Item 3. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk

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Item 3. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk

Market Price Risk

The Electric and Gas businesses have commodity price risk, primarily related to the purchases of coal, natural gas, uranium, and electricity. However, the Registrants do not bear significant exposure to earnings risk, as such changes are included in the PSCR and GCR regulatory rate-recovery mechanisms. In addition, changes in the price of natural gas can impact the valuation of lost and stolen gas, storage sales, and transportation services revenue at the Gas segment. The Gas segment manages its market price risk related to storage sales revenue primarily through the sale of long-term storage contracts. The Registrants are exposed to short-term cash flow or liquidity risk as a result of the time differential between actual cash settlements and regulatory rate recovery.

The DTE Vantage segment is subject to price risk for electricity, natural gas, coal products, and environmental attributes generated from its renewable natural gas investments. DTE Energy manages its exposure to commodity price risk through the use of long-term contracts and hedging instruments, when available.

DTE Energy's Energy Trading business segment has exposure to electricity, natural gas, environmental, crude oil, heating oil, and foreign currency exchange price fluctuations. These risks are managed by the energy marketing and trading operations through the use of forward energy, capacity, storage, options, and futures contracts, within predetermined risk parameters.

Credit Risk

Allowance for Doubtful Accounts

The Registrants regularly review contingent matters, existing and future economic conditions, customer trends and other factors relating to customers and their contracts and record provisions for amounts considered at risk of probable loss in the allowance for doubtful accounts. The Registrants believe their accrued amounts are adequate for probable loss.

Trading Activities

DTE Energy is exposed to credit risk through trading activities. Credit risk is the potential loss that may result if the trading counterparties fail to meet their contractual obligations. DTE Energy utilizes both external and internal credit assessments when determining the credit quality of trading counterparties.

The following table displays the credit quality of DTE Energy's trading counterparties as of September 30, 2022:

Credit Exposure Before Cash CollateralCash CollateralNet Credit Exposure
(In millions)
Investment Grade(a)
A- and Greater$1,017$(206)$811
BBB+ and BBB471—471
BBB-77—77
Total Investment Grade1,565(206)1,359
Non-investment grade(b)26—26
Internally Rated — investment grade(c)883(3)880
Internally Rated — non-investment grade(d)33(2)31
Total$2,507$(211)$2,296

(a)This category includes counterparties with minimum credit ratings of Baa3 assigned by Moody’s Investors Service (Moody’s) or BBB-assigned by Standard & Poor’s Rating Group, a division of McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (Standard & Poor’s). The five largest counterparty exposures, combined, for this category represented 18% of the total gross credit exposure.

(b)This category includes counterparties with credit ratings that are below investment grade. The five largest counterparty exposures, combined, for this category represented less than 1% of the total gross credit exposure.

(c)This category includes counterparties that have not been rated by Moody’s or Standard & Poor’s but are considered investment grade based on DTE Energy’s evaluation of the counterparty’s creditworthiness. The five largest counterparty exposures, combined, for this category represented 17% of the total gross credit exposure.

(d)This category includes counterparties that have not been rated by Moody’s or Standard & Poor’s and are considered non-investment grade based on DTE Energy’s evaluation of the counterparty’s creditworthiness. The five largest counterparty exposures, combined, for this category represented less than 1% of the total gross credit exposure.

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Other

The Registrants engage in business with customers that are non-investment grade. The Registrants closely monitor the credit ratings of these customers and, when deemed necessary and permitted under the tariffs, request collateral or guarantees from such customers to secure their obligations.

Interest Rate Risk

DTE Energy is subject to interest rate risk in connection with the issuance of debt. In order to manage interest costs, DTE Energy may use treasury locks and interest rate swap agreements. DTE Energy's exposure to interest rate risk arises primarily from changes in U.S. Treasury rates, commercial paper rates, credit spreads, and SOFR. As of September 30, 2022, DTE Energy had floating rate debt of $1.4 billion and a floating rate debt-to-total debt ratio of 7.1%.

Foreign Currency Exchange Risk

DTE Energy has foreign currency exchange risk arising from market price fluctuations associated with fixed priced contracts. These contracts are denominated in Canadian dollars and are primarily for the purchase and sale of natural gas and power, as well as for long-term transportation capacity. To limit DTE Energy's exposure to foreign currency exchange fluctuations, DTE Energy has entered into a series of foreign currency exchange forward contracts through December 2032.

Summary of Sensitivity Analyses

Sensitivity analyses were performed on the fair values of commodity contracts for DTE Energy and long-term debt obligations for the Registrants. The commodity contracts listed below principally relate to energy marketing and trading activities. The sensitivity analyses involved increasing and decreasing forward prices and rates at September 30, 2022 and 2021 by a hypothetical 10% and calculating the resulting change in the fair values. The hypothetical losses related to long-term debt would be realized only if DTE Energy transferred all of its fixed-rate long-term debt to other creditors.

The results of the sensitivity analyses:

Assuming a 10% Increase in Prices/RatesAssuming a 10% Decrease in Prices/Rates
As of September 30,As of September 30,
Activity2022202120222021Change in the Fair Value of
(In millions)
Environmental contracts$(8)$(16)$8$15Commodity contracts
Gas contracts$19$102$(19)$(102)Commodity contracts
Power contracts$13$13$(13)$(13)Commodity contracts
Oil contracts$2$—$(2)$—Commodity contracts
Interest rate risk — DTE Energy$(667)$(649)$718$674Long-term debt
Interest rate risk — DTE Electric$(426)$(329)$466$348Long-term debt

For further discussion of market risk, see Note 9 to the Consolidated Financial Statements, "Financial and Other Derivative Instruments."

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