7. Impairment of Long-Lived Assets (Exelon and Generation)

Long-Lived Assets (Exelon and Generation)

Generation evaluates long-lived assets for recoverability whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount may not be recoverable. In the second quarter of each year, Generation updates the long-term fundamental energy prices, which includes a thorough evaluation of key assumptions including gas prices, load growth, environmental policy, plant retirements and renewable growth.

In 2015, the year over year change in fundamentals did not indicate any impairments. In 2014, the year over year change in fundamentals suggested that the carrying value of certain merchant wind assets may be impaired. Generation concluded that the estimated undiscounted future cash flows and fair value of twelve wind projects, primarily located in West Texas, were less than their respective carrying values at May 31, 2014. As a result, long-lived assets held and used with a carrying amount of approximately $151 million were written down to their fair value of $65 million and a pre-tax impairment charge of $86 million was recorded during the second quarter of 2014 in Operating and maintenance expense in Exelon’s and Generation’s Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Income.

The fair value analysis was primarily based on the income approach using significant unobservable inputs (Level 3) including revenue and generation forecasts, projected capital and maintenance expenditures and discount rates. Changes in the assumptions described above could potentially result in future impairments of Exelon’s long-lived assets, which could be material.

Like-Kind Exchange Transaction (Exelon)

Prior to the PECO/Unicom Merger in October 2000, UII, LLC (formerly Unicom Investments, Inc.) (UII), a wholly owned subsidiary of Exelon, entered into a like-kind exchange transaction pursuant to which approximately $1.6 billion was invested in coal-fired generating station leases located in Georgia and Texas with two separate entities unrelated to Exelon. The generating stations were leased back to such entities as part of the transaction. See Note 12 — Income Taxes for further information. The leases for the generating stations located in Texas were terminated in 2014. For financial accounting purposes, the investments are accounted for as direct financing lease investments. UII holds the leasehold interests in the generating stations in several separate bankruptcy remote, special purpose companies it directly or indirectly wholly owns. The lease agreements provide the lessees with fixed purchase options at the end of the lease terms. If the lessees do not exercise the fixed purchase options, Exelon has the ability to operate the stations and keep or market the power itself or require the lessees to arrange for a third-party to bid on a service contract for a period following the lease term. In any event, Exelon will be subject to residual value risk if the lessees do not exercise the fixed purchase options. This risk is partially mitigated by the fair value of the scheduled payments under the service contract. However, such payments are not guaranteed. Further, the term of the service contract is less than the expected remaining useful life of the plants and, therefore, Exelon’s exposure to residual value risk will not be mitigated by payments under the service contract in this remaining period. In the fourth quarter of 2000, under the terms of the lease agreements, UII received a prepayment of $1.2 billion for all rent, which reduced the investment in the leases. There are no minimum scheduled lease payments to be received over the remaining term of the leases.

Pursuant to the applicable accounting guidance, Exelon is required to review the estimated residual values of its direct financing lease investments at least annually and record an impairment charge if the review indicates an other than temporary decline in the fair value of the residual values below their carrying values. Exelon estimates the fair value of the residual values of its direct financing lease investments under the income approach, which uses a discounted cash flow analysis, which takes into consideration significant unobservable inputs (Level 3) including the expected revenues to be generated and costs to be incurred to operate the plants over their remaining useful lives subsequent to the lease end dates. Significant assumptions used in estimating the fair value include fundamental energy and capacity prices, fixed and variable costs, capital expenditure requirements, discount rates, tax rates, and the estimated remaining useful lives of the plants. The estimated fair values also reflect the cash flows associated with the service contract option discussed above given that a market participant would take into consideration all of the terms and conditions contained in the lease agreements.

Based on the annual reviews performed in the second quarters of 2015 and 2014, the estimated residual value of Exelon’s direct financing leases for the Georgia generating stations experienced other than temporary declines given increases in estimated long-term operating and maintenance costs in the 2015 annual review and reduced long-term energy and capacity price expectations in the 2014 annual review. As a result, Exelon recorded $24 million pre-tax impairment charges in each of the second quarters of 2015 and 2014 for these stations. These impairment charges were recorded in Investments and Operating and maintenance expense in Exelon’s Consolidated Balance Sheets and the Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Income, respectively. Changes in the assumptions described above could potentially result in future impairments of Exelon’s direct financing lease investments, which could be material.

At June 30, 2015 and December 31, 2014, the components of the net investment in long-term leases were as follows:



	June 30, 2015		December 31, 2014
Estimated residual value of leased assets	$	639	$	685
Less: unearned income		295		324
Net investment in long-term leases	$	344	$	361