Exelon Corporation (Exelon) operates as a utility services holding company.
The company engages in the energy distribution and transmission businesses through Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd), PECO Energy Company (PECO), Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE), Potomac Electric Power Company (Pepco), Delmarva Power & Light Company (DPL), and Atlantic City Electric Company (ACE).
Business Services
Through its business services subsidiary, Exelon Business Services Company, LLC (BSC), Exelon...
Exelon Corporation (Exelon) operates as a utility services holding company.
The company engages in the energy distribution and transmission businesses through Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd), PECO Energy Company (PECO), Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE), Potomac Electric Power Company (Pepco), Delmarva Power & Light Company (DPL), and Atlantic City Electric Company (ACE).
Business Services
Through its business services subsidiary, Exelon Business Services Company, LLC (BSC), Exelon provides its subsidiaries with a variety of support services at cost, including legal, human resources, finance, information technology, and supply management services. PHI also has a business services subsidiary, PHI Service Company (PHISCO), which provides a variety of support services at cost, including legal, finance, engineering, customer operations, transmission and distribution planning, asset management, system operations, and power procurement, to PHI operating Registrants.
Utility Operations
The Utility Registrants (ComEd, PECO, BGE, Pepco, DPL, and ACE, collectively) have the necessary authorizations to perform their business of providing regulated electric and natural gas distribution services in the various municipalities and territories in which they supply such services. These authorizations include charters, franchises, permits, and certificates of public convenience issued by local and state governments and state utility commissions. ComEd's, BGE's (gas), Pepco DC's, and ACE's rights are generally non-exclusive while PECO's, BGE's (electric), Pepco MD's, and DPL's rights are generally exclusive. Certain authorizations are perpetual while others have varying expiration dates. The Utility Registrants anticipate working with the appropriate governmental bodies to extend or replace the authorizations prior to their expirations.
Utility Regulations
State utility commissions regulate the Utility Registrants' electric and gas distribution rates and service, issuances of certain securities, and certain other aspects of the business.
The Utility Registrants are public utilities under the Federal Power Act subject to regulation by Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) related to transmission rates and certain other aspects of the utilities' business. The U.S. Department of Transportation also regulates pipeline safety and other areas of gas operations for PECO, BGE, and DPL. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (Transportation Security Administration) provided new security directives in 2021 that regulate cyber risks for certain gas distribution operators. Additionally, the Utility Registrants are subject to NERC mandatory reliability standards, which protect the nation's bulk power system against potential disruptions from cyber and physical security breaches.
Seasonality Impacts on Delivery Volumes
The Utility Registrants' electric distribution volumes are generally higher during the summer and winter months when temperature extremes create demand for either summer cooling or winter heating. For PECO, BGE, and DPL, natural gas distribution volumes are generally higher during the winter months when cold temperatures create demand for winter heating.
ComEd, BGE, Pepco, DPL Maryland, and ACE have electric distribution decoupling mechanisms and BGE has a natural gas decoupling mechanism that eliminate the favorable and unfavorable impacts of weather and customer usage patterns on electric distribution and natural gas delivery volumes. As a result, ComEd's, BGE's, Pepco's, DPL Maryland's, and ACE's electric distribution revenues and BGE's natural gas distribution revenues are not intended to be impacted by delivery volumes. PECO's and DPL Delaware's electric distribution revenues and natural gas distribution revenues are impacted by delivery volumes.
Electric and Natural Gas Distribution Services
ComEd, Pepco, DPL and ACE customers have the choice to purchase electricity, and PECO and BGE customers have the choice to purchase electricity and natural gas from competitive electric generation and natural gas suppliers. DPL customers, with the exception of certain commercial and industrial customers, do not have the choice to purchase natural gas from competitive natural gas suppliers. The Utility Registrants remain the distribution service providers for all customers and are obligated to deliver electricity and natural gas to customers in their respective service territories while charging a regulated rate for distribution service. In addition, the Utility Registrants also retain significant default service obligations to provide electricity to certain groups of customers in their respective service areas who do not choose a competitive electric generation supplier. PECO, BGE, and DPL also retain significant default service obligations to provide natural gas to certain groups of customers in their respective service areas who do not choose a competitive natural gas supplier.
For customers that choose to purchase electric generation or natural gas from competitive suppliers. For customers that choose to purchase electric generation or natural gas from a Utility Registrant, the Utility Registrants are permitted to recover the electricity and natural gas procurement costs from customers without mark-up or with a slight mark-up.
