Overview and Summary Of Significant Accounting Policies | OVERVIEW AND SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES IPALCO is a holding company incorporated under the laws of the state of Indiana. IPALCO, acquired by AES in March 2001, is owned by AES U.S. Investments ( 82.35% ) and CDPQ ( 17.65% ). AES U.S. Investments is owned by AES U.S. Holdings, LLC ( 85% ) and CDPQ ( 15% ). IPALCO owns all of the outstanding common stock of IPL. Substantially all of IPALCO’s business consists of generating, transmitting, distributing and selling of electric energy conducted through its principal subsidiary, IPL. IPL was incorporated under the laws of the state of Indiana in 1926. IPL has approximately 490,000 retail customers in the city of Indianapolis and neighboring cities, towns and communities, and adjacent rural areas all within the state of Indiana, with the most distant point being approximately forty miles from Indianapolis. IPL has an exclusive right to provide electric service to those customers. IPL owns and operates four generating stations, all within the state of Indiana. IPL’s largest generating station, Petersburg, is coal-fired. The second largest station, Harding Street, has converted its coal-fired units to natural gas and uses natural gas and fuel oil to power combustion turbines. In addition, IPL began the operation of a 20 MW battery energy storage unit at this location in May 2016, which provides frequency response. The third station, Eagle Valley, retired its coal-fired units in April 2016. The CCGT at Eagle Valley is expected to be completed in the first half of 2018 with a rated output of 671 MW. The fourth station, Georgetown, is a small peaking station that uses natural gas to power combustion turbines. As of September 30, 2017 , IPL’s net electric generation capacity for winter is 2,996 MW and net summer capacity is 2,881 MW. Principles of Consolidation The accompanying Financial Statements include the accounts of IPALCO, IPL and Mid-America Capital Resources, Inc., a non-regulated wholly-owned subsidiary of IPALCO. All significant intercompany amounts have been eliminated. The accompanying Financial Statements are unaudited; however, they have been prepared in accordance with GAAP for interim financial information and in conjunction with the rules and regulations of the SEC. Accordingly, they do not include all of the disclosures required by GAAP for annual fiscal reporting periods. In the opinion of management, all adjustments of a normal recurring nature necessary for fair presentation have been included. The electric utility business is affected by seasonal weather patterns throughout the year and, therefore, the operating revenues and associated operating expenses are not generated evenly by month during the year. These unaudited Financial Statements have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies described in IPALCO’s 2016 Form 10-K and should be read in conjunction therewith. Use of Management Estimates The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires that management make certain estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements. The reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period may also be affected by the estimates and assumptions that management is required to make. Actual results may differ from those estimates. Reclassifications Certain prior period amounts have been reclassified to conform to the current year presentation. New Accounting Pronouncements The following table provides a brief description of recent accounting pronouncements that had or may have a material impact on the Company’s Financial Statements. Accounting pronouncements not listed below were assessed and determined to be either not applicable or are expected to have no material impact on the Company’s Financial Statements. New Accounting Standards Adopted ASU Number and Name Description Date of Adoption Effect on the financial statements upon adoption 2016-09, Compensation - Stock Compensation (Topic 718): Improvements to Employee Share-Based Payment Accounting The standard simplifies the following aspects of accounting for share-based payments awards: accounting for income taxes, classification of excess tax benefits on the statement of cash flows, forfeitures, statutory tax withholding requirements, classification of awards as either equity or liabilities and classification of employee taxes paid on statement of cash flows when an employer withholds shares for tax-withholding purposes. Transition method: The recognition of excess tax benefits and tax deficiencies arising from vesting or settlement were applied retrospectively. The elimination of the requirement that excess tax benefits be realized before they are recognized was adopted on a modified retrospective basis with a cumulative adjustment to the opening balance sheet. January 1, 2017 The primary effect of adoption was the recognition of excess tax benefits in our provision for income taxes in the period when the awards vest or are settled, rather than in paid-in-capital in the period when the excess tax benefits are realized. We will continue to estimate the number of awards that are expected to vest in our determination of the related periodic compensation cost. The adoption of this standard did not have a material impact on the consolidated financial statements. New Accounting Standards Issued But Not Yet Effective ASU Number and Name Description Date of Adoption Effect on the financial statements upon adoption 2017-08, Receivables - Nonrefundable Fees and Other Costs (Subtopic 310-20): Premium Amortization on Purchased Callable Debt Securities This standard shortens the period of amortization of the premium on certain callable debt securities to the earliest call date. Transition method: modified retrospective. January 1, 2019. Early adoption is permitted. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of adopting the standard on its consolidated financial statements. 2017-07, Compensation - Retirement Benefits (Topic 715): Improving the Presentation of Net Periodic Pension Cost and Net Periodic Postretirement Benefit Cost This standard changes the presentation of non-service cost expense associated with defined benefit plans and updates the guidance so that only the service cost component will be eligible for capitalization. Transition method: Prospective for presentation of non-service cost expense. Retrospective for the change in capitalization. January 1, 2018. Early adoption is permitted. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of adopting the standard on its consolidated financial statements and does not plan to early adopt. 2017-05, Other Income - Gains and Losses from the Derecognition of Nonfinancial Assets (Topic 610-20) This standard clarifies the scope and application of ASC 610-20 on the sale, transfer, and derecognition of nonfinancial assets and in substance nonfinancial assets to non-customers, including partial sales. It also clarifies that the derecognition of business is under scope of ASC 810. Transition method: full or modified retrospective. The Company is in the process of identifying contracts that would not be completed as of January 1, 2018. Based on the assessment of contracts already executed as of September 30, 2017, the contracts that may require any type of assessment under the new standard is limited. January 1, 2018. Earlier application is permitted only as of January 1, 2017. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of adopting the standard on its consolidated financial statements. The Company will adopt the standard on January 1, 2018 and plans to use the modified retrospective approach. 2016-18, Statement of Cash Flows (Topic 230): Restricted Cash (a consensus of the FASB Emerging Issues Task Force) This standard requires that a statement of cash flows explain the change during the period in the total of cash, cash equivalents, and amounts generally described as restricted cash or restricted cash equivalents. Therefore, amounts generally described as restricted cash and restricted cash equivalents should be included with cash and cash equivalents when reconciling the beginning-of-period and end-of-period total amounts shown on the statement of cash flows. Transition method: retrospective. January 1, 2018 Early adoption is permitted. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of adopting the standard on its consolidated financial statements. 2016-16, Income Taxes (Topic 740): Intra-Entity Transfers of Assets Other Than Inventory This standard requires that an entity recognizes the income tax consequences of an intra-entity transfer of an asset other than inventory when the transfer occurs. Transition method: modified retrospective. January 1, 2018 Early adoption is permitted. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of adopting the standard on its consolidated financial statements. 2016-13, Financial Instruments -Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments The standard updates the impairment model for financial assets measured at amortized cost to an expected loss model rather than an incurred loss model. It also allows for the presentation of credit losses on available-for-sale debt securities as an allowance rather than a write down. Transition method: various. January 1, 2020 Early adoption is permitted only as of January 1, 2019. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of adopting the standard on its consolidated financial statements. 2016-02, Leases (Topic 842) This standard requires lesses to recognize assets and liabilities for most leases but recognize expenses in a manner similar to today's accounting. For lessors, the guidance modifies the lease classification criteria and the accounting for sales-type and direct financing leases. The guidance also eliminates today’s real estate-specific provisions. Transition method: modified retrospective at the beginning of the earliest comparative period presented in the financial statements (January 1, 2017). The Company has established a task force focused on the identification of contracts that would be under the scope of the new standard and on the assessment and measurement of the right-of-use asset and related liability. The implementation team is in the process of evaluating changes to our business processes, systems and controls to support recognition and disclosure under the new standard. January 1, 2019. Early adoption is permitted. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of adopting the standard on its consolidated financial statements. The Company intends to adopt the standard as of January 1, 2019. 2014-09, 2015-14, 2016-08, 2016-10, 2016-12, 2016-20, 2017-13, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606) See discussion of this ASU below: January 1, 2018. Earlier application is permitted only as of January 1, 2017. The Company will adopt the standard on January 1, 2018; see below for the evaluation of the impact of its adoption on the consolidated financial statements. ASU 2014-09 and its subsequent corresponding updates provide the principles an entity must apply to measure and recognize revenue. The core principle is that an entity shall recognize revenue to depict the transfer of promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the entity expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services. Amendments to the standard were issued that provide further clarification of the principle and to provide certain transition expedients. The standard will replace most existing revenue recognition guidance in GAAP. In 2016, the Company established a cross-functional implementation team and is in the process of evaluating and implementing changes to our business processes, systems and controls to support recognition and disclosure under the new standard. At this time, we do not expect any significant impact on our financial systems or a material change to controls as a result of the implementation of the new revenue recognition standard. The Company is assessing the standard on a contract-by-contract basis and is in the process of completing the contract assessments by applying the interpretations issued during 2017 on key issues. These issues include the application of the practical expedient for measuring progress towards satisfaction of a performance obligation, when variable quantities would be considered variable consideration versus an option to acquire additional goods and services and how to allocate variable consideration to one or more, but not all, distinct goods or services promised in a series of distinct goods or services that forms part of a single performance obligation. Additionally, the Company is working on the application of the standard to contracts that are under the scope of Service Concession Arrangements (Topic 853) and assessing the gross versus net presentation for spot energy sale and purchases. Through this assessment to date, the Company has not identified any situations where revenue recognized under ASC 606 could differ from that recognized under ASC 605 or where the presentation of sales to and purchases from the spot markets will change. The Company will continue its work to complete the assessment of the full population of contracts and determine the overall impact to the consolidated financial statements. The standard requires retrospective application and allows either a full retrospective adoption in which all periods are presented under the new standard or a modified retrospective approach in which the cumulative effect of initially applying the guidance is recognized at the date of initial application. Although we had previously been working toward adopting the standard using the full retrospective method, given the limited situations we have thus far determined where revenue recognized under ASC 606 differs from that recognized under ASC 605, we now expect to use the modified retrospective approach. However, the Company will continue to assess this conclusion which is dependent on the final impact to the Financial Statements. We are continuing to work with various non-authoritative industry groups, and monitoring the FASB and Transition Resource Group activity, as we finalize our accounting policy on these and other industry specific interpretative issues, which is expected in 2017. |