Exelon Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
July 30, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Exelon reported second-quarter adjusted operating earnings of $0.43 per share, up from $0.39 a year earlier, and reaffirmed its 2026 guidance of $2.81–$2.91 per share.
  • Positive Sentiment: The company continues to target 5%–7% annualized earnings growth through 2029, supported by approximately 7.9% annualized rate-base growth, disciplined cost management, and a planned $10 billion of 2026 capital investment.
  • Positive Sentiment: Exelon is advancing growth opportunities in transmission, battery storage, and virtual power plants to address PJM’s supply constraints; its proposed 500-MW New Jersey battery project represents roughly $1 billion of investment and is expected to provide customers with more than $700 million in net benefits.
  • Neutral Sentiment: PJM experienced record demand and significant price spikes during July heat, while its latest capacity auction again cleared at the price cap and fell short of reliability requirements, underscoring both a need for new supply and potential affordability pressure for customers.
  • Neutral Sentiment: Exelon reduced its high-probability data-center pipeline estimate to 36 GW from 43 GW after filtering out speculative projects, although management said its $41 billion 2026–2029 capital plan remains unchanged and cited $1 billion of collateral backing projects with signed transmission security agreements.
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Earnings Conference Call
Exelon Q2 2026
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Hello, welcome to Exelon's second quarter earnings call. My name is Josh, and I will be your event specialist today. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. Please note that today's webcast is being recorded. During the presentation, we'll have a question and answer session. You can ask questions by pressing star one, one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to view the presentation in a full-screen view, click the full-screen button by hovering your computer mouse cursor over the PowerPoint screen. Press the escape key on your keyboard to return to your original view. Finally, should you need technical assistance, as a best practice, we suggest you first refresh your browser. If that does not resolve the issue, please click on the help option in the upper right-hand corner of your screen for online troubleshooting.

Operator

It is now my pleasure to turn today's program over to Ryan Brown, Vice President of Investor Relations. The floor is yours.

Ryan Brown
Ryan Brown
VP of Investor Relations at Exelon

Great. Thank you, Josh. Good morning, everyone. Appreciate you joining us for our 2026 second quarter earnings call. Leading the call today are Calvin Butler, Exelon's President and Chief Executive Officer, and Jeanne Jones, Exelon's Chief Financial Officer. Other members of Exelon's senior management team are also with us today and will be available to answer your questions following our prepared remarks. Today's presentation, along with our earnings release and other financial information, can be found in the investor relations section of Exelon's website. We'd also like to remind you that today's presentation and the associated earnings release materials contain forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. You can find the cautionary statements on these risks on slide two of today's presentation or in our SEC filings. In addition, today's presentation includes references to adjusted operating earnings and other Non-GAAP measures.

Ryan Brown
Ryan Brown
VP of Investor Relations at Exelon

Reconciliations between these measures and the nearest equivalent GAAP measures can be found in the appendix of our presentation and in our earnings release. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Calvin Butler, Exelon's President and Chief Executive Officer.

Calvin Butler
Calvin Butler
President and CEO at Exelon

Thank you, Ryan, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us for our second quarter earnings call. Halfway through 2026, Exelon is delivering where it matters most, performing today and preparing for tomorrow. Our utilities are providing safe, reliable service, driving affordability, and investing in the infrastructure that keeps our customers, communities, and economies thriving. This morning, we reported adjusted operating earnings of $0.43 per share, consistent with expectations, and are reaffirming our full-year guidance of $2.81-$2.91 per share. Operationally, we continue to lead the industry with all utilities projecting top quartile reliability and ComEd and PHI projected in the top decile. Those of you who are from Chicagoland know that this has been quite a year for storms.

Calvin Butler
Calvin Butler
President and CEO at Exelon

Far this year, ComEd has experienced 16 major weather events, more than it's seen in over two decades, while Illinois has recorded more tornadoes than any other state. Most recently, Monday's severe storms impacted approximately 530,000 customers. Thanks to the extraordinary efforts of our crews and support teams, power was restored to 90% of affected customers within 48 hours. These results reflect disciplined investment in grid resilience and a sustained focus on delivering safe, reliable service for our customers when they need it most. Reliability is about more than metrics. When the grid performs, businesses keep their doors open, hospitals care for patients, and families can count on the power being there when they need it most.

Calvin Butler
Calvin Butler
President and CEO at Exelon

In 2025 alone, our top quartile reliability saved customers an estimated $1 billion in avoided outage costs, annual customer interruptions have declined by nearly two million since 2021. For every $1 million Exelon invests, an average of eight jobs are created or $1.7 million of economic output is generated. We're proud of the indispensable role we play in supporting the communities and businesses that depend on us every day. Now, turning to regulatory activity, we remain on track in the Pepco Maryland and DPL Delaware Electric rate cases, as well as ComEd's grid plan. Earlier this month, we also filed a rate case at BGE, with the decision expected in January 2027. Jeanne will cover the details, the filing reflects our approach to balancing affordability with the investments required to maintain a safe and reliable grid.

