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Regulatory Assets and Liabilities
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2023
Regulatory Assets and Liabilities Disclosure [Abstract]  
Schedule of Regulatory Assets and Liabilities [Text Block] REGULATORY ASSETS AND LIABILITIES
The majority of PGE’s regulatory assets and liabilities are reflected in customer prices and are amortized over the period in which they are reflected in customer prices. Items not currently reflected in prices are pending before the regulatory body as discussed below.
Regulatory assets and liabilities consist of the following (dollars in millions):
Remaining Amortization PeriodAs of December 31,
20232022
Earning a Return (1)
Not Earning a ReturnTotalTotal
Regulatory assets:
Price risk management
(2)
$— $206 $206 $
Pension and other postretirement plans
(3)
— 104 104 95 
Debt issuance costs 2049— 20 20 21 
Trojan decommissioning activities 2059— 139 139 133 
February 2021 ice storm and damage
(4)
67 — 67 74 
Power cost adjustment mechanism
(5)
16 — 16 28 
2020 Labor Day wildfire
(4)
28 — 28 31 
COVID-19
(6)
14 — 14 22 
Wildfire mitigation
(7)
29 — 29 28 
Other Various58 32 90 94 
Total regulatory assets$212 $501 $713 $527 
Regulatory liabilities:
Asset retirement removal costs
(8)
$1,173 $— $1,173 $1,136 
Deferred income taxes
(9)
177 — 177 194 
Price risk management
(2)
— — — 195 
OtherVarious82 14 96 98 
Total regulatory liabilities$1,432 $14 $1,446 $1,623 

(1)Earning a return includes either interest on the regulatory asset or liability, or inclusion of the regulatory asset or liability as an increase or decrease to rate base at the allowed rate of return.
(2)No amortization period in accordance with ratemaking and cost recovery processes authorized by the OPUC, PGE recognizes a regulatory asset or liability to defer unrealized losses or gains on derivative instruments until settlement.
(3)Recovery expected over the average service life of employees.
(4)Amortization will occur over a 7-year period starting January 1, 2023.
(5)Amortization will occur over a 2-year period starting January 1, 2023.
(6)Amortization will occur over a 2-year period starting April 1, 2023.
(7)Amounts deferred between January 1, 2022 and May 8, 2022 will amortize over a 2-year period beginning October 20, 2023. Amounts deferred between May 9, 2022 and December 31, 2022 will amortize over a 1-year period beginning October 20, 2023. Amounts deferred between January 1, 2023 and December 31, 2023 have not yet been approved for amortization.
(8)Recovery or refund expected over the estimated lives of the underlying assets and treated as a reduction to rate base.
(9)Refund expected as the balance is reversed using the average rate assumption method over the average life of the underlying assets and treated as a reduction to rate base.

Price risk management represents the difference between the net unrealized losses recognized on derivative instruments related to price risk management activities and their realization and subsequent recovery in customer prices. For further information regarding assets and liabilities from price risk management activities, see Note 6, Risk Management.

Pension and other postretirement plans represents unrecognized components of the benefit plans’ funded status, which are recoverable in customer prices when recognized in net periodic pension and postretirement benefit costs. For further information, see Note 11, Employee Benefits.
 
Debt issuance costs represents unrecognized debt issuance costs related to debt instruments retired prior to the stipulated maturity date.

Trojan decommissioning activities represents the deferral of ongoing costs and adjustments to the Trojan ARO associated with monitoring spent nuclear fuel at Trojan, net of amortization of customer collections. In addition, proceeds received from the United States Department of Energy (USDOE) for the reimbursement of costs to monitor the ISFSI is deferred and offsets customer collections.

February 2021 ice storm and damage represents the costs incurred to repair damage to PGE’s transmission and distribution systems and restore power to customers as a result of the historic storms that ultimately led Oregon’s Governor to declare a state of emergency in February 2021.

Power Cost Adjustment MechanismFor the year ended December 31, 2021, actual NVPC was $62 million above baseline NVPC, and therefore PGE deferred $29 million, which represents 90% of the excess variance expected to be collected from customers for the year ended December 31, 2021.

2020 Labor Day wildfire represents incurred costs to replace and rebuild PGE facilities damaged by the fires, as well as address fire-damaged vegetation and other resulting debris and hazards both in and outside of PGE’s property and right-of-way.

COVID-19—In March 2020, PGE filed an application with the OPUC for deferral of lost revenue and certain incremental costs, such as bad debt expense, related to COVID-19. PGE’s deferral application was approved by the OPUC in October 2020 with final stipulations for the Term Sheet approved in November 2020.

