Basis of Presentation (Notes)

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2020

Basis of Presentation [Abstract]

BASIS OF PRESENTATION

BASIS OF PRESENTATION

Nature of Business

Portland General Electric Company (PGE or the Company) is a vertically-integrated electric utility engaged in the generation, purchase, transmission, distribution, and retail sale of electricity in the State of Oregon. The Company participates in the wholesale market by purchasing and selling electricity and natural gas in an effort to provide reasonably-priced power for its retail customers. PGE operates as a single segment, with revenues and costs related to its business activities recorded and analyzed on a total electric operations basis. The Company’s corporate headquarters is located in Portland, Oregon and its 4,000 square mile, state-approved service area encompasses 51 incorporated cities entirely within the State of Oregon. As of June 30, 2020, PGE served 901,000 retail customers within a service area of 1.9 million residents.

Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

These condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared pursuant to the rules and regulations of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Certain information and note disclosures normally included in financial statements prepared in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (GAAP) have been condensed or omitted pursuant to such regulations, although PGE believes that the disclosures provided are adequate to make the interim information presented not misleading.

The financial information included herein as of and for the three and six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2019 is unaudited; however, in the opinion of management, such information reflects all adjustments necessary to fairly present the condensed consolidated financial position, condensed consolidated income and comprehensive income, and condensed consolidated cash flows of the Company for these interim periods. All such adjustments are of normal recurring nature, unless otherwise noted. The financial information as of December 31, 2019 is derived from the Company’s audited consolidated financial statements and notes thereto for the year ended December 31, 2019, included in Item 8 of PGE’s Annual Report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on February 14, 2020, which should be read in conjunction with the interim unaudited Financial Statements.

Comprehensive Income

No material change occurred in Other comprehensive income in the three and six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2019.

Use of Estimates

The preparation of condensed consolidated financial statements in accordance with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, and disclosures of gain or loss contingencies, as of the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results experienced by the Company could differ materially from those estimates.

Certain costs are estimated for the full year and allocated to interim periods based on estimates of operating time expired, benefit received, or activity associated with the interim period; accordingly, such costs may not be reflective of amounts to be recognized for a full year. Due to seasonal fluctuations in electricity sales, as well as the price of wholesale energy and natural gas, interim financial results do not necessarily represent those to be expected for the year.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

In August 2018, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued Accounting Standard Update (ASU) 2018-14 Compensation—Retirement Benefits—Defined Benefit Plans—General (Subtopic 715-20): Disclosure Framework—Changes to the Disclosure Requirements for Defined Benefit Plans. ASU 2018-14 amends Topic 715 to add, remove, and clarify disclosure requirements related to defined benefit pension and other postretirement plans. This update will be effective for fiscal years ending after December 15, 2020. Because the standard relates only to disclosures, PGE does not expect the adoption to have a material impact on the condensed consolidated financial statements.

Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncements

On January 1, 2020, PGE adopted ASU 2018-13 Fair Value Measurement (Topic 820): Disclosure Framework—Changes to the Disclosure Requirements for Fair Value Measurement. ASU 2018-13 amends Topic 820 to add, remove, and clarify requirements related to fair value measurement disclosures. Because the standard relates only to disclosures, the implementation did not result in an impact to the results of operation, financial position, or cash flows.

On January 1, 2020, PGE adopted ASU 2018-15 Intangibles—Goodwill and Other—Internal-Use Software (Subtopic 350-40): Customer’s Accounting for Implementation Costs Incurred in a Cloud Computing Arrangement That Is a Service Contract. ASU 2018-15 provides guidance on implementation costs incurred in a cloud computing arrangement that is a service contract and aligns the accounting for such costs with the guidance on capitalizing costs associated with developing or obtaining internal-use software. PGE applied the amendments of this ASU prospectively, and the implementation did not have a material impact on PGE’s results of operation, financial position, or cash flows.

On January 1, 2020, PGE adopted ASU 2016-13 Financial Instruments—Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments. ASU 2016-13 replaces the incurred loss impairment methodology in previous GAAP with a methodology that reflects expected credit losses, and requires consideration of a broader range of reasonable and supportable information to inform credit loss estimates. PGE applied this ASU using a modified-retrospective approach, and as a result, amounts recorded prior to January 1, 2020 have not been retrospectively restated. Under the new standard, PGE estimates current expected credit losses for retail sales based on an assessment of the current and forecasted probability of collection, aging of accounts receivable, bad debt write-offs experience, actual customer billings, economic conditions, and other significant events that may impact the collectability of accounts receivable and unbilled revenues. Provisions for current expected credit losses related to retail sales, and changes to the amount of expected credit losses for existing receivables, are charged to Administrative and other expense and are recorded in the same period as the related revenues, with an offsetting credit to the allowance for credit losses. The implementation did not have a material impact on PGE’s results of operation, financial position, or cash flows. To conform with 2020 presentation, PGE reclassified $86 million of Unbilled revenues to Accounts receivable, net on the condensed consolidated balance sheets as of December 31, 2019.

On April 1, 2020, PGE adopted ASU 2020-04 Reference Rate Reform (Topic 848): Facilitation of the Effects of Reference Rate Reform on Financial Reporting. ASU 2020-04 provides optional guidance for a limited period of time to ease the potential burden in accounting for (or recognizing the effects of) reference rate reform on financial reporting. PGE applied the amendments of this ASU prospectively, and the implementation did not have a material impact on PGE’s results of operation, financial position, or cash flows.