AMERICAN STATES WATER CO

Factors affecting our financial performance are summarized under the Overview section in Item 1. Business and Item 1A. Risk Factors.

Water and Electric Segments:

GSWC’s revenues, operating income and cash flows are earned primarily through delivering potable water to homes and businesses in California. BVES’s revenues, operating income and cash flows are primarily earned through delivering electricity in the Big Bear area of San Bernardino County, California. Rates charged to GSWC and BVES customers are authorized by the CPUC. These rates are intended to allow recovery of operating costs and a reasonable rate of return on invested capital. GSWC and BVES plan to continue seeking additional rate increases in future years from the CPUC to recover operating and supply costs, and receive reasonable returns on invested capital. Capital expenditures in future years at GSWC and BVES are expected to remain at substantially higher levels than depreciation expense. When necessary, GSWC and BVES may obtain funds from external sources in the capital markets and through bank borrowings.

General Rate Case Filings and Other Matters:

Water General Rate Case for the years 2025–2027

On August 14, 2023, GSWC filed a general rate case application for all its water regions and the general office. This general rate case will determine new water rates for the years 2025 – 2027. On July 12, 2024, GSWC and the Public Advocates Office (“Cal Advocates”) of the CPUC filed a joint motion to adopt a settlement agreement between GSWC and Cal Advocates in connection with the water utility general rate case. A proposed decision in the water general rate case was issued on November 15, 2024 and an alternate proposed decision was subsequently issued on December 27, 2024. The proposed decision adopted the settlement agreement and also addressed various unresolved issues related to GSWC’s requests for certain regulatory mechanisms. Among other things, the proposed decision rejected GSWC’s request for the continuation of a sales reconciliation mechanism, which would allow GSWC to adjust its sales forecast throughout the general rate case cycle to address significant fluctuations in consumption. An alternate decision issued by the assigned Commissioner on December 27, 2024, approved GSWC’s request to continue this mechanism. No other material changes were made to the proposed decision. On January 30, 2025, the CPUC issued a final decision in this proceeding that approved the alternate proposed decision, which adopted the settlement agreement. GSWC continued to bill its customers based on the existing adopted 2024 rates until the new 2025 rates were approved and implemented effective February 1, 2025. GSWC had filed with the CPUC to establish memorandum accounts to track interim rates, which made the new 2025 rates retroactive to January 1, 2025.

The settlement agreement approved in the final decision resolved most of the issues related to the calculation of the 2025 annual revenue requirement in the general rate case application leaving only two unresolved issues. Among other things, the approved settlement authorizes GSWC to invest approximately $573.1 million in capital infrastructure over the three-year capital cycle. The $573.1 million of infrastructure investment includes $17.7 million of advice letter capital investments to be filed for revenue recovery during the second and third year attrition increases when those projects are completed. In addition, the approved settlement agreement includes $58.2 million of advice letter capital investments that began construction in 2023 that we expect to file for revenue recovery during the second and third year attrition increases when those projects are completed. For all of the advice letter projects, GSWC will be allowed to accrue interest during construction at the adopted cost of debt and recover the full rate of return, including all applicable components of the revenue requirement after the assets are placed in service up until the assets are placed in customer rates.

Excluding revenues for all of the advice letter capital projects discussed above, under the terms of the approved settlement agreement (i) GSWC’s adopted operating revenues less water supply costs for 2025 will increase by approximately $23 million as compared to the 2024 adopted operating revenues less water supply costs, and (ii) there are potential additional revenue increases of approximately $20 million for each of the years 2026 and 2027 based on inflation factors used at the time of the application filing in August 2023. The increases in 2026 and 2027 are subject to the results of an earnings test and changes to the forecasted inflationary index values. Actual increases for 2026 and 2027 will be determined when the CPUC approves the filings to implement the new rate increases, using inflationary index values applicable at that time.

