Related Party Transactions - Consumers (Consumers Energy Company [Member])

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2013

Consumers Energy Company [Member]

Related Party Transactions - Consumers

17:RELATED-PARTY TRANSACTIONS – CONSUMERS

Consumers enters into a number of significant transactions with related parties.  These transactions include:

· purchase and sale of electricity from and to affiliates of CMS Enterprises;

· payment of parent company overhead costs to CMS Energy; and

· investment in CMS Energy common stock.

Transactions involving power supply purchases from certain affiliates of CMS Enterprises are based on avoided costs under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978, 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 are Consumers’ recorded income and expense from related parties as of December 31:

In Millions
Description	Related Party	2013			2012			2011
Purchases of capacity and energy	Affiliates of CMS Enterprises		$	89		$	86		$	81

Amounts payable to related parties for purchased power and other services were $13 million at December 31, 2013 and $11 million at December 31, 2012.

Consumers owned 1.1million shares of CMS Energy common stock with a fair value of $29million at December 31, 2013.  For additional details on Consumers’ investment in CMS Energy common stock, see Note 6, Financial Instruments. 

In January2014, Consumers renewed a short-term credit agreement with CMSEnergy, permitting Consumers to borrow up to $300million.  At December31,2013, there were no outstanding loans under the prior agreement.