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Regulatory Assets and Liabilities
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2021
Regulatory Assets and Liabilities Disclosure [Abstract]  
Regulatory Assets and Liabilities

Note 11. Regulatory Assets and Liabilities

Regulatory Assets

SCE's regulatory assets included on the consolidated balance sheets are:

September 30, 

December 31, 

(in millions)

    

2021

    

2020

Current:

 

  

 

  

Regulatory balancing and memorandum accounts

$

1,367

$

1,127

Power contracts

 

167

 

165

Other

 

19

 

22

Total current

 

1,553

 

1,314

Long-term:

 

  

 

  

Deferred income taxes, net of liabilities

 

4,617

 

4,475

Pension and other postretirement benefits

 

 

12

Power contracts

 

104

 

239

Unamortized investments, net of accumulated amortization

 

113

 

114

Unamortized loss on reacquired debt

 

124

 

133

Regulatory balancing and memorandum accounts

 

1,734

 

1,794

Environmental remediation

 

246

 

247

Recovery assets1

328

Other

 

120

 

106

Total long-term

 

7,386

 

7,120

Total regulatory assets

$

8,939

$

8,434

1Represents the balance associated with the AB 1054 Excluded Capital Expenditures related Recovery Properties and prudently incurred financing costs securitized in 2021 with issuance of the associated bond. The recovery period is until 2043, when the bonds and interest are paid in full. For further details, see Note 3.

Regulatory Liabilities

SCE's regulatory liabilities included on the consolidated balance sheets are:

September 30, 

December 31, 

(in millions)

    

2021

    

2020

Current:

 

  

 

  

Regulatory balancing and memorandum accounts

$

347

$

471

Energy derivatives

 

205

 

87

Other

 

31

 

11

Total current

 

583

 

569

Long-term:

 

  

 

  

Cost of removal

 

2,735

 

2,595

Re-measurement of deferred taxes

 

2,332

 

2,283

Recoveries in excess of ARO liabilities1

 

2,047

 

1,930

Regulatory balancing and memorandum accounts

 

736

 

1,062

Other postretirement benefits

 

679

 

671

Other

 

55

 

48

Total long-term

 

8,584

 

8,589

Total regulatory liabilities

$

9,167

$

9,158

1Represents the cumulative differences between ARO expenses and amounts collected in rates primarily for the decommissioning of SCE's nuclear generation facilities. Decommissioning costs recovered through rates are primarily placed in nuclear decommissioning trusts. This regulatory liability also represents the deferral of realized and unrealized gains and losses on the nuclear decommissioning trust investments. See Note 10 for further discussion.

Net Regulatory Balancing and Memorandum Accounts

The following table summarizes the significant components of regulatory balancing and memorandum accounts included in the above tables of regulatory assets and liabilities:

September 30, 

December 31, 

(in millions)

    

2021

    

2020

Asset (liability)

 

  

 

  

Energy resource recovery account

$

348

$

(89)

Portfolio allocation balancing account

 

98

 

497

New system generation balancing account

 

57

 

(10)

Public purpose programs and energy efficiency programs

 

(1,174)

 

(1,130)

Base revenue requirement balancing account

 

784

 

622

GRC wildfire mitigation balancing accounts1

48

Residential uncollectibles balancing account2

209

Greenhouse gas auction revenue and low carbon fuel standard revenue

 

(254)

 

(125)

FERC balancing accounts

 

3

 

12

Wildfire and drought restoration accounts3

 

287

 

361

Wildfire-related memorandum accounts4

1,274

1,104

COVID-19-related memorandum accounts

86

176

Customer service re-platform memorandum account5

101

30

Tax accounting memorandum account and pole loading balancing account

204

(35)

Other

 

(53)

 

(25)

Asset

$

2,018

$

1,388

1The August 2021 final 2021 GRC decision approved the establishment of the vegetation management balancing account to track vegetation management expenses up to 115% of amounts authorized, the wildfire risk mitigation balancing account to track the costs of SCE's Wildfire Covered Conductor Program up to 110% of amounts authorized and the risk management balancing account to track the authorized costs of wildfire insurance. If spending is less than authorized, SCE will refund those amounts to customers. If spending is within the specified threshold, if any, for each balancing account, SCE will recover those costs from customers. Amounts above the specified threshold, or above amounts authorized if a higher threshold was not established, for each balancing account may be eligible for deferral to wildfire-related memorandum accounts.
2In November 2020, the CPUC approved the establishment of the residential uncollectibles balancing account ("RUBA"), to track the difference (positive or negative) between the recorded uncollectibles expense for all customer groups and the total authorized uncollectibles revenue collected from all customers subject to a cap equal to the actual recorded uncollectibles expense for residential customers.
3The wildfire and drought restoration accounts regulatory assets represent restoration costs that are recorded in a Catastrophic Event Memorandum Account ("CEMA").
4The wildfire-related memorandum accounts regulatory assets represent wildfire-related costs that are probable of future recovery from customers, subject to a reasonableness review. The Fire Hazard Prevention Memorandum Account ("FHPMA") is used to track costs related to fire safety and to implement fire prevention corrective action measures in extreme and very high fire threat areas. The Wildfire Expense Memorandum Account ("WEMA") is used to track incremental wildfire insurance costs and uninsured wildfire-related financing, legal and claims costs. During 2019, the CPUC approved a Wildfire Mitigation Plan memorandum account to track costs incurred to implement SCE's Wildfire Mitigation Plan that are not currently reflected in SCE's revenue requirements, a Grid Safety and Resiliency Program Memorandum Account ("GSRPMA") to track the costs of SCE's GS&RP that are incremental to costs approved for recovery in SCE's 2018 GRC and a fire risk mitigation memorandum account to track costs related to the reduction of fire risk that are incremental to costs approved for recovery in SCE's 2018 GRC that are not tracked in any other wildfire-related memorandum account. Revenue requirements of $326 million for 2021 expenses previously deferred as wildfire-related memorandum accounts and wildfire and drought restoration accounts were transferred to wildfire mitigation balancing accounts on approval of the 2021 GRC. The amount recorded to wildfire mitigation balancing accounts represents the difference between costs tracked in the balancing accounts and authorized revenues for those costs recorded to the base revenue requirement balancing account.
5CSRP memorandum account was established in the 2018 GRC to track costs for implementation of a new customer service system not currently reflected in SCE's revenue requirements.