SEC Company Response from PPL Corp (PPL) (CIK 0000922224) (PPL) — Jul 7, 2005
PPL Corp (PPL) (CIK 0000922224)
Date: July 7, 2005 · CIK: 0000922224 · Accession: 0000922224-05-000063
AI Filing Summary & Sentiment
File numbers found in text: 333-74794
Referenced dates: June 20, 2005
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PPL 10K 2004 Comment Letter 7/7/05
Paul
Farr
Vice
President and Controller
Tel.
610.774.2426 Fax 610.774.5087
E-mail:
pfarr@pplweb.com
PPL
Corporation
Two
North Ninth Street
Allentown,
PA 18101-1179
Tel.
610.774.5151
http://www.pplweb.com
July
7,
2005
Mr.
Jim
Allegretto
Mail
Stop
0308
U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission
Judiciary
Plaza
450
Fifth
Street, N.W.
Washington
D.C. 20549
Re:
PPL
Corporation
Form
10-K for Fiscal Year Ended December 31,
2004
Form
10-Q for Fiscal Quarter Ended March 31,
2005
File
No. 1-11459
PPL
Energy Supply, LLC
Form
10-K for Fiscal Year Ended December 31,
2004
Form
10-Q for Fiscal Quarter Ended March 31,
2005
File
No. 333-74794
PPL
Electric Utilities
Corporation
Form
10-K for Fiscal Year Ended December 31,
2004
Form
10-Q for Fiscal Quarter Ended March 31,
2005
File
No. 1-905
Dear
Mr.
Allegretto:
In
response to your letter dated June 20, 2005 regarding the above-referenced
filings, we are providing the following information to address your comments.
Each of your comments has been reprinted in bold type and is followed by
the
response of PPL Corporation and its applicable subsidiary registrants
(collectively “PPL”).
Form
10-K for Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2004
General
1.
Where
a comment below requests additional disclosures or other revisions
to be
made, these revisions should be included in your future filings,
as
applicable.
We
agree
to provide these disclosures, where applicable, in our filings for future
periods.
Item
7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results
of
Operations
Results
of Operations
2.
To
the extent discussion of segment information contributes to an
understanding of the business, or when discussion on a consolidated
basis
does not present a complete picture, segment discussion should
be included
in MD&A. See Item 303(a) of Regulation
S-K.
We
believe that our Form 10-K for 2004 provided investors with a clear
understanding of our business. In order to even further enhance our disclosure,
we have included a discussion of segment information in PPL Corporation’s and
PPL Energy Supply, LLC’s (PPL Energy Supply) first quarter 2005 Form 10-Q in the
Results of Operations section of their respective MD&As. PPL Corporation’s
and PPL Energy Supply’s Form 10-Q and Form 10-K filings for future periods will
also include a discussion of segment information. Since PPL Electric Utilities
Corporation (PPL Electric) operates in a single segment, there is no discussion
of segment information in its MD&A.
Consolidated
Statement of Cash Flows
PPL
Corporation and Subsidiaries
3.
Please
explain to us why depreciation for the year ended December 31,
2002 per
the statement of cash flows does not agree to depreciation per
the
statement of income for the corresponding year. We note that these
items
agree for the years ended December 31, 2003 and
2004.
The
$78
million difference in depreciation in 2002 between the Statement of Cash
Flows
and Statement of Income for both PPL and PPL Energy Supply was attributable
to
PPL’s acquisition of a controlling interest in Western Power Distribution
Holdings Limited and WPD Investment Holdings Limited (together “WPD”) from
Mirant Corporation (Mirant). As discussed in Note 9 in the Form 10-K for
2004,
on September 6, 2002, PPL acquired a controlling interest in WPD for
approximately $236 million, including acquisition costs. Based on paragraph
11
of ARB 51, “Consolidated Financial Statements,” PPL’s Statement of Income for
the 12 months ended December 31, 2002 reflected the consolidated results
of WPD
for the 12 months ended November 30, 2002, as though it had been acquired
at the
beginning of the year. The portion of earnings attributable to Mirant was
reported as “Minority Interest.” The acquisition also resulted in the addition
of $3.4 billion of WPD’s assets and $2.1 billion of WPD's debt to the Balance
Sheet at September 30, 2002.
The
$367
million of depreciation expense in 2002 reflected on the Statement of Income
represented twelve months of depreciation, including a full year for WPD.
The
$289 million depreciation adjustment to net income in 2002 reflected in
operating activities on the Statement of Cash Flows includes depreciation
for
WPD for only the last three months of 2002, which is the time period for
which
the accounts of WPD were consolidated on the Balance Sheet. Appendix
C of SFAS 95, “Statement of Cash Flows,” depicts the payment for the purchase of
an entity, net of the cash acquired, as an investing activity, in the Statement
of Cash Flows with the cash flows of the acquired entity from the date of
acquisition, reflected as operating, financing or investing activity, as
appropriate, within the Statement of Cash Flows.
Note
1. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
Stock-Based
Compensation
4.
You
disclose that PPL grants stock options with no intrinsic value.
We would
assume that "disqualifying dispositions" would occur and give rise
to tax
benefits that would be shown as a direct addition to stockholders
equity
pursuant to the guidance in paragraph 17 of APB 25. Please advise
why the
Statement of Shareholder's Equity contains no such adjustments.
If such
adjustments occurred and you classified them as income due to materiality,
please show us your quantitative and qualitative analysis regarding
materiality.
The
tax
benefits that arise from disqualifying dispositions of PPL’s stock option grants
are reflected as an addition to stockholders’ equity in the Statement of
Shareowners’ Common Equity. The tax benefits are included in “Capital in excess
of par - Other.” We have not provided a separate line item for the tax benefits,
as they have not been deemed significant for separate line item disclosure.