The two remaining 2025 revenue requirement issues that were not resolved in the approved settlement agreement were related to the sales forecast and supply mix. The final decision adopts GSWC’s recommended sales forecast and adopts a supply mix that splits the difference between GSWC’s and Cal Advocates’ forecasts. In addition, certain items related to GSWC’s request for various regulatory mechanisms were litigated that were also addressed in the final decision. With regards to these requests, the final decision (i) rejects GSWC’s request for the continuation of a full sales and revenue decoupling mechanism such as the WRAM and a full cost balancing account for water supply such as the MCBA, and instead orders GSWC to transition to a modified rate adjustment mechanism (a Monterey-style WRAM or “M-WRAM”) and an incremental cost balancing account (“ICBA”) for supply costs, (ii) accepts GSWC’s sales reconciliation mechanism, (iii) rejects GSWC’s supply mix adjustment mechanism, and (iv) rejects GSWC’s request to modify the existing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”) memorandum account to track carrying costs on capital investments needed to comply with the new PFAS maximum contaminant levels established by the U.S. EPA (with monitoring and reporting required effective 2027), and instead orders GSWC to file for recovery of PFAS-related capital projects through a separate application or future general rate case. The final decision also adopted GSWC’s M-WRAM rate design proposal, authorizing GSWC to increase the revenue requirement in its fixed service charges to between 45-48% depending on the ratemaking area representing approximately 65% of GSWC’s fixed costs in aggregate. The M-WRAM tracks the difference between the revenue based on actual metered sales through a tiered volumetric rate and the revenue that would have been received with the same actual metered sales if a blended tier standard quantity rate had been in effect. The ICBA for supply costs tracks differences between the authorized per-unit prices of water produc tion costs and actual per-unit prices ofwater production costs. The M-WRAM and ICBA are effective January 1, 2025.

As noted above, GSWC litigated its request for the continued use of the WRAM and MCBA. In August 2020, the CPUC had issued a decision that mandated the discontinuation of the existing WRAM used by investor-owned water utilities since 2008 that, in conjunction with tiered rates, incentivizes water conservation, and also ordered the discontinued use of the MCBA. In response to the CPUC’s order, GSWC, three other investor-owned water utilities and the California Water Association each separately filed a petition in 2021 with the California Supreme Court (the “Court”) to review the CPUC’s decision-making processes that resulted in discontinuing the use of the WRAM and MCBA. On July 8, 2024, the Court issued a ruling that set aside the previously issued order by the CPUC and vacated the portions of the CPUC’s August 2020 decision related to the discontinued use of the WRAM and MCBA used by water utilities and its accompanying findings and conclusions. Furthermore, in September 2022, the governor of California signed Senate Bill (“SB”) 1469, which allowed Class A water utilities, including GSWC, to continue requesting the use of a revenue decoupling mechanism in their next general rate case. However, despite the Court’s ruling and SB 1469, GSWC’s request to continue using the WRAM and MCBA was rejected by the CPUC and as a result, GSWC will not be able to recognize under-collections of revenue caused by fluctuations in consumption or changes in water supply cost mix beginning in 2025. However, the final decision did approve GSWC’s request for the continuation of a sales reconciliation mechanism, which would allow GSWC to adjust its sales forecast throughout the general rate case cycle to address significant fluctuations in consumption.

Finally, included in the consolidated results for 2024 is a tax benefit of $5 million, or $0.13 per share, resulting from the final decision that adopted a settlement agreement, which excluded from customer rates certain excess deferred income tax balances generated by activities outside of ratemaking that were previously recorded as regulatory liabilities as a result of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that reduced the corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%. Because of the final CPUC decision, and the alternate proposed decision received in December 2024, both of which approved the settlement agreement in its entirety, GSWC recorded the tax benefit in 2024 to reflect a change in estimate that decreased its regulatory liabilities associated with excess deferred income tax balances as of December 31, 2024.

Water General Rate Case for years 2022 - 2024

In June 2023, the CPUC adopted a final decision in GSWC’s general rate case application for all its water regions and its general office that determined new water rates for the years 2022–2024 retroactive to January 1, 2022. The impact of retroactive rates for the full year of 2022 as well as the 2023 estimated second-year rate increases have been reflected in the results of operations for the year ended December 31, 2023.

The third-year rate increases for 2024, which were effective January 1, 2024, have been reflected in the year ended December 31, 2024 results. There was an increase in recorded water operating revenues of $22.3 million when compared to 2023, largely as a result of the third-year rate increases for 2024 that reflects, among other things, a higher revenue requirement for increases in recorded supply costs of $3.6 million, which combined is an increase of $0.36 per share, when compared to 2023, and excludes the impact of (i) retroactive rates for the full year of 2022 resulting from the final general rate case decision, and (ii) reversing the revenues subject to refund liability previously recorded in 2022 resulting from the final cost of capital decision, with both decisions received and recorded in 2023. Actual water supply costs are tracked against adopted costs in the revenue requirement, and passed through to customers on a dollar-for-dollar basis by way of the CPUC-approved water supply cost balancing accounts. The increase in water supply costs results in a corresponding increase in water operating revenues and has no net impact on the water segment’s profitability. Due to the delay in finalizing the previous water general rate case, water revenues billed to customers for the year ended December 31, 2022 and for the period from January 1, 2023 to July 30, 2023 were based on 2021 adopted rates and new 2023 rate increases went into effect on July 31, 2023. In October 2023, surcharges were implemented to recover all retroactive rate differences accumulated in memorandum accounts for the full year of 2022 and for 2023 through July 30, 2023 over 36 months. As of December 31, 2024, there is an aggregate cumulative balance of $37.7 million in CPUC-approved general rate case memorandum accounts that have been recognized as regulatory assets with a corresponding increase in water revenues.

