EXELON CORP (EXC) FY 2021 MD&A
This page reproduces the company's own Item 7 MD&A text from the linked SEC filing. It is filer text, not grepcent analysis, scoring, or investment advice.
Item 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
(Dollars in millions except per share data, unless otherwise noted)
Exelon
Executive Overview
As of December 31, 2021, Exelon was a utility services holding company engaged in the generation, delivery, and marketing of energy through Generation and the energy distribution and transmission businesses through ComEd, PECO, BGE, Pepco, DPL, and ACE.
Exelon has eleven reportable segments consisting of Generation’s five reportable segments (Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, New York, ERCOT, and Other Power Regions), ComEd, PECO, BGE, Pepco, DPL, and ACE. See Note 1 — Significant Accounting Policies and Note 5 — Segment Information of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information regarding Exelon's principal subsidiaries and reportable segments.
Exelon’s consolidated financial information includes the results of its seven separate operating subsidiary registrants, ComEd, PECO, BGE, PHI, Pepco, DPL, and ACE and its subsidiary Generation. The following combined Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations summarizes results for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the year ended December 31, 2020, and is separately filed by Exelon, ComEd, PECO, BGE, PHI, Pepco, DPL, and ACE. However, none of the Registrants makes any representation as to information related solely to any of the other Registrants. For discussion of the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to the year ended December 31, 2019, refer to ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS in the 2020 Form 10-K, which was filed with the SEC on February 24, 2021.
COVID-19. The Registrants have taken steps to mitigate the potential risks posed by the global outbreak (pandemic) of COVID-19. The Registrants provide a critical service to our customers which means that it is paramount that we keep our employees who operate our businesses safe and minimize unnecessary risk of exposure to the virus by taking extra precautions for employees who work in the field and in our facilities. The Registrants have implemented work from home policies where appropriate, and imposed travel limitations on employees.
The Registrants continue to implement strong physical and cyber-security measures to ensure that our systems remain functional in order to both serve our operational needs with a remote workforce and keep them running to ensure uninterrupted service to our customers.
There were no changes in internal control over financial reporting as a result of COVID-19 that materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, any of the Registrants’ internal control over financial reporting. See ITEM 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES for additional information.
Unfavorable economic conditions due to COVID-19 resulted in an estimated reduction to Exelon’s Net income of approximately $245 million for the year ended December 31, 2020. The impact was not material for the year ended December 31, 2021. To offset the unfavorable impacts from COVID-19, Exelon identified approximately $250 million in cost savings in 2020. The cost savings achieved in 2020 were higher than originally anticipated.
The Registrants assessed long-lived assets, goodwill, and investments for recoverability and there were no material impairment charges recorded in 2020 or 2021 as a result of COVID-19. See Note 12 — Asset Impairments of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information related to other impairment assessments.
The Registrants will continue to monitor developments affecting their workforce, customers, and suppliers and will take additional precautions that they determine to be necessary in order to mitigate the impacts. The Registrants cannot predict the full extent of the impacts of COVID-19, which will depend on, among other things, the rate, and public perceptions of the effectiveness, of vaccinations and rate of resumption of business activity.
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Financial Results of Operations
GAAP Results of Operations. The following table sets forth Exelon's GAAP consolidated Net Income attributable to common shareholders by Registrant or subsidiary for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020. For additional information regarding the financial results for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020 see the discussions of Results of Operations by Registrant or subsidiary.
| 2021 | 2020 | (Unfavorable) Favorable Variance | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exelon | $ | 1,706 | $ | 1,963 | $ | (257) | ||||
| ComEd | 742 | 438 | 304 | |||||||
| PECO | 504 | 447 | 57 | |||||||
| BGE | 408 | 349 | 59 | |||||||
| PHI | 561 | 495 | 66 | |||||||
| Pepco | 296 | 266 | 30 | |||||||
| DPL | 128 | 125 | 3 | |||||||
| ACE | 146 | 112 | 34 | |||||||
| Generation | (205) | 589 | (794) | |||||||
| Other(a) | (304) | (355) | 51 |
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(a)Primarily includes eliminating and consolidating adjustments, Exelon’s corporate operations, shared service entities, and other financing and investing activities.
Year Ended December 31, 2021 Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2020. Net income attributable to common shareholders decreased by $257 million and diluted earnings per average common share decreased to $1.74 in 2021 from $2.01 in 2020 primarily due to:
•Impacts of the February 2021 extreme cold weather event;
•Accelerated depreciation and amortization associated with Generation's previous decision in the third quarter of 2020 to early retire Byron and Dresden nuclear facilities in 2021, a decision which was reversed on September 15, 2021, and Generation's decision in the third quarter of 2020 to early retire Mystic Units 8 and 9 in 2024;
•Decommissioning-related activities that were not offset for the Byron units beginning in the second quarter of 2021 through September 15, 2021. With Generation's September 15, 2021 reversal of the previous decision to retire Byron, Generation resumed contractual offset for Byron as of that date;
•Impairments at Generation of the New England asset group, the Albany Green Energy biomass facility, and a wind project, partially offset by the absence of an impairment of the New England asset group in the third quarter of 2020;
•Higher net unrealized and realized losses on equity investments; and
•The absence of prior year one-time tax settlements.
The decreases were partially offset by;
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•Higher electric distribution earnings from higher rate base and higher allowed ROE due to an increase in treasury rates at ComEd;
•The favorable impacts of the multi-year plan at BGE and Pepco and regulatory rate increases at DPL and ACE;
•Favorable weather conditions at PECO and DPL's Delaware service territory;
•Favorable volume at PECO and ACE;
•Lower storm costs at PECO and DPL due to the absence of the June 2020 and August 2020 storms, respectively;
•Lower operating and maintenance expense at ComEd due to the payments that ComEd made in 2020 under the Deferred Prosecution Agreement;
•Higher mark-to-market gains;
•Higher net unrealized and realized gains on NDT funds;
•Absence of one time charges recorded in the third quarter of 2020 associated with Generation's decision to early retire the Byron and Dresden nuclear facilities and Mystic Units 8 and 9, and the reversal of one-time charges resulting from the reversal of the previous decision to early retire Byron and Dresden on September 15, 2021;
•Favorable sales and hedges of excess emission credits;
•Favorable commodity prices on fuel hedges;
•Lower nuclear fuel costs due to accelerated amortization of nuclear fuel and lower prices; and
•Higher New York ZEC revenues due to higher generation and an increase in ZEC prices.
Adjusted (non-GAAP) Operating Earnings. In addition to net income, Exelon evaluates its operating performance using the measure of Adjusted (non-GAAP) operating earnings because management believes it represents earnings directly related to the ongoing operations of the business. Adjusted (non-GAAP) operating earnings exclude certain costs, expenses, gains and losses, and other specified items. This information is intended to enhance an investor’s overall understanding of year-to-year operating results and provide an indication of Exelon’s baseline operating performance excluding items that are considered by management to be not directly related to the ongoing operations of the business. In addition, this information is among the primary indicators management uses as a basis for evaluating performance, allocating resources, setting incentive compensation targets, and planning and forecasting of future periods. Adjusted (non-GAAP) operating earnings is not a presentation defined under GAAP and may not be comparable to other companies’ presentations or deemed more useful than the GAAP information provided elsewhere in this report.
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The following table provides a reconciliation between Net income attributable to common shareholders as determined in accordance with GAAP and Adjusted (non-GAAP) operating earnings for the year ended December 31, 2021 as compared to 2020:
| For the Years Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2020 | |||||||||||||
| (In millions, except per share data) | Earnings per Diluted Share | Earnings per Diluted Share | ||||||||||||
| Net Income Attributable to Common Shareholders | $ | 1,706 | $ | 1.74 | $ | 1,963 | $ | 2.01 | ||||||
| Mark-to-Market Impact of Economic Hedging Activities (net of taxes of $145 and $73, respectively) | (421) | (0.43) | (213) | (0.22) | ||||||||||
| Unrealized Gains Related to NDT Fund Investments (net of taxes of $141 and $278, respectively)(a) | (139) | (0.14) | (256) | (0.26) | ||||||||||
| Asset Impairments (net of taxes of $136 and $135, respectively)(b) | 405 | 0.41 | 396 | 0.41 | ||||||||||
| Plant Retirements and Divestitures (net of taxes of $290 and $244, respectively)(c) | 865 | 0.88 | 718 | 0.74 | ||||||||||
| Cost Management Program (net of taxes of $2 and $14, respectively)(d) | 9 | 0.01 | 45 | 0.05 | ||||||||||
| Asset Retirement Obligation (net of taxes of $12 and $16, respectively)(e) | (35) | (0.04) | 48 | 0.05 | ||||||||||
| Change in Environmental Liabilities (net of taxes of $3 and $6, respectively) | 9 | 0.01 | 18 | 0.02 | ||||||||||
| COVID-19 Direct Costs (net of taxes of $13 and $19, respectively)(f) | 36 | 0.04 | 50 | 0.05 | ||||||||||
| Deferred Prosecution Agreement Payments (net of taxes of $0)(g) | — | — | 200 | 0.20 | ||||||||||
| Acquisition Related Costs (net of taxes of $5 and $1, respectively)(h) | 15 | 0.02 | 4 | — | ||||||||||
| ERP System Implementation Costs (net of taxes of $4 and $1, respectively)(i) | 13 | 0.01 | 3 | — | ||||||||||
| Separation Costs (net of taxes of $31)(j) | 90 | 0.09 | — | — | ||||||||||
| Costs Related to Suspension of Contractual Offset (net of taxes of $45)(k) | 148 | 0.15 | — | — | ||||||||||
| Income Tax-Related Adjustments (entire amount represents tax expense)(l) | 47 | 0.05 | 71 | 0.07 | ||||||||||
| Noncontrolling Interests (net of taxes of $2 and $19, respectively)(m) | 16 | 0.02 | 103 | 0.11 | ||||||||||
| Adjusted (non-GAAP) Operating Earnings | $ | 2,764 | $ | 2.82 | $ | 3,149 | $ | 3.22 |
__________
Note:
Amounts may not sum due to rounding.
Unless otherwise noted, the income tax impact of each reconciling item between GAAP Net Income and Adjusted (non-GAAP) Operating Earnings is based on the marginal statutory federal and state income tax rates for each Registrant, taking into account whether the income or expense item is taxable or deductible, respectively, in whole or in part. For all items except the unrealized gains and losses related to NDT funds, the marginal statutory income tax rates for 2021 and 2020 ranged from 25.0% to 29.0%. Under IRS regulations, NDT fund investment returns are taxed at different rates for investments if they are in qualified or non-qualified funds. The effective tax rates for the unrealized gains and losses related to NDT funds were 50.4% and 52.1% for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively.
(a)Reflects the impact of net unrealized gains and losses on Generation’s NDT fund investments for Non-Regulatory Agreement Units.
(b)In 2021, reflects an impairment of the New England asset group, an impairment recorded as a result of the agreement to sell the Albany Green Energy biomass facility, and an impairment of a wind project at Generation. In 2020, reflects an impairment at ComEd related to the acquisition of transmission assets and an impairment of the New England asset group in the third quarter of 2020 at Generation.
(c)In 2021, primarily reflects accelerated depreciation and amortization associated with Generation's decisions to early retire Byron, Dresden, and Mystic Units 8 and 9, partially offset by reversal of one-time charges resulting from the reversal of the previous decision to retire Byron and Dresden on September 15, 2021 and a gain on sale of Generation's solar business. Depreciation for Byron and Dresden was adjusted beginning September 15, 2021 to reflect the extended useful life estimates. In 2020, primarily reflects one-time charges and accelerated depreciation and amortization expenses
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associated with Generation’s decisions in the third quarter of 2020 to early retire Byron and Dresden nuclear facilities in 2021 and Mystic Units 8 and 9 in 2024.
(d)Primarily represents reorganization and severance costs related to cost management programs.
(e)For Generation, reflects an adjustment to the nuclear asset obligation for the Non-Regulatory Agreement Units resulting from the annual update in the third quarter of 2021 and fourth quarter of 2020, respectively.
(f)Represents direct costs related to COVID-19 consisting primarily of costs to acquire personal protective equipment, costs for cleaning supplies and services, and costs to hire healthcare professionals to monitor the health of employees.
(g)Reflects the payments made by ComEd under the Deferred Prosecution Agreement, which ComEd entered in July 2020 with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois.
(h)Reflects costs related to the acquisition of EDF's interest in CENG, which was completed in the third quarter of 2021.
(i)Reflects costs related to a multi-year Enterprise Resource Program (ERP) system implementation.
(j)Represents costs related to the separation primarily comprised of system-related costs, third-party costs paid to advisors, consultants, lawyers, and other experts assisting in the planned separation, and employee-related severance costs.
(k)Decommissioning-related activities for the former ComEd and PECO units (Regulatory Agreement Units), net of applicable taxes, including realized and unrealized gains and losses on the NDT funds, depreciation of the ARC, and accretion of the decommissioning obligation, are generally offset within Exelon’s consolidated statements of operations. These costs reflect the impact of suspension of contractual offset for the Byron units beginning in the second quarter of 2021 through September 15, 2021. With Generation's September 15, 2021 reversal of the previous decision to retire Byron, Generation resumed contractual offset for Byron as of that date.
(l)In 2021, primarily reflects the recognition of a valuation allowance against a deferred tax asset associated with Delaware net operating loss carryforwards due to a change in Delaware tax law. In 2021 and 2020, also reflects the adjustment to deferred income taxes due to changes in forecasted apportionment.
(m)Represents elimination from Generation’s results of the noncontrolling interests related to certain exclusion items, primarily related to unrealized gains and losses on NDT fund investments for CENG units prior to Generation's acquisition of EDF's interest in CENG on August 6, 2021 and the noncontrolling interest portion of a wind project impairment.
Significant 2021 Transactions and Developments
Separation
On February 21, 2021, Exelon’s Board of Directors approved a plan to separate the Utility Registrants and Generation, creating two publicly traded companies with the resources necessary to best serve customers and sustain long-term investment and operating excellence ("the separation"). The separation gives each company the financial and strategic independence to focus on its specific customer needs, while executing its core business strategy. Exelon completed the separation on February 1, 2022. The new publicly traded company is Constellation Energy Corporation. See Note 26 — Separation of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.
In connection with the separation, Exelon incurred transaction costs of $122 million on a pre-tax basis for the year ended December 31, 2021, which are recorded in Operating and maintenance expense. Exelon expects to incur incremental transaction costs of approximately $90 million in 2022. These costs are excluded from Adjusted (non-GAAP) Operating Earnings. The transaction costs are primarily comprised of system-related costs, third-party costs paid to advisors, consultants, lawyers, and other experts assisting in the separation, and employee-related severance costs.
CENG Put Option
EDF had the option to sell its 49.99% equity interest in CENG to Generation exercisable beginning on January 1, 2016 and thereafter until June 30, 2022. On November 20, 2019, Generation received notice of EDF’s intention to exercise the put option and sell its 49.99% equity interest in CENG to Generation and the put automatically exercised on January 19, 2020 at the end of the sixty-day advance notice period. On August 6, 2021, Generation and EDF entered into a settlement agreement pursuant to which Generation, through a wholly owned subsidiary, purchased EDF’s equity interest in CENG for a net purchase price of $885 million, which includes, among other things, an adjustment for EDF’s share of the balance of the preferred distribution payable by CENG to Generation. The difference between the net purchase price and EDF’s noncontrolling interest as of the closing date was recorded to Common Stock in Exelon’s Consolidated Balance Sheet.
In connection with the settlement agreement, on August 6, 2021, Generation issued approximately $880 million under a term loan credit agreement to fund the transaction, which will expire on August 5, 2022.
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See Note Note 2 — Mergers, Acquisitions, and Dispositions and Note 17 — Debt and Credit Agreements of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.
Clean Energy Law
On September 15, 2021, the Illinois Public Act 102-0662 was signed into law by the Governor of Illinois (“Clean Energy Law”). The Clean Energy Law is designed to achieve 100% carbon-free power by 2045 to enable the state’s transition to a clean energy economy. The Clean Energy Law establishes decarbonization requirements for Illinois as well as programs to support the retention and development of emissions-free sources of electricity. Among other things, the Clean Energy Law authorized the IPA to procure up to 54.5 million CMCs from qualifying nuclear plants for a five-year period beginning on June 1, 2022 through May 31, 2027. CMCs are credits for the carbon-free attributes of eligible nuclear power plants in PJM. The Byron, Dresden, and Braidwood nuclear plants located in Illinois participated in the CMC procurement process and were awarded contracts that commit each plant to operate through May 31, 2027. Pursuant to these contracts, ComEd will procure CMCs based upon the number of MWhs produced annually by each plant, subject to minimum performance requirements. ComEd is required to purchase CMCs pursuant to these contracts and all its costs of doing so will be recovered through a new rider.
Following enactment of the Clean Energy Law, Generation announced on September 15, 2021, that it has reversed the previous decision to retire Byron and Dresden given the opportunity for additional revenue. In addition, Generation no longer considers the Braidwood or LaSalle nuclear plants to be at risk for premature retirement. See Note 7 — Early Plant Retirements of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information and Early Retirement of Generation Facilities below.
The Clean Energy Law also contains requirements associated with ComEd’s transition away from the performance-based electric distribution formula rate. The law authorizing that rate setting process sunsets at the end of 2022. The Clean Energy Law, and tariffs adopted under it, governs both the remaining reconciliations of rates set under that process and requires ComEd to file in 2023 its choice of either a general rate case or a four-year multi-year plan to set rates that take effect in 2024. If ComEd elects to file a multi-year plan, that plan would set rates for 2024 – 2027, based on forecasted revenue requirements and an ICC determined rate of return on rate base, including the cost of common equity. See Note 3 — Regulatory Matters of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information and other features of the Clean Energy Law.
Early Retirement of Generation Facilities
In August 2020, Generation announced the intention to retire the Byron Generating Station in September 2021, Dresden Generating Station in November 2021, and Mystic Units 8 and 9 at the expiration of the cost of service commitment in May 2024. As a result, Exelon recognized a $500 million pre-tax impairment for the New England asset group along with certain one-time charges in the third and fourth quarters of 2020 in addition to ongoing annual financial impacts stemming from shortening the expected economic useful lives of these facilities, primarily related to accelerated depreciation of plant assets (including any ARC) and accelerated amortization of nuclear fuel.
In the second quarter of 2021, an incremental decline in value resulted in an additional pre-tax impairment charge of $350 million for the New England asset group.
Exelon recorded pre-tax charges of $53 million and $140 million, in the second and third quarters of 2021, respectively, for decommissioning-related activities that were not offset for the Byron units due to the inability to recognize a regulatory asset at ComEd.
On September 15, 2021, Generation reversed the previous decision to early retire Byron and Dresden and the expected economic useful life for both facilities was updated to 2044 and 2046 for Byron Units 1 and 2, respectively, and to 2029 and 2031 for Dresden Units 2 and 3, respectively. Depreciation was therefore adjusted beginning September 15, 2021, to reflect these extended useful life estimates. In addition, in the third quarter of 2021, Exelon reversed approximately $81 million of severance benefit costs and $13 million of other one-time charges initially recorded in the third and fourth quarters of 2020 associated with the early retirements.
All of the charges were excluded from Exelon's Adjusted (non-GAAP) Operating Earnings.
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Exelon recognized pre-tax expenses for Byron, Dresden, and Mystic Units 8 and 9 of $1,458 million for the year ended December 31, 2021, primarily due to accelerated depreciation and amortization of plant assets, partially offset by the reversal of one-time charges for Byron and Dresden.
See Note 7 — Early Plant Retirements, Note 10 — Asset Retirement Obligations, and Note 12 — Asset Impairments of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.
Impacts of the February 2021 Extreme Cold Weather Event and Texas-based Generating Assets Outages
Beginning on February 15, 2021, Generation’s Texas-based generating assets within the ERCOT market, specifically Colorado Bend II, Wolf Hollow II, and Handley, experienced outages as a result of extreme cold weather conditions. In addition, those weather conditions drove increased demand for service, dramatically increased wholesale power prices, and also increased gas prices in certain regions.
The estimated impact to Exelon’s Net income for the year ended December 31, 2021 arising from these market and weather conditions was a reduction of approximately $800 million. The ultimate impact to Exelon’s consolidated financial statements may be affected by a number of factors, including the impacts of customer and counterparty defaults and recoveries, any additional solutions to address the financial challenges caused by the event, and related litigation and contract disputes. See Note 3 — Regulatory Matters and Note 19 — Commitments and Contingencies of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.
To offset a portion of the unfavorable impacts, Exelon identified between $410 million and $490 million of enhanced revenue opportunities, deferral of selected non-essential maintenance, and primarily one-time cost savings, primarily at Generation, which was achieved in 2021.
Agreement for the Sale of a Generation Biomass Facility
On April 28, 2021, Generation and ReGenerate Energy Holdings, LLC ("ReGenerate") entered into a purchase agreement, under which ReGenerate agreed to purchase Generation's interest in the Albany Green Energy biomass facility. As a result, in the second quarter of 2021, Exelon recorded a pre-tax impairment charge of $140 million which is excluded from Exelon’s Adjusted (non-GAAP) Operating Earnings. The sale was completed on June 30, 2021 for a net purchase price of $36 million. Note 2 — Mergers, Acquisitions, and Dispositions of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.
Utility Distribution Base Rate Case Proceedings
The Utility Registrants file base rate cases with their regulatory commissions seeking increases or decreases to their electric transmission and distribution, and gas distribution rates to recover their costs and earn a fair return on their investments. The outcomes of these regulatory proceedings impact the Utility Registrants’ current and future financial statements.
The following tables show the Utility Registrants’ completed and pending distribution base rate case proceedings in 2021. See Note 3 — Regulatory Matters of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on these and other regulatory proceedings.