(The
tax benefits have been less than $5 million per year, which is less than
1
percent of the total activity for Capital in Excess of Par for 2004.) However,
we will continue to monitor the tax benefits and will provide a separate
line
item if this activity becomes significant in the future.
Independent
System Operator
5.
Please
explain in detail how you record hourly net sales and purchases
in your
financial statements and why such accounting is "...in accordance
with the
FERC and industry accounting." Please focus on the rationale for
a gross
or net display and indicate how you determine the unit of time
in which
gross or net accounting is
applied.
PPL
records sales to retail customers, bilateral wholesale sales and purchases
of
physical power and fuel expense for the generation of power using the accrual
method of accounting in the period when the power is delivered. The wholesale
sales and purchases that meet the criteria in EITF 03-11, “Reporting Realized
Gains and Losses on Derivative Instruments That Are Subject to FASB Statement
No. 133 and Not ‘Held for Trading Purposes’ as Defined in Issue No. 02-3,” are
reported net on the Statement of Income within “Wholesale energy marketing.”
Additionally, the bilateral sales and purchases that are designated as trading
activities are also reported net, in accordance with EITF 02-3, “Issues Involved
with Accounting for Derivative Contracts Held for Trading Purposes and Contracts
Involved in Energy Trading and Risk Management Activities,” and are reported on
the Statement of Income within “Net energy trading margins.” PPL sometimes
settles these transactions by delivery in the Independent System Operator
(ISO)
spot market. Spot market activity that balances our physical trading positions
is included on the Statement of Income in “Net energy trading
margins.”
To
the
extent that PPL’s generation output does not equal its net physical sales
obligation on an hourly basis, PPL is required to either purchase from or
sell
to the governing ISO in order to balance its position. With the two-market
settlement system that ISOs use, a participant’s day-ahead position for any
given hour determines whether the participant is a net buyer or net seller
for
that hour. This position is subsequently adjusted in the real-time market
to
reflect actual generation and customer load activity. Thus, it is possible
to be
long in the day-ahead market (thus, a net seller to the ISO) but end up being
short in the real-time market (a net purchaser), or vice versa. PPL records
its
hourly sales or purchases with the ISO based on real-time activity. In the
Statement of Income, the sum of all hourly sales positions is recorded as
“Wholesale energy marketing” and the sum of all hourly purchase positions is
recorded as “Energy purchases.”
We
believe that this approach is consistent with FERC and industry accounting.
FERC
provides accounting guidance through its Uniform System of Accounts.
Additionally, FERC provides oversight of ISOs, and ISOs operate hourly markets
to ensure that the physical power grids are balanced at all times to satisfy
system reliability requirements. To accomplish this, market participants
bid in
their megawatthour (MWh) entitlements (generation plus scheduled bilateral
purchases) against their MWh obligations (expected customer load requirements
plus scheduled bilateral sales) in the day-ahead market for every hour of
every
day, so that they have price certainty and the ISOs can direct the lowest-cost
dispatch of generation. Market prices are determined and power positions
are
ultimately settled on an hourly basis in both the day-ahead and real-time
markets. The ISOs do not allow for the exchange of power across time periods;
if
a participant is short 100 MWhs in one hour, it cannot compensate by being
100
MWhs long in the next hour.
As
noted
above, the day-ahead market provides price stability for spot market activity;
only the portion that is not settled in the day-ahead market is subject to
the
greater price volatility that happens in the real-time market. Infrequently,
the
real-time price is significantly different from the day-ahead price in any
given
hour, which could create a “negative purchase” or “negative sale.” PPL continues
to report the transaction in a manner consistent with the real-time position
for
that hour. To illustrate:
·
Assume
that during a given hour PPL sold 100 MWhs at $40 in the day-ahead
market,
but delivered 105 MWhs in the real-time market due to fluctuations
in
customer load. The real-time price for that hour was $60. PPL would
record
a 105 MWh sale for that hour with corresponding revenue of $4,300
or (100
MWhs x $40 + 5 MWhs x $60).
·
Assume
further that in the next hour PPL bought 75 MWhs in the day-ahead
market
for $40 but required 90 MWhs in the real-time market, again due
to
fluctuations in customer load. Because of unexpected outages within
the
ISO territory, the real-time price for that hour was $400. PPL
would
record a 90 MWh purchase for that hour with corresponding expense
of
$9,000 or (75 MWhs x $40 + 15 MWhs x $400).
·
Finally,
assume that in the third hour PPL sold 100 MWhs at $40 in the day-ahead
market, but only delivered 90 MWhs in the real-time market. The
real-time
price for that hour was $430. PPL would record 90 MWhs sale for
that hour
with a corresponding revenue of $(300) or (100 MWhs x $40 - 10
MWhs x
$430).
In
total,
for those three hours PPL would have provided 105 MWhs to the ISO but would
owe
the ISO $5,000. PPL’s financial statements would reflect revenues of $4,000 for
delivering 195 MWhs and purchased power of $9,000 for receiving 90 MWhs.
We
believe that this presentation accurately reflects the economics of the
transactions. Additionally, we believe that this presentation is in accordance
with revenue recognition guidance provided by Staff Accounting Bulletin No.
104,
“Revenue Recognition,” of the Commission.
Note
2. Segment and Related Information
6.
We
note that you include PPL Telcom in the PPL Supply segment. Tell
us
whether you consider PPL Telcom to be a stand-alone operating segment
as
defined by paragraph 10 of SFAS 131. If not, explain to us how