Organization and Basis of Presentation (Policy)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2019

Policy Text Block [Line Items]

Basis of Presentation

BASIS OF PRESENTATION

These Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements have been prepared in accordance with GAAP for interim financial information and with the instructions to Form 10-Q and Regulation S-X. Accordingly, these Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements do not include all information and notes required by GAAP for annual financial statements and should be read in conjunction with the Consolidated Financial Statements in the Duke Energy Registrants’ combined Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018.

The information in these combined notes relates to each of the Duke Energy Registrants as noted in the Index to Combined Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements. However, none of the registrants make any representations as to information related solely to Duke Energy or the subsidiaries of Duke Energy other than itself.

These Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements, in the opinion of the respective companies’ management, reflect all normal recurring adjustments necessary to fairly present the financial position and results of operations of each of the Duke Energy Registrants. Amounts reported in Duke Energy’s interim Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations and each of the Subsidiary Registrants’ interim Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Income are not necessarily indicative of amounts expected for the respective annual periods due to effects of seasonal temperature variations on energy consumption, regulatory rulings, timing of maintenance on electric generating units, changes in mark-to-market valuations, changing commodity prices and other factors.

In preparing financial statements that conform to GAAP, management must make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, the reported amounts of revenues and expenses, and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements. Actual results could differ from those estimates.

Basis of Consolidation and Noncontrolling Interest

BASIS OF CONSOLIDATION

These Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements include, after eliminating intercompany transactions and balances, the accounts of the Duke Energy Registrants and subsidiaries or VIEs where the respective Duke Energy Registrants have control. See Note 13 for additional information on VIEs. These Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements also reflect the Duke Energy Registrants’ proportionate share of certain jointly owned generation and transmission facilities.

NONCONTROLLING INTEREST

Duke Energy maintains a controlling financial interest in certain less-than wholly owned non-regulated subsidiaries. As a result, Duke Energy consolidates these subsidiaries and presents the third-party investors' portion of Duke Energy's net income (loss), net assets and comprehensive income (loss) as noncontrolling interest. Noncontrolling interest is included as a component of equity on the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet.

Several operating agreements of Duke Energy's subsidiaries with noncontrolling interest are subject to allocations of earnings, tax attributes and cash flows in accordance with contractual agreements that vary throughout the lives of the subsidiaries. Therefore, Duke Energy and the other investors' (the owners) interests in the subsidiaries are not fixed, and the subsidiaries apply the HLBV method in allocating book profit or loss and other comprehensive income or loss (all measured on a pretax basis) to the owners. The HLBV method measures the amounts that each owner would hypothetically claim at each balance sheet reporting date, including tax benefits realized by the owners, upon a hypothetical liquidation of the subsidiary at the net book value of its underlying assets. The change in the amount that each owner would hypothetically receive at the reporting date compared to the amount it would have received on the previous reporting date represents the amount of profit or loss allocated to each owner for the reporting period. Duke Energy’s North Rosamond solar farm commenced commercial operations resulting in the allocation of losses to the noncontrolling tax equity members of $12 million and $86 million for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2019, respectively, utilizing the HLBV method.

Other operating agreements of Duke Energy's subsidiaries with noncontrolling interest allocate profit and loss based on their pro rata shares of the ownership interest in the respective subsidiary. Therefore, Duke Energy allocates net income or loss and other comprehensive income or loss of these subsidiaries to the owners based on their pro rata shares.

During the third quarter of 2019, Duke Energy completed a sale of a minority interest in a portion of certain renewable assets to John Hancock. John Hancock's ownership interest in the assets represents a noncontrolling interest. See Note 2 for additional information on the sale.

Cash, Cash Equivalents, and Restricted Cash

CASH, CASH EQUIVALENTS AND RESTRICTED CASH

Duke Energy, Progress Energy and Duke Energy Florida have restricted cash balances related primarily to collateral assets, escrow deposits and VIEs. See Note 13 for additional information. Restricted cash amounts are included in Other within Current Assets and Other Noncurrent Assets on the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets.

New Accounting Standards

NEW ACCOUNTING STANDARDS

Except as noted below, the new accounting standards adopted for 2018 and 2019 had no material impact on the presentation or results of operations, cash flows or financial position of the Duke Energy Registrants.

Leases. In February 2016, the FASB issued revised accounting guidance for leases. The core principle of this guidance is that a lessee should recognize the assets and liabilities that arise from leases on the balance sheet. This resulted in a material impact on the presentation for the statement of financial position of the Duke Energy Registrants for the period ended September 30, 2019, and an immaterial impact to the Duke Energy Registrants' results of operations for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2019, and cash flows for the nine months ended September 30, 2019.

