2011 WFEC Annual Report - Western Farmers Electric Cooperative

WESTERN FARMERS ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
December 31, 2011 and 2010
(q)
(r)
Regional Transmission Organization Accounting
WFEC participates in the Energy Imbalance Services Market under the Southwest Power Pool (SPP)
Regional Transmission Organization (RTO). An RTO is an organization that is established to control
and manage the transportation and flows of electricity over an area that is generally larger than a
single power company’s system. WFEC records RTO transactions on an hour-to-hour basis.
Transactions within each individual hour are netted to a single purchase or sale based on actual load
and net megawatt hour generation.
New and Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncements
In 2011, the FASB issued ASU 2011-09 Disclosures about an Employer’s Participation in
Multiemployer Plans, which requires additional disclosures related to an employer’s participation in
multiemployer retirement plans. The additional disclosure requirements are effective for annual
periods ending after December 15, 2012 for nonpublic entities. Under ASU 2011-09, employers that
participate in multiemployer pension plans are required to provide a tabular disclosure for
individually significant pension plans. This disclosure should include, among other items, the plan
legal name, the most recent “zone status” and the plan’s year-end date, the indication of date(s) of
collective bargaining agreements, required minimum contributions, and indication of what plans are
subject to a funding improvement plan, whether the employer paid a surcharge to the plan, the
amount of contributions made to each individually significant plan, the total contributions made to
all other plans in aggregate, and whether the employer’s contributions represent more than 5% of
total plan contributions. The company is currently evaluating this new guidance.
(2) Electric Utility Plant
Major classes of electric utility plant as of December 31 are as follows:
2011 2010
(In thousands)
Production plant $ 833,221 699,944
Transmission plant 280,212 271,791
Distribution plant 136,554 132,165
General plant 80,734 78,661
Unclassified plant 22,074 142,696
Electric utility plant-in-service 1,352,795 1,325,257
Construction work-in-progress 27,554 27,653
Total electric utility plant $ 1,380,349 1,352,910
Unclassified plant decreased and production plant increased approximately $121,086,000 due primarily to
the classification of the new 145-megawatt Anadarko capacity addition.
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