Procurement of Electricity and Natural Gas
The Utility Registrants' electric supply for its customers is primarily procured through contracts as directed by their respective state laws and regulatory commission actions. The Utility Registrants procure electricity supply from various approved bidders or from purchases on the PJM Interconnection, LLC (PJM) operated markets.
PECO's, BGE’s, and DPL's natural gas supplies are purchased from a number of suppliers. PECO, BGE, and DPL each have annual firm transportation contracts of 437,000 mmcf, 283,000 mmcf, and 44,000 mmcf, respectively, for delivery of gas. To supplement gas transportation and supply at times of heavy winter demands and in the event of temporary emergencies, PECO, BGE, and DPL have available storage capacity from the various sources.
PECO, BGE, and DPL have long-term interstate pipeline contracts and also participate in the interstate markets by releasing pipeline capacity or bundling pipeline capacity with gas for off-system sales. Off-system gas sales are low-margin direct sales of gas to wholesale suppliers of natural gas. Earnings from these activities are shared between the utilities and customers. PECO, BGE, and DPL make these sales as part of a program to balance its supply and cost of natural gas. The off-system gas sales are not material to PECO, BGE, and DPL.
Transmission Services
The Utility Registrants, as owners of transmission facilities, are required to provide open access to their transmission facilities at cost-based rates pursuant to tariffs approved by FERC. The Utility Registrants and their affiliates are required to comply with FERC’s Standards of Conduct regulation governing the communication of non-public transmission information between the transmission owner’s employees and wholesale merchant employees.
PJM is the regional grid operator and operates pursuant to its FERC-approved tariffs. PJM is the transmission provider under, and the administrator of, the PJM Tariff. PJM operates the PJM energy, capacity, and other wholesale markets. PJM controls the day-to-day operations of the bulk power system for the region. The Utility Registrants are members of PJM and provide regional transmission service pursuant to the PJM Tariff. The Utility Registrants and the other transmission owners in PJM have turned over control of certain of their transmission facilities to PJM, and their transmission systems are under the dispatch control of PJM. Under the PJM Tariff, transmission service is provided on a region-wide, open-access basis through the transmission facilities of the PJM transmission owners.
Strategy
Exelon is a transmission and distribution company that delivers electricity and natural gas service to the company’s customers and communities. Exelon's businesses remain focused on maintaining industry leading operational excellence, meeting or exceeding their financial commitments, ensuring timely recovery on investments to enable customer benefits, supporting clean energy policies, including those that advance the company’s jurisdictions' clean energy targets, and continued commitment to corporate responsibility.
Exelon’s strategy is to improve reliability and operations, enhance the customer experience, and advance clean and affordable energy choices, while ensuring ratemaking mechanisms provide the utilities fair financial returns. The jurisdictions in which Exelon has operations have set some of the nation's leading clean energy targets and the company’s strategy is to enable that future for all its stakeholders. The Utility Registrants invest in rate base that supports service to the company’s customers and the community, including investments that sustain and improve reliability and resiliency and that enhance the service experience of the company’s customers. The Utility Registrants make these investments prudently at a reasonable cost to customers. Exelon seeks to leverage its scale and expertise across the utilities platform through enhanced standardization and sharing of resources and best practices.
Environmental Matters and Regulation
The Audit and Risk Committee oversees compliance with environmental laws and regulations, including environmental risks related to Exelon's operations and facilities, as well as the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) disclosures related to environmental matters.
In the absence of comprehensive federal climate legislation, Exelon supports the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) moving forward with meaningful regulation of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions under the Clean Air Act.
Under the federal Clean Water Act, NPDES (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) permits for discharges into waterways are required to be obtained from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or from the state environmental agency to which the permit program has been delegated, and permits must be renewed periodically. Certain of the company’s facilities discharge water into waterways and are therefore subject to these regulations and operate under NPDES permits.
Under Clean Water Act Section 404 and state laws and regulations, the Registrants may be required to obtain permits for projects involving dredge or fill activities in waters of the United States.
The Registrants (the company, Commonwealth Edison Company, PECO Energy Company, Baltimore Gas and Electric Company, Pepco Holdings LLC, Potomac Electric Power Company, Delmarva Power & Light Company, and Atlantic City Electric Company) and their subsidiaries are, or could become in the future, parties to proceedings initiated by the EPA, state agencies, and/or other responsible parties under Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA) or similar state laws with respect to a number of sites or may undertake to investigate and remediate sites for which they may be subject to enforcement actions by an agency or third-party.
History
Exelon Corporation was incorporated in Pennsylvania in 1999.