Segment Information

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2024

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
	March 31, 2024								March 31, 2023
	Regulated Water		Regulated Natural Gas		Other		Consolidated		Regulated Water		Regulated Natural Gas		Other		Consolidated
Operating revenues	$	279,894	$	324,331	$	7,844	$	612,069	$	267,300	$	441,295	$	17,855	$	726,450
Operations and maintenance expense		90,683		45,917		300		136,900		82,802		57,150		(1,958)		137,994
Purchased gas		-		125,542		4,133		129,675		-		241,856		14,459		256,315
Depreciation and amortization		57,194		32,411		199		89,804		53,467		30,128		199		83,794
Interest expense, net (a)		34,790		25,356		12,138		72,284		29,713		27,507		14,629		71,849
Allowance for funds used during construction		(3,688)		(993)		-		(4,681)		(4,946)		(742)		-		(5,688)
Provision for income taxes (benefit)		20,810		(29,150)		(2,302)		(10,642)		13,514		(43,484)		(1,667)		(31,637)
Net income (loss)		63,905		209,940		(8,073)		265,772		77,402		123,546		(9,514)		191,434
Capital expenditures		152,231		100,767		-		252,998		159,394		81,669		2,667		243,730

^(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.

	March 31,		December 31,
	2024		2023
Total assets:
Regulated water	$	9,498,773	$	9,386,347
Regulated natural gas		7,191,015		6,965,350
Other		364,556		489,762
Consolidated	$	17,054,344	$	16,841,459