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Completed Distribution Base Rate Case Proceedings
| Registrant/Jurisdiction | Filing Date | Service | Requested Revenue Requirement (Decrease) Increase | Approved Revenue Requirement (Decrease) Increase | Approved ROE | Approval Date | Rate Effective Date | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ComEd - Illinois | April 16, 2020 | Electric | $ | (11) | $ | (14) | 8.38 | % | December 9, 2020 | January 1, 2021 | |||||||||
| April 16, 2021 | Electric | 51 | 46 | 7.36 | % | December 1, 2021 | January 1, 2022 | ||||||||||||
| PECO - Pennsylvania | September 30, 2020 | Natural Gas | 69 | 29 | 10.24 | % | June 22, 2021 | July 1, 2021 | |||||||||||
| March 30, 2021 | Electric | 246 | 132 | N/A | November 18, 2021 | January 1, 2022 | |||||||||||||
| BGE - Maryland | May 15, 2020 (amended September 11, 2020) | Electric | 203 | 140 | 9.50 | % | December 16, 2020 | January 1, 2021 | |||||||||||
| Natural Gas | 108 | 74 | 9.65 | % | |||||||||||||||
| Pepco - District of Columbia | May 30, 2019 (amended June 1, 2020) | Electric | 136 | 109 | 9.275 | % | June 8, 2021 | July 1, 2021 | |||||||||||
| Pepco - Maryland | October 26, 2020 (amended March 31, 2021) | Electric | 104 | 52 | 9.55 | % | June 28, 2021 | June 28, 2021 | |||||||||||
| DPL - Delaware | March 6, 2020 (amended February 2, 2021) | Electric | 23 | 14 | 9.60 | % | September 15, 2021 | October 6, 2020 | |||||||||||
| ACE - New Jersey | December 9, 2020 (amended February 26, 2021) | Electric | 67 | 41 | 9.60 | % | July 14, 2021 | January 1, 2022 |
Pending Distribution Base Rate Case Proceedings
| Registrant/Jurisdiction | Filing Date | Service | Requested Revenue Requirement Increase | Requested ROE | Expected Approval Timing | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DPL - Delaware | January 14, 2022 | Natural Gas | $ | 14 | 10.30 | % | First quarter of 2023 | ||||||
| DPL - Maryland | September 1, 2021 (amended December 23, 2021) | Electric | 27 | 10.10 | % | First quarter of 2022 |
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Transmission Formula Rates
The following total increases/(decreases) were included in the Utility Registrants' 2021 annual electric transmission formula rate updates. See Note 3 — Regulatory Matters of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.
| Registrant | Initial Revenue Requirement Increase (Decrease) | Annual Reconciliation Increase | Total Revenue Requirement Increase | Allowed Return on Rate Base | Allowed ROE | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ComEd | $ | 33 | $ | 12 | $ | 45 | 8.20 | % | 11.50 | % | ||||||||
| PECO | (2) | 26 | 24 | 7.37 | % | 10.35 | % | |||||||||||
| BGE | 38 | 27 | 65 | 7.35 | % | 10.50 | % | |||||||||||
| Pepco | (9) | 21 | 12 | 7.68 | % | 10.50 | % | |||||||||||
| DPL | 19 | 33 | 52 | 7.20 | % | 10.50 | % | |||||||||||
| ACE | 27 | 24 | 51 | 7.45 | % | 10.50 | % |
Other Key Business Drivers and Management Strategies
Utility Rates and Rate Proceedings
The Utility Registrants file rate cases with their regulatory commissions seeking increases or decreases to their electric transmission and distribution, and gas distribution rates to recover their costs and earn a fair return on their investments. The outcomes of these regulatory proceedings impact the Utility Registrants’ current and future results of operations, cash flows, and financial positions. See Note 3 — Regulatory Matters of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on these regulatory proceedings.
Legislative and Regulatory Developments
FERC Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
On April 15, 2021, FERC issued a Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) proposing to modify the current regulation permitting a continuous 50-basis-point ROE incentive adder for a transmission utility that joins and remains a member of a RTO. Under the NOPR, the ROE incentive adder would only be available for a period of up to three years after a transmission utility newly joins a RTO and all existing ROE incentive adders would end for transmission utilities that have been members for three or more years. The Utility Registrants’ existing transmission rates include the ROE incentive adder. Exelon submitted comments to FERC on this matter on June 25, 2021. Exelon cannot predict the outcome, but a final rule as proposed could have an adverse impact to the Registrants’ financial statements. See Note 3 — Regulatory Matters of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information regarding the Utility Registrants’ transmission formula rates and regulatory proceedings at FERC.
City of Chicago Franchise Agreement
ComEd has had a Franchise Agreement with the City of Chicago (the City) since 1992. The Franchise Agreement grants rights to use the public right of way to install, maintain, and operate the wires, poles, and other infrastructure required to deliver electricity to residents and businesses across the City. The Franchise Agreement became terminable on one year notice as of December 31, 2020. It now continues in effect indefinitely unless and until either party issues a notice of termination, effective one year later, or it is replaced by mutual agreement with a new franchise agreement between ComEd and the City. If either party terminates and no new agreement is reached between the parties, the parties could continue with ComEd providing electric services within the City with no franchise agreement in place. The City also has an option to terminate and purchase the ComEd system (“municipalize”), which also requires one year notice. Neither party has issued a
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notice of termination at this time, the City has not exercised its municipalization option, and no new agreement has been reached. Accordingly, the 1992 Franchise Agreement remains in effect at this time. In April 2021, the City invited interested parties to respond to a Request for Information (RFI) regarding the franchise for electricity delivery. Under this process, the City could choose to terminate the ComEd Franchise Agreement on one year notice and grant a franchise to another party instead. Final responses to the RFI were due on July 30, 2021, however, on July 29, 2021, the City chose to extend the final submission deadline to September 30, 2021. ComEd submitted its response to the RFI by the due date and looks forward to continuing engagement with the City about its response. While Exelon and ComEd cannot predict the ultimate outcome of the RFI and the Franchise Agreement, fundamental changes in the agreement or other adverse actions affecting ComEd’s business in the City would require changes in their business planning models and operations and could have a material adverse impact on Exelon’s and ComEd’s consolidated financial statements. If the City were to disconnect from the ComEd system, ComEd would seek full compensation for the business and its associated property taken by the City, as well as for all damages resulting to ComEd and its system. ComEd would also seek appropriate compensation for stranded costs with FERC.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires that management apply accounting policies and make estimates and assumptions that affect results of operations and the amounts of assets and liabilities reported in the financial statements. Management believes that the accounting policies described below require significant judgment in their application or incorporate estimates and assumptions that are inherently uncertain and that may change in subsequent periods. Additional information on the application of these accounting policies can be found in the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.
Nuclear Decommissioning Asset Retirement Obligations (Exelon)
Exelon recorded AROs associated with decommissioning Generation's nuclear units of $12.7 billion at December 31, 2021. The authoritative guidance requires that Generation estimate its obligation for the future decommissioning of its nuclear generating plants. To estimate that liability, Generation uses an internally-developed, probability-weighted, discounted cash flow model which, on a unit-by-unit basis, considers multiple decommissioning outcome scenarios.
As a result of nuclear plant retirements in the industry, in recent years, nuclear operators and third-party service providers are obtaining more information about costs associated with decommissioning activities. At the same time, regulators are gaining more information about decommissioning activities which could result in changes to existing decommissioning requirements. In addition, as more nuclear plants are retired, it is possible that technological advances will be identified that could create efficiencies and lead to a reduction in decommissioning costs. The amount of NDT funds could also impact the timing of the decommissioning activities. Additionally, certain factors such as changes in regulatory requirements during plant operations or the profitability of a nuclear plant could impact the timing of plant retirements.
The nuclear decommissioning obligation is adjusted on a regular basis due to the passage of time and revisions to the key assumptions for the expected timing and/or estimated amounts of the future undiscounted cash flows required to decommission the nuclear plants, based upon the following methodologies and significant estimates and assumptions:
Decommissioning Cost Studies. Generation uses unit-by-unit decommissioning cost studies to provide a marketplace assessment of the expected costs (in current year dollars) and timing of decommissioning activities, which are validated by comparison to current decommissioning projects within the industry and other estimates. Decommissioning cost studies are updated, on a rotational basis, for each of Generation’s nuclear units at least every five years, unless circumstances warrant more frequent updates. As part of the annual cost study update process, Generation evaluates newly assumed costs or substantive changes in previously assumed costs to determine if the cost estimate impacts are sufficiently material to warrant application of the updated estimates to the AROs across the nuclear fleet outside of the normal five-year rotating cost study update cycle.
Cost Escalation Factors. Generation uses cost escalation factors to escalate the decommissioning costs from the decommissioning cost studies discussed above through the assumed decommissioning period for each of the units. Cost escalation studies, updated on an annual basis, are used to determine escalation factors, and are
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based on inflation indices for labor, equipment and materials, energy, LLRW disposal, and other costs. All the nuclear AROs are adjusted each year for updated cost escalation factors.
Probabilistic Cash Flow Models. Generation’s probabilistic cash flow models include the assignment of probabilities to various scenarios for decommissioning cost levels, decommissioning approaches, and timing of plant shutdown on a unit-by-unit basis. Probabilities assigned to cost levels include an assessment of the likelihood of costs 20% higher (high-cost scenario) or 15% lower (low-cost scenario) than the base cost scenario. The assumed decommissioning scenarios generally include the following three alternatives: (1) DECON, which assumes major decommissioning activities begin shortly after the cessation of operation, (2) Shortened SAFSTOR, which generally assumes a 30-year delay prior to onset of major decommissioning activities, and (3) SAFSTOR, which assumes the nuclear facility is placed and maintained in such condition during decommissioning so that the nuclear facility can be safely stored and subsequently decontaminated within 60 years after cessation of operations. In each decommissioning scenario, spent fuel is transferred to dry cask storage as soon as possible until DOE acceptance for disposal.
The actual decommissioning approach selected once a nuclear facility is shutdown will be determined by Generation at the time of shutdown and may be influenced by multiple factors including the funding status of the NDT funds at the time of shutdown and regulatory or other commitments.
The assumed plant shutdown timing scenarios include the following four alternatives: (1) the probability of operating through the original 40-year nuclear license term, (2) the probability of operating through an initial 20-year license renewal term, (3) the probability of a second, 20-year license renewal term, and (4) the probability of early plant retirement for certain sites due to changing market conditions and regulatory environments. As power market and regulatory environment developments occur, Generation evaluates and incorporates, as necessary, the impacts of such developments into its nuclear ARO assumptions and estimates.
Generation’s probabilistic cash flow models also include an assessment of the timing of DOE acceptance of SNF for disposal. Generation currently assumes DOE will begin accepting SNF from the industry in 2035. The SNF acceptance date assumption is based on management’s estimates of the amount of time required for DOE to select a site location and develop the necessary infrastructure for long-term SNF storage. For additional information regarding SNF, see Note 19 — Commitments and Contingencies of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.
Discount Rates. The probability-weighted estimated future cash flows for the various assumed scenarios are discounted using credit-adjusted, risk-free rates (CARFR). Generation initially recognizes an ARO at fair value and subsequently adjusts it for changes to estimated costs, timing of future cash flows and modifications to decommissioning assumptions. The ARO is not required or permitted to be re-measured for changes in the CARFR that occur in isolation. Increases in the ARO due to upward revisions in estimated undiscounted cash flows are considered new obligations and are measured using a current CARFR as the increase creates a new cost layer within the ARO. Any decrease in the estimated undiscounted future cash flows relating to the ARO are treated as a modification of an existing ARO cost layer and, therefore, are measured using the average historical CARFR rates used in creating the initial ARO cost layers. If all of Generation's future nominal cash flows associated with the ARO were to be discounted at the current prevailing CARFR, the obligation would increase from approximately $12.7 billion to approximately $16.0 billion.
The following table illustrates the significant impact that changes in the CARFR, when combined with changes in projected amounts and expected timing of cash flows, can have on the valuation of the ARO:
| Change in the CARFR applied to the annual ARO update | (Decrease) Increase to ARO as of December 31, 2021 | |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 CARFR rather than the 2021 CARFR | $ | (490) |
| 2021 CARFR increased by 50 basis points | (600) | |
| 2021 CARFR decreased by 50 basis points | 750 |
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ARO Sensitivities. Changes in the assumptions underlying the ARO could materially affect the decommissioning obligation. The impact of a change in any one of these assumptions to the ARO is highly dependent on how the other assumptions may correspondingly change.
The following table illustrates the effects of changing certain ARO assumptions while holding all other assumptions constant:
| Change in ARO Assumption | Increase to ARO as of December 31, 2021 | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost escalation studies | ||
| Uniform increase in escalation rates of 50 basis points | $ | 2,900 |
| Probabilistic cash flow models | ||
| Increase the estimated costs to decommission the nuclear plants by 10 percent | 1,110 | |
| Increase the likelihood of the DECON scenario by 10 percent and decrease the likelihood of the SAFSTOR scenario by 10 percent(a) | 480 | |
| Shorten each unit's probability weighted operating life assumption by 10 percent(b) | 1,570 | |
| Extend the estimated date for DOE acceptance of SNF to 2040 | 290 |
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(a)Excludes any sites in which management has committed to a specific decommissioning approach.
(b)Excludes any retired sites.
See Note 1 — Significant Accounting Policies and Note 10 — Asset Retirement Obligations of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information regarding accounting for nuclear AROs.
Goodwill (Exelon, ComEd, and PHI)
As of December 31, 2021, Exelon’s $6.7 billion carrying amount of goodwill consists primarily of $2.6 billion at ComEd and $4 billion at PHI. These entities are required to perform an assessment for possible impairment of their goodwill at least annually or more frequently if an event occurs or circumstances change that would more likely than not reduce the fair value of the reporting units below their carrying amount. A reporting unit is an operating segment or one level below an operating segment (known as a component) and is the level at which goodwill is assessed for impairment. ComEd has a single operating segment and reporting unit. PHI’s operating segments and reporting units are Pepco, DPL, and ACE. See Note 5 — Segment Information of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information. Exelon's and ComEd’s goodwill has been assigned entirely to the ComEd reporting unit. Exelon's and PHI’s goodwill has been assigned to the Pepco, DPL, and ACE reporting units in the amounts of $2.1 billion, $1.4 billion, and $0.5 billion, respectively. See Note 13 — Intangible Assets of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.
Entities assessing goodwill for impairment have the option of first performing a qualitative assessment to determine whether a quantitative assessment is necessary. As part of the qualitative assessments, Exelon, ComEd, and PHI evaluate, among other things, management's best estimate of projected operating and capital cash flows for their businesses, outcomes of recent regulatory proceedings, changes in certain market conditions, including the discount rate and regulated utility peer EBITDA multiples, and the passing margin from their last quantitative assessments performed.
Application of the goodwill impairment assessment requires management judgment, including the identification of reporting units and determining the fair value of the reporting unit, which management estimates using a weighted combination of a discounted cash flow analysis and a market multiples analysis. Significant assumptions used in these fair value analyses include discount and growth rates, utility sector market performance and transactions, and projected operating and capital cash flows for ComEd’s, Pepco's, DPL's, and ACE's businesses and the fair value of debt.
While the 2021 annual assessments indicated no impairments, certain assumptions used in the assessment are highly sensitive to changes. Adverse regulatory actions or changes in significant assumptions could potentially result in future impairments of Exelon’s, ComEd's, or PHI’s goodwill, which could be material.
See Note 1 — Significant Accounting Policies and Note 13 — Intangible Assets of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.
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Unamortized Energy Contract Assets and Liabilities (Exelon and PHI)
Unamortized energy contract assets and liabilities represent the remaining unamortized balances of non-derivative energy contracts that Generation has acquired and the electricity contracts Exelon acquired as part of the PHI merger. The initial amount recorded represents the difference between the fair value of the contracts at the time of acquisition and the contract value based on the terms of each contract. At Exelon and PHI, offsetting regulatory assets or liabilities were also recorded for those energy contract costs that are probable of recovery or refund through customer rates. The unamortized energy contract assets and liabilities and any corresponding regulatory assets or liabilities, respectively, are amortized over the life of the contract in relation to the expected realization of the underlying cash flows. Amortization of the unamortized energy contract assets and liabilities are recorded through purchased power and fuel expense or operating revenues, depending on the nature of the underlying contract. See Note 3 — Regulatory Matters and Note 13 — Intangible Assets of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.
Impairment of Long-Lived Assets (Exelon)
Exelon regularly monitors and evaluates the carrying value of long-lived assets or asset groups for recoverability whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value of those assets may not be recoverable. Indicators of potential impairment may include a deteriorating business climate, including, but not limited to, declines in energy prices, condition of the asset, or plans to dispose of a long-lived asset significantly before the end of its useful life.
The review of long-lived assets or asset groups for impairment utilizes significant assumptions about operating strategies and estimates of future cash flows, which require assessments of current and projected market conditions. For Generation, forecasting future cash flows requires assumptions regarding forecasted commodity prices for the sale of power and purchases of fuel and the expected operations of assets. A variation in the assumptions used could lead to a different conclusion regarding the recoverability of an asset or asset group. An impairment evaluation is based on an undiscounted cash flow analysis at the lowest level at which cash flows of the long-lived assets or asset groups are largely independent of the cash flows of other assets and liabilities. For Generation, the lowest level of independent cash flows is determined by the evaluation of several factors, including the geographic dispatch of the generation units and the hedging strategies related to those units. The cash flows from the generating units are generally evaluated at a regional portfolio level given the interdependency of cash flows generated from the customer supply and risk management activities within each region. In certain cases, the generating assets may be evaluated on an individual basis where those assets are contracted on a long-term basis with a third party and operations are independent of other generating assets (typically contracted renewables).
On a quarterly basis, Generation assesses its long-lived assets or asset groups for indicators of potential impairment. If indicators are present for a long-lived asset or asset group, a comparison of the undiscounted expected future cash flows to the carrying value is performed. When the undiscounted cash flow analysis indicates the carrying value of a long-lived asset or asset group may not be recoverable, the amount of the impairment loss is determined by measuring the excess of the carrying amount of the long-lived asset or asset group over its fair value. The fair value of the long-lived asset or asset group is dependent upon a market participant’s view of the exit price of the asset or asset groups. This includes significant assumptions of the estimated future cash flows generated by the asset or asset groups and market discount rates. Events and circumstances often do not occur as expected, resulting in differences between prospective financial information and actual results, which may be material. The determination of fair value is driven by both internal assumptions that include significant unobservable inputs (Level 3), such as revenue and generation forecasts, projected capital, maintenance expenditures, and discount rates, as well as information from various public, financial and industry sources.
See Note 12 — Asset Impairments of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for a discussion of asset impairment assessments.
Depreciable Lives of Property, Plant, and Equipment (All Registrants)
The Registrants have significant investments in electric generation assets and electric and natural gas transmission and distribution assets. These assets are generally depreciated on a straight-line basis, using the group, composite, or unitary methods of depreciation. The group approach is typically for groups of similar assets
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that have approximately the same useful lives and the composite approach is used for heterogeneous assets that have different lives. Under both methods, a reporting entity depreciates the assets over the average life of the assets in the group. The estimation of asset useful lives requires management judgment, supported by formal depreciation studies of historical asset retirement experience. Depreciation studies are conducted periodically and as required by a rate regulator or if an event, regulatory action, or change in retirement patterns indicate an update is necessary.
For the Utility Registrants, depreciation studies generally serve as the basis for amounts allowed in customer rates for recovery of depreciation costs. Generally, the Utility Registrants adjust their depreciation rates for financial reporting purposes concurrent with adjustments to depreciation rates reflected in customer rates, unless the depreciation rates reflected in customer rates do not align with management’s judgment as to an appropriate estimated useful life or have not been updated on a timely basis. Depreciation expense and customer rates for ComEd, BGE, Pepco, DPL, and ACE include an estimate of the future costs of dismantling and removing plant from service upon retirement. See Note 3 — Regulatory Matters of the Combined Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements for information regarding regulatory liabilities and assets recorded by ComEd, BGE, Pepco, DPL, and ACE related to removal costs.
PECO’s removal costs are capitalized to accumulated depreciation when incurred, and recorded to depreciation expense over the life of the new asset constructed consistent with PECO’s regulatory recovery method. Estimates for such removal costs are also evaluated in the periodic depreciation studies.
At Generation, along with depreciation study results, management considers expected future energy market conditions and generation plant operating costs and capital investment requirements in determining the estimated service lives of its generating facilities and reassesses the reasonableness of estimated useful lives whenever events or changes in circumstances warrant. When a determination has been made that an asset will be retired before the end of its current estimated useful life, depreciation provisions will be accelerated to reflect the shortened estimated useful life. See Note 7 — Early Plant Retirements of the Combined Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.
Changes in estimated useful lives of electric generation assets and of electric and natural gas transmission and distribution assets could have a significant impact on the Registrants’ future results of operations. See Note 1 — Significant Accounting Policies of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for information regarding depreciation and estimated service lives of the property, plant, and equipment of the Registrants.
Defined Benefit Pension and Other Postretirement Employee Benefits (All Registrants)
Exelon sponsors defined benefit pension plans and OPEB plans for substantially all current employees. The measurement of the plan obligations and costs of providing benefits involves various factors, including the development of valuation assumptions and inputs and accounting policy elections. When developing the required assumptions, Exelon considers historical information as well as future expectations. The measurement of benefit obligations and costs is affected by several assumptions including the discount rate, the long-term expected rate of return on plan assets, the anticipated rate of increase of health care costs, Exelon's contributions, the rate of compensation increases, and the long-term expected investment rate credited to employees of certain plans, among others. The assumptions are updated annually and upon any interim remeasurement of the plan obligations.
Pension and OPEB plan assets include equity securities, including U.S. and international securities, and fixed income securities, as well as certain alternative investment classes such as real estate, private equity, and hedge funds.
Expected Rate of Return on Plan Assets. In determining the EROA, Exelon considers historical economic indicators (including inflation and GDP growth) that impact asset returns, as well as expectation regarding future long-term capital market performance, weighted by Exelon’s target asset class allocations. Exelon calculates the amount of expected return on pension and OPEB plan assets by multiplying the EROA by the MRV of plan assets at the beginning of the year, taking into consideration anticipated contributions and benefit payments to be made during the year. In determining MRV, the authoritative guidance for pensions and postretirement benefits allows the use of either fair value or a calculated value that recognizes changes in fair value in a systematic and rational manner over not more than five years. For the majority of pension plan assets, Exelon uses a calculated value that adjusts for 20% of the difference between fair value and expected MRV of plan assets. Use of this
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calculated value approach enables less volatile expected asset returns to be recognized as a component of pension cost from year to year. For OPEB plan assets and certain pension plan assets, Exelon uses fair value to calculate the MRV.