Calvin Butler
Calvin Butler
President and CEO at Exelon

To help manage customer impacts, BGE delayed its filing, deferred select projects, and prioritized the maintenance and reliability work most critical to serving customers safely. The work our men and women perform every day is critical to our communities, we cannot delay any further. If critical work is deferred for too long, customers ultimately pay the price through more outages, more costly repairs, and higher long-term costs. As demand grows and weather-related stress increases, the need to maintain and strengthen the grid remains. Long-term affordability depends on a strong, resilient system. Across Exelon, affordability and reliability are being addressed together. We manage expenses carefully, deploy capital where it creates the greatest customer value, and support customers through assistance programs and energy savings initiatives. We're also taking steps to ensure growth benefits existing customers rather than burdening them.

Calvin Butler
Calvin Butler
President and CEO at Exelon

As new large load customers connect to our system, we are structuring agreements that require real financial commitments tied to the infrastructure needed to serve them. FERC's recent large load dockets reinforce that approach, recognizing the need to protect existing customers while ensuring that large load customers have real commitments behind their projects. This is exactly the principle behind our Transmission Security Agreements, which is helping to protect customers by filtering out speculative requests before significant system investments are made, creating a clearer picture of actionable demand. Despite these efforts, the extreme heat and system demand in July made one thing very clear: affordability cannot be solved through cost discipline alone. It also requires new supply. At the beginning of the month, PJM was pushed to its limits. Demand hit a record peak of 168 GW.

Calvin Butler
Calvin Butler
President and CEO at Exelon

PJM activated emergency procedures and called on demand response resources to maintain reliability, while power prices surged tenfold from roughly $80 MWh-$800 MWh. The grid held, and our teams did their job, but the system should not have to operate this close to the edge, and this is not a one-off event. This pressure is further evidenced by PJM's most recent capacity auction. For the third consecutive auction, prices cleared at the FERC-approved price cap. The market fell short on PJM's reliability requirement by approximately 6.8 GW, larger than the prior 6.5-GW shortfall, which is the equivalent of roughly seven nuclear reactors of missing supply. Only about 525 MW of new generation on uprates cleared, indicating that even at the highest allowed price, the market is not attracting the level of new supply the system needs.

Calvin Butler
Calvin Butler
President and CEO at Exelon

Absent the FERC-approved price cap of $330 MW-day, PJM's own simulation shows prices would have cleared at approximately $555 MW-day across the footprint and $777 in ComEd, indicating the underlying scarcity is even more severe than the headline price suggests. The July heat event, auction results, and market price signals all point to the same conclusion: demand is growing faster than supply, and the system is under increasing strain. Our customers should not pay the price of a system that has been allowed to run too thin, and they should not have to wait years for solutions that are needed today. That is why Exelon is advocating for an all-of-the-above approach: transmission, demand-side solutions, market resources, and utility-owned generation where it makes sense.

Calvin Butler
Calvin Butler
President and CEO at Exelon

We are continuing the dialogue with our states and participating in FERC and PJM processes to advocate for policies that protect customers and help deliver energy reliably and cost-effectively. This is where the Exelon platform matters. Our scale, experience, and relationships across multiple states allow us to move from identifying the problems to advancing real solutions. First, transmission. Exelon continues to lead on transmission expansion because reliability starts with the ability to move power where it is needed most. Transmission helps relieve localized constraints, connect new resources, and strengthen the grid as demand grows. That momentum continues with the recent submission of two additional MISO Tranche 2.1 competitive transmission bids in partnership with Invenergy. Second, utility-generated power and storage.

Calvin Butler
Calvin Butler
President and CEO at Exelon

We are proposing solutions that give states more control, more certainty, and more direct customer benefits. Utility-generated power and storage can add supply, improve reliability, and put downward pressure on long-term costs with the accountability and lower-cost capital utilities are uniquely positioned to provide. This is not about ideology. It is about outcomes, reliable service, lower long-term costs, and greater energy security for customers. For example, during the extreme heat and record demand over the July 4th weekend, an ACE battery storage unit serving a New Jersey beach community was dispatched to support the grid. That one asset helped maintain reliability during a period of system stress, demonstrating the practical customer and grid benefits these investments can deliver. We've also seen these benefits play out elsewhere.

Calvin Butler
Calvin Butler
President and CEO at Exelon

Earlier this month, ERCOT served a record peak demand of more than 91 GW without emergency actions or curtailment requests, while power prices remained relatively stable at roughly $40 MWh during the peak hour. Renewables and battery storage played a significant role in meeting that demand while supporting both reliability and affordability. Building on that momentum, we recently announced a significant new 500-MW battery storage project in New Jersey, and we continue to see storage as an important tool for customers because it is fast, flexible, and targeted. Had our battery project been operating during the July 2nd through July 5th heat wave, ACE customers would have realized approximately $7.5 million of energy cost savings that could have been returned to customers to help offset higher market prices. Storage solutions can provide peak capacity, improve reliability in constrained areas, support affordability, and help states meet their energy goals.

