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Early Plant Retirements (Exelon and Generation)
 6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2021
Property, Plant and Equipment [Abstract]  
Early Plant Retirements (Exelon and Generation) 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 TMI 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, in addition to FitzPatrick, would 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 PJM adopts further changes to the MOPR or Illinois and New Jersey implement an FRR mechanism under which the Generation plants in these states would be removed from PJM’s capacity auction. At the direction of the PJM Board of Managers, PJM and its stakeholders are considering MOPR reforms to ensure that the capacity market rules respect and accommodate state resource preferences such as the ZEC programs, which PJM filed at FERC on July 30, 2021. See Note 3 - Regulatory Matters for additional information on the New Jersey ZEC program, Note 3 — Regulatory Matters of the 2020 Form 10-K for additional information on the Illinois ZES, New York CES and FERC's December 19, 2019 order on the MOPR in PJM. We cannot predict whether or when FERC will act on PJM's proposed changes.
On August 27, 2020, Generation announced that it intends to permanently cease generation operations at Byron in September 2021 and at Dresden in November 2021. The current NRC licenses for Byron Units 1 and 2 expire in 2044 and 2046, respectively, and the licenses for Dresden Units 2 and 3 expire in 2029 and 2031, respectively. Neither of these nuclear plants cleared in PJM’s capacity auction for the 2022-2023 planning year held in May 2021.
Generation’s Braidwood and LaSalle nuclear plants in Illinois are also showing increased signs of economic distress, 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. While all of Braidwood's and LaSalle's capacity did clear in the 2022-2023 planning year auction, Generation has become increasingly concerned about the economic viability of these plants as well in a landscape where energy market prices remain depressed and energy market rules remain fatally flawed.
As a result of the decision to early retire Byron and Dresden, Exelon and Generation recognized certain one-time charges in the third and fourth quarters of 2020 related to materials and supplies inventory reserve adjustments, employee-related costs including severance benefit costs further discussed below, and construction work-in-progress impairments, among other items. In addition, as a result of the decisions to early retire Byron and Dresden, there are ongoing annual financial impacts stemming from shortening the expected economic useful lives of these nuclear plants primarily related to accelerated depreciation of plant assets (including any ARC), accelerated amortization of nuclear fuel, and changes in ARO accretion expense associated with the changes in decommissioning timing and cost assumptions to reflect an earlier retirement date. The total impact for the three and six months ended June 30, 2021 on Exelon's and Generation's Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Income is summarized in the table below.
Income statement expense (pre-tax)
Three Months Ended June 30, 2021(a)
Six Months Ended June 30, 2021(a)
Depreciation and amortization
     Accelerated depreciation(a)
$611 $1,230 
     Accelerated nuclear fuel amortization52 106 
Operating and maintenance
     Other charges2 4 
     Contractual offset(b)
(166)(391)
Total$499 $949 
_________
(a)Includes the accelerated depreciation of plant assets including any ARC.
(b)Reflects contractual offset for ARO accretion and ARC depreciation and excludes any changes in earnings in the NDT funds. Decommissioning-related impacts were not offset for the Byron units starting in the second quarter of 2021 due to the inability to recognize a regulatory asset at ComEd. Based on the regulatory agreement with the ICC, decommissioning-related activities are offset within Exelon's and Generation's Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Income as long as the net cumulative decommissioning-related activities result in a regulatory liability at ComEd. The offset resulted in an equal adjustment to the noncurrent payables to ComEd at Generation and an adjustment to the regulatory liabilities at ComEd. See Note 8 - Nuclear Decommissioning for additional information.
Severance benefit costs will be provided to employees impacted by the early retirements of Byron and Dresden, to the extent they are not redeployed to other nuclear plants. In 2020, Exelon and Generation recorded estimated severance expense of $81 million within Operating and maintenance expense in their Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Income. The severance liability was $81 million as of June 30, 2021 on Exelon's and Generation's Consolidated Balance Sheets. The final amount of severance benefit costs will depend on the specific employees severed.
The following table provides the balance sheet amounts as of June 30, 2021 for Exelon's and Generation's significant assets and liabilities associated with the Braidwood and LaSalle nuclear plants. Current depreciation provisions are based on the estimated useful lives of these nuclear generating stations, which reflect the first renewal of the operating licenses.
BraidwoodLaSalleTotal
Asset Balances
Materials and supplies inventory, net$82 $105 $187 
Nuclear fuel inventory, net196 244 440 
Completed plant, net1,380 1,610 2,990 
Construction work in progress30 12 42 
Liability Balances
Asset retirement obligation(585)(975)(1,560)
NRC License First Renewal Term2046 (Unit 1)2042 (Unit 1)
2047 (Unit 2)2043 (Unit 2)
Exelon continues to work with stakeholders on state policy solutions, while also advocating for broader market reforms at the regional and federal level. The absence of such solutions or reforms could result in future impairments of the Midwest asset group, or accelerated depreciation for specific plants over their shortened estimated useful lives, both of which could have a material unfavorable impact on Exelon's and Generation's future results of operations.
Other Generation
In March 2018, Generation notified ISO-NE of its plans to early retire, among other assets, the Mystic Generating Station's units 8 and 9 (Mystic 8 and 9) absent regulatory reforms to properly value reliability and regional fuel security. Thereafter, ISO-NE identified Mystic 8 and 9 as being needed to ensure fuel security for the region and entered into a cost of service agreement with these two units for the period between June 1, 2022 - May 31, 2024. The agreement was approved by the FERC in December 2018.
On June 10, 2020, Generation filed a complaint with FERC against ISO-NE stating that ISO-NE failed to follow its tariff with respect to its evaluation of Mystic 8 and 9 for transmission security for the 2024 to 2025 Capacity Commitment Period and that the modifications that ISO-NE made to its unfiled planning procedures to avoid retaining Mystic 8 and 9 should have been filed with FERC for approval. On August 17, 2020, FERC issued an order denying the complaint. As a result, on August 20, 2020, Exelon determined that Generation will permanently cease generation operations at Mystic 8 and 9 at the expiration of the cost of service commitment in May 2024. See Note 3 — Regulatory Matters for additional discussion of Mystic’s cost of service agreement.
As a result of the decision to early retire Mystic 8 and 9, there are financial impacts stemming from shortening the expected economic useful life of Mystic 8 and 9 primarily related to accelerated depreciation of plant assets. Exelon and Generation recorded incremental Depreciation and amortization expense of $21 million and $41 million for the three and six months ended June 30, 2021, respectively.