Discount Rate. The discount rates are determined by developing a spot rate curve based on the yield to maturity of a universe of high-quality non-callable (or callable with make whole provisions) bonds with similar maturities to the related pension and OPEB obligations. The spot rates are used to discount the estimated future benefit distribution amounts under the pension and OPEB plans. The discount rate is the single level rate that produces the same result as the spot rate curve. Exelon utilizes an analytical tool developed by its actuaries to determine the discount rates.
Mortality. The mortality assumption is composed of a base table that represents the current expectation of life expectancy of the population adjusted by an improvement scale that attempts to anticipate future improvements in life expectancy. Exelon’s mortality assumption utilizes the SOA 2019 base table (Pri-2012) and MP-2021 improvement scale adjusted to use Proxy SSA ultimate improvement rates.
Sensitivity to Changes in Key Assumptions. The following tables illustrate the effects of changing certain of the actuarial assumptions discussed above, while holding all other assumptions constant:
| Actual Assumption | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Actuarial Assumption | Pension | OPEB | Change in Assumption | Pension | OPEB | Total | ||||||||||
| Change in 2021 cost: | ||||||||||||||||
| Discount rate(a) | 2.58% | 2.51% | 0.5% | $ | (57) | $ | (10) | $ | (67) | |||||||
| 2.58% | 2.51% | (0.5)% | 82 | 11 | 93 | |||||||||||
| EROA | 7.00% | 6.46% | 0.5% | (95) | (12) | (107) | ||||||||||
| 7.00% | 6.46% | (0.5)% | 95 | 12 | 107 | |||||||||||
| Change in benefit obligation at December 31, 2021: | ||||||||||||||||
| Discount rate(a) | 2.92% | 2.88% | 0.5% | (1,393) | (242) | (1,635) | ||||||||||
| 2.92% | 2.88% | (0.5)% | 1,618 | 279 | 1,897 |
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(a)In general, the discount rate will have a larger impact on the pension and OPEB cost and obligation as the rate moves closer to 0%. Therefore, the discount rate sensitivities above cannot necessarily be extrapolated for larger increases or decreases in the discount rate. Additionally, Exelon utilizes a liability-driven investment strategy for its pension asset portfolio. The sensitivities shown above do not reflect the offsetting impact that changes in discount rates may have on pension asset returns.
See Note 1 — Significant Accounting Policies and Note 15 — Retirement Benefits of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information regarding the accounting for the defined benefit pension plans and OPEB plans.
Regulatory Accounting (All Registrants)
For their regulated electric and gas operations, the Registrants reflect the effects of cost-based rate regulation in their financial statements, which is required for entities with regulated operations that meet the following criteria: (1) rates are established or approved by a third-party regulator; (2) rates are designed to recover the entities’ cost of providing services or products; and (3) a reasonable expectation that rates designed to recover costs can be charged to and collected from customers. Regulatory assets represent incurred costs that have been deferred because of their probable future recovery from customers through regulated rates. Regulatory liabilities represent (1) revenue or gains that have been deferred because it is probable such amounts will be returned to customers through future regulated rates; or (2) billings in advance of expenditures for approved regulatory programs. If it is concluded in a future period that a separable portion of operations no longer meets the criteria discussed above, the Registrants would be required to eliminate any associated regulatory assets and liabilities and the impact, which could be material, would be recognized in the Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Income.
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The following table illustrates gains (losses) to be included in net income that could result from the elimination of regulatory assets and liabilities and charges against OCI related to deferred costs associated with Exelon's pension and OPEB plans that are recorded as regulatory assets in Exelon's Consolidated Balance Sheets (before taxes):
| December 31, 2021 | Exelon | ComEd | PECO | BGE | PHI | Pepco | DPL | ACE | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gain (loss) | $ | 3,743 | $ | 4,739 | $ | (262) | $ | 268 | $ | (920) | $ | (182) | $ | 186 | $ | (239) | ||||||||||||||
| Charge against OCI(a) | $ | (3,259) | $ | — | $ | — | $ | — | $ | — | $ | — | $ | — | $ | — |
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(a)Exelon's charge against OCI (before taxes) consists of up to $2.2 billion, $391 million, $703 million, $323 million, $154 million, and $91 million related to ComEd's, BGE's, PHI's, Pepco's, DPL's, and ACE's respective portions of the deferred costs associated with Exelon's pension and OPEB plans. Exelon also has a net regulatory liability of $66 million (before taxes) related to PECO’s portion of the deferred costs associated with Exelon’s OPEB plans that would result in an increase in OCI if reversed.
See Note 3 — Regulatory Matters of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information regarding regulatory matters, including the regulatory assets and liabilities of the Registrants.
For each regulatory jurisdiction in which they conduct business, the Registrants assess whether the regulatory assets and liabilities continue to meet the criteria for probable future recovery or refund at each balance sheet date and when regulatory events occur. This assessment includes consideration of recent rate orders, historical regulatory treatment for similar costs in each Registrant's jurisdictions, and factors such as changes in applicable regulatory and political environments. If the assessments and estimates made by the Registrants for regulatory assets and regulatory liabilities are ultimately different than actual regulatory outcomes, the impact in their consolidated financial statements could be material.
Refer to the revenue recognition discussion below for additional information on the annual revenue reconciliations associated with ICC-approved electric distribution and energy efficiency formula rates for ComEd, and FERC transmission formula rate tariffs for the Utility Registrants.
Accounting for Derivative Instruments (All Registrants)
The Registrants use derivative instruments to manage commodity price risk, foreign currency exchange risk, and interest rate risk related to ongoing business operations. The Registrants’ derivative activities are in accordance with Exelon’s Risk Management Policy (RMP). See Note 16 — Derivative Financial Instruments of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.
The Registrants account for derivative financial instruments under the applicable authoritative guidance. Determining whether a contract qualifies as a derivative requires that management exercise significant judgment, including assessing market liquidity as well as determining whether a contract has one or more underlying and one or more notional quantities. Changes in management’s assessment of contracts and the liquidity of their markets, and changes in authoritative guidance, could result in previously excluded contracts becoming in scope of new authoritative guidance.
All derivatives are recognized on the balance sheet at their fair value, except for certain derivatives that qualify for, and are elected under, NPNS. Derivatives entered for economic hedging and for proprietary trading purposes are recorded at fair value through earnings. For economic hedges that are not designated for hedge accounting for the Utility Registrants, changes in the fair value each period are generally recorded with a corresponding offsetting regulatory asset or liability given the likelihood of recovering the associated costs through customer rates.
NPNS. As part of Generation’s energy marketing business, Generation enters contracts to buy and sell energy to meet the requirements of its customers. These contracts include short-term and long-term commitments to purchase and sell energy and energy-related products in the retail and wholesale markets with the intent and ability to deliver or take delivery. While some of these contracts are considered derivative financial instruments under the authoritative guidance, certain of these qualifying transactions have been designated by Generation as NPNS transactions, which are thus not required to be recorded at fair value, but rather on an accrual basis of accounting. Determining whether a contract qualifies for the NPNS requires judgment on whether the contract will physically deliver and requires that management ensure compliance with all the associated qualification and
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documentation requirements. Revenues and expenses on contracts that qualify as NPNS are recognized when the underlying physical transaction is completed. Contracts that qualify for the NPNS are those for which physical delivery is probable, quantities are expected to be used or sold in the normal course of business over a reasonable period, and the contract is not financially settled on a net basis. The contracts that ComEd has entered into with suppliers as part of ComEd’s energy procurement process, PECO’s full requirement contracts under the PAPUC-approved DSP program, most of PECO’s natural gas supply agreements, all of BGE’s full requirement contracts and natural gas supply agreements that are derivatives, and certain Pepco, DPL, and ACE full requirement contracts qualify for and are accounted for under the NPNS.
Commodity Contracts. Identification of a commodity contract as an economic hedge requires Generation to determine that the contract is in accordance with the RMP. Generation reassesses its economic hedges on a regular basis to determine if they continue to be within the guidelines of the RMP.
As a part of the authoritative guidance, the Registrants make estimates and assumptions concerning future commodity prices, load requirements, interest rates, the timing of future transactions and their probable cash flows, the fair value of contracts and the expected changes in the fair value in deciding whether to enter derivative transactions, and in determining the initial accounting treatment for derivative transactions. Under the authoritative guidance for fair value measurements, the Registrants categorize these derivatives under a fair value hierarchy that prioritizes the inputs to valuation techniques used to measure fair value.
Derivative contracts are traded in both exchange-based and non-exchange-based markets. Exchange-based derivatives that are valued using unadjusted quoted prices in active markets are generally categorized in Level 1 in the fair value hierarchy.
Certain derivative pricing is verified using indicative price quotations available through brokers or over-the-counter, online exchanges. The price quotations reflect the average of the mid-point of the bid-ask spread from observable markets that the Registrants believe provide the most liquid market for the commodity. The price quotations are reviewed and corroborated to ensure the prices are observable and representative of an orderly transaction between market participants. The Registrant’s derivatives are traded predominantly at liquid trading points. The remaining derivative contracts are valued using models that consider inputs such as contract terms, including maturity, and market parameters, and assumptions of the future prices of energy, interest rates, volatility, credit worthiness, and credit spread. For derivatives that trade in liquid markets, such as generic forwards, swaps, and options, the model inputs are generally observable. Such instruments are categorized in Level 2.
For derivatives that trade in less liquid markets with limited pricing information, the model inputs generally would include both observable and unobservable inputs and are categorized in Level 3.
The Registrants consider nonperformance risk, including credit risk in the valuation of derivative contracts, and both historical and current market data in its assessment of nonperformance risk. The impacts of nonperformance and credit risk to date have generally not been material to the financial statements.
See ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK and Note 18 — Fair Value of Financial Assets and Liabilities and Note 16 — Derivative Financial Instruments of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information regarding the Registrants’ derivative instruments.
Taxation (All Registrants)
Significant management judgment is required in determining the Registrants’ provisions for income taxes, primarily due to the uncertainty related to tax positions taken, as well as deferred tax assets and liabilities and valuation allowances. The Registrants account for uncertain income tax positions using a benefit recognition model with a two-step approach including a more-likely-than-not recognition threshold and a measurement approach based on the largest amount of tax benefit that is greater than 50% likely of being realized upon ultimate settlement. Management evaluates each position based solely on the technical merits and facts and circumstances of the position, assuming the position will be examined by a taxing authority having full knowledge of all relevant information. Significant judgment is required to determine whether the recognition threshold has been met and, if so, the appropriate amount of tax benefits to be recorded in the Registrants’ consolidated financial statements.
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The Registrants evaluate quarterly the probability of realizing deferred tax assets by reviewing a forecast of future taxable income and their intent and ability to implement tax planning strategies, if necessary, to realize deferred tax assets. The Registrants also assess negative evidence, such as the expiration of historical operating loss or tax credit carryforwards, that could indicate the Registrant's inability to realize its deferred tax assets. Based on the combined assessment, the Registrants record valuation allowances for deferred tax assets when it is more-likely-than-not such benefit will not be realized in future periods.
Actual income taxes could vary from estimated amounts due to the future impacts of various items, including future changes in income tax laws, the Registrants’ forecasted financial condition and results of operations, failure to successfully implement tax planning strategies, as well as results of audits and examinations of filed tax returns by taxing authorities. See Note 14 — Income Taxes of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.
Accounting for Loss Contingencies (All Registrants)
In the preparation of their financial statements, the Registrants make judgments regarding the future outcome of contingent events and record liabilities for loss contingencies that are probable and can be reasonably estimated based upon available information. The amount recorded may differ from the actual expense incurred when the uncertainty is resolved. Such difference could have a significant impact in the Registrants' consolidated financial statements.
Environmental Costs. Environmental investigation and remediation liabilities are based upon estimates with respect to the number of sites for which the Registrants will be responsible, the scope and cost of work to be performed at each site, the portion of costs that will be shared with other parties, the timing of the remediation work, regulations, and the requirements of local governmental authorities. Annual studies and/or reviews are conducted at ComEd, PECO, BGE, and DPL to determine future remediation requirements for MGP sites and estimates are adjusted accordingly. In addition, periodic reviews are performed at each of the Registrants to assess the adequacy of other environmental reserves. These matters, if resolved in a manner different from the estimate, could have a significant impact in the Registrants’ consolidated financial statements. See Note 19 — Commitments and Contingencies of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.
Other, Including Personal Injury Claims. The Registrants are self-insured for general liability, automotive liability, workers’ compensation, and personal injury claims to the extent that losses are within policy deductibles or exceed the amount of insurance maintained. The Registrants have reserves for both open claims asserted, and an estimate of claims incurred but not reported (IBNR). The IBNR reserve is estimated based on actuarial assumptions and analysis and is updated annually. Future events, such as the number of new claims to be filed each year, the average cost of disposing of claims, as well as the numerous uncertainties surrounding litigation and possible state and national legislative measures could cause the actual costs to be higher or lower than estimated. Accordingly, these claims, if resolved in a manner different from the estimate, could have a material impact to the Registrants’ consolidated financial statements.
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Revenue Recognition (All Registrants)
Sources of Revenue and Determination of Accounting Treatment. The Registrants earn revenues from various business activities including: the sale of power and energy-related products, such as natural gas, capacity, and other commodities in non-regulated markets (wholesale and retail); the sale and delivery of power and natural gas in regulated markets; and the provision of other energy-related non-regulated products and services.
The accounting treatment for revenue recognition is based on the nature of the underlying transaction and applicable authoritative guidance. The Registrants primarily apply the Revenue from Contracts with Customers, Derivative Revenues, and Alternative Revenue Program Accounting guidance to recognize revenue as discussed in more detail below.
Revenue from Contracts with Customers. The Registrants recognize revenues in the period in which the performance obligations within contracts with customers are satisfied, which generally occurs when power, natural gas, and other energy-related commodities are physically delivered to the customer. Transactions of the Registrants within the scope of Revenue from Contracts with Customers generally include non-derivative agreements, contracts that are designated as NPNS, sales to utility customers under regulated service tariffs, and spot-market energy commodity sales, including settlements with ISOs.
The determination of Generation’s and the Utility Registrants' retail power and natural gas sales to individual customers is based on systematic readings of customer meters, generally monthly. At the end of each month, amounts of energy delivered to customers since the date of the last meter reading are estimated, and corresponding unbilled revenue is recorded. The measurement of unbilled revenue is affected by the following factors: daily customer usage measured by generation or gas throughput volume, customer usage by class, losses of energy during delivery to customers and applicable customer rates. Increases or decreases in volumes delivered to the utilities’ customers and favorable or unfavorable rate mix due to changes in usage patterns in customer classes in the period could be significant to the calculation of unbilled revenue. In addition, revenues may fluctuate monthly as a result of customers electing to use an alternative supplier, since unbilled commodity revenues are not recorded for these customers. Changes in the timing of meter reading schedules and the number and type of customers scheduled for each meter reading date also impact the measurement of unbilled revenue; however, total operating revenues would remain materially unchanged. See Note 1 — Significant Accounting Policies of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.
Derivative Revenues. The Registrants record revenues and expenses using the mark-to-market method of accounting for transactions that are accounted for as derivatives. These derivative transactions primarily relate to commodity price risk management activities. Mark-to-market revenues and expenses include: inception gains or losses on new transactions where the fair value is observable, unrealized gains and losses from changes in the fair value of open contracts, and realized gains and losses.
Alternative Revenue Program Accounting. Certain of the Utility Registrants’ ratemaking mechanisms qualify as ARPs if they (i) are established by a regulatory order and allow for automatic adjustment to future rates, (ii) provide for additional revenues (above those amounts currently reflected in the price of utility service) that are objectively determinable and probable of recovery, and (iii) allow for the collection of those additional revenues within 24 months following the end of the period in which they were recognized. For mechanisms that meet these criteria, which include the Utility Registrants’ formula rate mechanisms and revenue decoupling mechanisms, the Utility Registrants adjust revenue and record an offsetting regulatory asset or liability once the condition or event allowing additional billing or refund has occurred. The ARP revenues presented in the Utility Registrants’ Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Income include both: (i) the recognition of “originating” ARP revenues (when the regulator-specified condition or event allowing for additional billing or refund has occurred) and (ii) an equal and offsetting reversal of the “originating” ARP revenues as those amounts are reflected in the price of utility service and recognized as Revenue from Contracts with Customers.
ComEd records ARP revenue for its best estimate of the electric distribution, energy efficiency, distributed generation rebates, and transmission revenue impacts resulting from future changes in rates that ComEd believes are probable of approval by the ICC and FERC in accordance with its formula rate mechanisms. BGE, Pepco, DPL, and ACE record ARP revenue for their best estimate of the electric and natural gas distribution revenue impacts resulting from future changes in rates that they believe are probable of approval by the MDPSC, DCPSC, and/or NJBPU in accordance with their revenue decoupling mechanisms. PECO, BGE, Pepco, DPL,
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and ACE record ARP revenue for their best estimate of the transmission revenue impacts resulting from future changes in rates that they believe are probable of approval by FERC in accordance with their formula rate mechanisms. Estimates of the current year revenue requirement are based on actual and/or forecasted costs and investments in rate base for the period and the rates of return on common equity and associated regulatory capital structure allowed under the applicable tariff. The estimated reconciliation can be affected by, among other things, variances in costs incurred, investments made, allowed ROE, and actions by regulators or courts.
See Note 3 — Regulatory Matters of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.
Allowance for Credit Losses on Customer Accounts Receivable (All Registrants)
Utility Registrants estimate the allowance for credit losses on customer receivables by applying loss rates developed specifically for each company based on historical loss experience, current conditions, and forward-looking risk factors to the outstanding receivable balance by customer risk segment. Risk segments represent a group of customers with similar forward-looking credit quality indicators and risk factors that are comprised based on various attributes, including delinquency of their balances and payment history and represent expected, future customer behavior. Loss rates applied to the accounts receivable balances are based on a historical average of charge-offs as a percentage of accounts receivable in each risk segment. The Utility Registrants' customer accounts are generally considered delinquent if the amount billed is not received by the time the next bill is issued, which normally occurs on a monthly basis. Utility Registrants' customer accounts are written off consistent with approved regulatory requirements. Utility Registrants' allowances for credit losses will continue to be affected by changes in volume, prices, and economic conditions as well as changes in ICC, PAPUC, MDPSC, DCPSC, DEPSC, and NJBPU regulations.
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ComEd
Results of Operations by Registrant or Subsidiary
Results of Operations—ComEd
| 2021 | 2020 | Favorable (Unfavorable) Variance | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operating revenues | $ | 6,406 | $ | 5,904 | $ | 502 | ||||
| Operating expenses | ||||||||||
| Purchased power expense | 2,271 | 1,998 | (273) | |||||||
| Operating and maintenance | 1,355 | 1,520 | 165 | |||||||
| Depreciation and amortization | 1,205 | 1,133 | (72) | |||||||
| Taxes other than income taxes | 320 | 299 | (21) | |||||||
| Total operating expenses | 5,151 | 4,950 | (201) | |||||||
| Operating income | 1,255 | 954 | 301 | |||||||
| Other income and (deductions) | ||||||||||
| Interest expense, net | (389) | (382) | (7) | |||||||
| Other, net | 48 | 43 | 5 | |||||||
| Total other income and (deductions) | (341) | (339) | (2) | |||||||
| Income before income taxes | 914 | 615 | 299 | |||||||
| Income taxes | 172 | 177 | 5 | |||||||
| Net income | $ | 742 | $ | 438 | $ | 304 |
Year Ended December 31, 2021 Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2020. Net income increased by $304 million primarily due to increases in electric distribution formula rate earnings (reflecting the impacts of higher rate base and higher allowed electric distribution ROE due to an increase in treasury rates) and payments that ComEd made in 2020 under the Deferred Prosecution Agreement. See Note 19 — Commitments and Contingencies of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information related to the Deferred Prosecution Agreement.
The changes in Operating revenues consisted of the following:
| 2021 vs. 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Increase | ||
| Electric Distribution | $ | 135 |
| Energy efficiency | 42 | |
| Transmission | 13 | |
| Other | 23 | |
| 213 | ||
| Regulatory required programs | 289 | |
| Total increase | $ | 502 |
Revenue Decoupling. The demand for electricity is affected by weather and customer usage. Operating revenues are not impacted by abnormal weather, usage per customer, or number of customers as a result of revenue decoupling mechanisms implemented pursuant to FEJA.
Distribution Revenue. EIMA and FEJA provide for a performance-based formula rate, which requires an annual reconciliation of the revenue requirement in effect to the actual costs that the ICC determines are prudently and reasonably incurred in a given year. Electric distribution revenue varies from year to year based upon fluctuations in the underlying costs (e.g., severe weather and storm restoration), investments being recovered, and allowed ROE. Electric distribution revenue increased during the year ended December 31, 2021, as compared to the same period in 2020, due to the impact of higher rate base and higher allowed ROE due to an increase in treasury rates.
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ComEd
Energy Efficiency Revenue. FEJA provides for a performance-based formula rate, which requires an annual reconciliation of the revenue requirement in effect to the actual costs that the ICC determines are prudently and reasonably incurred in a given year. Under FEJA, energy efficiency revenue varies from year to year based upon fluctuations in the underlying costs, investments being recovered, and allowed ROE. Energy efficiency revenue increased during the year ended December 31, 2021, as compared to the same period in 2020, primarily due to increased regulatory asset amortization, which is fully recoverable.
Transmission Revenue. Under a FERC-approved formula, transmission revenue varies from year to year based upon fluctuations in the underlying costs, capital investments being recovered, and the highest daily peak load, which is updated annually in January based on the prior calendar year. Generally, increases/decreases in the highest daily peak load will result in higher/lower transmission revenue. During the year ended December 31, 2021, as compared to the same period in 2020, transmission revenues increased primarily due to the impact of a higher rate base.
Other Revenue primarily includes assistance provided to other utilities through mutual assistance programs. Other revenue increased for the year ended December 31, 2021, as compared to the same period in 2020, which primarily reflects mutual assistance revenues associated with storm restoration efforts.