Calvin Butler
Calvin Butler
President and CEO at Exelon

The benefits are real, measurable, and already being demonstrated today. Lastly, energy efficiency and virtual power plants. Several of our utilities recently received approval for VPP programs that turn customer-sided resources into grid capacity. That helps reduce peak demand, lowers pressure on the system, and gives customers a direct role in the solution. Taken together, these are all practical solutions. They also are areas where Exelon can deploy capital with discipline, and there's a clear customer need and strong execution visibility. We are not waiting for the market to solve this on its own. We are bringing forward actionable solutions that strengthen reliability, improve affordability, and give our states more tools to shape their energy future. With that, I'll turn it over to Jeanne to walk through our financial performance and provide additional details on our rate case activity and outlook. Jeanne?

Jeanne Jones
Jeanne Jones
CFO at Exelon

Thank you, Calvin, and good morning, everyone. Today I will cover our second quarter financial results and key regulatory activity, discuss solutions we are advancing to support affordability and resource adequacy, and conclude with an update on our balance sheet and financing progress. Starting on slide five, we present our quarter-over-quarter adjusted operating earnings walk. Exelon earned $0.43 per share in the second quarter of 2026 compared to $0.39 per share in the same period in 2025. Results were higher by $0.04 per share year-over-year, primarily driven by $0.04 of distribution and transmission rates, net of depreciation and AFUDC, $0.04 related to last year's Customer Relief Fund, and $0.01 of favorable weather at PECO. This was offset by $0.02 of higher credit loss expense at BGE and $0.02 of interest at Corporate and PECO.

Jeanne Jones
Jeanne Jones
CFO at Exelon

Our second quarter performance is in line with expectations we discussed on the first quarter call and continues to demonstrate the value of disciplined execution across the platform. We are delivering on customer-focused investments that support top quartile reliability while managing costs and timing items within the full-year plan. Looking ahead to the third quarter, we expect earnings to be approximately 27% of the midpoint of our projected full-year earnings guidance range. This expectation contemplates the impact of weather, storms, and the PECO employee strike in the beginning of July, as well as normal weather and storm activity through the remainder of the quarter. As with historical practice, our quarterly shaping guidance also assumes anticipated revenue shaping and timing of costs across the utilities.

Jeanne Jones
Jeanne Jones
CFO at Exelon

Combined with results for the first half of the year, we anticipate the fourth quarter to benefit from the absence of one-time 2025 distribution and transmission rates, the unwinding of timing, and disciplined execution of bad debt and storm recovery efforts. We remain on track to deliver full-year operating earnings of $2.81-$2.91 per share, with the goal to be at the midpoint or better. Finally, we reaffirm our expectation to deliver annualized earnings growth near the top end of 5%-7% from 2025 through 2029, supported by 7.9% annualized rate base growth, disciplined cost management, and a balanced financing plan that maintains strong investment-grade credit metrics. Turning to slide six, I will review the open base rate cases and other regulatory activity across the platform.

Jeanne Jones
Jeanne Jones
CFO at Exelon

These proceedings reflect our continued focus on recovering prudent investments that support safe, reliable service while advancing proposals that are responsive to customer affordability and the policy priorities of our jurisdictions. Starting with Pepco, Maryland, where a final order is expected next month for its traditional electric base rate case. This filing seeks recovery of critical investments that support reliability, accommodate growing customer needs, and strengthen the resiliency of the electric system while also reflecting the impact of higher financing costs. Projects such as the White Flint Substation are tangible examples of work being done to increase capacity, reduce outage risk, and support long-term growth and economic development in the communities we serve.

Jeanne Jones
Jeanne Jones
CFO at Exelon

Also in Maryland, BGE filed an electric distribution rate case on July 2nd, seeking a $156.1 million revenue requirement increase to recover investments and costs necessary to maintain a safe and reliable grid under a historic test year. The filing also reflects revised financing and storm restoration costs and includes proposals to establish a storm recovery mechanism and provide customers with additional payment flexibility. A final order is anticipated in January of 2027. In Delaware, Delmarva Power's electric base rate case continues to progress. DPL is seeking a $45.4 million revenue requirement increase to support investments necessary to maintain safe and reliable service, including system upgrades and reliability investments across its service territory. The filing also includes proposals designed to support affordability, including a new income-based rate and a bad debt rider. As permitted by Delaware law, DPL implemented interim effect rates effective July 9th, subject to refund.

