Property, Plant and Equipment (Notes)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2019

Property, Plant and Equipment [Abstract]

Property, Plant and Equipment Disclosure [Text Block]

PROPERTY, PLANT, AND EQUIPMENT

The following table sets forth the major classifications of property, plant, and equipment and accumulated depreciation of continuing operations:



	September 30,				December 31,
In thousands	2019		2018		2018
NW Natural:
NGD plant in service	$	3,236,227	$	3,068,235	$	3,134,122
NGD work in progress	91,302		227,200		204,978
Less: Accumulated depreciation	1,007,742		978,446		974,252
NGD plant, net	2,319,787		2,316,989		2,364,848
Other plant in service	63,360		65,957		66,009
Other construction work in progress	6,164		5,505		5,330
Less: Accumulated depreciation	18,889		18,335		18,603
Other plant, net ⁽¹⁾	50,635		53,127		52,736
Total property, plant, and equipment	$	2,370,422	$	2,370,116	$	2,417,584

Other (NW Holdings):
Other plant in service	$	19,665	$	3,491	$	4,051
Less: Accumulated depreciation	699		213		263
Other plant, net ⁽¹⁾	$	18,966	$	3,278	$	3,788

NW Holdings:
Total property, plant, and equipment	$	2,389,388	$	2,373,394	$	2,421,372

NW Natural and NW Holdings:
Capital expenditures in accrued liabilities	$	35,461	$	27,692	$	23,676


⁽¹⁾	NW Natural previously reported other balances were restated due to certain assets and liabilities now being classified as discontinued operations assets and liabilities in its balance sheets. See Note 18 for further discussion.

NW Holdings

Other plant balances include long-lived assets associated with water operations and non-regulated activities not held by NW Natural or its subsidiaries.

NW Natural

Other plant balances include long-lived assets not related to NGD.

In October 2017, NW Natural entered into a 20-year operating lease agreement expected to commence in 2020 for its new headquarters location in Portland, Oregon. Under the new lease standard, NW Natural is no longer considered the accounting owner of the asset during construction. As such, the build to suit asset and liability balances at December 31, 2018 of $26.0 million were derecognized in January 2019. The previous build to suit balances were recorded under ASC 840 within property, plant and equipment and other non-current liabilities in the consolidated balance sheet. See Note 16 in the 2018 Form 10-K.

In May 2019, NW Natural placed its North Mist gas storage expansion project into service and commenced storage services to the facility's single customer, Portland General Electric (PGE). Under U.S. GAAP, this agreement is classified as a sales-type lease and qualifies for regulatory accounting deferral treatment. Accordingly, the project was de-recognized from property, plant and equipment upon lease commencement and the investment balance is presented net of the current portion of scheduled billings within assets under sales-type leases on the consolidated balance sheets. A total of $146.0 million was de-recognized from plant on the lease commencement date. See Note 7 for information regarding leases, including North Mist.