Consumers enters into a number of transactions with related parties in the normal course of business. These transactions include but are not limited to:

Transactions involving power supply purchases from certain affiliates of CMS Enterprises are based on avoided costs under PURPA, state law, and competitive bidding. The payment of parent company overhead costs is based on the use of accepted industry allocation methodologies. These payments are for costs that occur in the normal course of business.

Presented in the following table is Consumers’ expense recorded from related-party transactions for the years ended December 31:


In Millions
Description	Related Party	2020			2019			2018
Purchases of capacity and energy	Affiliates of CMS Enterprises		$	64		$	75		$	83

Amounts payable to related parties for purchased power and other services were $13 million at December 31, 2020 and $26 million at December 31, 2019. Accounts receivable from related parties were $16 million at December 31, 2020 and $8 million at December 31, 2019.

In 2018, CMS Energy and Consumers sold the DB SERP debt securities and CMS Energy issued a demand note payable to the DB SERP rabbi trust. The portion of the demand note attributable to Consumers was recorded as a note receivable – related party on Consumers’ consolidated balance sheets at December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019. For additional details about the note receivable – related party, see Note 8, Notes Receivable.

In December 2018, Consumers and a subsidiary of CMS Energy executed a 20‑year natural gas transportation agreement, related to a pipeline owned by Consumers. For additional details about the agreement, see Note 10, Leases and Palisades Financing.

Consumers owned no shares of CMS Energy common stock at December 31, 2020 and CMS Energy common stock with a fair value of $1 million at December 31, 2019.

In December 2020, Consumers renewed a short-term credit agreement with CMS Energy, permitting Consumers to borrow up to $350 million. As of December 31, 2020, $307 million was outstanding under the agreement with an interest rate of 0.042 percent.