Regulatory Required Programs represents revenues collected under approved riders to recover costs incurred for regulatory programs such as recoveries under the credit loss expense tariff, environmental costs associated with MGP sites, and costs related to electricity, ZEC, and REC procurement. The riders are designed to provide full and current cost recovery. The costs of these programs are included in Purchased power expense, Operating and maintenance expense, Depreciation and amortization expense, and Taxes other than income. Customers have the choice to purchase electricity from competitive electric generation suppliers. Customer choice programs do not impact the volume of deliveries as ComEd remains the distribution service provider for all customers and charges a regulated rate for distribution service, which is recorded in Operating revenues. For customers that choose to purchase electric generation from competitive suppliers, ComEd either acts as the billing agent or the competitive supplier separately bills its own customers, and therefore does not record Operating revenues or Purchased power expense related to the electricity. For customers that choose to purchase electric generation from ComEd, ComEd is permitted to recover the electricity, ZEC, and REC procurement costs without mark-up and therefore records equal and offsetting amounts in Operating revenues and Purchased power expense related to the electricity, ZECs, and RECs.
See Note 5 — Segment Information of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for the presentation of ComEd's revenue disaggregation.
The increase of $273 million for the year ended December 31, 2021, as compared to the same period in 2020, in Purchased power expense is offset in Operating revenues as part of regulatory required programs.
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ComEd
The changes in Operating and maintenance expense consisted of the following:
| 2021 vs. 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|
| (Decrease) Increase | ||
| Deferred Prosecution Agreement payments(a) | $ | (200) |
| BSC costs | 21 | |
| Labor, other benefits, contracting, and materials | (5) | |
| Pension and non-pension postretirement benefits expense | 6 | |
| Storm-related costs | (6) | |
| Other | 4 | |
| (180) | ||
| Regulatory required programs(b) | 15 | |
| Total decrease | $ | (165) |
__________
(a)See Note 19 — Commitments and Contingencies of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.
(b)ComEd is allowed to recover from or refund to customers the difference between its annual credit loss expense and the amounts collected in rates annually through a rider mechanism.
The changes in Depreciation and amortization expense consisted of the following:
| 2021 vs. 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Increase | ||
| Depreciation and amortization(a) | $ | 48 |
| Regulatory asset amortization(b) | 24 | |
| Total increase | $ | 72 |
__________
(a)Reflects ongoing capital expenditures.
(b)Includes amortization of ComEd's energy efficiency formula rate regulatory asset.
Effective income tax rates for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, were 18.8% and 28.8%, respectively. See Note 14 — Income Taxes of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information regarding the components of the effective income tax rates.
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PECO
Results of Operations—PECO
| 2021 | 2020 | (Unfavorable) Favorable Variance | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operating revenues | $ | 3,198 | $ | 3,058 | $ | 140 | ||||
| Operating expenses | ||||||||||
| Purchased power and fuel expense | 1,081 | 1,018 | (63) | |||||||
| Operating and maintenance | 934 | 975 | 41 | |||||||
| Depreciation and amortization | 348 | 347 | (1) | |||||||
| Taxes other than income taxes | 184 | 172 | (12) | |||||||
| Total operating expenses | 2,547 | 2,512 | (35) | |||||||
| Operating income | 651 | 546 | 105 | |||||||
| Other income and (deductions) | ||||||||||
| Interest expense, net | (161) | (147) | (14) | |||||||
| Other, net | 26 | 18 | 8 | |||||||
| Total other income and (deductions) | (135) | (129) | (6) | |||||||
| Income before income taxes | 516 | 417 | 99 | |||||||
| Income taxes | 12 | (30) | (42) | |||||||
| Net income | $ | 504 | $ | 447 | $ | 57 |
Year Ended December 31, 2021 Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2020. Net income increased by $57 million primarily due to favorable weather conditions, an increase in volume, and a decrease in storm cost activity, net of tax repair deductions.
The changes in Operating revenues consisted of the following:
| 2021 vs. 2020 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (Decrease) Increase | ||||||||||
| Electric | Gas | Total | ||||||||
| Weather | $ | 16 | $ | 1 | $ | 17 | ||||
| Volume | 15 | 13 | 28 | |||||||
| Pricing | 12 | 7 | 19 | |||||||
| Transmission | 13 | — | 13 | |||||||
| Other | 1 | 3 | 4 | |||||||
| 57 | 24 | 81 | ||||||||
| Regulatory required programs | 58 | 1 | 59 | |||||||
| Total increase | $ | 115 | $ | 25 | $ | 140 |
Weather. The demand for electricity and natural gas is affected by weather conditions. With respect to the electric business, very warm weather in summer months and, with respect to the electric and natural gas businesses, very cold weather in winter months are referred to as “favorable weather conditions” because these weather conditions result in increased deliveries of electricity and natural gas. Conversely, mild weather reduces demand. For the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, Operating revenues related to weather increased due to the impact of favorable weather conditions in PECO's service territory.
Heating and cooling degree days are quantitative indices that reflect the demand for energy needed to heat or cool a home or business. Normal weather is determined based on historical average heating and cooling degree days for a 30-year period in PECO’s service territory. The changes in heating and cooling degree days in PECO’s service territory for the years ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020 and normal weather consisted of the following:
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PECO
| For the Years Ended December 31, | % Change | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heating and Cooling Degree-Days | 2021 | 2020 | Normal | 2021 vs. 2020 | 2021 vs. Normal | |||||||||
| Heating Degree-Days | 3,946 | 3,959 | 4,409 | (0.3) | % | (10.5) | % | |||||||
| Cooling Degree-Days | 1,586 | 1,521 | 1,435 | 4.3 | % | 10.5 | % |
Volume. Electric volume, exclusive of the effects of weather, for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, increased on a net basis due to an increase in overall usage for customers further increased by customer growth. Natural gas volume for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, increased due to retail load growth.
| Electric Retail Deliveries to Customers (in GWhs) | 2021 | 2020 | % Change 2021 vs. 2020 | Weather - Normal % Change(b) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail Deliveries(a) | |||||||||||
| Residential | 14,262 | 14,041 | 1.6 | % | 0.1 | % | |||||
| Small commercial & industrial | 7,597 | 7,210 | 5.4 | % | 4.3 | % | |||||
| Large commercial & industrial | 14,003 | 13,669 | 2.4 | % | 2.1 | % | |||||
| Public authorities & electric railroads | 559 | 575 | (2.8) | % | (2.8) | % | |||||
| Total electric retail deliveries | 36,421 | 35,495 | 2.6 | % | 1.7 | % |
__________
(a)Reflects delivery volumes and revenue from customers purchasing electricity directly from PECO and customers purchasing electricity from a competitive electric generation supplier as all customers are assessed distribution charges.
(b)Reflects the change in delivery volumes assuming normalized weather based on the historical 30-year average.
| As of December 31, | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Electric Customers | 2021 | 2020 | ||
| Residential | 1,517,806 | 1,508,622 | ||
| Small commercial & industrial | 155,308 | 154,421 | ||
| Large commercial & industrial | 3,107 | 3,101 | ||
| Public authorities & electric railroads | 10,306 | 10,206 | ||
| Total | 1,686,527 | 1,676,350 |
| Natural Gas Deliveries to customers (in mmcf) | 2021 | 2020 | % Change 2021 vs. 2020 | Weather - Normal % Change(b) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail Deliveries(a) | |||||||||||
| Residential | 39,580 | 38,272 | 3.4 | % | 1.4 | % | |||||
| Small commercial & industrial | 21,361 | 19,341 | 10.4 | % | 7.0 | % | |||||
| Large commercial & industrial | 34 | 36 | (5.6) | % | 8.3 | % | |||||
| Transportation | 25,081 | 24,533 | 2.2 | % | 1.4 | % | |||||
| Total natural gas deliveries | 86,056 | 82,182 | 4.7 | % | 2.8 | % |
__________
(a)Reflects delivery volumes and revenue from customers purchasing electricity directly from PECO and customers purchasing electricity from a competitive electric generation supplier as all customers are assessed distribution charges.
(b)Reflects the change in delivery volumes assuming normalized weather based on the historical 30-year average.
| As of December 31, | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Gas Customers | 2021 | 2020 | ||
| Residential | 497,873 | 492,298 | ||
| Small commercial & industrial | 44,815 | 44,472 | ||
| Large commercial & industrial | 6 | 5 | ||
| Transportation | 670 | 713 | ||
| Total | 543,364 | 537,488 |
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PECO
Pricing for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020 increased primarily due to higher overall effective rates due to favorable customer mix. Additionally, the increase represents revenue from higher natural gas distribution rates.
Transmission Revenue. Under a FERC approved formula, transmission revenue varies from year to year based upon fluctuations in the underlying costs and capital investments being recovered.
Other Revenue primarily includes revenue related to late payment charges. Other revenues for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, remained relatively consistent.
Regulatory Required Programs represents revenues collected under approved riders to recover costs incurred for regulatory programs such as energy efficiency, PGC, and the GSA. The riders are designed to provide full and current cost recovery as well as a return. The costs of these programs are included in Purchased power and fuel expense, Operating and maintenance expense, Depreciation and amortization expense, and Income taxes. Customers have the choice to purchase electricity and natural gas from competitive electric generation and natural gas suppliers. Customer choice programs do not impact the volume of deliveries as PECO remains the distribution service provider for all customers and charges a regulated rate for distribution service, which is recorded in Operating revenues. For customers that choose to purchase electric generation or natural gas from competitive suppliers, PECO either acts as the billing agent or the competitive supplier separately bills its own customers and therefore PECO does not record Operating revenues or Purchased power and fuel expense related to the electricity and/or natural gas. For customers that choose to purchase electric generation or natural gas from PECO, PECO is permitted to recover the electricity, natural gas, and REC procurement costs without mark-up and therefore records equal and offsetting amounts in Operating revenues and Purchased power and fuel expense related to the electricity, natural gas, and RECs.
See Note 5—Segment Information of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for the presentation of PECO's revenue disaggregation.
The increase of $63 million for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, respectively, in Purchased power and fuel expense is fully offset in Operating revenues as part of regulatory required programs.
The changes in Operating and maintenance expense consisted of the following:
| 2021 vs. 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Increase (Decrease) | ||
| Storm-related costs(a) | $ | (64) |
| Credit loss expense | (3) | |
| Labor, other benefits, contracting, and materials | 23 | |
| BSC costs | 19 | |
| Pension and non-pension postretirement benefits expense | 2 | |
| Other | (8) | |
| (31) | ||
| Regulatory Required Programs | (10) | |
| Total decrease | $ | (41) |
__________
(a)Primarily reflects the absence of costs in 2021 due to the June and August 2020 storms.
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PECO
The changes in Depreciation and amortization expense consisted of the following:
| 2021 vs. 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Increase (Decrease) | ||
| Depreciation and amortization(a) | $ | 17 |
| Regulatory asset amortization | (16) | |
| Total increase | $ | 1 |
__________
(a)Depreciation and amortization expense increased primarily due to ongoing capital expenditures.
Taxes other than income taxes increased by $12 million for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, primarily due to higher PA gross receipts tax, which is offset in operating revenues, and PA Use Tax.
Interest expense, net increased $14 million for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, respectively, primarily due to the issuance of debt in 2021.
Effective income tax rates were 2.3% and (7.2)% for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. See Note 14 — Income Taxes of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information of the change in effective income tax rates.
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BGE
Results of Operations—BGE
| 2021 | 2020 | Favorable (Unfavorable) Variance | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operating revenues | $ | 3,341 | $ | 3,098 | $ | 243 | ||||
| Operating expenses | ||||||||||
| Purchased power and fuel | 1,175 | 991 | (184) | |||||||
| Operating and maintenance | 811 | 789 | (22) | |||||||
| Depreciation and amortization | 591 | 550 | (41) | |||||||
| Taxes other than income taxes | 283 | 268 | (15) | |||||||
| Total operating expenses | 2,860 | 2,598 | (262) | |||||||
| Operating income | 481 | 500 | (19) | |||||||
| Other income and (deductions) | ||||||||||
| Interest expense, net | (138) | (133) | (5) | |||||||
| Other, net | 30 | 23 | 7 | |||||||
| Total other income and (deductions) | (108) | (110) | 2 | |||||||
| Income before income taxes | 373 | 390 | (17) | |||||||
| Income taxes | (35) | 41 | 76 | |||||||
| Net income | $ | 408 | $ | 349 | $ | 59 |
Year Ended December 31, 2021 Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2020. Net income increased by $59 million primarily due to favorable impacts of the multi-year plan, partially offset by an increase in depreciation and amortization expense. See Note 3 — Regulatory Matters of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on the three-year electric and natural gas distribution multi-year plans.
The changes in Operating revenues consisted of the following:
| 2021 vs. 2020 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Increase | ||||||||||
| Electric | Gas | Total | ||||||||
| Distribution | $ | 7 | $ | 2 | $ | 9 | ||||
| Transmission | 35 | — | 35 | |||||||
| Other | 13 | 3 | 16 | |||||||
| 55 | 5 | 60 | ||||||||
| Regulatory required programs | 116 | 67 | 183 | |||||||
| Total increase | $ | 171 | $ | 72 | $ | 243 |
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BGE
Revenue Decoupling. The demand for electricity and natural gas is affected by weather and customer usage. However, Operating revenues are not impacted by abnormal weather or usage per customer as a result of a monthly rate adjustment that provides for fixed distribution revenue per customer by customer class. While Operating revenues are not impacted by abnormal weather or usage per customer, they are impacted by changes in the number of customers. See Note 3 — Regulatory Matters of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on revenue decoupling for BGE.
| As of December 31, | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Electric Customers | 2021 | 2020 | ||
| Residential | 1,195,929 | 1,190,678 | ||
| Small commercial & industrial | 115,049 | 114,173 | ||
| Large commercial & industrial | 12,637 | 12,478 | ||
| Public authorities & electric railroads | 268 | 267 | ||
| Total | 1,323,883 | 1,317,596 |
| As of December 31, | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Gas Customers | 2021 | 2020 | ||
| Residential | 651,589 | 647,188 | ||
| Small commercial & industrial | 38,300 | 38,267 | ||
| Large commercial & industrial | 6,179 | 6,101 | ||
| Total | 696,068 | 691,556 |
Distribution Revenue increased for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, due to customer growth.
Transmission Revenue. Under a FERC-approved formula, transmission revenue varies from year to year based upon fluctuations in the underlying costs and capital investments being recovered. Transmission revenue increased for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020 primarily due to the reduction in revenue in 2020 due to the settlement agreement of ongoing transmission-related income tax regulatory liabilities and increases in underlying costs and capital investments.
Other Revenue includes revenue related to late payment charges, mutual assistance, off-system sales, and service application fees. Other revenue increased for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, as BGE had temporarily suspended customer disconnections for non-payment and temporarily ceased new late fees for all customers in 2020 which has resumed in 2021.
Regulatory Required Programs represent revenues collected under approved riders to recover costs incurred for regulatory programs such as conservation, demand response, STRIDE, and the POLR mechanism. The riders are designed to provide full and current cost recovery, as well as a return in certain instances. The costs of these programs are included in Purchased power and fuel expense, Operating and maintenance expense, Depreciation and amortization expense, and Taxes other than income taxes. Customers have the choice to purchase electricity and natural gas from competitive electric generation and natural gas suppliers. Customer choice programs do not impact the volume of deliveries as BGE remains the distribution service provider for all customers and charges a regulated rate for distribution service, which is recorded in Operating revenues. For customers that choose to purchase electric generation or natural gas from competitive suppliers, BGE acts as the billing agent and therefore does not record Operating revenues or Purchased power and fuel expense related to the electricity and/or natural gas. For customers that choose to purchase electric generation or natural gas from BGE, BGE is permitted to recover the electricity and natural gas procurement costs from customers and therefore records the amounts related to the electricity and/or natural gas in Operating revenues and Purchased power and fuel expense. BGE recovers electricity and natural gas procurement costs from customers with a slight mark-up.
See Note 5 — Segment Information of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for the presentation of BGE's revenue disaggregation.
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BGE
The increase of $184 million for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, respectively, in Purchased power and fuel expense is fully offset in Operating revenues as part of regulatory required programs.
The changes in Operating and maintenance expense consisted of the following:
| 2021 vs. 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Increase (Decrease) | ||
| BSC costs | 19 | |
| Storm-related costs | 7 | |
| Credit loss expense | 2 | |
| Labor, other benefits, contracting, and materials | 4 | |
| Pension and non-pension postretirement benefits expense | 1 | |
| Small business grants commitment(a) | (15) | |
| Other | (3) | |
| 15 | ||
| Regulatory required programs | 7 | |
| Total increase | $ | 22 |
__________
(a)Reflects charitable contributions expensed as a result of a commitment in 2020 to a multi-year small business grants program.
The changes in Depreciation and amortization expense consisted of the following:
| 2021 vs. 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Increase (Decrease) | ||
| Depreciation and amortization(a) | $ | 44 |
| Regulatory required programs | (4) | |
| Regulatory asset amortization | 1 | |
| Total increase | $ | 41 |
__________
(a)Depreciation and amortization increased primarily due to ongoing capital expenditures.
Taxes other than income taxes increased for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, primarily due to higher property taxes.
Effective income tax rates were (9.4)% and 10.5% for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. The change is primarily due to the multi-year plan which resulted in the acceleration of certain income tax benefits and the April 24, 2020 settlement agreement of ongoing transmission related income tax regulatory liabilities. See Note 3 — Regulatory Matters of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on both the three-year electric and natural gas distribution multi-year plans and the April 24, 2020 settlement agreement and Note 14 — Income Taxes of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information regarding the components of the effective income tax rates.
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PHI
Results of Operations—PHI
PHI’s Results of Operations include the results of its three reportable segments, Pepco, DPL, and ACE. PHI also has a business services subsidiary, PHISCO, which provides a variety of support services and the costs are directly charged or allocated to the applicable subsidiaries. Additionally, the results of PHI's corporate operations include interest costs from various financing activities. All material intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation. The following table sets forth PHI's GAAP consolidated Net income by Registrant for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020. See the Results of Operations for Pepco, DPL, and ACE for additional information.
| 2021 | 2020 | Favorable (Unfavorable) Variance | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PHI | $ | 561 | $ | 495 | $ | 66 | ||||
| Pepco | 296 | 266 | 30 | |||||||
| DPL | 128 | 125 | 3 | |||||||
| ACE | 146 | 112 | 34 | |||||||
| Other(a) | (9) | (8) | (1) |
__________
(a)Primarily includes eliminating and consolidating adjustments, PHI's corporate operations, shared service entities, and other financing and investing activities.
Year Ended December 31, 2021 Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2020. Net income increased by $66 million primarily due to favorable impacts as a result of rate case outcomes, higher transmission revenues due to an increase in capital investments in DPL's and ACE's service territories, higher distribution revenues due to an increase in volume in ACE's service territory, favorable weather conditions in DPL's Delaware electric service territory, a decrease in storm costs due to the August 2020 storms in Delaware at DPL, a decrease in credit loss expense at Pepco and DPL, and partially offset by recognition of a valuation allowance against a deferred tax asset at DPL, due to a change in Delaware tax law and an increase in depreciation and amortization expense.
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Results of Operations—Pepco
| 2021 | 2020 | Favorable (Unfavorable) Variance | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operating revenues | $ | 2,274 | $ | 2,149 | $ | 125 | ||||
| Operating expenses | ||||||||||
| Purchased power | 624 | 602 | (22) | |||||||
| Operating and maintenance | 471 | 453 | (18) | |||||||
| Depreciation and amortization | 403 | 377 | (26) | |||||||
| Taxes other than income taxes | 373 | 367 | (6) | |||||||
| Total operating expenses | 1,871 | 1,799 | (72) | |||||||
| Gain on sales of assets | — | 9 | (9) | |||||||
| Operating income | 403 | 359 | 44 | |||||||
| Other income and (deductions) | ||||||||||
| Interest expense, net | (140) | (138) | (2) | |||||||
| Other, net | 48 | 38 | 10 | |||||||
| Total other income and (deductions) | (92) | (100) | 8 | |||||||
| Income before income taxes | 311 | 259 | 52 | |||||||
| Income taxes | 15 | (7) | (22) | |||||||
| Net income | $ | 296 | $ | 266 | $ | 30 |
Year Ended December 31, 2021 Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2020. Net income increased by $30 million primarily due to favorable impacts of the Maryland and District of Columbia multi-year plans, and a decrease in credit loss expense, partially offset by an increase in depreciation and amortization expense and various operating expenses.
The changes in Operating revenues consisted of the following:
| 2021 vs. 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Increase | ||
| Distribution | $ | 31 |
| Transmission | 32 | |
| Other | 7 | |
| 70 | ||
| Regulatory required programs | 55 | |
| Total increase | $ | 125 |
Revenue Decoupling. The demand for electricity is affected by weather and customer usage. However, Operating revenues from electric distribution in both Maryland and the District of Columbia are not impacted by abnormal weather or usage per customer as a result of a BSA that provides for a fixed distribution charge per customer by customer class. While Operating revenues are not impacted by abnormal weather or usage per customer, they are impacted by changes in the number of customers. See Note 3 — Regulatory Matters of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on revenue decoupling for Pepco Maryland and District of Columbia.
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| As of December 31, | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Electric Customers | 2021 | 2020 | ||
| Residential | 841,831 | 832,190 | ||
| Small commercial & industrial | 54,216 | 53,800 | ||
| Large commercial & industrial | 22,568 | 22,459 | ||
| Public authorities & electric railroads | 181 | 168 | ||
| Total | 918,796 | 908,617 |
Distribution Revenue increased for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, primarily due to favorable impacts of the Maryland and District of Columbia multi-year plans in 2021.
Transmission Revenue. Under a FERC-approved formula, transmission revenue varies from year to year based upon fluctuations in the underlying costs, capital investments being recovered. Transmission revenue increased for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020 primarily due to the reduction in revenue in 2020 due to the settlement agreement of ongoing transmission related income tax regulatory liabilities and increases in underlying costs.
Other Revenue includes rental revenue, revenue related to late payment charges, mutual assistance revenues, and recoveries of other taxes.
Regulatory Required Programs represent revenues collected under approved riders to recover costs incurred for regulatory programs such as energy efficiency programs, DC PLUG, and SOS procurement and administrative costs. The riders are designed to provide full and current cost recovery as well as a return in certain instances. The costs of these programs are included in Purchased power expense, Operating and maintenance expense, Depreciation and amortization expense, and Taxes other than income taxes. Customers have the choice to purchase electricity from competitive electric generation suppliers. Customer choice programs do not impact the volume of deliveries, as Pepco remains the distribution service provider for all customers and charges a regulated rate for distribution service, which is recorded in Operating revenues. For customers that choose to purchase electric generation from competitive suppliers, Pepco acts as the billing agent and therefore does not record Operating revenues or Purchased power expense related to the electricity. For customers that choose to purchase electric generation from Pepco, Pepco is permitted to recover the electricity and REC procurement costs from customers and therefore records the amounts related to the electricity and RECs in Operating revenues and Purchased power expense. Pepco recovers electricity and REC procurement costs from customers with a slight mark-up.