Cost of Capital (“COC”) Proceedings

2026 COC Application

Investor-owned water utilities serving California are required to file their cost of capital applications on a triennial basis. After receiving an extension in February 2024, GSWC’s next cost of capital application was scheduled to be filed on May 1, 2025 effective for the years 2026 - 2028. On January 14, 2025, the CPUC approved a request to defer the cost of capital application by another year. In December 2024, GSWC, along with three other investor-owned California water utilities, requested a further extension of the date by which each of them must file their cost of capital applications. The CPUC’s approval postponed this filing date by one year until May 1, 2026, with a corresponding effective date of January 1, 2027. The CPUC also approved the joint parties’ request to leave the current WCCM in place through the one-year deferral period. GSWC’s current authorized rate of return on rate base is 7.93%, based on its weighted cost of capital, which will continue in effect through December 31, 2026. The 7.93% return on rate base includes a return on equity of 10.06%, an embedded cost of debt of 5.1%, and a capital structure with 57% equity and 43% debt.

2021 COC Application

On June 29, 2023, the CPUC adopted a final decision in the cost of capital proceeding effective July 31, 2023 that, among other things, allowed for the continuation of the WCCM. The WCCM adjusts the return on equity and rate of return on rate base between the three-year cost of capital proceedings only if there is a positive or negative change of more than 100 basis points in the average of the Moody’s Aa utility bond rate as measured over the period October 1 through September 30. If there is a positive or negative change of more than 100 basis points, the return on equity is adjusted by one half of the difference. Based on the final decision, all adjustments to rates were effective July 31, 2023. Accordingly, GSWC billed its water customers and recognized revenues for the period from January 1 through July 30, 2023 based on the previously authorized return on equity of 8.9%. After receiving the final cost of capital decision, GSWC filed an advice letter to establish the WCCM and related adjustment for 2023, which increased GSWC’s 8.85% adopted return on equity in the decision to 9.36% effective July 31, 2023. For the period from October 1, 2022 through September 30, 2023, the Moody’s Aa utility bond rate increased by 139.7 basis points from the benchmark, which again triggered a WCCM adjustment and increased GSWC’s 9.36% adopted return on equity to 10.06% effective January 1, 2024.

Based on the final decision in the cost of capital proceeding issued in June 2023, all adjustments to rates were prospective and not retroactive. Following the receipt of the final decision that became effective July 31, 2023, management updated its analysis and reassessed the accounting estimates recorded to date related to GSWC’s lower cost of debt. Accordingly, during the second quarter of 2023, GSWC recorded a change in estimate that resulted in an increase to water revenues in the amount of $6.4 million, or approximately $0.13 per share, as a result of reversing its regulatory liability for revenues subject to refund that it had recorded during 2022.

Electric General Rate Case for the years 2023–2026

On August 30, 2022, BVES filed a general rate case application that determines new electric rates for the years 2023 – 2026. On November 1, 2024, BVES, Cal Advocates, and the other intervenor in the proceeding filed a joint motion to adopt a settlement agreement between the parties resolving all issues in connection with the pending general rate case. On January 16, 2025, the CPUC adopted a final decision in BVES’s general rate case proceeding that set the new electric rates retroactive to January 1, 2023 and approves the settlement agreement in its entirety.

Among other things, the settlement agreement, (i) settles and adopts the revenue requirements for each of the four years 2023 through 2026, (ii) authorizes BVES to invest approximately $52.5 million in capital infrastructure included in base rates over the four-year rate cycle and at least an additional $23.1 million (plus an allowance for funds used during construction, or “AFUDC”) to be filed for revenue recovery through advice letters when the projects are completed; (iii) adopts a cost of capital that increases BVES’s adopted return on equity from 9.6% to 10.0%, lowers the cost of debt from 6.6% to 5.51%, and maintains the capital structure of 57% equity and 43% debt, and (iv) approves for recovery the requested capital expenditures and other incremental operating costs already incurred in connection with BVES’s wildfire mitigation plans that were previously not included in customer rates.

