Company: MSEX
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001174947-25-000251
Chunk: 176

Company: MIDDLESEX WATER CO
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 176
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2024, the Company contributed $3.7 million to its
retirement benefit plans and expects to contribute approximately $1.8 million in 2025.

We do not currently have, nor have we ever had,
any relationships with unconsolidated entities or financial partnerships, such as entities often referred to as structured finance or
special purpose entities, which would have been established for the purpose of facilitating off-balance sheet arrangements, or for other
contractually narrow or limited purposes. In addition, we do not engage in trading activities involving non-exchange traded contracts.

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates 

The application of accounting policies and standards
often requires the use of estimates, assumptions and judgments. The Company regularly evaluates these estimates, assumptions and judgments,
including those related to the calculation of pension and other retirement benefits, unbilled revenues, and the recoverability of certain
assets, including regulatory assets. The Company bases its estimates, assumptions and judgments on historical experience and current operating
environment. Changes in any of the variables that are used for the Company’s estimates, assumptions and judgments may lead to significantly
different financial statement results.

Our critical accounting policies and estimates are set forth below.

Regulatory Accounting

We maintain our books and records in accordance
with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. Middlesex and certain of its subsidiaries are subject to
regulation in the states in which they operate. Those companies are required to maintain their accounts in accordance with regulatory
authorities’ rules and guidelines, which may differ from other authoritative accounting pronouncements. In those instances, the
Company follows the guidance in the Financial Accounting Standards Board Accounting Standards Codification Topic 980 Regulated Operations
(Regulatory Accounting).

In accordance with Regulatory Accounting, costs
and obligations are deferred if it is probable that these items will be recognized for rate-making purposes in future rates. Accordingly,
we have recorded costs and obligations, which will be amortized over various future periods. Any change in the assessment of the probability
of rate-making treatment would require us to change the accounting treatment of the deferred item. We have no reason to believe any of
the deferred items that are recorded will be treated differently by the regulators in the future.

34 

Revenues 

Revenues from our regulated customers, which include
amounts billed quarterly to residential customers and monthly to industrial, commercial, fire-protection and wholesale customers, also
include unbilled amounts based upon estimated usage from the date of the last meter reading to the end of the accounting period. While