Jeanne Jones
Jeanne Jones
CFO at Exelon

Final order is expected in the third quarter of 2027. At ComEd, the grid plan proceeding continues to move forward with staff and intervenor rebuttal testimony filed earlier this month ahead of hearings in August. As a reminder, the plan proposes approximately $15.3 billion of investment from 2028 through 2031 to support reliability, accommodate significant load growth, and advance the objectives of Illinois's energy policy framework. An order is expected by December 15th. Across these proceedings, our approach remains consistent. We are investing to support reliability, resiliency, and customer needs while remaining focused on affordability and cost discipline. While our base regulatory filings remain focused on maintaining safe, reliable, and affordable service, we continue to advance additional solutions to help address growing affordability and reliability challenges, particularly in light of supply constraints highlighted by the recent PJM auction.

Jeanne Jones
Jeanne Jones
CFO at Exelon

Turning to slide seven, practical and deployable resources such as storage and virtual power plants can provide capacity, reduce congestion, and help manage price volatility while supporting each state's energy goals. Today, roughly 10 GW of solar and wind across PJM goes unused on any given day. Storage can capture excess generation and shift it to peak demand periods, turning surplus clean energy into reliable, high-value supply. Unlike many traditional solutions that can take 5-10 years or longer to develop, battery storage is a faster, scalable, and modular option that can often be deployed within approximately three years, even for large-scale batteries. In New Jersey, Atlantic City Electric, partnered with Invenergy, has advanced a 500-MW battery energy storage system using four-hour batteries to target roughly five peak demand days a year in Pittsgrove.

Jeanne Jones
Jeanne Jones
CFO at Exelon

The project will be large enough to power approximately 400,000 homes and represents the single largest battery storage installation in PJM. The Pittsgrove storage project was submitted in PJM Cycle 1 and represents approximately $1 billion in investments not currently reflected in our plan. Combined with anticipated PJM market revenues, all of which will be returned entirely to customers, federal tax credits, the mitigation of energy and capacity prices, and deferred transmission investment, customers will see over $700 million in net benefits after the project is placed into service. Importantly, without seeing any customer bill impact until at least 2035. Atlantic City Electric filed a request last week for regulatory approval on the mechanism to recover project costs with a final order anticipated in the first half of 2027.

Jeanne Jones
Jeanne Jones
CFO at Exelon

In addition, we are pursuing similar opportunities in Maryland, where BGE and Pepco have submitted battery storage projects as part of the state's distribution-connected storage solicitation, which are currently under commission review. Beyond storage, we are also advancing virtual power plant initiatives across our jurisdictions, which aggregate customer-sited resources to reduce peak demand, support grid reliability, and lower overall system costs. At ComEd, the approval to launch its first scheduled dispatch VPP program is expected to increase the amount of battery storage available across Northern Illinois while providing compensation to participating customers. When paired with existing distributed generation rebates and incentives, the program creates a compelling customer value proposition while helping support the grid.

Jeanne Jones
Jeanne Jones
CFO at Exelon

Maryland also recently approved programs to allow a range of customer-sited assets to act as grid assets. We continue to see momentum in New Jersey and Delaware as policymakers continue advancing distributed energy resource and VPP frameworks. Together, with continued transmission and distribution investments, these solutions provide practical tools to address affordability, reliability, and resource adequacy needs across our jurisdictions. Turning to slide eight, we continue to execute our financing plan in a balanced and disciplined manner. Maintaining a strong balance sheet is core to our strategy and essential to funding the investments needed to deliver safe, reliable, and affordable service for our customers. To date, we have completed approximately 86% of our 2026 debt financing needs, including all expected debt issuances at the holding company, Pepco Holdings, ComEd, and BGE, materially reducing our remaining exposure to interest rate volatility for the year.

Jeanne Jones
Jeanne Jones
CFO at Exelon

In addition, our pre-assurance hedging strategy continues to provide protection against future rate movements. We have already priced approximately 37% of our planned equity needs through 2029 via forward contracts under our ATM program, having priced all of our needs for 2026 and half of our needs for 2027. Our credit metric outlook also remains strong, with expected average credit metrics of approximately 14% through 2029, supporting the strategic and financial flexibility needed to advance our capital plan and capture additional customer-driven growth opportunities. We remain confident in our ability to deliver value for our customers and shareholders through disciplined execution, a strong balance sheet, and investments that support reliable, resilient, and affordable energy service. I will now turn the call back to Calvin for closing remarks.

Calvin Butler
Calvin Butler
President and CEO at Exelon

Thank you, Jeanne. I will close on slide nine. The story is consistent and straightforward. As I said, we are performing today and actively preparing for tomorrow. Exelon is built for this moment. We have the scale, diversified footprint, operational excellence, and financial discipline to perform in a changing environment. In 2026, we remain focused on deploying approximately $10 billion of capital for the benefit of customers, delivering operating earnings of $2.81-$2.91 per share, earning a consolidated operating ROE of between 9%-10%, and maintaining a strong and resilient balance sheet. Just as important, we are pursuing growth where it creates real customer value, strengthens the grid, and supports the communities and economies we serve. The environment is changing quickly, but our priorities are steady. We have the people, platform, and experience to navigate complexity, deliver on our commitments, and advance practical solutions for customers.

