Company: POR
Filing Date: 2025-02-14
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000784977-25-000012
Chunk: 45

Company: PORTLAND GENERAL ELECTRIC CO /OR/
Filing Date: 2025-02-14
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 8
Chunk 45
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 meet the criteria for probable future recovery or settlement at each balance sheet date and when regulatory events occur. This assessment includes consideration of recent rate orders, historical regulatory treatment for similar costs, and factors such as changes in applicable regulatory and political environments. While the Company has indicated it expects to recover costs from customers through regulated rates, there is a risk that the OPUC and the FERC will not approve: (1) full recovery of the costs of providing utility service, or (2) full recovery of amounts invested in the utility business and a reasonable return on that investment.

We identified the impact of rate regulation as a critical audit matter due to its pervasive impact on the Company’s financial statements and the significant judgments made by management to support its assertions about certain account balances and disclosures. Given that management’s accounting judgments are based on assumptions about the outcome of future decisions by the OPUC or FERC, including decisions regarding the prudency of costs which have been deferred as regulatory assets, auditing these judgments required specialized knowledge of accounting for 

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rate regulation and the rate setting process due to its inherent complexities and significant auditor judgment to evaluate management estimates and the subjectivity of audit evidence.

How the Critical Audit Matter Was Addressed in the Audit

Our audit procedures related to the uncertainty of future decisions by the OPUC included the following, among others:

•We tested the effectiveness of management’s controls over the evaluation of the likelihood of (1) the recovery in future rates of costs incurred and deferred as regulatory assets, and (2) a refund or a future reduction in rates that should be reported as regulatory liabilities. We also tested the effectiveness of management’s controls over the initial recognition of amounts as electric utility plant; regulatory assets or liabilities; and the monitoring and evaluation of regulatory developments that may affect the likelihood of recovering costs in future rates or of a future reduction in rates.

•We evaluated the Company’s disclosures related to the impacts of rate regulation, including the balances recorded and regulatory developments.

•We read relevant regulatory orders issued by the OPUC and the FERC for the Company, and other publicly available information to assess the likelihood of recovery in future rates or of a future reduction in rates based on precedents of the OPUC’s and the FERC’s treatment of similar costs under similar circumstances. We evaluated the external information and compared to management’s recorded regulatory asset and liability balances for completeness. 

•We obtained an analysis from management, regarding probability of recovery of regulatory assets or future reduction in rates for regulatory liabilities not yet addressed in a regulatory order to assess management