See Note 5 - Segment Information of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for the presentation of Pepco's revenue disaggregation.
The increase of $22 million for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, in Purchased power expense is fully offset in Operating revenues as part of regulatory required programs.
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The changes in Operating and maintenance expense consisted of the following:
| 2021 vs. 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Increase (Decrease) | ||
| Storm related costs | $ | 5 |
| BSC and PHISCO costs | 3 | |
| Pension and non-pension postretirement benefits expense | (4) | |
| Labor, other benefits, contracting, and materials | (5) | |
| Credit loss expense | (6) | |
| Other | 21 | |
| 14 | ||
| Regulatory required programs | 4 | |
| Total increase | $ | 18 |
The changes in Depreciation and amortization expense consisted of the following:
| 2021 vs. 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Increase (Decrease) | ||
| Depreciation and amortization(a) | $ | 17 |
| Regulatory asset amortization | (13) | |
| Regulatory required programs | 22 | |
| Total increase | $ | 26 |
__________
(a)Depreciation and amortization increased primarily due to ongoing capital expenditures.
Taxes other than income taxes increased for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, primarily due to an increase in property taxes.
Gain on sales of assets decreased for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the year ended December 31, 2020 due to the sale of land in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Other, net increased for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, primarily due to higher AFUDC equity.
Effective income tax rates were 4.8% and (2.7)% for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. The change is primarily related to the settlement agreement of ongoing transmission-related income tax regulatory liabilities, partially offset by the multi-year plan which resulted in the acceleration of certain income tax benefits. See Note 3 — Regulatory Matters of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on the three-year electric distribution multi-year plan and the April 24, 2020 settlement agreement, and Note 14 — Income Taxes of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information regarding the components of the change in effective income tax rates.
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Results of Operations—DPL
| 2021 | 2020 | Favorable (Unfavorable) Variance | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operating revenues | $ | 1,380 | $ | 1,271 | $ | 109 | ||||
| Operating expenses | ||||||||||
| Purchased power and fuel | 539 | 503 | (36) | |||||||
| Operating and maintenance | 345 | 361 | 16 | |||||||
| Depreciation and amortization | 210 | 191 | (19) | |||||||
| Taxes other than income taxes | 67 | 65 | (2) | |||||||
| Total operating expenses | 1,161 | 1,120 | (41) | |||||||
| Operating income | 219 | 151 | 68 | |||||||
| Other income and (deductions) | ||||||||||
| Interest expense, net | (61) | (61) | — | |||||||
| Other, net | 12 | 10 | 2 | |||||||
| Total other income and (deductions) | (49) | (51) | 2 | |||||||
| Income before income taxes | 170 | 100 | 70 | |||||||
| Income taxes | 42 | (25) | (67) | |||||||
| Net income | $ | 128 | $ | 125 | $ | 3 |
Year Ended December 31, 2021 Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2020. Net income increased by $3 million primarily due to higher electric distribution rates, a decrease in storm costs due to the August 2020 storms in Delaware, a decrease in credit loss expense, higher transmission revenues due to an increase in capital investments, and favorable weather conditions at DPL's Delaware electric service territories, which was partially offset by the recognition of a valuation allowance against a deferred tax asset due to a change in Delaware tax law and an increase in depreciation and amortization expense.
The changes in Operating revenues consisted of the following:
| 2021 vs. 2020 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Increase (Decrease) | ||||||||||
| Electric | Gas | Total | ||||||||
| Weather | $ | 5 | $ | 1 | $ | 6 | ||||
| Volume | 1 | (1) | — | |||||||
| Distribution | 21 | 2 | 23 | |||||||
| Transmission | 33 | — | 33 | |||||||
| Other | 2 | — | 2 | |||||||
| 62 | 2 | 64 | ||||||||
| Regulatory required programs | 41 | 4 | 45 | |||||||
| Total increase | $ | 103 | $ | 6 | $ | 109 |
Revenue Decoupling. The demand for electricity is affected by weather and customer usage. However, Operating revenues from electric distribution in Maryland are not impacted by abnormal weather or usage per customer as a result of a BSA that provides for a fixed distribution charge per customer by customer class. While Operating revenues from electric distribution in Maryland are not impacted by abnormal weather or usage per customer, they are impacted by changes in the number of customers. See Note 3 — Regulatory Matters of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on revenue decoupling for DPL Maryland.
Weather. The demand for electricity and natural gas in Delaware is affected by weather conditions. With respect to the electric business, very warm weather in summer months and, with respect to the electric and natural gas businesses, very cold weather in winter months are referred to as "favorable weather conditions” because these weather conditions result in increased deliveries of electricity and natural gas. Conversely, mild weather reduces
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demand. During the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, Operating revenues related to weather increased due to favorable weather conditions in DPL's Delaware electric service territory.
Heating and cooling degree days are quantitative indices that reflect the demand for energy needed to heat or cool a home or business. Normal weather is determined based on historical average heating and cooling degree days for a 20-year period in DPL's Delaware electric service territory and a 30-year period in DPL's Delaware natural gas service territory. The changes in heating and cooling degree days in DPL’s Delaware service territory for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to same period in 2020 and normal weather consisted of the following:
| For the Years Ended December 31, | % Change | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delaware Electric Service Territory | 2021 | 2020 | Normal | 2021 vs. 2020 | 2021 vs. Normal | |||||||||
| Heating Degree-Days | 4,239 | 4,146 | 4,608 | 2.2 | % | (8.0) | % | |||||||
| Cooling Degree-Days | 1,380 | 1,264 | 1,256 | 9.2 | % | 9.9 | % |
| For the Years Ended December 31, | % Change | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delaware Natural Gas Service Territory | 2021 | 2020 | Normal | 2021 vs. 2020 | 2021 vs. Normal | |||||||||
| Heating Degree-Days | 4,239 | 4,146 | 4,679 | 2.2 | % | (9.4) | % |
Volume, exclusive of the effects of weather, remained relatively consistent for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020.
| Electric Retail Deliveries to Delaware Customers (in GWhs) | 2021 | 2020 | % Change 2021 vs. 2020 | Weather - Normal % Change (b) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Residential | 3,214 | 3,149 | 2.1 | % | (0.1) | % | |||||
| Small commercial & industrial | 1,452 | 1,255 | 15.7 | % | 14.4 | % | |||||
| Large commercial & industrial | 3,149 | 3,225 | (2.4) | % | (2.9) | % | |||||
| Public authorities & electric railroads | 34 | 32 | 6.3 | % | 9.1 | % | |||||
| Total electric retail deliveries(a) | 7,849 | 7,661 | 2.5 | % | 1.1 | % |
| As of December 31, | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Total Electric Customers (Maryland and Delaware) | 2021 | 2020 | ||
| Residential | 476,260 | 472,621 | ||
| Small commercial & industrial | 63,195 | 62,461 | ||
| Large commercial & industrial | 1,218 | 1,223 | ||
| Public authorities & electric railroads | 604 | 609 | ||
| Total | 541,277 | 536,914 |
__________
(a)Reflects delivery volumes from customers purchasing electricity directly from DPL and customers purchasing electricity from a competitive electric generation supplier as all customers are assessed distribution charges.
(b)Reflects the change in delivery volumes assuming normalized weather based on the historical 20-year average.
| Natural Gas Retail Deliveries to Delaware Customers (in mmcf) | 2021 | 2020 | % Change 2021 vs. 2020 | Weather - Normal % Change(b) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Residential | 7,914 | 7,832 | 1.0 | % | (0.9) | % | |||||
| Small commercial & industrial | 3,747 | 3,718 | 0.8 | % | (1.2) | % | |||||
| Large commercial & industrial | 1,679 | 1,703 | (1.4) | % | (1.5) | % | |||||
| Transportation | 6,778 | 6,631 | 2.2 | % | 1.7 | % | |||||
| Total natural gas deliveries(a) | 20,118 | 19,884 | 1.2 | % | (0.2) | % |
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| As of December 31, | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Delaware Natural Gas Customers | 2021 | 2020 | ||
| Residential | 128,121 | 127,128 | ||
| Small commercial & industrial | 10,027 | 10,017 | ||
| Large commercial & industrial | 20 | 16 | ||
| Transportation | 158 | 161 | ||
| Total | 138,326 | 137,322 |
__________
(a)Reflects delivery volumes from customers purchasing natural gas directly from DPL and customers purchasing natural gas from a competitive natural gas supplier as all customers are assessed distribution charges.
(b)Reflects the change in delivery volumes assuming normalized weather based on the historical 30-year average.
Distribution Revenue increased for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020 primarily due to higher electric distribution rates in Maryland that became effective in July 2020 and higher electric distribution rates in Delaware that became effective in October 2020.
Transmission Revenue. Under a FERC-approved formula, transmission revenue varies from year to year based upon fluctuations in the underlying costs and capital investments being recovered. Transmission revenue increased for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020 primarily due to the reduction in revenue in 2020 due to the settlement agreement of ongoing transmission related income tax regulatory liabilities and increases in underlying costs and capital investments.
Other Revenue includes rental revenue, revenue related to late payment charges, mutual assistance revenues, and recoveries of other taxes.
Regulatory Required Programs represent revenues collected under approved riders to recover costs incurred for regulatory programs such as energy efficiency programs, DE Renewable Portfolio Standards, SOS procurement and administrative costs, and GCR costs. The riders are designed to provide full and current cost recovery as well as a return in certain instances. The costs of these programs are included in Purchased power and fuel expense, Operating and maintenance expense, Depreciation and amortization expense, and Taxes other than income taxes. All customers have the choice to purchase electricity from competitive electric generation suppliers; however, only certain commercial and industrial customers have the choice to purchase natural gas from competitive natural gas suppliers. Customer choice programs do not impact the volume of deliveries as DPL remains the distribution service provider for all customers and charges a regulated rate for distribution service, which is recorded in Operating revenues. For customers that choose to purchase electric generation or natural gas from competitive suppliers, DPL either acts as the billing agent or the competitive supplier separately bills its own customers, and therefore does not record Operating revenues or Purchased power and fuel expense related to the electricity and/or natural gas. For customers that choose to purchase electric generation or natural gas from DPL, DPL is permitted to recover the electricity, natural gas, and REC procurement costs from customers and therefore records the amounts related to the electricity, natural gas, and RECs in Operating revenues and Purchased power and fuel expense. DPL recovers electricity and REC procurement costs from customers with a slight mark-up, and natural gas costs without mark-up.
See Note 5 - Segment Information of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for the presentation of DPL's revenue disaggregation.
The increase of $36 million for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, in Purchased power and fuel expense is fully offset in Operating revenues as part of regulatory required programs.
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The changes in Operating and maintenance expense consisted of the following:
| 2021 vs. 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|
| (Decrease) Increase | ||
| Storm-related costs | $ | (20) |
| Credit loss expense | (7) | |
| Pension and non-pension postretirement benefits expense | (3) | |
| Labor, other benefits, contracting, and materials | (2) | |
| BSC and PHISCO costs | 10 | |
| Other | 7 | |
| (15) | ||
| Regulatory required programs | (1) | |
| Total decrease | $ | (16) |
The changes in Depreciation and amortization expense consisted of the following:
| 2021 vs. 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Increase (Decrease) | ||
| Depreciation and amortization(a) | $ | 14 |
| Regulatory asset amortization | (1) | |
| Regulatory required programs | 6 | |
| Total increase | $ | 19 |
__________
(a)Depreciation and amortization increased primarily due to ongoing capital expenditures.
Effective income tax rates were 24.7% and (25.0)% for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. The increase for the year ended December 31, 2021 is primarily related to the recognition of a valuation allowance against a deferred tax asset associated with Delaware net operating loss carryforwards due to a change in Delaware tax law and nonrecurring impact related to the settlement agreement of transmission-related income tax regulatory liabilities in 2020. See Note 3 — Regulatory Matters for additional information on the April 24, 2020 settlement agreement, and Note 14 — Income Taxes of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information regarding the components of the change in effective income tax rates.
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ACE
Results of Operations—ACE
| 2021 | 2020 | Favorable (Unfavorable) Variance | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operating revenues | $ | 1,388 | $ | 1,245 | $ | 143 | ||||
| Operating expenses | ||||||||||
| Purchased power | 694 | 609 | (85) | |||||||
| Operating and maintenance | 320 | 326 | 6 | |||||||
| Depreciation and amortization | 179 | 180 | 1 | |||||||
| Taxes other than income taxes | 8 | 8 | — | |||||||
| Total operating expenses | 1,201 | 1,123 | (78) | |||||||
| Gain on sale of assets | — | 2 | (2) | |||||||
| Operating income | 187 | 124 | 63 | |||||||
| Other income and (deductions) | ||||||||||
| Interest expense, net | (58) | (59) | 1 | |||||||
| Other, net | 4 | 6 | (2) | |||||||
| Total other income and (deductions) | (54) | (53) | (1) | |||||||
| Income before income taxes | 133 | 71 | 62 | |||||||
| Income taxes | (13) | (41) | (28) | |||||||
| Net income | $ | 146 | $ | 112 | $ | 34 |
Year Ended December 31, 2021 Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2020. Net income increased $34 million primarily due to favorable impacts as a result of outcomes from a distribution base rate case, higher distribution revenues due to an increase in volume, and higher transmission revenues due to an increase in capital investments which was partially offset by an increase in depreciation and amortization expense.
The changes in Operating revenues consisted of the following:
| 2021 vs. 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Increase (Decrease) | ||
| Weather | $ | 2 |
| Volume | 17 | |
| Distribution | 1 | |
| Transmission | 51 | |
| Other | (3) | |
| 68 | ||
| Regulatory required programs | 75 | |
| Total increase | $ | 143 |
Revenue Decoupling. The demand for electricity is affected by weather and customer usage. However, Operating revenues from electric distribution in New Jersey are not impacted by abnormal weather or usage per customer as a result of the Conservation Incentive Program (CIP) which became effective, prospectively, in the third quarter of 2021. The CIP compares current distribution revenues by customer class to approved target revenues established in ACE’s most recent distribution base rate case. The CIP is calculated annually, and recovery is subject to certain conditions, including an earnings test and ceilings on customer rate increases. While Operating revenues are not impacted by abnormal weather or usage per customer, they are impacted by changes in the number of customers. See Note 3 — Regulatory Matters of the Combined Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on the ACE CIP.
Weather. Prior to the third quarter of 2021, the demand for electricity was affected by weather conditions. With respect to the electric business, very warm weather in summer months and very cold weather in winter months are referred to as “favorable weather conditions” because these weather conditions result in increased deliveries of electricity. Conversely, mild weather reduces demand. There was an increase related to weather for the year
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ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020 due to the absence of impacts in the second half of 2021 as a result of the CIP.
Heating and cooling degree days are quantitative indices that reflect the demand for energy needed to heat or cool a home or business. Normal weather is determined based on historical average heating and cooling degree days for a 20-year period in ACE’s service territory. The changes in heating and cooling degree days in ACE’s service territory for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to same period in 2020, and normal weather consisted of the following:
| For the Years Ended December 31, | Normal | % Change | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heating and Cooling Degree-Days | 2021 | 2020 | 2021 vs. 2020 | 2021 vs. Normal | ||||||||||
| Heating Degree-Days | 4,256 | 4,029 | 4,609 | 5.6 | % | (7.7) | % | |||||||
| Cooling Degree-Days | 1,284 | 1,314 | 1,197 | (2.3) | % | 7.3 | % |
Volume, exclusive of the effects of weather, increased for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, primarily due to customer growth, usage and absence of impacts in the second half of 2021 as a result of the CIP.
| Electric Retail Deliveries to Customers (in GWhs) | 2021 | 2020 | % Change 2021 vs. 2020 | Weather - Normal % Change(b) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Residential | 4,220 | 4,029 | 4.7 | % | 3.8 | % | |||||
| Small commercial & industrial | 1,409 | 1,277 | 10.3 | % | 10.0 | % | |||||
| Large commercial & industrial | 3,146 | 3,067 | 2.6 | % | 2.8 | % | |||||
| Public authorities & electric railroads | 46 | 47 | (2.1) | % | (1.9) | % | |||||
| Total retail deliveries(a) | 8,821 | 8,420 | 4.8 | % | 4.3 | % |
| As of December 31, | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Electric Customers | 2021 | 2020 | ||
| Residential | 499,628 | 497,672 | ||
| Small commercial & industrial | 61,900 | 61,622 | ||
| Large commercial & industrial | 3,156 | 3,282 | ||
| Public authorities & electric railroads | 717 | 701 | ||
| Total | 565,401 | 563,277 |
__________
(a)Reflects delivery volumes from customers purchasing electricity directly from ACE and customers purchasing electricity from a competitive electric generation supplier as all customers are assessed distribution charges.
(b)Reflects the change in delivery volumes assuming normalized weather based on the historical 20-year average.
Distribution Revenue remained relatively consistent for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020.
Transmission Revenue. Under a FERC-approved formula, transmission revenue varies from year to year based upon fluctuations in the underlying costs, capital investments being recovered. Transmission revenue increased for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020 primarily due to the reduction in revenue in 2020 due to the settlement agreement of ongoing transmission-related income tax regulatory liabilities and increases in underlying costs and capital investments.
Other Revenue includes rental revenue, service connection fees, and mutual assistance revenues.
Regulatory Required Programs represent revenues collected under approved riders to recover costs incurred for regulatory programs such as energy efficiency programs, Societal Benefits Charge, Transition Bonds, and BGS procurement and administrative costs. The riders are designed to provide full and current cost recovery as well as a return in certain instances. The costs of these programs are included in Purchased power expense,
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Operating and maintenance expense, Depreciation and amortization expense, and Taxes other than income taxes. Customers have the choice to purchase electricity from competitive electric generation suppliers. Customer choice programs do not impact the volume of deliveries, as ACE remains the distribution service provider for all customers and charges a regulated rate for distribution service, which is recorded in Operating revenues. For customers that choose to purchase electric generation from competitive suppliers, ACE acts as the billing agent and therefore does not record Operating revenues or Purchased power expense related to the electricity. For customers that choose to purchase electric generation from ACE, ACE is permitted to recover the electricity, ZEC, and REC procurement costs without mark-up and therefore records equal and offsetting amounts in Operating revenues and Purchased power expense related to the electricity, ZECs, and RECs.
See Note 5 - Segment Information of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for the presentation of ACE's revenue disaggregation.
The increase of $85 million for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to same period in 2020, in Purchased power expense is fully offset in Operating revenues as part of regulatory required programs.
The changes in Operating and maintenance expense consisted of the following:
| 2021 vs. 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|
| (Decrease) Increase | ||
| Storm-related costs | $ | (9) |
| Pension and non-pension postretirement benefits expense | (1) | |
| Labor, other benefits, contracting and materials | 1 | |
| BSC and PHISCO costs | 7 | |
| Other | (6) | |
| (8) | ||
| Regulatory required programs(a) | 2 | |
| Total decrease | $ | (6) |
__________
(a)ACE is allowed to recover from or refund to customers the difference between its annual credit loss expense and the amounts collected in rates annually through the Societal Benefits Charge.
The changes in Depreciation and amortization expense consisted of the following:
| 2021 vs. 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Increase (Decrease) | ||
| Depreciation and amortization(a) | $ | 15 |
| Regulatory asset amortization | (1) | |
| Regulatory required programs | (15) | |
| Total decrease | $ | (1) |
__________
(a)Depreciation and amortization increased primarily due to ongoing capital expenditures.
Effective income tax rates were (9.8)% and (57.7)% for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. The change is primarily related to the settlement agreement of ongoing transmission-related income tax regulatory liabilities, partially offset by the July 14, 2021 settlement which allowed ACE to retain certain tax benefits. See Note 3 — Regulatory Matters for additional information on the April 24, 2020 and July 14, 2021 settlement agreements, and Note 14 — Income Taxes of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information regarding the components of the change in effective income tax rates.
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Generation
Results of Operations—Generation
| 2021 | 2020 | Favorable (Unfavorable) Variance | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operating revenues | $ | 19,649 | $ | 17,603 | $ | 2,046 | ||||
| Operating expenses | ||||||||||
| Purchased power and fuel | 12,163 | 9,585 | (2,578) | |||||||
| Operating and maintenance | 4,555 | 5,168 | 613 | |||||||
| Depreciation and amortization | 3,003 | 2,123 | (880) | |||||||
| Taxes other than income taxes | 475 | 482 | 7 | |||||||
| Total operating expenses | 20,196 | 17,358 | (2,838) | |||||||
| Gain on sales of assets and businesses | 201 | 11 | 190 | |||||||
| Operating (loss) income | (346) | 256 | (602) | |||||||
| Other income and (deductions) | ||||||||||
| Interest expense, net | (297) | (357) | 60 | |||||||
| Other, net | 795 | 937 | (142) | |||||||
| Total other income and (deductions) | 498 | 580 | (82) | |||||||
| Income before income taxes | 152 | 836 | (684) | |||||||
| Income taxes | 225 | 249 | 24 | |||||||
| Equity in losses of unconsolidated affiliates | (10) | (8) | (2) | |||||||
| Net (loss) income | (83) | 579 | (662) | |||||||
| Net income (loss) attributable to noncontrolling interests | 122 | (10) | 132 | |||||||
| Net (loss) income attributable to membership interest | $ | (205) | $ | 589 | $ | (794) |
Year Ended December 31, 2021 Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2020. Net income attributable to membership interest decreased by $794 million primarily due to:
•Impacts of the February 2021 extreme cold weather event;
•Accelerated depreciation and amortization associated with Generation's previous decision in the third quarter of 2020 to early retire Byron and Dresden nuclear facilities in 2021, a decision which was reversed on September 15, 2021, and Generation's decision in the third quarter of 2020 to early retire Mystic Units 8 and 9 in 2024;
•Decommissioning-related activities that were not offset for the Byron units beginning in the second quarter of 2021 through September 15, 2021. With Generation's September 15, 2021 reversal of the previous decision to retire Byron, Generation resumed contractual offset for Byron as of that date;
•Impairments of the New England asset group, the Albany Green Energy biomass facility at Generation, and a wind project at Generation, partially offset by the absence of an impairment of the New England asset group in the third quarter of 2020;
•Higher net unrealized and realized losses on equity investments; and
•The absence of prior year one-time tax settlements.
