Segment Information

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2023

Segment Information [Abstract]

Segment Information

Note 13 – Segment Information 

The Company has eleven operating segments and two reportable segments. The Regulated Water segment is comprised of eight operating segments representing its water and wastewater regulated utility companies, which are organized by the states where the Company provides water and wastewater services. The eight water and wastewater utility operating segments are aggregated into one reportable segment, because each of these operating segments has the following similarities: economic characteristics, nature of services, production processes, customers, water distribution or wastewater collection methods, and the nature of the regulatory environment. The Regulated Natural Gas segment is comprised of one operating segment representing natural gas utility companies, acquired in the Peoples Gas Acquisition, for which the Company provides natural gas distribution services.

In addition to the Company’s two reportable segments, we include two of our operating segments within the Other category below. These segments are not quantitatively significant and are comprised of our non-regulated natural gas operations and Aqua Resources. Our non-regulated natural gas operations consist of utility service line protection solutions and repair services to households and the operation of gas marketing and production entities. Aqua Resources offers, through a third party, water and sewer service line protection solutions and repair services to households. In addition to these segments, Other is comprised of business activities not included in the reportable segments, corporate costs that have not been allocated to the Regulated Water and Regulated Natural Gas segments, and intersegment eliminations. Corporate costs include general and administrative expenses, and interest expense. The Company reports these corporate costs within Other as they relate to corporate-focused responsibilities and decisions and are not included in internal measures of segment operating performance used by the Company to measure the underlying performance of the operating segments.

The following table presents information about the Company’s reportable segments:

	Three Months Ended								Three Months Ended
	September 30, 2023								September 30, 2022
	Regulated Water		Regulated Natural Gas		Other		Consolidated		Regulated Water		Regulated Natural Gas		Other		Consolidated
Operating revenues	$	310,591	$	94,798	$	5,866	$	411,255	$	301,335	$	118,985	$	14,298	$	434,618
Operations and maintenance expense		98,695		50,006		(1,683)		147,018		94,854		51,850		4,657		151,361
Purchased gas		-		14,408		2,182		16,590		-		41,124		10,917		52,041
Depreciation and amortization		54,695		31,141		199		86,035		51,522		30,295		913		82,730
Interest expense, net (a)		30,867		19,405		17,376		67,648		27,762		20,323		10,893		58,978
Allowance for funds used during construction		(4,643)		(812)		-		(5,455)		(5,161)		(651)		-		(5,812)
Provision for income taxes (benefit)		16,186		(16,905)		(2,992)		(3,711)		19,182		(12,734)		(1,651)		4,797
Net income (loss)		99,916		(9,776)		(10,064)		80,076		98,586		(17,133)		(12,815)		68,638
	Nine Months Ended								Nine Months Ended
	September 30, 2023								September 30, 2022
	Regulated Water		Regulated Natural Gas		Other		Consolidated		Regulated Water		Regulated Natural Gas		Other		Consolidated
Operating revenues	$	871,563	$	675,076	$	27,766	$	1,574,405	$	809,888	$	731,897	$	40,864	$	1,582,649
Operations and maintenance expense		274,724		148,270		(4,474)		418,520		273,757		156,209		(1,043)		428,923
Purchased gas		-		295,929		18,909		314,838		-		321,822		33,074		354,896
Depreciation and amortization		161,393		93,457		640		255,490		150,498		89,130		624		240,252
Interest expense, net (a)		91,103		67,894		48,712		207,709		82,920		60,146		23,336		166,402
Allowance for funds used during construction		(12,529)		(2,038)		-		(14,567)		(15,657)		(2,145)		-		(17,802)
Provision for income taxes (benefit)		45,559		(73,703)		(7,467)		(35,611)		40,528		(44,378)		(486)		(4,336)
Net income (loss)		267,345		127,400		(31,967)		362,778		235,471		133,831		(18,997)		350,305
Capital expenditures		493,851		377,562		3,078		874,491	$	382,853	$	335,738	$	1,097		719,688

^(a) The regulated water and regulated natural gas segments report interest expense that includes long-term debt that was pushed-down to the regulated operating subsidiaries from Essential Utilities, Inc.

	September 30,		December 31,
	2023		2022
Total assets:
Regulated water	$	9,331,307	$	8,792,633
Regulated natural gas		6,691,622		6,528,654
Other		409,864		397,820
Consolidated	$	16,432,793	$	15,719,107