If you're an electric utility company in the United States, then you're required to file an Annual Report (Form 1) with The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Utilities use this form to provide stakeholders with an overview of their operations for the previous year, including for regulators to use for electric rate regulation to set prices for electricity customers.
What is the FERC Form 1?
The annual FERC Form 1 report provides a comprehensive view of information about an electric utility's operational and financial information. Specifically, the report provides detailed information related to an electric utility’s financial condition, including a balance sheet, income statement, statements of retained earnings and cash flows, as well as supplemental schedules reporting any financial statement notes and disclosures.
The operational data provides detailed breakdowns of all areas of a utility’s business, such as electric plant in service, sales and revenue, purchased power, generation capacity, and more.
Who uses FERC Form 1?
Electric utilities subject to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission jurisdiction must file a FERC Form 1 each year.
The information provided in this form helps investors, state and local officials, consumers, and other interested parties understand a utility's financial position and how it affects electric service.
What data is contained in the FERC Form 1?
The Annual Report has been used by the FERC to display the following information (among others):
- Total electric retail sales, by company
- Average price to retail customers
- Average retail rate
- Total net income or loss
- Average price to wholesale customers
- Total fuel used
- Operation and Maintenance Expenses
- Average price to retail customers
- Number of employees
- Number of customers
The annual report is filed with the FERC, but it is also provided to external stakeholders such as investors, regulators, and other interested parties. That means that you've got a lot of competition for information. You want your report to stand out from the pack, trigger action, and establish your utility as a leader in the industry.
What is the purpose of an annual report?
FERC Form No. 1 (FERC Form 1) is an annual regulatory requirement for Major electric utilities, licensees and others as noted on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s website. FERC Form No. 3-Q (FERC Form 3-Q) is a quarterly regulatory requirement which supplements the annual financial reporting requirement. These reports are designed to collect financial and operational information from electric utilities, licensees and others subject to the jurisdiction of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
These reports are also considered to be non-confidential public use forms.
How can we help you make FERC reporting easier?
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has adopted XBRL as the new data format of reporting for energy companies. Through partnerships with established reporting solutions, HData provides user-friendly workflows that simplify the transfer of your data and handle XBRL tagging for you.
Meet XBRL Requirements With Ease:
- Comply with requirements to file reports as FERC XBRL instances, without needing to learn XBRL
- Upload your spreadsheets for automatic conversion into XBRL, or build reports within our platform
- Collaborate with your team in real time by sharing tasks, comments, and approvals
- Validate accuracy instantaneously and isolate any errors for corrections
- File FERC reports in a single click
While a shift out of this system may feel worrisome, it is highly likely that any XBRL-based filing software is bound to offer users much greater ease with their filing process.