Calvin Butler
Calvin Butler
President and CEO at Exelon

That is why we remain confident in the path ahead. Josh, we can now open it up for any questions.

Operator

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. One moment for questions. Our first question comes from Shar Pourreza with Wells Fargo. You may proceed.

Calvin Butler
Calvin Butler
President and CEO at Exelon

Morning, Shar.

Shar Pourreza
Shar Pourreza
Analyst at Wells Fargo

Morning, Calvin. Morning, Jeanne.

Jeanne Jones
Jeanne Jones
CFO at Exelon

Hey, morning.

Shar Pourreza
Shar Pourreza
Analyst at Wells Fargo

Morning. Calvin, PJM walked back from the EDC proposal that had the members committee super majority in its recent letter. I guess, do you feel like where they landed meaningfully addresses the key issues in PJM? Do you have any plans to intervene further with FERC? It doesn't seem like you're waiting for an outcome here to step in. You proposed the ACSS development, assuming that wasn't a one-off. Just kind of curious on the recent development. Thanks.

Calvin Butler
Calvin Butler
President and CEO at Exelon

No, thank you, Shar. You captured it. We are focused on just really providing solutions. Let me first begin by applauding PJM's efforts to address resource adequacy challenges with the sense of urgency and really looking at opportunities to bring new generation onto the system, because these are important steps in the right direction, and we do believe that their measures may help address near-term reliability concerns, but they're unlikely to resolve any long-term affordability challenges. Ultimately, what we've always said, and we're very consistent, to really resolve long-term challenges on affordability, you need more generation to be brought online. We will continue to advocate for several important consumer protections in this effort, and we will continue to engage with PJM. Over the long term, we believe that states should play a central role in resource planning and procurement.

Calvin Butler
Calvin Butler
President and CEO at Exelon

Utility-owned generation needs to be part of that mechanism as a cost-effective complement to market-based solutions. As we've talked about, this is our Exelon Promise in action, and we will continue to drive this, but it is going to require a partnership and more active engagement with the states. Jeanne, anything you'd like to add?

Jeanne Jones
Jeanne Jones
CFO at Exelon

Yeah. No, I think that covers it. I think that to your point about real solutions, and you noted it, Shar, it's the 500-MW battery solution. We've been working on this. We're pleased to see that we got through the filing and we'll work with the commission there. To your question, no, it's not the only one, and we're working on others.

Shar Pourreza
Shar Pourreza
Analyst at Wells Fargo

Okay. That's perfect. Your data center growth slide shows a combined 36 GW. That's down around 11 GW from the 43 GW that you previously cited. Is that simply like a reclassification refinement of the queue? Any read-through there with PJM's current dysfunction, maybe causing some attrition or slow conversion in the pipeline? Thanks.

Jeanne Jones
Jeanne Jones
CFO at Exelon

Yeah, I'll take that one, Shar. I would say you're right, we did update, and I think this will continue to evolve. I would also say we've always taken, as you know, a measured approach to this data center phenomenon, whether it was our position in the co-location and ensuring fair cost allocation or the development of Transmission Security Agreements, which as you know, never existed in our regions, right? We developed those agreements and made them part of our process. In addition to that, we also, throughout this, have kept our CapEx increases consistent with historical increases and really only putting in capital that was certain and durable. I think this update underscores that that was the right approach.

Jeanne Jones
Jeanne Jones
CFO at Exelon

The TSAs are doing what they should. As we go through our cluster process, we said we're going to study the clusters, we're going to offer the customer a TSA, sign the TSA, and then importantly, put up collateral behind that. What this update reflects is we have now weeded out speculative projects, and it gives us proactive insight into what is real. This is what you want management to do. You want us to provide real and durable growth. Importantly, our $41 billion of capital between now and 2029 remains unchanged due to this update because we have not put in speculative projects. As I think about that growth, I would just say a couple other things. What's sitting in that 11 GW, we have 4 GW that have signed TSAs, and importantly, they are backed by $1 billion of collateral.

Jeanne Jones
Jeanne Jones
CFO at Exelon

The other 7 GW in that high probability is projects that predated this TSA process but are further along, and we feel very comfortable that they will continue. The 11 GW is significant, and we're going to continue to study the remaining 25 GW that's on that slide. There is real growth, and it goes back to not just being focused on what is real on the T&D growth side, but how do we provide those solutions on the supply side to support that growth? That's our first project out the gate is the 500-MW battery.

Shar Pourreza
Shar Pourreza
Analyst at Wells Fargo

Got it. Perfect. Super comprehensive. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.

Calvin Butler
Calvin Butler
President and CEO at Exelon

Thank you, Shar.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Jeremy Tonet with JPMorgan. You may proceed.

Calvin Butler
Calvin Butler
President and CEO at Exelon

Morning, Jeremy.

Aidan Kelly
Aidan Kelly
Analyst at JPMorgan

Hey, guys. Good morning.

