accounted for as a regulatory liability. We have made an estimate of our regulatory liability using current rates since the last general rate order in each of our jurisdictions if the removal costs collected have exceeded our removal costs incurred. We record the estimated nonlegal asset-removal obligation in noncurrent liabilities in other deferred credits on our Balance Sheets. In January 2016, as a result of our rate case in Oklahoma, we recorded a regulatory asset of $2.4 million to recover certain information technology costs incurred as a result of our separation from ONEOK in 2014, which will be recovered over four years. |