BEFORE THE PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION

OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI

 

 

In the Matter of Union Electric Company, d/b/a                     )         File No. ER-2014-0258

Ameren Missouri’s Tariff to Increase Its                      )         Tariff No. YE-2015-0003 

Revenues for Electric Service                                    )        

              

NOTICE OF DISCUSSION AT AGENDA AND

ORDER TO APPEAR AT AGENDA

 

Issue Date:  March 18, 2015                                   Effective Date:  March 18, 2015

 

The Commission’s Agenda for March 19, 2015, includes consideration of an Order Approving Amended Stipulation and Agreement Regarding Certain Revenue Requirement Issues.  That stipulation and agreement was filed on March 3, and no party has stated an objection to it.

In paragraph 6 of that stipulation and agreement, the signatory parties agree:

Ameren Missouri should be granted accounting authority to defer carrying costs (at its short-term interest rate) and amortization accruals related to the cost of the Callaway relicensing request balance at the effective date of the Report and Order in this case.  The parties agree this accounting authority should be effective until rates are implemented in Ameren Missouri’s next rate case.  The parties agree Ameren Missouri should be allowed to recover the deferred costs beginning with the first rate case after the license extension is issued consistent with the authority granted in this case.  Finally, the parties agree the costs should be amortized over the life of the license extension and that the deferred amounts should be included in rate base in a regulatory asset account in the first rate case after the license extension is issued.   

 

It appears the parties included that provision in the stipulation and agreement because of uncertainty about when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) would grant Ameren Missouri a long-anticipated twenty-year extension of the Callaway Energy Center’s operating license.

In true-up direct testimony filed on March 17, Ameren Missouri’s witness, Laura Moore, explained that the NRC issued the Callaway license extension on March 6, three days after the amended stipulation and agreement was filed on March 3.  Because it now has a known and measurable amount of investment in the license extension through the end of the true-up period, Ameren Missouri has included the costs to obtain the license extension, incurred through the end of the true-up period on December 31, 2014, in its trued-up rate base.  Ms. Moore further explains that because the pre-January 1, 2015 costs are now included in rate base, the accounting authority contemplated in the stipulation and agreement would allow for the deferral of costs incurred between January 1 and May 30, 2015, the likely effective date of the report and order that the Commission will issue in this case.

Before considering the approval of the stipulation and agreement, the Commission would like to know whether any party disagrees with Ameren Missouri’s interpretation of that stipulation and agreement.

THE COMMISSION ORDERS THAT:

1.               Any party wishing to be heard regarding the interpretation that is to be given to paragraph 6 of the Amended Stipulation and Agreement Regarding Certain Revenue Requirement Issues, shall appear at the Commission’s agenda meeting at 9:30 a.m. on March 19, 2015.  

2.               This order shall be effective when issued.

 

 

                                                            BY THE COMMISSION

 

 

 

 

                                                            Morris L. Woodruff

                                                            Secretary

 

 

Morris L. Woodruff, Chief Law Judge,

by delegation of authority

pursuant to Section 386.240, RSMo 2000.

 

Dated at Jefferson City, Missouri,

on this 18th day of March, 2015.