Jeanne Jones
Jeanne Jones
CFO at Exelon

Jeremy

Aidan Kelly
Aidan Kelly
Analyst at JPMorgan

Aidan Kelly on for Jeremy today.

Calvin Butler
Calvin Butler
President and CEO at Exelon

Yeah. Hey.

Aidan Kelly
Aidan Kelly
Analyst at JPMorgan

I appreciate the time. I guess maybe just going back to the regulatory front. Now a few months since the withdrawal of your PECO rate case, how do you think about the filing case moving forward? It just seems like we continue to see a lot of constructive data points out of the PA PUC. At this point, are there any inflection points you kind of hope to see before filing again? What would encourage you to file at this time?

Calvin Butler
Calvin Butler
President and CEO at Exelon

Thank you, Aidan. I think once again, you captured it well. Let me just begin by saying that we share Governor Shapiro's focus on affordability, and we have analyzed his letter and what his framework is, and I'll ask Mike Innocenzo to jump in there. But let me just begin, is that we've been having constructive conversations with not only the governor but his staff since day one. Like you said, we're seeing indicators that Pennsylvania is still a solid regulatory framework for us to operate, and they view PECO as an economic partner and job creator in the state. We recognize also, and they've said it, that Pennsylvania needs financially strong, viable utilities with sustainable investment to encourage that economic growth.

Calvin Butler
Calvin Butler
President and CEO at Exelon

Understanding that we will continue to partner, and we believe that investment in our system is required to maintain the reliability and growth that they expect, and we will do that over our long-term planning horizons. I'm going to give it to Mike to see if he has any detail he wants to share about the governor's conversation.

Michael Innocenzo
Michael Innocenzo
EVP and COO at Exelon

Thanks, Calvin. Thanks, Jeremy. Your point about data points. Certainly, there's the data points, the constructive settlements that have already occurred, constructive discussions on the active rate cases currently underway. It's our discussions. It's discussions with key stakeholders in Harrisburg. It's our discussions with the governor's office. If you looked at the key points that he's looking for, everybody's looking for, it's making sure that our investments are providing customer value and customer benefits, making sure that there's transparency on the ROE, and making sure that we're looking at every lever that we can to address affordability.

Michael Innocenzo
Michael Innocenzo
EVP and COO at Exelon

We think we've addressed that in multiple ways under the existing process as well as others in the state are, and we're continuing to work with the governor's office to make sure, the PUC and the statutory interveners like the Office of Consumer Advocate, the Office of Small Business Advocate, having discussions to make sure that when we file again, we're addressing each of their concerns, and we feel confident that we'll be back in a way that'll be very productive.

Aidan Kelly
Aidan Kelly
Analyst at JPMorgan

Great. Appreciate the insight there. I just want to shift to the transmission front real quick, if I could. To what extent can you tap into your identified $12 billion-$17 billion in offset opportunity? As we think about the next plan, what win rate should we be thinking about as it pertains to upcoming competitive transmission windows for you guys?

Jeanne Jones
Jeanne Jones
CFO at Exelon

Yeah. Hey, it's Jeanne. Of the $12 billion-$17 billion, I'll hit on a couple of things, then I'm going to turn it to Carim, who's head of our transmission and development group. Of the $12 billion-$17 billion, it is not dependent on one sort of theme. Competitive transmission is one of, I would say, probably five, right? What we want to do is give an insight into we're spending roughly that amount in our four-year period today. We see that continuing beyond 2029, driven by existing infrastructure over our 11,000 circuit mi, new business related to the data center pipeline, state policies around additional generation coming online, old generation retiring, the transmission needed to accommodate that, and importantly, competitive transmission. Maybe I'll let Carim speak to kind of how we think about that.

Carim Khouzami
Carim Khouzami
EVP of Transmission and Development at Exelon

Yeah. Thanks, Jeanne. I agree with everything Jeanne just said, and I would add on competitive transmission, you've seen us be very active over the last 12-18 months in PJM and also in other RTOs such as MISO. We're going to continue to do that. You saw recently that we filed for two projects in MISO, two Tranche 2.1 in Iowa, the Mars and the Easel projects. We expect to hear back from MISO in the fourth quarter.

Carim Khouzami
Carim Khouzami
EVP of Transmission and Development at Exelon

What we would say is we think that we are very well positioned to take advantage of some of these opportunities based on our operational excellence, and importantly, our experience with 765 kV lines, so high-voltage lines. We're one of very few transmission operators that own and operate those types of lines today, and that's what increasingly more and more RTOs are seeking in their solutions. I would say I think we are very well positioned to continue to be successful like we were in Western Pennsylvania this past PJM window, you'll see us continue to be active.

Aidan Kelly
Aidan Kelly
Analyst at JPMorgan

Great. Makes sense. Appreciate the time there. I'll leave it there.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Paul Zimbardo with Jefferies. You may proceed.

Calvin Butler
Calvin Butler
President and CEO at Exelon

Hey, Paul.

Paul Zimbardo
Paul Zimbardo
Analyst at Jefferies

Hi. Good morning, team.

