§ 201.154 - Plant materials and operating supplies.

A. This account shall include the cost of materials purchased primarily for use in the utility business for construction, operation and maintenance purposes. For Nonmajor utilities, this account shall include the cost of fuel on hand and unapplied materials and supplies (except meters and house regulators). For both Major and Nonmajor utilities, it shall include also the book cost of materials recovered in connection with construction, maintenance or the retirement of property, such materials being credited to construction, maintenance or accumulated depreciation provision, respectively, and included herein as follows:

(1) Reusable materials consisting of large individual items shall be included in this account at original cost, estimated if not known. The cost of repairing such items shall be charged to the maintenance account appropriate for the previous use.

(2) Reusable materials consisting of relatively small items, the identity of which (from the date of original installation to the final abandonment or sale thereof) cannot be ascertained without undue refinement in accounting, shall be included in this account at current prices new for such items. The cost of repairing such items shall be charged to the appropriate expense account as indicated by previous use.

(3) Scrap and nonusable materials included in this account shall be carried at the estimated net amount realizable therefrom. The difference between the amounts realized for scrap and nonusable materials sold and the net amount at which the materials were carried in this account, as far as practicable, shall be adjusted to the accounts credited when the materials were charged to this account.

B. Materials and supplies issued shall be credited hereto and charged to the appropriate construction, operating expense, or other account on the basis of a unit price determined by the use of cumulative average, first-in-first-out, or such other method of inventory accounting as conforms with accepted accounting standards consistently applied.

C. For Nonmajor utilities, inventories of materials, supplies, fuel, etc., shall be taken at least annually and the necessary adjustments shall be made to bring this account into agreement with the actual inventories. In effecting the adjustments, large differences which can be assigned to important classes of materials shall be equitably adjusted among the accounts to which such classes of materials have been charged since the previous inventory. Other differences shall be equitably apportioned among the accounts to which materials have been charged.