The decreases were partially offset by:
•Higher mark-to-market gains;
•Higher net unrealized and realized gains on NDT funds;
•Absence of one time charges recorded in 2020 associated with Generation's decision to early retire the Byron and Dresden nuclear facilities and Mystic Units 8 and 9, and the reversal of one-time
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charges resulting from the reversal of the previous decision to early retire Byron and Dresden on September 15, 2021;
•Favorable sales and hedges of excess emission credits;
•Favorable commodity prices on fuel hedges;
•Lower nuclear fuel costs due to accelerated amortization of nuclear fuel and lower prices; and
•Higher New York ZEC revenues due to higher generation and an increase in ZEC prices.
Operating revenues. The basis for Generation's reportable segments is the integrated management of its electricity business that is located in different geographic regions, and largely representative of the footprints of ISO/RTO and/or NERC regions, which utilize multiple supply sources to provide electricity through various distribution channels (wholesale and retail). Generation's hedging strategies and risk metrics are also aligned with these same geographic regions. Generation's five reportable segments are Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, New York, ERCOT, and Other Power Regions. See Note 5 — Segment Information of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on these reportable segments.
The following business activities are not allocated to a region and are reported under Other: natural gas, as well as other miscellaneous business activities that are not significant to overall operating revenues or results of operations.
For the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to 2020, Operating revenues by region were as follows:
| 2021 vs. 2020 | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2020 | Variance | % Change(a) | |||||||||||
| Mid-Atlantic(b) | $ | 4,584 | $ | 4,645 | $ | (61) | (1.3) | % | ||||||
| Midwest(c) | 4,060 | 4,024 | 36 | 0.9 | % | |||||||||
| New York | 1,575 | 1,431 | 144 | 10.1 | % | |||||||||
| ERCOT | 1,181 | 958 | 223 | 23.3 | % | |||||||||
| Other Power Regions | 4,890 | 4,002 | 888 | 22.2 | % | |||||||||
| Total electric revenues | 16,290 | 15,060 | 1,230 | 8.2 | % | |||||||||
| Other | 3,992 | 2,433 | 1,559 | 64.1 | % | |||||||||
| Mark-to-market (losses) gains | (633) | 110 | (743) | |||||||||||
| Total Operating revenues | $ | 19,649 | $ | 17,603 | $ | 2,046 | 11.6 | % |
__________
(a)% Change in mark-to-market is not a meaningful measure.
(b)Includes results of transactions with PECO, BGE, Pepco, DPL, and ACE.
(c)Includes results of transactions with ComEd.
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Supply Sources. Generation’s supply sources by region are summarized below:
| 2021 vs. 2020 | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Supply Source (GWhs) | 2021 | 2020 | Variance | % Change | |||||||
| Nuclear Generation(a) | |||||||||||
| Mid-Atlantic | 53,589 | 52,202 | 1,387 | 2.7 | % | ||||||
| Midwest | 93,107 | 96,322 | (3,215) | (3.3) | % | ||||||
| New York | 28,291 | 26,561 | 1,730 | 6.5 | % | ||||||
| Total Nuclear Generation | 174,987 | 175,085 | (98) | (0.1) | % | ||||||
| Fossil and Renewables | |||||||||||
| Mid-Atlantic | 2,271 | 2,206 | 65 | 2.9 | % | ||||||
| Midwest | 1,083 | 1,240 | (157) | (12.7) | % | ||||||
| New York | 1 | 4 | (3) | (75.0) | % | ||||||
| ERCOT | 13,187 | 11,982 | 1,205 | 10.1 | % | ||||||
| Other Power Regions | 9,995 | 11,121 | (1,126) | (10.1) | % | ||||||
| Total Fossil and Renewables | 26,537 | 26,553 | (16) | (0.1) | % | ||||||
| Purchased Power | |||||||||||
| Mid-Atlantic | 13,576 | 22,487 | (8,911) | (39.6) | % | ||||||
| Midwest | 561 | 770 | (209) | (27.1) | % | ||||||
| ERCOT | 3,256 | 5,636 | (2,380) | (42.2) | % | ||||||
| Other Power Regions | 50,212 | 51,079 | (867) | (1.7) | % | ||||||
| Total Purchased Power | 67,605 | 79,972 | (12,367) | (15.5) | % | ||||||
| Total Supply/Sales by Region | |||||||||||
| Mid-Atlantic(b) | 69,436 | 76,895 | (7,459) | (9.7) | % | ||||||
| Midwest(b) | 94,751 | 98,332 | (3,581) | (3.6) | % | ||||||
| New York | 28,292 | 26,565 | 1,727 | 6.5 | % | ||||||
| ERCOT | 16,443 | 17,618 | (1,175) | (6.7) | % | ||||||
| Other Power Regions | 60,207 | 62,200 | (1,993) | (3.2) | % | ||||||
| Total Supply/Sales by Region | 269,129 | 281,610 | (12,481) | (4.4) | % |
__________
(a)Includes the proportionate share of output where Generation has an undivided ownership interest in jointly-owned generating plants. Includes the total output for fully owned plants and the total output for CENG prior to the acquisition of EDF’s interest on August 6, 2021 as CENG was fully consolidated. See Note 2 — Mergers, Acquisitions, and Dispositions of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on Generation’s acquisition of EDF’s interest in CENG.
(b)Includes affiliate sales to PECO, BGE, Pepco, DPL, and ACE in the Mid-Atlantic region and affiliate sales to ComEd in the Midwest region.
Nuclear Fleet Capacity Factor. The following table presents nuclear fleet operating data for the Generation-operated plants, which reflects ownership percentage of stations operated by Exelon, excluding Salem, which is operated by PSEG. The nuclear fleet capacity factor presented in the table is defined as the ratio of the actual output of a plant over a period of time to its output if the plant had operated at full average annual mean capacity for that time period. Generation considers capacity factor to be a useful measure to analyze the nuclear fleet performance between periods. Generation has included the analysis below as a complement to the financial information provided in accordance with GAAP. However, these measures are not a presentation defined under GAAP and may not be comparable to other companies’ presentations or be more useful than the GAAP information provided elsewhere in this report.
| 2021 | 2020 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nuclear fleet capacity factor | 94.5 | % | 95.4 | % | |
| Refueling outage days | 262 | 260 | |||
| Non-refueling outage days | 34 | 19 |
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ZEC Prices. Generation is compensated through state programs for the carbon-free attributes of its nuclear generation. ZEC prices have a significant impact on operating revenues. The following table presents the average ZEC prices ($/MWh) for each of Generation's major regions in which state programs have been enacted. Prices reflect the weighted average price for the various delivery periods within each calendar year.
| 2021 vs. 2020 | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| State (Region) | 2021 | 2020 | Variance | % Change | ||||||||||
| New Jersey (Mid-Atlantic) | $ | 10.00 | $ | 10.00 | $ | — | — | % | ||||||
| Illinois (Midwest) | 16.50 | 16.50 | — | — | % | |||||||||
| New York (New York) | 20.93 | 19.59 | 1.34 | 6.8 | % |
Capacity Prices. Generation participates in capacity auctions in each of its major regions, except ERCOT which does not have a capacity market. Generation also incurs capacity costs associated with load served, except in ERCOT. Capacity prices have a significant impact on Generation's operating revenues and purchased power and fuel. The following table presents the average capacity prices ($/MW Day) for each of Generation's major regions. Prices reflect the weighted average price for the various auction periods within each calendar year.
| 2021 vs. 2020 | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Location (Region) | 2021 | 2020 | Variance | % Change | ||||||||||
| Eastern Mid-Atlantic Area Council (Mid-Atlantic and Midwest) | $ | 174.96 | $ | 159.50 | $ | 15.46 | 9.7 | % | ||||||
| ComEd (Midwest) | 192.45 | 194.22 | (1.77) | (0.9) | % | |||||||||
| Rest of State (New York) | 98.35 | 47.81 | 50.54 | 105.7 | % | |||||||||
| Southeast New England (Other) | 163.66 | 200.69 | (37.03) | (18.5) | % |
Electricity Prices. The price of electricity has a significant impact on Generation's operating revenues and purchased power cost. The following table presents the average day-ahead around-the-clock price ($/MWh) for each of Generation's major regions.
| 2021 vs. 2020 | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Location (Region) | 2021 | 2020 | Variance | % Change | ||||||||||
| PJM West (Mid-Atlantic) | $ | 38.91 | $ | 20.95 | $ | 17.96 | 85.7 | % | ||||||
| ComEd (Midwest) | 34.76 | 18.96 | 15.80 | 83.3 | % | |||||||||
| Central (New York) | 29.90 | 16.36 | 13.54 | 82.8 | % | |||||||||
| North (ERCOT) | 146.63 | 22.03 | 124.60 | 565.6 | % | |||||||||
| Southeast Massachusetts (Other)(a) | 46.38 | 23.57 | 22.81 | 96.8 | % |
__________
(a)Reflects New England, which comprises the majority of the activity in the Other region.
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For the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to 2020, changes in Operating revenues by region were approximately as follows:
| 2021 vs. 2020 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Variance | % Change(a) | Description | ||||||
| Mid-Atlantic | $ | (61) | (1.3) | % | • unfavorable wholesale load revenue of $(520) primarily due to lower volumes; partially offset by • favorable settled economic hedges of $365 due to settled prices relative to hedged prices • favorable retail load revenue of $95 primarily due to higher prices | |||
| Midwest | 36 | 0.9 | % | • favorable net wholesale load and generation revenue of $540 primarily due to higher prices, partially offset by decreased generation due to higher nuclear outage days • unfavorable settled economic hedges of $(525) due to settled prices relative to hedged prices | ||||
| New York | 144 | 10.1 | % | • favorable nuclear generation revenue of $75 primarily due to higher prices and lower nuclear outage days • favorable ZEC revenue of $70 due to higher prices and higher nuclear generation | ||||
| ERCOT | 223 | 23.3 | % | • favorable retail load revenue of $140 primarily due to higher prices in part due to the February 2021 extreme cold weather event • favorable settled economic hedges of $65 due to settled prices relative to hedged prices | ||||
| Other Power Regions | 888 | 22.2 | % | • favorable settled economic hedges of $655 due to settled prices relative to hedged prices • favorable retail load revenue of $535 due to higher prices and higher volumes; partially offset by • unfavorable wholesale load revenue of $(380) primarily due to lower volumes | ||||
| Other | 1,559 | 64.1 | % | • favorable gas revenue of $1,375 primarily due to higher prices in part due to the February 2021 extreme cold weather event | ||||
| Mark-to-market(b) | (743) | • losses on economic hedging activities of $(633) in 2021 compared to gains of $110 in 2020 | ||||||
| Total | $ | 2,046 | 11.6 | % |
__________
(a)% Change in mark-to-market is not a meaningful measure.
(b)See Note 16 — Derivative Financial Instruments of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on mark-to-market gains and losses.
Purchased power and fuel. See Operating revenues above for discussion of Generation's reportable segments and hedging strategies and for supplemental statistical data, including supply sources by region, nuclear fleet capacity factor, capacity prices, and electricity prices.
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The following business activities are not allocated to a region and are reported under Other: natural gas, as well as other miscellaneous business activities that are not significant to overall purchased power and fuel expense or results of operations, and accelerated nuclear fuel amortization associated with nuclear decommissioning.
For the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to 2020, Purchased power and fuel by region were as follows:
| 2021 vs. 2020 | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2020 | Variance | % Change(a) | |||||||||||
| Mid-Atlantic(b) | $ | 2,320 | $ | 2,442 | $ | 122 | 5.0 | % | ||||||
| Midwest(c) | 1,343 | 1,121 | (222) | (19.8) | % | |||||||||
| New York | 414 | 434 | 20 | 4.6 | % | |||||||||
| ERCOT | 2,006 | 532 | (1,474) | (277.1) | % | |||||||||
| Other Power Regions | 3,999 | 3,336 | (663) | (19.9) | % | |||||||||
| Total electric purchased power and fuel | 10,082 | 7,865 | (2,217) | (28.2) | % | |||||||||
| Other | 3,279 | 1,904 | (1,375) | (72.2) | % | |||||||||
| Mark-to-market gains | (1,198) | (184) | 1,014 | |||||||||||
| Total purchased power and fuel | $ | 12,163 | $ | 9,585 | $ | (2,578) | (26.9) | % |
__________
(a)% Change in mark-to-market is not a meaningful measure.
(b)Includes results of transactions with PECO, BGE, Pepco, DPL, and ACE.
(c)Includes results of transactions with ComEd.
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For the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to 2020, changes in Purchased power and fuel by region were approximately as follows:
| 2021 vs. 2020 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Variance | % Change(a) | Description | ||||||
| Mid-Atlantic | $ | 122 | 5.0 | % | • favorable purchased power and net capacity impact of $80 primarily due to higher nuclear generation, lower load and higher capacity prices earned partially offset by lower cleared capacity volumes • favorable settlement of economic hedges of $70 due to settled prices relative to hedged prices | |||
| Midwest | (222) | (19.8) | % | • unfavorable purchased power and net capacity impact of $(330) primarily due to higher energy prices, lower nuclear generation, lower cleared capacity volumes, and lower capacity prices; partially offset by • favorable nuclear fuel cost of $75 primarily due to accelerated amortization of nuclear fuel and lower nuclear fuel prices | ||||
| New York | 20 | 4.6 | % | • favorable settlement of economic hedges of $45 due to settled prices relative to hedged prices; partially offset by • unfavorable purchased power and net capacity impact of $(40) primarily due to higher energy prices partially offset by higher nuclear generation and higher capacity prices earned | ||||
| ERCOT | (1,474) | (277.1) | % | • unfavorable purchased power of $(755) primarily due to higher energy prices primarily during the February 2021 extreme cold weather event • unfavorable settlement of economic hedges of $(535) due to settled prices relative to hedged prices • unfavorable fuel cost of $(170) primarily due to higher gas prices | ||||
| Other Power Regions | (663) | (19.9) | % | • unfavorable purchased power and net capacity impact of $(855) primarily due to higher energy prices, lower generation, lower cleared capacity volumes, and lower capacity prices • unfavorable fuel cost of $(80) primarily due to higher gas prices; partially offset by • net favorable environmental products activity of $270 primarily driven by favorable emissions activity partially offset by unfavorable RPS activity | ||||
| Other | (1,375) | (72.2) | % | • unfavorable net gas purchase costs and settlement of economic hedges of $(1,150) • unfavorable accelerated nuclear fuel amortization associated with announced early plant retirements of $(90) | ||||
| Mark-to-market(b) | 1,014 | • gains on economic hedging activities of $1,198 in 2021 compared to gains of $184 in 2020 | ||||||
| Total | $ | (2,578) | (26.9) | % |
__________
(a)% Change in mark-to-market is not a meaningful measure.
(b)See Note 16 — Derivative Financial Instruments of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on mark-to-market gains and losses.
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The changes in Operating and maintenance expense consisted of the following:
| 2021 vs. 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|
| (Decrease) Increase | ||
| Plant retirements and divestitures(a) | $ | (484) |
| ARO update | (109) | |
| Labor, other benefits, contracting, and materials | (64) | |
| Insurance | (45) | |
| Cost management program | (34) | |
| Nuclear refueling outage costs, including the co-owned Salem plants | (16) | |
| Corporate allocations | (14) | |
| Acquisition related costs | 15 | |
| Credit loss expense | 21 | |
| Asset impairments | 27 | |
| Separation costs | 49 | |
| Other | 41 | |
| Total decrease | $ | (613) |
__________
(a)Primarily reflects contractual offset of accelerated depreciation and amortization associated with Generation's previous decision to early retire the Byron and Dresden nuclear facilities. See Note 10 — Asset Retirement Obligations of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.
Depreciation and amortization expense increased for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, primarily due to the accelerated depreciation and amortization associated with Generation's previous decision to early retire the Byron and Dresden nuclear facilities. This decision was reversed on September 15, 2021 and depreciation for Byron and Dresden was adjusted beginning September 15, 2021 to reflect the extended useful life estimates. A portion of this accelerated depreciation and amortization is offset in Operating and maintenance expense.
Gain on sales of assets and businesses increased for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, primarily due to gains on sales of equity investments that became publicly traded entities in the fourth quarter of 2020 and the first half of 2021 and a gain on sale of Generation's solar business.
Interest expense, net decreased for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, primarily due to decreased expense related to the CR nonrecourse senior secured term loan credit facility and interest rate swaps, and decreases in interest rates. See Note 17 — Debt and Credit Agreements of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on the CR credit facility and interest rate swaps.
Other, net decreased for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, due to activity described in the table below:
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| 2021 | 2020 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Net unrealized gains on NDT funds(a) | $ | 204 | $ | 391 | ||
| Net realized gains on sale of NDT funds(a) | 381 | 70 | ||||
| Interest and dividend income on NDT funds(a) | 98 | 90 | ||||
| Contractual elimination of income tax expense(b) | 226 | 180 | ||||
| Net unrealized (losses) gains from equity investments(c) | (160) | 186 | ||||
| Other | 46 | 20 | ||||
| Total other, net | $ | 795 | $ | 937 |
__________
(a)Unrealized gains, realized gains, and interest and dividend income on the NDT funds are associated with the Non-Regulatory Agreement Units. In addition, also includes unrealized gains, realized gains, and interest and dividend income on the NDT funds associated with the Byron units as decommissioning-related impacts were not offset starting in the second quarter of 2021 due to the inability to recognize a regulatory asset at ComEd. With the September 15, 2021 reversal of the previous decision to retire Byron, Generation resumed contractual offset for Byron as of that date. See Note 10 — Asset Retirement Obligations of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.
(b)Contractual elimination of income tax expense is associated with the income taxes on the NDT funds of the Regulatory Agreement Units.
(c)Net unrealized gains and losses from equity investments that became publicly traded entities in the fourth quarter of 2020 and the first half of 2021.
Effective income tax rates were 148.0% and 29.8% for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. The higher effective tax rate in 2021 is primarily due to the impacts of the February 2021 extreme cold weather event on Income before income taxes. See Note 14 — Income Taxes of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.
Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests increased for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, primarily due to CENG's results of operations prior to Generation's acquisition of EDF's interest in CENG on August 6, 2021.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
All results included throughout the liquidity and capital resources section are presented on a GAAP basis.
The Registrants’ operating and capital expenditures requirements are provided by internally generated cash flows from operations, the sale of certain receivables, as well as funds from external sources in the capital markets and through bank borrowings. The Registrants’ businesses are capital intensive and require considerable capital resources. Each of the Registrants annually evaluates its financing plan, dividend practices, and credit line sizing, focusing on maintaining its investment grade ratings while meeting its cash needs to fund capital requirements, including construction expenditures, retire debt, pay dividends, fund pension and OPEB obligations, and invest in new and existing ventures. The Registrants spend a significant amount of cash on capital improvements and construction projects that have a long-term return on investment. Additionally, the Utility Registrants operate in rate-regulated environments in which the amount of new investment recovery may be delayed or limited and where such recovery takes place over an extended period of time. A broad spectrum of financing alternatives beyond the core financing options can be used to meet its needs and fund growth including monetizing assets in the portfolio via project financing, asset sales, and the use of other financing structures (e.g., joint ventures, minority partners, etc.). Each Registrant’s access to external financing on reasonable terms depends on its credit ratings and current overall capital market business conditions, including that of the utility industry in general. If these conditions deteriorate to the extent that the Registrants no longer have access to the capital markets at reasonable terms, the Registrants have access to credit facilities with aggregate bank commitments of $10.3 billion, as of December 31, 2021. The Registrants utilize their credit facilities to support their commercial paper programs, provide for other short-term borrowings, and to issue letters of credit. See the “Credit Matters” section below for additional information. The Registrants expect cash flows to be sufficient to meet operating expenses, financing costs, and capital expenditure requirements. See Note 17 — Debt and Credit Agreements of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on the Registrants’ debt and credit agreements.
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Cash Flows from Operating Activities (All Registrants)
The Utility Registrants' cash flows from operating activities primarily result from the transmission and distribution of electricity and, in the case of PECO, BGE, and DPL, gas distribution services. The Utility Registrants' distribution services are provided to an established and diverse base of retail customers. The Utility Registrants' future cash flows may be affected by the economy, weather conditions, future legislative initiatives, future regulatory proceedings with respect to their rates or operations, and their ability to achieve operating cost reductions. Generation's cash flows from operating activities primarily result from the sale of electric energy and energy-related products and services to customers.
See Note 3 — Regulatory Matters and Note 19 — Commitments and Contingencies of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on regulatory and legal proceedings and proposed legislation.
The following table provides a summary of the change in cash flows from operating activities for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020 by Registrant:
| (Decrease) increase in cash flows from operating activities | Exelon | ComEd | PECO | BGE | PHI | Pepco | DPL | ACE | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Net income | $ | (125) | $ | 304 | $ | 57 | $ | 59 | $ | 66 | $ | 30 | $ | 3 | $ | 34 | ||||||||||||||||
| Adjustments to reconcile net income to cash: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Non-cash operating activities | (332) | 12 | 11 | (35) | 45 | 35 | 23 | (15) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Option premiums paid, net | (199) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Collateral (posted) received, net | (568) | (14) | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Income taxes | 187 | (8) | (26) | (40) | 42 | 12 | 38 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pension and non-pension postretirement benefit contributions | (64) | (48) | — | (3) | (9) | — | (1) | (1) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Changes in working capital and other noncurrent assets and liabilities | (122) | 25 | (46) | (136) | 11 | (116) | 50 | 77 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (Decrease) increase in cash flows from operating activities | $ | (1,223) | $ | 271 | $ | (4) | $ | (155) | $ | 155 | $ | (39) | $ | 113 | $ | 96 |
Changes in the Registrants' cash flows from operations were generally consistent with changes in each Registrant’s respective results of operations, as adjusted by changes in working capital in the normal course of business, except as discussed below. In addition, significant operating cash flow impacts for the Registrants for 2021 and 2020 were as follows:
•See Note 24 —Supplemental Financial Information of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements and the Registrants’ Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for additional information on non-cash operating activities.