Duke Energy elected the modified retrospective method of adoption effective January 1, 2019. Under the modified retrospective method of adoption, prior year reported results are not restated. For adoption, Duke Energy has elected to apply the following practical expedients:

Practical Expedient	Description
Package of transition practical expedients (for leases commenced prior to adoption date and must be adopted as a package)	Do not need to 1) reassess whether any expired or existing contracts are/or contain leases, 2) reassess the lease classification for any expired or existing leases and 3) reassess initial direct costs for any existing leases.
Short-term lease expedient (elect by class of underlying asset)	Elect as an accounting policy to not apply the recognition requirements to short-term leases by asset class.
Lease and non-lease components (elect by class of underlying asset)	Elect as an accounting policy to not separate non-lease components from lease components and instead account for each lease and associated non-lease component as a single lease component by asset class.
Hindsight expedient (when determining lease term)	Elect to use hindsight to determine the lease term.
Existing and expired land easements not previously accounted for as leases	Elect to not evaluate existing or expired easements under the new guidance and carry forward current accounting treatment.
Comparative reporting requirements for initial adoption	Elect to apply transition requirements at adoption date, recognize cumulative effect adjustment to retained earnings in period of adoption and not apply the new requirements to comparative periods, including disclosures.
Lessor expedient (elect by class of underlying asset)	Elect as an accounting policy to aggregate non-lease components with the related lease component when specified conditions are met by asset class. Account for the combined component based on its predominant characteristic (revenue or operating lease).

Duke Energy evaluated the financial statement impact of adopting the standard and monitored industry implementation issues. Under agreements considered leases, where Duke Energy is the lessee, for the use of certain aircraft, space on communication towers, industrial equipment, fleet vehicles, fuel transportation (barges and railcars), land, office space and PPAs are now recognized on the balance sheet. The Duke Energy Registrants did not have a material change to the financial statements from the adoption of the new standard for contracts where it is the lessor. See Note 5 for further information.

The following new accounting standard has been issued but not yet adopted by the Duke Energy Registrants as of September 30, 2019.

Credit Losses. In June 2016, the FASB issued new accounting guidance for credit losses. This guidance establishes the new CECL impairment model applicable to certain financial assets, including trade and other receivables, net investments in leases, and debt securities classified as held-for-sale investments. The model also applies to financial guarantees.

For Duke Energy, this guidance is effective for interim and annual periods beginning January 1, 2020. This guidance will be applied using a modified retrospective approach through a cumulative-effect adjustment to retained earnings as of January 1, 2020. The updated guidance requires Duke Energy to establish an allowance for credit losses based on management's estimate of losses expected to be incurred over the life of the asset or guarantee. Duke Energy is currently evaluating the impact of adopting this standard.

Environmental Costs

Costs are typically expensed as Operation, maintenance and other on the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations unless regulatory recovery of the costs is deemed probable.Liabilities are recorded when losses become probable and are reasonably estimable.

Derivatives

Duke Energy’s interest rate swaps for its regulated operations employ regulatory accounting. With regulatory accounting, the mark-to-market gains or losses on the swaps are deferred as regulatory liabilities or regulatory assets, respectively. Regulatory assets and liabilities are amortized consistent with the treatment of the related costs in the ratemaking process. The accrual of interest on the swaps is recorded as Interest Expense on the Duke Energy Registrant's Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Income.

For the Subsidiary Registrants, bulk power electricity and coal and natural gas purchases flow through fuel adjustment clauses, formula-based contracts or other cost-sharing mechanisms. Differences between the costs included in rates and the incurred costs, including undesignated derivative contracts, are largely deferred as regulatory assets or regulatory liabilities.

Investments

Unrealized gains and losses on all other AFS securities are included in other comprehensive income until realized, unless it is determined the carrying value of an investment is other-than-temporarily impaired. The Duke Energy Registrants analyze all investment holdings each reporting period to determine whether a decline in fair value should be considered other-than-temporary. If an OTTI exists, the unrealized credit loss is included in earnings.As a result, the ability to hold investments in unrealized loss positions is outside the control of the Duke Energy Registrants. Accordingly, all unrealized losses associated with debt securities within the Investment Trusts are considered OTTIs and are recognized immediately and deferred to regulatory accounts where appropriate.

Revenue from Contract with Customer

UNBILLED REVENUE

Unbilled revenues are recognized by applying customer billing rates to the estimated volumes of energy or natural gas delivered but not yet billed. Unbilled revenues can vary significantly from period to period as a result of seasonality, weather, customer usage patterns, customer mix, average price in effect for customer classes, timing of rendering customer bills and meter reading schedules, and the impact of weather normalization or margin decoupling mechanisms.

Additionally, Duke Energy Ohio and Duke Energy Indiana sell, on a revolving basis, nearly all of their retail accounts receivable, including receivables for unbilled revenues, to an affiliate, CRC, and account for the transfers of receivables as sales. Accordingly, the receivables sold are not reflected on the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets of Duke Energy Ohio and Duke Energy Indiana.

Earnings Per Share

Basic EPS is computed by dividing net income attributable to Duke Energy common stockholders, as adjusted for distributed and undistributed earnings allocated to participating securities, by the weighted average number of common shares outstanding during the period. Diluted EPS is computed by dividing net income attributable to Duke Energy common stockholders, as adjusted for distributed and undistributed earnings allocated to participating securities, by the diluted weighted average number of common shares outstanding during the period. Diluted EPS reflects the potential dilution that could occur if securities or other agreements to issue common stock, such as stock options and equity forward sale agreements, were exercised or settled. Duke Energy’s participating securities are restricted stock units that are entitled to dividends declared on Duke Energy common stock during the restricted stock unit’s vesting periods. Dividends declared on preferred stock are recorded on the income statement as a reduction of net income to arrive at net income attributable to Duke Energy common stockholders. Dividends accumulated on preferred stock are a reduction to net income used in the calculation of basic and diluted EPS.