As of December 31, 2023 and December 31, 2022, PGE’s deferred balance was $14 million and $22 million, respectively, comprised primarily of bad debt expense in excess of what was collected in customer prices. PGE filed a request for amortization of deferred amounts on December 16, 2022, which reflected a $12 million adjustment primarily related to bad debt write-offs being lower than estimated. During the March 14, 2023 public meeting, Staff recommended the OPUC approve PGE’s filing of advice No. 22-45 associated with the recovery of the COVID-19 deferral. On March 21, 2023 Advice No. 22-45 was approved by the OPUC, allowing for amortization of deferred amounts over a two-year period beginning April 1, 2023.

Wildfire mitigation represents incremental costs and investments made by PGE related to intensifying efforts on its system to mitigate the risk of wildfire and improve resiliency to wildfire damage under SB 762, enacted in July 2021. These efforts include enhanced tree and brush clearing, hardening equipment, and making emergency plans in close partnership with local, state, and federal land and emergency management agencies to further expand the use of a public safety power shutoff, if the need should arise. Pursuant to SB 762, PGE submitted its 2023 risk-based Wildfire Mitigation Plan to the OPUC in December 2022 and it was approved in Order 23-221 on June 26, 2023.

As of December 31, 2023 and December 31, 2022, PGE’s deferred balance related to wildfire mitigation was $29 million and $28 million, respectively. The 2023 balance is comprised of:
Base Rates - The outcome of PGE’s 2022 GRC provided an annual amount of $24 million to be collected in base rates in regard to wildfire mitigation efforts beginning May 9, 2022. As of December 31, 2023, there was $1 million in the balancing account.
Previously Deferred - Prior to establishing the base rates collection noted above, PGE had deferred incremental costs related to wildfire mitigation and as of December 31, 2023 this balance is $28 million. On July 1, 2022, PGE filed an application for reauthorization of OPUC Docket UM 2019 to defer incremental wildfire mitigation costs that exceed the amount granted in base rates. On May 10, 2023, in Order No. 23-173, the OPUC approved an automatic adjustment clause mechanism to recover wildfire mitigation costs
(capital and expense). PGE and certain parties agreed to a stipulation, which was adopted by the OPUC on October 18, 2023, that allows PGE to begin amortizing $27 million comprised of $23 million related to the September 30, 2023 deferred operating expense balance of $31 million and $4 million for capital related revenue requirement.

Beginning January 1, 2024, and in conjunction with the Company’s current GRC proceeding, PGE will remove collections related to wildfire mitigation costs (for both capital and operating expense) from base prices and include the forecasted costs within the automatic adjustment clause in a separate tariff. Differences between actual and forecasted costs will be recorded as regulatory assets or liabilities within the automatic adjustment clause balancing account, which will not be subject to an earnings test.

Boardman Refund—In 2020, intervenors filed a deferral application with the OPUC that would have required PGE to defer and refund the revenue requirement associated with the Company’s Boardman coal-fired generating plant (Boardman) then included in customer prices as established in the Company’s 2019 GRC. Customer prices resulting from the 2022 GRC Order no longer included any revenue requirement related to Boardman after new customer prices took effect on May 9, 2022. The OPUC found that the deferral was warranted with amortization subject to an earnings test.

Subsequently, PGE and parties submitted stipulations to the OPUC reflecting agreements that resolved all matters related to this deferral and stated that PGE would refund $6.5 million to customers. On June 5, 2023, the OPUC issued Order 23-195, which approved the stipulations. The refund amount, plus interest, is being amortized into customer prices over a two-year period that began July 1, 2023.

Asset retirement removal costs represents the costs that do not qualify as AROs and are a component of depreciation expense allowed in customer prices. Such costs are recorded as a regulatory liability as they are collected in prices, and are reduced by actual removal costs incurred.

Deferred income taxes represents income tax benefits primarily from property-related timing differences that will be refunded to customers when the temporary differences reverse. Substantially all of the amounts deferred are subject to tax normalization rules that require that the impact to the results of operations of reversing the excess deferred income tax balance cannot occur more rapidly than over the book life of the related assets. The Company uses the average rate assumption method to account for the refund to customers. For further information, see Note 12, Income Taxes.

Asset retirement obligations represents the difference in the timing of recognition of: i) the amounts recognized for depreciation expense of the asset retirement costs and accretion of the ARO; and ii) the amount recovered in customer prices.