ASSET RETIREMENT OBLIGATIONS

AROs represent obligations that result from laws, statutes, contracts and regulations related to the eventual retirement of certain of the Companies' long-lived assets. Dominion's and Virginia Power's AROs are primarily associated with the decommissioning of their nuclear generation facilities and also include those for ash pond closures and the future abatement of asbestos expected to be disturbed in their generation facilities. Dominion Gas' AROs primarily include plugging and abandonment of gas and oil wells and the interim retirement of natural gas gathering, transmission, distribution and storage pipeline components.

The Companies have also identified, but not recognized, AROs related to the retirement of Dominion's LNG facility, Dominion Gas' storage wells in its underground natural gas storage network, certain Virginia Power electric transmission and distribution assets located on property with easements, rights of way, franchises and lease agreements, Virginia Power's hydroelectric generation facilities and the abatement of certain asbestos not expected to be disturbed in Dominion's and Virginia Power's generation facilities. The Companies currently do not have sufficient information to estimate a reasonable range of expected retirement dates for any of these assets since the economic lives of these assets can be extended indefinitely through regular repair and maintenance and they currently have no plans to retire or dispose of any of these assets. As a result, a settlement date is not determinable for these assets and AROs for these assets will not be reflected in the Consolidated Financial Statements until sufficient information becomes available to determine a reasonable estimate of the fair value of the activities to be performed. The Companies continue to monitor operational and strategic developments to identify if sufficient information exists to reasonably estimate a retirement date for these assets. The changes to AROs during 2014 and 2015 were as follows:



	Amount
(millions)
Dominion
AROs at December 31, 2013	$	1,578
Obligations incurred during the period	40
Obligations settled during the period	(82		)
Revisions in estimated cash flows⁽¹⁾	102
Accretion	81
Other	(5		)
AROs at December 31, 2014⁽²⁾	$	1,714
Obligations incurred during the period⁽³⁾	315
Obligations settled during the period	(106		)
Revisions in estimated cash flows⁽³⁾	88
Accretion	93
Other	(1		)
AROs at December 31, 2015⁽²⁾	$	2,103
Virginia Power
AROs at December 31, 2013	$	689
Obligations incurred during the period	28
Obligations settled during the period	(1		)
Revisions in estimated cash flows⁽¹⁾	108
Accretion	37
Other	(6		)
AROs at December 31, 2014	$	855
Obligations incurred during the period⁽³⁾	289
Obligations settled during the period	(39		)
Revisions in estimated cash flows⁽³⁾	92
Accretion	50
AROs at December 31, 2015	$	1,247
Dominion Gas
AROs at December 31, 2013	$	137
Obligations incurred during the period	2
Obligations settled during the period	(8		)
Accretion	8
Other	8
AROs at December 31, 2014⁽⁴⁾	$	147
Obligations incurred during the period	5
Obligations settled during the period	(6		)
Revisions in estimated cash flows	(5		)
Accretion	9
Other	(1		)
AROs at December 31, 2015⁽⁴⁾	$	149


(1)	Relates primarily to a shift of the delayed planned date on which the DOE is expected to begin accepting spent nuclear fuel.


(2)	Includes $81 million and $216 million reported in other current liabilities at December 31, 2014, and 2015, respectively.


(3)	Primarily reflects future ash pond and landfill closure costs at certain utility generation facilities. See Note 22 for further information.


(4)	Includes $140 million and $137 million reported in other deferred credits and other liabilities, with the remainder recorded in other current liabilities, at December 31, 2014 and 2015, respectively.

Dominion and Virginia Power have established trusts dedicated to funding the future decommissioning of their nuclear plants. At both December 31, 2015 and 2014, the aggregate fair value of Dominion's trusts, consisting primarily of equity and debt securities, totaled $4.2 billion. At both December 31, 2015 and 2014, the aggregate fair value of Virginia Power's trusts, consisting primarily of debt and equity securities, totaled $1.9 billion.