Early Plant Retirements (Exelon, Generation)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019

Implications of Potential Early Plant Retirements [Abstract]

Implications Of Potential Early Retirement Disclosure [Text Block]

Early Plant Retirements (Exelon and Generation)

Exelon and Generation continuously evaluate factors that affect the current and expected economic value of Generation’s plants, including, but not limited to: market power prices, results of capacity auctions, potential legislative and regulatory solutions to ensure plants are fairly compensated for benefits they provide through their carbon-free emissions, reliability, or fuel security, and the impact of potential rules from the EPA requiring reduction of carbon and other emissions and the efforts of states to implement those final rules. The precise timing of an early retirement date for any plant, and the resulting financial statement impacts, may be affected by many factors,

including the status of potential regulatory or legislative solutions, results of any transmission system reliability study assessments, the nature of any co-owner requirements and stipulations, and NDT fund requirements for nuclear plants, among other factors. However, the earliest retirement date for any plant would usually be the first year in which the unit does not have capacity or other obligations, and where applicable, just prior to its next scheduled nuclear refueling outage.

Nuclear Generation

In 2015 and 2016, Generation identified the Clinton and Quad Cities nuclear plants in Illinois, Ginna and Nine Mile Point nuclear plants in New York and Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania as having the greatest risk of early retirement based on economic valuation and other factors. In 2017, PSEG made public similar financial challenges facing its New Jersey nuclear plants, including Salem, of which Generation owns a 42.59% ownership interest. PSEG is the operator of Salem and also has the decision-making authority to retire Salem.

Assuming the continued effectiveness of the Illinois ZES, New Jersey ZEC program and the New York CES, Generation and CENG, through its ownership of Ginna and Nine Mile Point, no longer consider Clinton, Quad Cities, Salem, Ginna or Nine Mile Point to be at heightened risk for early retirement. However, to the extent the Illinois ZES, New Jersey ZEC program or the New York CES do not operate as expected over their full terms, each of these plants could again be at heightened risk for early retirement, which could have a material impact on Exelon’s and Generation’s future financial statements. In addition, FERC’s December 19, 2019 order on the MOPR in PJM may undermine the continued effectiveness of the Illinois ZES and the New Jersey ZEC program unless Illinois and New Jersey implement an FRR mechanism under which the Generation plants in these states would be removed from PJM’s capacity auction. See Note 3 — Regulatory Matters for additional information on the Illinois ZES, New Jersey ZEC program, New York CES and FERC's December 19, 2019 order.

In Pennsylvania, the TMI nuclear plant did not clear in the May 2017 PJM capacity auction for the 2020-2021 planning year, the third consecutive year that TMI failed to clear the PJM base residual capacity auction and on May 30, 2017, based on these capacity auction results, prolonged periods of low wholesale power prices, and the absence of federal or state policies that place a value on nuclear energy for its ability to produce electricity without air pollution, Generation announced that it would permanently cease generation operations at TMI. On September 20, 2019, Generation permanently ceased generation operations at TMI.

On February 2, 2018, Generation announced that it would permanently cease generation operations at the Oyster Creek nuclear plant at the end of its current operating cycle and permanently ceased generation operations on September 17, 2018.

As a result of these early nuclear plant retirement decisions, Exelon and Generation recognized incremental non-cash charges to earnings stemming from shortening the expected economic useful lives primarily related to accelerated depreciation of plant assets (including any ARC) and accelerated amortization of nuclear fuel, as well as operating and maintenance expenses. The total annual impact of these charges by year are summarized in the table below.

Income statement expense (pre-tax)	2019(a)			2018(b)		2017(c)
Depreciation and Amortization
Accelerated depreciation	$	216		$	539	$	250
Accelerated nuclear fuel amortization	13			57		12
Operating and Maintenance(d)	(53		)	32		77
Total	$	176		$	628	$	339

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(a) Reflects incremental charges for TMI from January 1, 2019 through September 20, 2019.

(b) Reflects incremental charges for TMI in 2018 and Oyster Creek from February 2, 2018 through September 17, 2018.

(c) Reflects incremental charges for TMI from May 30, 2017 through December 31, 2017.

(d) In 2019, primarily reflects the net impacts associated with the remeasurements of the TMI ARO in the first and third quarters. In 2018 and 2017, primarily reflects materials and supplies inventory reserve adjustments, employee related costs and CWIP impairments associated with the early retirement decisions for TMI and Oyster Creek. Excludes the charges in the third quarter of 2018 and second quarter of 2019 for the ARO remeasurement due to the sale of Oyster Creek. See Note 2 — Mergers, Acquisitions and Dispositions and Note 9 — Asset Retirement Obligations for additional information.

Generation’s Dresden, Byron, and Braidwood nuclear plants in Illinois are also showing increased signs of economic distress, which could lead to an early retirement, in a market that does not currently compensate them for their unique contribution to grid resiliency and their ability to produce large amounts of energy without carbon and air pollution. The May 2018 PJM capacity auction for the 2021-2022 planning year resulted in the largest volume of nuclear capacity ever not selected in the auction, including all of Dresden, and portions of Byron and Braidwood. Exelon continues to work with stakeholders on state policy solutions, while also advocating for broader market reforms at the regional and federal level.

Other Generation

On March 29, 2018, Generation notified grid operator ISO-NE of its plans to early retire Mystic Units 8 and 9 absent regulatory reforms on June 1, 2022, at the end of the then-current capacity commitment for Mystic Units 7 and 8. Mystic Unit 9 was then committed through May 2021.

On May 16, 2018, Generation made a filing with FERC to establish cost-of-service compensation and terms and conditions of service for Mystic Units 8 and 9 for the period between June 1, 2022 - May 31, 2024. On December 20, 2018, FERC issued an order accepting the cost of service compensation, reflecting a number of adjustments to the annual fixed revenue requirement and allowing for recovery of a substantial portion of the costs associated with the Everett Marine Terminal. Those adjustments were reflected in a compliance filing filed on March 1, 2019. In the December 20, 2018 order, FERC also directed a paper hearing on ROE using a new methodology. On January 22, 2019, Exelon and several other parties filed requests for rehearing of certain findings in the order.

On March 25, 2019, ISO-NE filed the Inventoried Energy Program, which is intended to provide an interim fuel security program pending conclusion of the stakeholder process to develop a long-term, market-based solution to address fuel security. The Inventoried Energy Program went into effect on August 5, 2019. On October 7, 2019, requests for rehearing were denied and several parties have appealed to the D.C. Circuit Court. FERC ordered ISO-NE to file long-term, market-based fuel security rules by October 15, 2019; FERC has granted an extension to April 15, 2020.

The following table provides the balance sheet amounts as of December 31, 2019 for Exelon's and Generation’s significant assets and liabilities associated with the Mystic Units 8 and 9 and Everett Marine Terminal assets that would potentially be impacted by the failure to adopt long-term solutions for reliability and fuel security.

	December 31, 2019
Asset Balances
Materials and supplies inventory	$	31
Fuel inventory	11
Property, plant and equipment, net	902
Liability Balances
Asset retirement obligation	(3		)

To ensure the continued reliable supply of fuel to Mystic Units 8 and 9 while they remain operating, on October 1, 2018, Generation acquired the Everett Marine Terminal in Massachusetts for a purchase price of $81 million, with the majority of the fair value allocated to Property, plant and equipment and no goodwill recorded.  Generation also settled its existing long-term gas supply agreement, resulting in a pre-tax gain of $75 million, which is included within Purchased power and fuel expense in Exelon’s and Generation’s Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Income.

See Note 11 — Asset Impairments for impairment assessment considerations on the New England Asset Group.