•Option premiums paid relate to options contracts that Generation purchases and sells as part of its established policies and procedures to manage risks associated with market fluctuations in commodity prices. See Note 16 — Derivative Financial Instruments of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on derivative contracts.
•Depending upon whether Exelon is in a net mark-to-market liability or asset position, collateral may be required to be posted with or collected from its counterparties. In addition, the collateral posting and collection requirements differ depending on whether the transactions are on an exchange or in the over-the-counter markets. See Note 16 — Derivative Financial Instruments of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on the Registrants’ collateral.
•See Note 14 —Income Taxes of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements and the Registrants' Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for additional information on income taxes.
•Changes in working capital and other noncurrent assets and liabilities include a decrease in Accounts receivable at Exelon resulting from the impact of cash received in 2020 related to the revolving accounts receivable financing arrangement entered into on April 8, 2020, and an increase in Accounts payable and accrued expenses at Exelon resulting from the impact of certain penalties for natural gas delivery associated with the February 2021 extreme cold weather event at
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Cash Flows from Investing Activities (All Registrants)
The following table provides a summary of the change in cash flows from investing activities for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020 by Registrant:
| Increase (decrease) in cash flows from investing activities | Exelon | ComEd | PECO | BGE | PHI | Pepco | DPL | ACE | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capital expenditures | $ | 67 | $ | (170) | $ | (93) | $ | 21 | $ | (116) | $ | (70) | $ | (5) | $ | (44) | ||||||||||||||||
| Investment in NDT fund sales, net | (18) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Collection of DPP | 131 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Proceeds from sales of assets and businesses | 831 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Changes in intercompany money pool | — | — | (68) | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Other investing activities | 8 | 24 | 2 | 16 | (5) | (1) | 7 | (5) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Increase (decrease) in cash flows from investing activities | $ | 1,019 | $ | (146) | $ | (159) | $ | 37 | $ | (121) | $ | (71) | $ | 2 | $ | (49) |
Significant investing cash flow impacts for the Registrants for 2021 and 2020 were as follows:
•Variances in capital expenditures are primarily due to the timing of cash expenditures for capital projects. See the "Credit Matters" section below for additional information on projected capital expenditure spending.
•See Note 6 — Accounts Receivable of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on the Collection of DPP.
•Proceeds from sales of assets and businesses increased primarily due to the sale of a significant portion of Exelon's solar business and a biomass facility and proceeds received on sales of equity investments. See Note 2 — Mergers, Acquisitions, and Dispositions of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on the sale of Exelon's solar business and biomass facility.
•Changes in intercompany money pool are driven by short-term borrowing needs. Refer below for more information regarding the intercompany money pool.
Cash Flows from Financing Activities (All Registrants)
The following table provides a summary of the change in cash flows from financing activities for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020 by Registrant:
| Increase (decrease) in cash flows from financing activities | Exelon | ComEd | PECO | BGE | PHI | Pepco | DPL | ACE | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Changes in short-term borrowings, net | $ | 638 | $ | (516) | $ | — | $ | 206 | $ | (60) | $ | 187 | $ | (87) | $ | (160) | ||||||||||||||||
| Long-term debt, net | 774 | 300 | 100 | (100) | 91 | (22) | 27 | 86 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Changes in intercompany money pool | — | — | (80) | — | (23) | — | — | — | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dividends paid on common stock | (5) | (8) | 1 | (46) | — | (36) | (6) | (174) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Acquisition of noncontrolling interest | (885) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Distributions to member | — | — | — | — | (150) | — | — | — | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Contributions from/(to) parent/member | — | 79 | 166 | (154) | 189 | (18) | 8 | 202 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Other financing activities | 91 | (3) | (5) | 2 | (7) | — | (3) | (4) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Increase (decrease) in cash flows from financing activities | $ | 613 | $ | (148) | $ | 182 | $ | (92) | $ | 40 | $ | 111 | $ | (61) | $ | (50) |
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Significant financing cash flow impacts for the Registrants for 2021 and 2020 were as follows:
•Changes in short-term borrowings, net, is driven by repayments on and issuances of notes due in less than 365 days. Refer to Note 17 - Debt and Credit Agreements of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on short-term borrowings.
•Long-term debt, net, varies due to debt issuances and redemptions each year. Refer to debt issuances and redemptions tables below for additional information.
•Changes in intercompany money pool are driven by short-term borrowing needs. Refer below for more information regarding the intercompany money pool.
•Exelon’s ability to pay dividends on its common stock depends on the receipt of dividends paid by its operating subsidiaries. The payments of dividends to Exelon by its subsidiaries in turn depend on their results of operations and cash flows and other items affecting retained earnings. See Note 19 - Commitments and Contingencies of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on dividend restrictions. See below for quarterly dividends declared.
•See Note 2 — Mergers, Acquisitions, and Dispositions of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information related to the acquisition of CENG noncontrolling interest.
•Other financing activities primarily consists of debt issuance costs. See debt issuances table below for additional information on the Registrants’ debt issuances.
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Debt Issuances and Redemptions
See Note 17 — Debt and Credit Agreements of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information of the Registrants’ long-term debt. Debt activity for 2021 and 2020 by Registrant was as follows:
During 2021, the following long-term debt was issued:
| Company/Subsidiary | Type | Interest Rate | Maturity | Amount | Use of Proceeds | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exelon(a) | Long-Term Software License Agreements | 3.62 | % | December 1, 2025 | $ | 4 | Procurement of software licenses. | ||||||
| ComEd | First Mortgage Bonds, Series 130 | 3.13 | % | March 15, 2051 | 700 | Repay a portion of outstanding commercial paper obligations and two outstanding term loans, and to fund other general corporate purposes. | |||||||
| ComEd | First Mortgage Bonds, Series 131 | 2.75 | % | September 1, 2051 | 450 | Refinance existing indebtedness and for general corporate purposes. | |||||||
| PECO | First and Refunding Mortgage Bonds | 3.05 | % | March 15, 2051 | 375 | Funding for general corporate purposes. | |||||||
| PECO | First and Refunding Mortgage Bonds | 2.85 | % | September 15, 2051 | 375 | Refinance existing indebtedness and for general corporate purposes. | |||||||
| BGE | Senior Notes | 2.25 | % | June 15, 2031 | 600 | Repay a portion of outstanding commercial paper obligations, repay existing indebtedness, and to fund other general corporate purposes. | |||||||
| Pepco | First Mortgage Bonds | 2.32 | % | March 30, 2031 | 150 | Repay existing indebtedness and for general corporate purposes. | |||||||
| Pepco | First Mortgage Bonds | 3.29 | % | September 28, 2051 | 125 | Repay existing indebtedness and for general corporate purposes. | |||||||
| DPL(b) | First Mortgage Bonds | 3.24 | % | March 30, 2051 | 125 | Repay existing indebtedness and for general corporate purposes. | |||||||
| ACE | First Mortgage Bonds | 2.30 | % | March 15, 2031 | 350 | Refinance existing indebtedness, repay outstanding commercial paper obligations, and for general corporate purposes. | |||||||
| ACE(c) | First Mortgage Bonds | 2.27 | % | February 15, 2032 | 75 | Repay existing indebtedness and for general corporate purposes. | |||||||
| Generation | West Medway II Nonrecourse Debt(d) | LIBOR + 3%(e) | March 31, 2026 | 150 | Funding for general corporate purposes. | ||||||||
| Generation | Energy Efficiency Project Financing(f) | 2.53% - 4.24% | January 31, 2022 - February 28, 2022 | 2 | Funding to install energy conservation measures. |
__________
(a)In connection with the separation, Exelon Corporate entered into three 18-month term loan agreements. On January 21, 2022, two of the loan agreements were issued for $300 million each with an expiration date of July 21, 2023. On January 24, 2022, the third loan agreement was issued for $250 million with an expiration date of July 24, 2023. Pursuant to the loan agreement, loans made thereunder bear interest at a variable rate equal to SOFR plus 0.65%.
(b)On November 16, 2021, DPL entered into a purchase agreement of First Mortgage Bonds of $125 million at 3.06% due on February 15, 2052. The closing date of the issuance occurred on February 15, 2022.
(c)On November 16, 2021, ACE entered into a purchase agreement of First Mortgage Bonds of $25 million and $150 million at 2.27% and 3.06% due on February 15, 2032 and February 15, 2052, respectively. The closing date of the issuance occurred on February 15, 2022.
(d)See Note 17 — Debt and Credit Agreements of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on nonrecourse debt.
(e)The nonrecourse debt has an average blended interest rate.
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(f)For Energy Efficiency Project Financing, the maturity dates represent the expected date of project completion, upon which the respective customer assumes the outstanding debt.
During 2020, the following long-term debt was issued:
| Company/Subsidiary | Type | Interest Rate | Maturity | Amount | Use of Proceeds | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exelon | Notes | 4.05 | % | April 15, 2030 | $ | 1,250 | Repay existing indebtedness and for general corporate purposes. | ||||||
| Exelon | Notes | 4.70 | % | April 15, 2050 | 750 | Repay existing indebtedness and for general corporate purposes. | |||||||
| ComEd | First Mortgage Bonds, Series 128 | 2.20 | % | March 1, 2030 | 350 | Repay a portion of outstanding commercial paper obligations and fund other general corporate purposes. | |||||||
| ComEd | First Mortgage Bonds, Series 129 | 3.00 | % | March 1, 2050 | 650 | Repay a portion of outstanding commercial paper obligations and fund other general corporate purposes. | |||||||
| PECO | First and Refunding Mortgage Bonds | 2.80 | % | June 15, 2050 | 350 | Funding for general corporate purposes. | |||||||
| BGE | Senior Notes | 2.90 | % | June 15, 2050 | 400 | Repay commercial paper obligations and for general corporate purposes. | |||||||
| Pepco | First Mortgage Bonds | 2.53 | % | February 25, 2030 | 150 | Repay existing indebtedness and for general corporate purposes. | |||||||
| Pepco | First Mortgage Bonds | 3.28 | % | September 23, 2050 | 150 | Repay existing indebtedness and for general corporate purposes. | |||||||
| DPL | First Mortgage Bonds | 2.53 | % | June 9, 2030 | 100 | Repay existing indebtedness and for general corporate purposes. | |||||||
| DPL | Tax-Exempt Bonds(a) | 1.05 | % | January 1, 2031 | 78 | Refinance existing indebtedness. | |||||||
| ACE | Tax-Exempt First Mortgage Bonds | 2.25 | % | June 1, 2029 | 23 | Refinance existing indebtedness. | |||||||
| ACE | First Mortgage Bonds | 3.24 | % | June 9, 2050 | 100 | Repay existing indebtedness and for general corporate purposes. | |||||||
| Generation | Senior Notes | 3.25 | % | June 1, 2025 | 900 | Repay existing indebtedness and for general corporate purposes. | |||||||
| Generation | Constellation Renewables Nonrecourse Debt(b) | LIBOR + 2.75% | December 15, 2027 | 750 | Repay existing indebtedness and for general corporate purposes. | ||||||||
| Generation | Energy Efficiency Project Financing(c) | 2.53% - 3.95% | February 28, 2021 - March 31, 2021 | 6 | Funding to install energy conservation measures. |
__________
(a)The bonds have a 1.05% interest rate through July 2025.
(b)See Note 17 — Debt and Credit Agreements of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on nonrecourse debt.
(c)For Energy Efficiency Project Financing, the maturity dates represent the expected date of project completion, upon which the respective customer assumes the outstanding debt.
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During 2021, the following long-term debt was retired and/or redeemed:
| Company/Subsidiary | Type | Interest Rate | Maturity | Amount | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exelon | Senior Notes(a) | 2.45% | April 15, 2021 | $ | 300 | ||||
| Exelon | Long-Term Software License Agreements | 3.95% | May 1, 2024 | 24 | |||||
| Exelon | Long-Term Software License Agreements | 3.62% | December 1, 2025 | 1 | |||||
| ComEd | First Mortgage Bonds | 3.40% | September 1, 2021 | 350 | |||||
| PECO | First Mortgage Bonds | 1.70% | September 15, 2021 | 300 | |||||
| BGE | Senior Notes | 3.50% | November 15, 2021 | 300 | |||||
| ACE | First Mortgage Bonds | 4.35% | April 1, 2021 | 200 | |||||
| ACE | Tax-Exempt First Mortgage Bonds | 6.80% | March 1, 2021 | 39 | |||||
| ACE | Transition Bonds | 5.55% | October 20, 2021 | 21 | |||||
| Generation | Continental Wind Nonrecourse Debt(b) | 6.00% | February 28, 2033 | 35 | |||||
| Generation | CR Nonrecourse Debt(b) | 3-month LIBOR + 2.50%(c) | December 15, 2027 | 17 | |||||
| Generation | SolGen Nonrecourse Debt(b) | 3.93% | September 30, 2036 | 7 | |||||
| Generation | Antelope Valley DOE Nonrecourse Debt(b) | 2.29% - 3.56% | January 5, 2037 | 24 | |||||
| Generation | West Medway II Nonrecourse Debt(b) | LIBOR + 3%(d) | March 31, 2026 | 13 | |||||
| Generation | RPG Nonrecourse Debt(b) | 4.11% | March 31, 2035 | 9 |
__________
(a)As part of the 2012 Constellation merger, Exelon entered intercompany loan agreements that mirrored the terms and amounts of the third-party debt obligations. In connection with the separation, on January 31, 2022, Exelon Corporate received cash from Generation of $258 million to settle the intercompany loan. See Note 17 — Debt and Credit Agreements of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on the mirror debt.
(b)See Note 17 — Debt and Credit Agreements of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on nonrecourse debt.
(c)The interest rate was amended to 3-month LIBOR + 2.50% on June 16, 2021.
(d)The nonrecourse debt has an average blended interest rate.
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During 2020, the following long-term debt was retired and/or redeemed:
| Company/Subsidiary | Type | Interest Rate | Maturity | Amount | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exelon | Notes | 2.85% | June 15, 2020 | $ | 900 | ||||
| Exelon | Long-Term Software License Agreements | 3.95% | May 1, 2024 | 24 | |||||
| ComEd | First Mortgage Bonds | 4.00% | August 1, 2020 | 500 | |||||
| DPL | Tax-Exempt Bonds | 5.40% | February 1, 2031 | 78 | |||||
| ACE | Tax-Exempt First Mortgage Bonds | 4.88% | June 1, 2029 | 23 | |||||
| ACE | Transition Bonds | 5.55% | October 20, 2023 | 20 | |||||
| Generation | Senior Notes | 2.95% | January 15, 2020 | 1,000 | |||||
| Generation | Senior Notes | 4.00% | October 1, 2020 | 550 | |||||
| Generation | Senior Notes(a) | 5.15% | December 1, 2020 | 550 | |||||
| Generation | Tax-Exempt Bonds | 2.50% - 2.70% | December 1, 2025 - June 1, 2036 | 412 | |||||
| Generation | CR Nonrecourse Debt(b) | 3-month LIBOR + 3.00% | November 30, 2024 | 796 | |||||
| Generation | Continental Wind Nonrecourse Debt(b) | 6.00% | February 28, 2033 | 33 | |||||
| Generation | Antelope Valley DOE Nonrecourse Debt(b) | 2.29% - 3.56% | January 5, 2037 | 23 | |||||
| Generation | RPG Nonrecourse Debt(b) | 4.11% | March 31, 2035 | 9 | |||||
| Generation | Energy Efficiency Project Financing | 3.71% | December 31, 2020 | 4 | |||||
| Generation | NUKEM | 3.15% | September 30, 2020 | 3 | |||||
| Generation | SolGen Nonrecourse Debt | 3.93% | September 30, 2036 | 3 | |||||
| Generation | Energy Efficiency Project Financing | 4.12% | November 30, 2020 | 1 |
__________
(a)The senior notes are legacy Constellation mirror debt that were previously held at Exelon. As part of the 2012 Constellation merger, Exelon assumed intercompany loan agreements that mirrored the terms and amounts of external obligations held by Exelon. See Note 17 — Debt and Credit Agreements of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.
(b)See Note 17 — Debt and Credit Agreements of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information of nonrecourse debt.
From time to time and as market conditions warrant, the Registrants may engage in long-term debt retirements via tender offers, open market repurchases or other viable options to reduce debt on their respective balance sheets.
Dividends
Quarterly dividends declared by the Exelon Board of Directors during the year ended December 31, 2021 and for the first quarter of 2022 were as follows:
| Period | Declaration Date | Shareholder of Record Date | Dividend Payable Date | Cash per Share(a) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First Quarter 2021 | February 21, 2021 | March 8, 2021 | March 15, 2021 | $ | 0.3825 | ||||
| Second Quarter 2021 | April 27, 2021 | May 14, 2021 | June 10, 2021 | $ | 0.3825 | ||||
| Third Quarter 2021 | July 27, 2021 | August 13, 2021 | September 10, 2021 | $ | 0.3825 | ||||
| Fourth Quarter 2021 | October 29, 2021 | November 15, 2021 | December 10, 2021 | $ | 0.3825 | ||||
| First Quarter 2022 | February 8, 2022 | February 25, 2022 | March 10, 2022 | $ | 0.3375 |
___________
(a)Exelon's Board of Directors approved an updated dividend policy for 2022. The 2022 quarterly dividend will be $0.3375 per share.
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Credit Matters and Cash Requirements (All Registrants)
The Registrants fund liquidity needs for capital expenditures, working capital, energy hedging, and other financial commitments through cash flows from continuing operations, public debt offerings, commercial paper markets, and large, diversified credit facilities. The credit facilities include $10.3 billion in aggregate total commitments of which $6.5 billion was available to support additional commercial paper as of December 31, 2021, and of which no financial institution has more than 7% of the aggregate commitments for the Registrants. On February 1, 2022, Exelon Corporate and the Utility Registrants each entered into a new 5-year revolving credit facility that replaced its existing syndicated revolving credit facility. See Note 17 — Debt and Credit Agreements of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information. The Registrants had access to the commercial paper markets and had availability under their revolving credit facilities during 2021 to fund their short-term liquidity needs, when necessary. Exelon and Generation used their available credit facilities to manage short-term liquidity needs as a result of the impacts of the February 2021 extreme cold weather event. The Registrants routinely review the sufficiency of their liquidity position, including appropriate sizing of credit facility commitments, by performing various stress test scenarios, such as commodity price movements, increases in margin-related transactions, changes in hedging levels, and the impacts of hypothetical credit downgrades. The Registrants closely monitor events in the financial markets and the financial institutions associated with the credit facilities, including monitoring credit ratings and outlooks, credit default swap levels, capital raising, and merger activity. See PART I, ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS for additional information regarding the effects of uncertainty in the capital and credit markets.
The Registrants believe their cash flow from operating activities, access to credit markets, and their credit facilities provide sufficient liquidity to support the estimated future cash requirements discussed below.
Pursuant to the Separation Agreement between Exelon and Constellation Energy Corporation, Exelon made a cash payment of $1.75 billion to Generation on January 31, 2022. See Note 26 — Separation of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on the separation.
The following table presents the incremental collateral that each Utility Registrant would have been required to provide in the event each Utility Registrant lost its investment grade credit rating at December 31, 2021 and available credit facility capacity prior to any incremental collateral at December 31, 2021:
| PJM Credit Policy Collateral | Other Incremental Collateral Required(a) | Available Credit Facility Capacity Prior to Any Incremental Collateral | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ComEd | $ | 28 | $ | — | $ | 998 | ||||
| PECO | 1 | 37 | 600 | |||||||
| BGE | 4 | 78 | 470 | |||||||
| Pepco | 3 | — | 125 | |||||||
| DPL | 4 | 14 | 151 | |||||||
| ACE | 1 | — | 155 |
__________
(a)Represents incremental collateral related to natural gas procurement contracts.
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Capital Expenditures
As of December 31, 2021, estimates of capital expenditures for plant additions and improvements are as follows:
| (in millions) | 2022 Transmission | 2022 Distribution | 2022 Gas | Total 2022(b) | Beyond 2022(b)(c) | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exelon(a) | N/A | N/A | N/A | $ | 8,600 | $ | 24,950 | ||||||
| ComEd | 450 | 2,025 | N/A | 2,475 | 7,775 | ||||||||
| PECO | 175 | 850 | 325 | 1,325 | 4,500 | ||||||||
| BGE | 275 | 500 | 475 | 1,225 | 4,100 | ||||||||
| PHI | 600 | 1,175 | 100 | 1,850 | 5,650 | ||||||||
| Pepco | 275 | 625 | N/A | 900 | 2,750 | ||||||||
| DPL | 150 | 250 | 100 | 475 | 1,550 | ||||||||
| ACE | 175 | 300 | N/A | 475 | 1,375 |
___________
(a)Exelon's estimated capital expenditures include estimated capital expenditures for Generation.
(b)Numbers rounded to the nearest $25M and may not sum due to rounding.
(c)Includes estimated capital expenditures for the Utility Registrants from 2023 and 2025 and includes estimated capital expenditures for Generation from 2023 to 2024.
Projected capital expenditures and other investments are subject to periodic review and revision to reflect changes in economic conditions and other factors.
Projected capital expenditures at the Utility Registrants are for continuing projects to maintain and improve operations, including enhancing reliability and adding capacity to the transmission and distribution systems.
The Utility Registrants anticipate that they will fund their capital expenditures with a combination of internally generated funds and borrowings and additional capital contributions from parent.
Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits
Management considers various factors when making pension funding decisions, including actuarially determined minimum contribution requirements under ERISA, contributions required to avoid benefit restrictions and at-risk status as defined by the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (the Act), management of the pension obligation, and regulatory implications. The Act requires the attainment of certain funding levels to avoid benefit restrictions (such as an inability to pay lump sums or to accrue benefits prospectively), and at-risk status (which triggers higher minimum contribution requirements and participant notification). The projected contributions below reflect a funding strategy to make levelized annual contributions with the objective of achieving 100% funded status on an ABO basis over time. This level funding strategy helps minimize volatility of future period required pension contributions. Based on this funding strategy and current market conditions, which are subject to change, Exelon’s estimated annual qualified pension contributions will be approximately $500 million in 2022. Exelon's estimated contributions include contributions related to Generation's qualified pension plans. In connection with the separation, an additional qualified pension contribution of $207 million was completed on February 1, 2022. Unlike the qualified pension plans, Exelon’s non-qualified pension plans are not funded, given that they are not subject to statutory minimum contribution requirements.