Calvin Butler
Calvin Butler
President and CEO at Exelon

Morning.

Paul Zimbardo
Paul Zimbardo
Analyst at Jefferies

Thanks for the time. Just to follow up on the last one a little bit, focusing on ComEd that simulated $777 MW-day clear in the last auction, is that a catalyst for kind of unlocking even more incremental transmission and storage investments? I would think a lot more can pencil at that kind of potential price point, if you could share thoughts.

Carim Khouzami
Carim Khouzami
EVP of Transmission and Development at Exelon

Yeah. Paul, I think that is probably indicative of what we've been saying, which is we need an all-of-the-above approach. It's probably not just transmission, it's not just battery solutions, it's really all of the above. Transmission, as Calvin mentioned in his prepared remarks, provides the optionality of moving the electrons from where they're being generated to where they're needed. Battery storage is very effective in helping to shave off the peaks and avoid peak pricing and help to insulate customers from that. From our perspective, you can expect to see us be active in both those fronts as well as others. Really, what we're looking for is wherever there's opportunities for us to serve our customers to help affordability and help reliability, that's where you'll see us be active, and storage and transmission are two examples where we see a lot of benefits there.

Jeanne Jones
Jeanne Jones
CFO at Exelon

Yeah. That was contemplated already as part of that $12 billion-$17 billion when I mentioned kind of state-focused solutions. Definitely an opportunity there. We've seen over the last several planning cycles, 80%-100% of our four-year capital increase be in transmission specifically for these issues. The other thing I would say is the state is well aware of this as well. If you look at what was passed in legislation last year. The state not only expanded energy efficiency, but also our distributed generation rebate programs to programs that are meaningfully helpful for customers, but also are treated as regulatory assets that we earn on. Good for customers and good investments for us. They also are going to run a 3 GW storage procurement this year with, I think, 1,000 of that, 3 GW, and 1,000 of that'll be this year.

Jeanne Jones
Jeanne Jones
CFO at Exelon

Importantly, they're taking a comprehensive view, right? They're going to do their first Integrated Resource Planning preview in November of this year. Pleased to see the state focused on this and that there's ways for us to lean in, as Carim said, not just in one area, but transmission, energy efficiency, DG rebate, and supporting through VPPs as well.

Paul Zimbardo
Paul Zimbardo
Analyst at Jefferies

Okay. That latter part definitely makes sense. A higher-level question, if I could, I think an important one. Just holistically, it looks like there have been some, maybe paper cuts across the jurisdictions with legislation and some regulatory actions. Overall, how would you claim the comfort, conservatism in the plan overall? I know you had that cost cut update in the first quarter, but just overall comfort and view on the plan would be helpful. Thanks.

Calvin Butler
Calvin Butler
President and CEO at Exelon

Yeah. Thank you, Paul. I would say that comfort is not the word, focused on execution is the word, because we don't actually see it that way because we view that the strength of Exelon's model is that we're not dependent on any single jurisdiction, regulatory outcome, or growth opportunity. As you just alluded to, when you think about what we've been able to accomplish with adverse rulings or inaction by some of our commissions, we've met and exceeded expectations that we've shared with you, and that is that diversity of our platform coming to life. I always talk about, and you've heard me say it, Paul, the power of our platform and not having one jurisdiction outweighing what we're able to accomplish and being able to move capital around and put it in play for the benefit of our customers and the communities.

Calvin Butler
Calvin Butler
President and CEO at Exelon

Yes, there's single paper cuts as you refer to, that not one of them are driving the ultimate outcome of Exelon. When we pulled the Pennsylvania rate case, the PECO rate case, we reaffirmed our guidance. We didn't lower our capital. In 2023, when ComEd disallowed the grid plan, the team got to work, met and exceeded our numbers because that's what we do, and that's what you should expect us to do. I appreciate the observation, we don't see it that way at all.

Paul Zimbardo
Paul Zimbardo
Analyst at Jefferies

Okay. No, excellent. Thank you for the answer.

Calvin Butler
Calvin Butler
President and CEO at Exelon

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our final question comes from Andrew Weisel with Scotiabank. You may proceed.

Calvin Butler
Calvin Butler
President and CEO at Exelon

Morning, Andrew.

Andrew Weisel
Andrew Weisel
Equity Research Analyst at Scotiabank

Hi. Good morning, everyone. I want to first ask you to just elaborate a little bit on the Pennsylvania commentary. I don't expect you to get too ahead of the next rate case filing, but how are you thinking about CapEx levels and categories? Are your conversations pointing toward minimizing spending purely focused on reliability and safety? Or I heard you talk about supporting economic development. What does that look like? And that's specifically related to data centers and AI, or how are you thinking about that versus affordability other than, how can you help other than the deferred spending that you talked about on the first quarterly call? Just any more detailed commentary would be very helpful. Thank you.

