Introduction

BCRI’s Electric Utility Depreciation Tables are specifically designed to capture the depreciation characteristics of electric utility transmission and distribution plant. They capture the loss in economic value due to physical deterioration, functional and technological obsolescence, and other forms of external obsolescence impacting the electric industry. This document provides a brief description of the plant accounts for which depreciation tables are provided. The actual depreciation tables are provided at the end of this chapter and on the accompanying CD.

BCRI’s tables are classified using the same plant classifications as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for the major accounts. In some cases, sub accounts are provided for commonly used classifications. A brief description of each plant account is provided in the next section. The comprehensive description of all FERC accounts can be found in FERC’s Uniform System of Accounts (Part 101) prescribed for public utilities. This document is provided in its entirety on the CD accompanying your subscription.

Summary of Changes for 2007

Rate Category ID Changes

By design, the Rate Category ID (RCatID) associated with a particular class of property is rarely changed. This allows the user to key on the same RCatID year after year. This year, however, the names of several RCatIDs were slightly changed in order to maintain consistency with our naming convention for electric plant accounts. The changes are summarized below.

Table  SEQ Table \* ARABIC 1 – Classification Changes

New Rate Categories

Several new Rate categories were added in 2007. These are all associated with FERC account 392, General Plant – Transportation Equipment. These new accounts are summarized in the table below and described in further detail later in this section.

Table  SEQ Table \* ARABIC 2 – New Plant Accounts

Depreciation Changes

The depreciation tables for several plant accounts were changed. Based on our analysis and investigation the economic lives of several electric plant accounts were updated. In some cases the underlying dispersion curve was also updated.

Table  SEQ Table \* ARABIC 3 – Economic Life Changes

Electric Plant Accounts

This section contains a brief description for each of the plant accounts for which depreciation tables are provided. The plant account descriptions were summarized from FERC documents. A comprehensive description of the all FERC accounts can be found in FERC’s Uniform System of Accounts (Part 101) prescribed for public utilities, which is provided in its entirety on the CD accompanying your subscription.

The plant account headings in this section provide both the FERC plant account number (in parenthesis to the left of the headings), and BCRI unique account number (along the right margin.)

Table  SEQ Table \* ARABIC 4

BCRI’s Electric Utility Depreciation Tables

Transmission Plant Accounts

 (352) Trans: Structures and Improvements                                    5352

This account includes structures and improvements used in connection with transmission operations.

(353) Trans: Station Equipment                                                           5353

This account includes transforming, conversion, and switching equipment used for the purpose of changing the characteristics of electricity in connection with its transmission or for controlling transmission circuits.

Includes Items:

1.     Bus compartments, concrete, brick, and sectional steel, including items permanently attached thereto.

2.     Conduit, including concrete and iron duct runs not a part of a building.

3.     Control equipment, including batteries, battery charging equipment, transformers, remote relay boards, and connections.

4.     Conversion equipment, including transformers, indoor and outdoor, frequency changers, motor generator sets, rectifiers, synchronous converters, motors, cooling equipment, and associated connections.

5.     Fences.

6.     Fixed and synchronous condensers, including transformers, switching equipment blowers, motors