While OPEB plans are also not subject to statutory minimum contribution requirements, Exelon does fund certain of its plans. For Exelon's funded OPEB plans, contributions generally equal accounting costs, however, Exelon’s management has historically considered several factors in determining the level of contributions to its OPEB plans, including liabilities management, levels of benefit claims paid, and regulatory implications (amounts deemed prudent to meet regulatory expectations and best assure continued rate recovery). The amounts below include benefit payments related to unfunded plans.
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The following table provides all Registrants' planned contributions to the qualified pension plans, planned benefit payments to non-qualified pension plans, and planned contributions to OPEB plans in 2022:
| Qualified Pension Plans | Non-Qualified Pension Plans | OPEB | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exelon(a) | $ | 505 | $ | 32 | $ | 50 | ||||
| ComEd | 173 | 2 | 12 | |||||||
| PECO | 12 | 1 | 2 | |||||||
| BGE | 48 | 2 | 16 | |||||||
| PHI | 60 | 10 | 7 | |||||||
| Pepco | 2 | 1 | 6 | |||||||
| DPL | 1 | 1 | — | |||||||
| ACE | 7 | — | — |
_________
(a)Exelon's estimated contributions include contributions related to Generation's qualified pension plans. These payments are based on the combined plans, as of December 31, 2021 and do not reflect the impacts of the separation.
To the extent interest rates decline significantly or the pension and OPEB plans earn less than the expected asset returns, annual pension contribution requirements in future years could increase. Conversely, to the extent interest rates increase significantly or the pension and OPEB plans earn greater than the expected asset returns, annual pension and OPEB contribution requirements in future years could decrease. Additionally, expected contributions could change if Exelon changes its pension or OPEB funding strategy.
See Note 15 — Retirement Benefits of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on pension and OPEB contributions.
Cash Requirements for Other Financial Commitments
The following tables summarize the Registrants' future estimated cash payments as of December 31, 2021 under existing financial commitments:
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Exelon
| 2022(a) | Beyond 2022(a) | Total(a) | Time Period | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long-term debt(b) | $ | 3,357 | $ | 35,300 | $ | 38,657 | 2022 - 2053 | ||||||
| Interest payments on long-term debt(c) | 1,509 | 23,670 | 25,179 | 2022 - 2051 | |||||||||
| Operating leases(d) | 99 | 937 | 1,036 | 2022 - 2106 | |||||||||
| Purchase power obligations(e) | 620 | 1,109 | 1,729 | 2022 - 2036 | |||||||||
| Fuel purchase agreements(f) | 1,303 | 5,446 | 6,749 | 2022 - 2054 | |||||||||
| Electric supply procurement | 2,122 | 1,254 | 3,376 | 2022 - 2025 | |||||||||
| Long-term renewable energy and REC commitments | 302 | 1,691 | 1,993 | 2022 - 2033 | |||||||||
| Other purchase obligations(g) | 5,247 | 5,806 | 11,053 | 2022 - 2046 | |||||||||
| DC PLUG obligation | 33 | 37 | 70 | 2022 - 2024 | |||||||||
| SNF obligation | — | 1,210 | 1,210 | 2022 - 2035 | |||||||||
| Pension contributions(h) | 505 | 190 | 695 | 2022 - 2027 | |||||||||
| Total cash requirements | $ | 15,097 | $ | 76,650 | $ | 91,747 |
__________
(a)Exelon's future estimated cash payments include future estimated cash payments for Generation.
(b)Includes amounts from ComEd and PECO financing trusts.
(c)Interest payments are estimated based on final maturity dates of debt securities outstanding at December 31, 2021 and do not reflect anticipated future refinancing, early redemptions, or debt issuances. Variable rate interest obligations are estimated based on rates as of December 31, 2021. Includes estimated interest payments due to ComEd and PECO financing trusts.
(d)Capacity payments associated with contracted generation lease agreements are net of sublease and capacity offsets of $57 million and $315 million for 2022 and beyond 2022, respectively, and $372 million in total.
(e)Purchase power obligations primarily include expected payments for REC purchases and payments associated with contracted generation agreements, which may be reduced based on plant availability. Expected payments exclude payments on renewable generation contracts that are contingent in nature.
(f)Represents commitments to purchase nuclear fuel, natural gas and related transportation, storage capacity, and services.
(g)Represents the future estimated value at December 31, 2021 of the cash flows associated with all contracts, both cancellable and non-cancellable, entered into between the Registrants or subsidiary and third-parties for the provision of services and materials, entered into in the normal course of business not specifically reflected elsewhere in this table. These estimates are subject to significant variability from period to period.
(h)These amounts represent Exelon’s expected contributions to its qualified pension plans. Qualified pension contributions for years after 2027 are not included.
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ComEd
| 2022 | Beyond 2022 | Total | Time Period | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long-term debt(a) | $ | — | $ | 10,084 | $ | 10,084 | 2022 - 2053 | ||||||
| Interest payments on long-term debt(b) | 394 | 7,467 | 7,861 | 2022 - 2051 | |||||||||
| Operating leases | 2 | 3 | 5 | 2022 - 2025 | |||||||||
| Electric supply procurement | 474 | 260 | 734 | 2022 - 2024 | |||||||||
| Long-term renewable energy and REC commitments | 271 | 1,438 | 1,709 | 2022 - 2033 | |||||||||
| Other purchase obligations(c) | 858 | 764 | 1,622 | 2022 - 2031 | |||||||||
| ZEC commitments | 160 | 706 | 866 | 2022 - 2027 | |||||||||
| Total cash requirements | $ | 2,159 | $ | 20,722 | $ | 22,881 |
__________
(a)Includes amounts from ComEd financing trust.
(b)Interest payments are estimated based on final maturity dates of debt securities outstanding at December 31, 2021 and do not reflect anticipated future refinancing, early redemptions, or debt issuances. Includes estimated interest payments due to the ComEd financing trust.
(c)Represents the future estimated value at December 31, 2021 of the cash flows associated with all contracts, both cancellable and non-cancellable, entered into between ComEd and third-parties for the provision of services and materials, entered into in the normal course of business not specifically reflected elsewhere in this table. These estimates are subject to significant variability from period to period.
PECO
| 2022 | Beyond 2022 | Total | Time Period | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long-term debt(a) | $ | 350 | $ | 4,084 | $ | 4,434 | 2022 - 2051 | ||||||
| Interest payments on long-term debt(b) | 166 | 3,213 | 3,379 | 2022 - 2051 | |||||||||
| Operating leases | — | 1 | 1 | 2022 - 2034 | |||||||||
| Fuel purchase agreements(c) | 140 | 271 | 411 | 2022 - 2029 | |||||||||
| Electric supply procurement | 490 | 2 | 492 | 2022 - 2023 | |||||||||
| Other purchase obligations(d) | 846 | 690 | 1,536 | 2022 - 2030 | |||||||||
| Total cash requirements | $ | 1,992 | $ | 8,261 | $ | 10,253 |
__________
(a)Includes amounts from PECO financing trusts.
(b)Interest payments are estimated based on final maturity dates of debt securities outstanding at December 31, 2021 and do not reflect anticipated future refinancing, early redemptions, or debt issuances. Includes estimated interest payments due to the PECO financing trusts.
(c)Represents commitments to purchase natural gas and related transportation, storage capacity, and services.
(d)Represents the future estimated value at December 31, 2021 of the cash flows associated with all contracts, both cancellable and non-cancellable, entered into between PECO and third-parties for the provision of services and materials, entered into in the normal course of business not specifically reflected elsewhere in this table. These estimates are subject to significant variability from period to period.
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BGE
| 2022 | Beyond 2022 | Total | Time Period | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long-term debt | $ | 250 | $ | 3,750 | $ | 4,000 | 2022 - 2050 | ||||||
| Interest payments on long-term debt(a) | 138 | 2,312 | 2,450 | 2022 - 2050 | |||||||||
| Operating leases | 16 | 19 | 35 | 2022 - 2106 | |||||||||
| Fuel purchase agreements(b) | 112 | 481 | 593 | 2022 - 2038 | |||||||||
| Electric supply procurement | 764 | 498 | 1,262 | 2022 - 2024 | |||||||||
| Other purchase obligations(c) | 692 | 607 | 1,299 | 2022 - 2040 | |||||||||
| Total cash requirements | $ | 1,972 | $ | 7,667 | $ | 9,639 |
__________
(a)Interest payments are estimated based on final maturity dates of debt securities outstanding at December 31, 2021 and do not reflect anticipated future refinancing, early redemptions, or debt issuances.
(b)Represents commitments to purchase natural gas and related transportation, storage capacity, and services.
(c)Represents the future estimated value at December 31, 2021 of the cash flows associated with all contracts, both cancellable and non-cancellable, entered into between BGE and third-parties for the provision of services and materials, entered into in the normal course of business not specifically reflected elsewhere in this table. These estimates are subject to significant variability from period to period.
PHI
| 2022 | Beyond 2022 | Total | Time Period | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long-term debt | $ | 387 | $ | 6,618 | $ | 7,005 | 2022 - 2051 | ||||||
| Interest payments on long-term debt(a) | 282 | 3,953 | 4,235 | 2022 - 2051 | |||||||||
| Finance leases | 12 | 67 | 79 | 2022 - 2029 | |||||||||
| Operating leases | 38 | 230 | 268 | 2022 - 2032 | |||||||||
| Fuel purchase agreements(b) | 31 | 242 | 273 | 2022 - 2030 | |||||||||
| Electric supply procurement | 1,097 | 754 | 1,851 | 2022 - 2025 | |||||||||
| Long-term renewable energy and REC commitments | 31 | 253 | 284 | 2022 - 2032 | |||||||||
| Other purchase obligations(c) | 1,016 | 1,031 | 2,047 | 2022 - 2029 | |||||||||
| DC PLUG obligation | 33 | 37 | 70 | 2022 - 2024 | |||||||||
| Total cash requirements | $ | 2,927 | $ | 13,185 | $ | 16,112 |
__________
(a)Interest payments are estimated based on final maturity dates of debt securities outstanding at December 31, 2021 and do not reflect anticipated future refinancing, early redemptions, or debt issuances. Variable rate interest obligations are estimated based on rates as of December 31, 2021.
(b)Represents commitments to purchase natural gas and related transportation, storage capacity, and services.
(c)Represents the future estimated value at December 31, 2021 of the cash flows associated with all contracts, both cancellable and non-cancellable, entered into between Pepco, DPL, ACE, and PHISCO and third-parties for the provision of services and materials, entered into in the normal course of business not specifically reflected elsewhere in this table. These estimates are subject to significant variability from period to period.
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Pepco
| 2022 | Beyond 2022 | Total | Time Period | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long-term debt | $ | 309 | $ | 3,150 | $ | 3,459 | 2022 - 2051 | ||||||
| Interest payments on long-term debt(a) | 149 | 2,287 | 2,436 | 2022 - 2051 | |||||||||
| Finance leases | 4 | 23 | 27 | 2022 - 2029 | |||||||||
| Operating leases | 8 | 47 | 55 | 2022 - 2032 | |||||||||
| Electric supply procurement | 498 | 384 | 882 | 2022 - 2025 | |||||||||
| Other purchase obligations(b) | 603 | 551 | 1,154 | 2022 - 2026 | |||||||||
| DC PLUG obligation | 33 | 37 | 70 | 2022 - 2024 | |||||||||
| Total cash requirements | $ | 1,604 | $ | 6,479 | $ | 8,083 |
__________
(a)Interest payments are estimated based on final maturity dates of debt securities outstanding at December 31, 2021 and do not reflect anticipated future refinancing, early redemptions, or debt issuances.
(b)Represents the future estimated value at December 31, 2021 of the cash flows associated with all contracts, both cancellable and non-cancellable, entered into between Pepco and third-parties for the provision of services and materials, entered into in the normal course of business not specifically reflected elsewhere in this table. These estimates are subject to significant variability from period to period.
DPL
| 2022 | Beyond 2022 | Total | Time Period | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long-term debt | $ | 78 | $ | 1,711 | $ | 1,789 | 2022 - 2051 | ||||||
| Interest payments on long-term debt(a) | 63 | 1,013 | 1,076 | 2022 - 2051 | |||||||||
| Finance leases | 5 | 27 | 32 | 2022 - 2029 | |||||||||
| Operating leases | 10 | 60 | 70 | 2022 - 2027 | |||||||||
| Fuel purchase agreements(b) | 31 | 242 | 273 | 2022 - 2030 | |||||||||
| Electric supply procurement | 298 | 187 | 485 | 2022 - 2024 | |||||||||
| Long-term renewable energy and REC commitments | 31 | 253 | 284 | 2022 - 2032 | |||||||||
| Other purchase obligations(c) | 214 | 192 | 406 | 2022 - 2028 | |||||||||
| Total cash requirements | $ | 730 | $ | 3,685 | $ | 4,415 |
__________
(a)Interest payments are estimated based on final maturity dates of debt securities outstanding at December 31, 2021 and do not reflect anticipated future refinancing, early redemptions, or debt issuances. Variable rate interest obligations are estimated based on rates as of December 31, 2021.
(b)Represents commitments to purchase natural gas and related transportation, storage capacity, and services.
(c)Represents the future estimated value at December 31, 2021 of the cash flows associated with all contracts, both cancellable and non-cancellable, entered into between DPL and third-parties for the provision of services and materials, entered into in the normal course of business not specifically reflected elsewhere in this table. These estimates are subject to significant variability from period to period.
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ACE
| 2022 | Beyond 2022 | Total | Time Period | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long-term debt | $ | — | $ | 1,572 | $ | 1,572 | 2022 - 2050 | ||||||
| Interest payments on long-term debt(a) | 56 | 519 | 575 | 2022 - 2050 | |||||||||
| Finance leases | 3 | 17 | 20 | 2022 - 2029 | |||||||||
| Operating leases | 4 | 9 | 13 | 2022 - 2027 | |||||||||
| Electric supply procurement | 301 | 183 | 484 | 2022 - 2024 | |||||||||
| Other purchase obligations(b) | 158 | 240 | 398 | 2022 - 2027 | |||||||||
| Total cash requirements | $ | 522 | $ | 2,540 | $ | 3,062 |
__________
(a)Interest payments are estimated based on final maturity dates of debt securities outstanding at December 31, 2021 and do not reflect anticipated future refinancing, early redemptions, or debt issuances.
(b)Represents the future estimated value at December 31, 2021 of the cash flows associated with all contracts, both cancellable and non-cancellable, entered into between ACE and third-parties for the provision of services and materials, entered into in the normal course of business not specifically reflected elsewhere in this table. These estimates are subject to significant variability from period to period.
See Note 19 — Commitments and Contingencies and Note 3 — Regulatory Matters of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information of the Registrants’ other commitments potentially triggered by future events. Additionally, see below for where to find additional information regarding the financial commitments in the tables above in the Combined Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements:
| Item | Location within Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements |
|---|---|
| Long-term debt | Note 17 — Debt and Credit Agreements |
| Interest payments on long-term debt | Note 17 — Debt and Credit Agreements |
| Finance leases | Note 11 — Leases |
| Operating leases | Note 11 — Leases |
| SNF obligation | Note 19 — Commitments and Contingencies |
| REC commitments | Note 3 — Regulatory Matters |
| ZEC commitments | Note 3 — Regulatory Matters |
| DC PLUG obligation | Note 3 — Regulatory Matters |
| Pension contributions | Note 15 — Retirement Benefits |
Credit Facilities (All Registrants)
Exelon Corporate, ComEd, and BGE meet their short-term liquidity requirements primarily through the issuance of commercial paper. PECO meets its short-term liquidity requirements primarily through the issuance of commercial paper and borrowings from the Exelon intercompany money pool. Pepco, DPL, and ACE meet their short-term liquidity requirements primarily through the issuance of commercial paper and borrowings from the PHI intercompany money pool. PHI Corporate meets its short-term liquidity requirements primarily through the issuance of short-term notes and the Exelon intercompany money pool. The Registrants may use their respective credit facilities for general corporate purposes, including meeting short-term funding requirements and the issuance of letters of credit.
See Note 17 — Debt and Credit Agreements of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on the Registrants’ credit facilities and short term borrowing activity.
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Capital Structure
At December 31, 2021, the capital structures of the Registrants consisted of the following:
| Exelon | ComEd | PECO | BGE | PHI | Pepco | DPL | ACE | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long-term debt | 50 | % | 44 | % | 44 | % | 45 | % | 40 | % | 49 | % | 48 | % | 48 | % | |||||||||
| Long-term debt to affiliates(a) | 1 | % | 1 | % | 2 | % | — | % | — | % | — | % | — | % | — | % | |||||||||
| Common equity | 45 | % | 55 | % | 54 | % | 53 | % | — | % | 49 | % | 48 | % | 48 | % | |||||||||
| Member’s equity | — | % | — | % | — | % | — | % | 57 | % | — | % | — | % | — | % | |||||||||
| Commercial paper and notes payable | 4 | % | — | % | — | % | 2 | % | 3 | % | 2 | % | 4 | % | 4 | % |
__________
(a)Includes approximately $390 million, $205 million, and $184 million owed to unconsolidated affiliates of Exelon, ComEd, and PECO respectively. These special purpose entities were created for the sole purposes of issuing mandatory redeemable trust preferred securities of ComEd and PECO. See Note 23 — Variable Interest Entities of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information regarding the authoritative guidance for VIEs.
Security Ratings (All Registrants)
The Registrants’ access to the capital markets, including the commercial paper market, and their respective financing costs in those markets, may depend on the securities ratings of the entity that is accessing the capital markets.
The Registrants’ borrowings are not subject to default or prepayment as a result of a downgrading of securities, although such a downgrading of a Registrant’s securities could increase fees and interest charges under that Registrant’s credit agreements.
As part of the normal course of business, the Registrants enter into contracts that contain express provisions or otherwise permit the Registrants and their counterparties to demand adequate assurance of future performance when there are reasonable grounds for doing so. In accordance with the contracts and applicable contracts law, if the Registrants are downgraded by a credit rating agency, it is possible that a counterparty would attempt to rely on such a downgrade as a basis for making a demand for adequate assurance of future performance, which could include the posting of additional collateral. See Note 16 — Derivative Financial Instruments of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on collateral provisions.
The credit ratings for Exelon Corporate and the Utility Registrants did not change for the year ended December 31, 2021. On January 14, 2022, Fitch lowered Exelon Corporate's long-term rating from BBB+ to BBB and affirmed the short-term rating of F2. In addition, Fitch upgraded Pepco, ACE, and PHI's long-term rating from BBB to BBB+ and upgraded Pepco and ACE's senior secured rating from A- to A.
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Intercompany Money Pool (All Registrants)
To provide an additional short-term borrowing option that will generally be more favorable to the borrowing participants than the cost of external financing, both Exelon and PHI operate an intercompany money pool. Maximum amounts contributed to and borrowed from the money pool by participant and the net contribution or borrowing as of December 31, 2021, are presented in the following tables. ACE did not have any intercompany money pool activity as of December 31, 2021.
| For the Year Ended December 31, 2021 | As of December 31, 2021 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exelon Intercompany Money Pool | Maximum Contributed | Maximum Borrowed | Contributed (Borrowed) | |||||||
| Exelon Corporate | $ | 735 | $ | — | $ | 217 | ||||
| Generation | — | (426) | — | |||||||
| PECO | 303 | (100) | — | |||||||
| BSC | — | (435) | (260) | |||||||
| PHI Corporate | — | (40) | (7) | |||||||
| PCI | 60 | — | 50 |
| For the Year Ended December 31, 2021 | As of December 31, 2021 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PHI Intercompany Money Pool | Maximum Contributed | Maximum Borrowed | Contributed (Borrowed) | |||||||
| Pepco | $ | — | $ | (30) | $ | — | ||||
| DPL | 30 | — | — |
Shelf Registration Statements (All Registrants)
Exelon and the Utility Registrants have a currently effective combined shelf registration statement unlimited in amount, filed with the SEC, that will expire in August 2022. The ability of each Registrant to sell securities off the shelf registration statement or to access the private placement markets will depend on a number of factors at the time of the proposed sale, including other required regulatory approvals, as applicable, the current financial condition of the Registrant, its securities ratings and market conditions.
Regulatory Authorizations (All Registrants)
The Utility Registrants are required to obtain short-term and long-term financing authority from Federal and State Commissions as follows:
| As of December 31, 2021 | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Short-term Financing Authority(a) | Remaining Long-term Financing Authority | ||||||||||||||
| Commission | Expiration Date | Amount | Commission | Expiration Date | Amount | ||||||||||
| ComEd(b) | FERC | December 31, 2023 | $ | 2,500 | ICC | January 1, 2025 | $ | 2,093 | |||||||
| PECO(c) | FERC | December 31, 2023 | 1,500 | PAPUC | December 31, 2024 | 1,900 | |||||||||
| BGE | FERC | December 31, 2023 | 700 | MDPSC | N/A | 500 | |||||||||
| Pepco | FERC | December 31, 2023 | 500 | MDPSC / DCPSC | December 31, 2022 | 625 | |||||||||
| DPL | FERC | December 31, 2023 | 500 | MDPSC / DEPSC | December 31, 2022 | 172 | |||||||||
| ACE(d) | NJBPU | December 31, 2023 | 350 | NJBPU | December 31, 2022 | 175 |
__________
(a)On October 15, 2021, ComEd, PECO, BGE, Pepco, and DPL filed applications with FERC and on July 21, 2021, ACE filed an application with NJBPU for renewal of their short-term financing authority through December 31, 2023. ComEd received approval on December 16, 2021, PECO and BGE received approval on December 23, 2021, Pepco and DPL received approval on December 28, 2021, and ACE received approval on December 1, 2021.
(b)On November 18, 2021, ComEd had an additional $2 billion in new money long-term debt financing authority from the ICC with an effective date of January 1, 2022 and an expiration date of January 1, 2025.
(c)On December 2, 2021, PECO received approval from the PAPUC for $2.5 billion in new long-term debt financing authority with an effective date of January 1, 2022.
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(d)ACE is currently in the process of renewing its long-term financing authority with the NJBPU and expects approval by August 1, 2022.