Calvin Butler
Calvin Butler
President and CEO at Exelon

Great question. I'm going to ask Michael, who is serving as the Chief Executive Officer of PECO, to really give further clarification. Don't hesitate to, if you have any follow-up, don't hesitate to ask, okay? If we don't scratch it.

Michael Innocenzo
Michael Innocenzo
EVP and COO at Exelon

Thanks, Calvin. Thanks, Andrew. Back to, I think you even alluded to it in your question there. It's making sure that we're really clear on areas that have that customer value. We've heard loud and clear from the folks in the state, economic development continues to be important to the state. We'll make sure that our investments are supporting that, both on the transmission and on the distribution level. Safety, reliability, and resiliency, it is an area that's seen increased storms and emergencies. We know the value that a reliable grid and a safe grid provides. As Calvin mentioned in his opening comments, PECO is a core top performer nationally and is the top performer in the state. We'll continue to focus on those investments that are aligned with our long-term infrastructure improvement plans, both on the gas and electric side.

Michael Innocenzo
Michael Innocenzo
EVP and COO at Exelon

Taking advantage of the DISC and also looking for areas that we can drive affordability through other mechanisms, including, just recently, PECO was awarded a RISE grant of $50 million for an investment that we'll be making at our gas plant in West Conshohocken. It's really just making sure that everything that we do is clearly aligned with those key categories, is well communicated and justified, not only through the rate case process, but prior to the rate case process as we go in.

Calvin Butler
Calvin Butler
President and CEO at Exelon

Andrew, let me just share, I think Mike captured, I just want to emphasize a point he made. Communicating with all stakeholders on what and how we're doing it and the value that we're creating. Our number one priority is always maintaining a reliable and safe system. We're never going to do anything to put that at jeopardy, but we will actively be communicating with all the stakeholders throughout this process.

Andrew Weisel
Andrew Weisel
Equity Research Analyst at Scotiabank

Okay, great. That's helpful. You mentioned the DISC mechanism. Does that seem like something you'll be leaning on a bit more? That seems to be a theme that we're hearing more of.

Michael Innocenzo
Michael Innocenzo
EVP and COO at Exelon

Yeah, we have. We've used it over the years already, we'll continue to do that. As part of our going forward, conversations with the chair of the PUC, we'll be looking for other ways that we can leverage that even further, that'll be part of our plan going forward as well.

Andrew Weisel
Andrew Weisel
Equity Research Analyst at Scotiabank

Okay, very good. One more if I can. In Illinois, I know that there's the IRP process the state is pursuing. Can you talk a bit about that? Given that the state's in PJM, what exactly is the goal here? Clearly, there are issues. You talked about the shortfalls and the high pricing from the auction if there weren't the cap. As far as I can tell, I don't think it's too likely the state will leave PJM soon. I know there's some talk about it. I've heard the name IRCOIL floated around, which is a great name, but I don't know how likely that is. Maybe you could just talk about what the goal of this IRP is and what role you might be playing in that.

Jeanne Jones
Jeanne Jones
CFO at Exelon

Yeah. I think the goal ultimately is what we need each of our states to do is to just get a better picture of what do they need from a state perspective in terms of demand versus supply. It gives them the ability, the ICC and the other agencies working with them, the authority to expand programs based on that analysis. Do we need to expand energy efficiency? Do we need to procure more storage? Do we need to do more on the distributed generation? How do we look at our state emission limits? Things like that. That is the goal, is to say, how do we get more control over our own supply and demand situation within the state? Which is something we applaud any state doing. We're seeing Maryland study different procurement models.

Jeanne Jones
Jeanne Jones
CFO at Exelon

We're seeing Pennsylvania hire an independent consultant to study resource adequacy across all of our states. Governor Sherrill looking at supply solutions. I think the goal is all of our states who are working very hard with PJM for a long-term solution say, "Hey, I got to keep all options on the table, and the first thing I need to do is have a good view on what my specific state needs." We think that's absolutely the right thing to do.

Andrew Weisel
Andrew Weisel
Equity Research Analyst at Scotiabank

Okay. Very helpful. Thank you, guys.

Calvin Butler
Calvin Butler
President and CEO at Exelon

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. At this time, I would like to turn the conference back over to Calvin Butler for closing remarks.

Calvin Butler
Calvin Butler
President and CEO at Exelon

As always, I just want to say thank you for taking the time to join us for our Q2 earnings call. We appreciate your continued interest and support. We look forward to sharing further progress in the months ahead. With that, Josh, this concludes our call.

Operator

Thanks to all our participants for joining us today. This concludes our presentation. You may now disconnect. Have a good day.

Executives
    • Ryan Brown
      Ryan Brown
      VP of Investor Relations
    • Calvin Butler
      Calvin Butler
      President and CEO
    • Jeanne Jones
      Jeanne Jones
      CFO
    • Michael Innocenzo
      Michael Innocenzo
      EVP and COO
    • Carim Khouzami
      Carim Khouzami
      EVP of Transmission and Development
Analysts
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