Because of receiving a proposed decision in December 2024 followed by a final decision in January 2025, both of which approved the settlement agreement in its entirety, the impact of retroactive rates for the full year of 2023 and the 2024 second-year rate increases have been reflected in the 2024 fourth quarter results as it became probable that the approved retroactive rates for 2023 and 2024 would be permitted to be billed to customers in the future. The new rates are expected to go into effect on March 1, 2025. BVES was also authorized by the CPUC to establish a general rate case memorandum account that made the new rates retroactive to January 1, 2023. Due to the delay infinalizing the electric general rate case, billed electric revenues for the years of 2023 and 2024, were based on 2022 adopted rates. The general rate case memorandum account tracks the revenue differ ences between the 2022 adopted rates and the 2023 and 2024 new rates authorized by the CPUC for future recovery. Accordingly, as of December 31, 2024, an aggregate cumulative under-collection amount of $9.8 million in retroactive revenues related to the full year of 2023 and 2024 was recorded during the fourth quarter of 2024 along with a corresponding increase to BVES’s regulatory assets for future recovery from customers. Within 90 days from the effective date of the final decision, BVES will file for recovery of retroactive amounts accumulated related to the new rates, as well as recovery of incremental operating costs incurred prior to 2023 in connection with BVES’s wildfire mitigation plans that were being tracked in memorandum accounts prior to the new rate cycle.

As a result of reflecting the new rates in 2024 retroactive to January 1, 2023, there was an increase in 2024 recorded electric revenues of $9.8 million when compared to 2023 largely reflecting the new customer rates for 2023 and 2024 that, for this approved rate cycle cover, among other things, the growth in rate base and the higher operating costs as settled in the revenue requirement including those related to BVES’s wildfire mitigation plans that prior to 2023 were previously not included in customer rates and not expensed because they were being tracked in memorandum accounts. The increase in recorded revenues was largely offset by higher operating expenses and interest costs to support, among other things, BVES’s wildfire mitigation plans including investing in capital all of which is dedicated to improving the system safety and reliability for the community it serves. The final decision will also provide for an increase in adopted operating revenues of $2.2 million for 2025 and $3.3 million in 2026. The rate increases for 2024 - 2026 are not subject to an earnings test. Furthermore, the previously mentioned advice letter projects of at least $23.1 million are expected to generate additional annual operating revenues of approximately $3 million when the respective projects are completed, placed in service, and filed for recovery in customer rates. These projects also accrue AFUDC during construction that will further increase the revenue requirement. In the settlement agreement, the parties agreed to remove portions of the requested capital budgets from rates until they were completed and placed in service. For all of the advice letter projects, BVES will be allowed to accrue AFUDC during the construction period at the adopted rate of return, which will be added to the cost of the assets and recovered in customer rates when the assets are placed in service.

Contracted Services Segment:

ASUS’s revenues, operating income and cash flows are earned by providing water and/or wastewater services, including operation and maintenance services and construction of facilities for the water and/or wastewater systems at various military installations, pursuant to an initial 50-year, firm fixed-price contract, additional firm fixed-price contracts, task order agreements and subcontracts with third party prime contractors on military bases. Currently, ASUS has one subsidiary that has entered into a task order agreement with the U.S. government that has a term of 15 years. The contract price for each of the contracts and recurring task order agreements is subject to annual economic price adjustments. Additional revenues generated by contract operations are primarily dependent on annual economic price adjustments, and new construction activities under contract modifications with the U.S. government or agreements with other third-party prime contractors. ASUS’s subsidiaries continue to enter into U.S. government-awarded contract modifications and agreements with third-party prime contractors for new construction projects at the military bases served.

During 2024, ASUS has been awarded approximately $56.5 million in new construction projects for completion beginning in 2024 through 2027. Earnings and cash flows from modifications to the initial 50-year contracts, additional contracts thereafter with the U.S. government and agreements with third-party prime contractors for additional construction projects may or may not continue in future periods.

In August and September of 2023, ASUS was awarded new contracts with the U.S. government to serve two military bases for which operations began in April 2024. After completion of the transition periods, ASUS began operating the water and wastewater utility systems at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland under a 50-year privatization contract with the U.S. government and at Joint Base Cape Cod in Massachusetts under a 15-year contract with the U.S. government. The initial value of its contract at Naval Air Station Patuxent River was estimated at approximately $349 million over a 50-year period and is subject to annual economic price adjustments. In July 2024, the estimated contract value was increased to $378 million after an inventory adjustment. Under its contract at Joint Base Cape Cod, ASUS performs work through the annual issuance of task orders by the U.S. government over a 15-year period up to a maximum value to ASUS of $75.0 million, subject to adjustments as task orders are issued. In April 2024, the U.S. government awarded a task order to ASUS valued at $4.1 million for the first year of operation, maintenance, and renewal and replacement services of the water and wastewater systems at Joint Base Cape Cod.