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Impairment of Long-lived Assets (Exelon and Generation)
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2018
Impairment or Disposal of Tangible Assets Disclosure [Abstract]  
Impairment Of Long-Lived Assets (Exelon and Generation)
(Exelon, Generation and PHI)
Long-Lived Assets (Exelon, Generation and PHI)
Registrants evaluate 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 2018, updates to Exelon's long-term view of energy and capacity prices suggested that the carrying value of a group of merchant wind assets, located in West Texas, may be impaired. Upon review, the estimated undiscounted future cash flows and fair value of the group were less than its carrying value. The fair value analysis was based on the income approach using significant unobservable inputs (Level 3) including revenue and generation forecasts, projected capital and maintenance expenditures and discount rates. As a result, long-lived merchant wind assets held and used with a net carrying amount of $41 million were fully impaired and a pre-tax impairment charge of $41 million was recorded during 2018 within Operating and maintenance expense in Exelon's and Generation's Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Income.
During the first quarter of 2018, Mystic Unit 9 did not clear in the ISO-NE capacity auction for the 2021 - 2022 planning year. On March 29, 2018, Generation notified ISO-NE of the early retirement of its Mystic Generating Station's Units 7, 8, 9 and the Mystic Jet Unit (Mystic Generating Station assets) absent regulatory reforms. These events suggested that the carrying value of its New England asset group may be impaired. As a result, Generation completed a comprehensive review of the estimated undiscounted future cash flows of the New England asset group and no impairment charge was required. Further developments such as the failure of ISO-NE to adopt long-term solutions for reliability and fuel security could potentially result in future impairments of the New England asset group, which could be material. See Note 8Early Plant Retirements for additional information.
In the third quarter of 2015, PHI entered into a sponsorship agreement with the District of Columbia for future sponsorship rights associated with public property within the District of Columbia and paid the District of Columbia $25 million, which Exelon and PHI had recorded as a finite-lived intangible asset as of December 31, 2016. The specific sponsorship rights were to be determined over time through future negotiations. In the fourth quarter of 2017, based upon the lack of currently available sponsorship opportunities, the asset was written off and a pre-tax impairment charge of $25 million was recorded within Operating and maintenance expense in Exelon’s and PHI’s Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Income.
On May 2, 2017, EGTP entered into a consent agreement with its lenders to initiate an orderly sales process to sell the assets of its wholly owned subsidiaries. As a result, Exelon and Generation classified certain of EGTP's assets and liabilities as held for sale at their respective fair values less costs to sell and recorded a pre-tax impairment charge of $460 million within Operating and maintenance expense in their Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Income during 2017. On November 7, 2017, EGTP and its wholly owned subsidiaries filed voluntary petitions for relief under Chapter 11 of Title 11 of the United States Code in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware and, as a result, Exelon and Generation deconsolidated EGTP's assets and liabilities from their consolidated financial statements. See Note 5Mergers, Acquisitions and Dispositions for additional information.
In the second quarter of 2016, updates to Exelon's long-term view of energy and capacity prices suggested that the carrying value of a group of merchant wind assets, located in West Texas, may be impaired.  Upon review, the estimated undiscounted future cash flows and fair value of the group were less than their carrying value.  The fair value analysis was based on the income approach using significant unobservable inputs (Level 3) including revenue and generation forecasts, projected capital and maintenance expenditures and discount rates. As a result of the fair value analysis, long-lived merchant wind assets held and used with a carrying amount of approximately $60 million were written down to their fair value of $24 million and a pre-tax impairment charge of $36 million was recorded during the second quarter of 2016 in Operating and maintenance expense in Exelon’s and Generation’s Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Income. 
In the first quarter of 2016, significant changes in Generation’s intended use of the Upstream oil and gas assets, developments with nonrecourse debt held by its Upstream subsidiary CEU Holdings, LLC (as described in Note 13Debt and Credit Agreements) and continued declines in both production volumes and commodity prices suggested that the carrying value may be impaired. Generation concluded that the estimated undiscounted future cash flows and fair value of its Upstream properties were less than their carrying values. As a result, a pre-tax impairment charge of $119 million was recorded in March 2016 within Operating and maintenance expense in Exelon’s and Generation’s Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Income. On June 16, 2016, Generation initiated the sales process of its Upstream natural gas and oil exploration and production business by executing a forbearance agreement with the lenders of the nonrecourse debt, see Note 13Debt and Credit Agreements for additional information. An additional pre-tax impairment charge of $15 million was recorded in September 2016 within Operating and maintenance expense in Exelon’s and Generation’s Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Income due to further declines in fair value. In December 2016, Generation sold substantially all of the Upstream Assets. See Note 5 Mergers, Acquisitions and Dispositions for additional information.
The fair value analysis used in the above impairments was primarily based on the income approach using significant unobservable inputs (Level 3) including revenue, generation and production 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)
In June 2000, UII, LLC (formerly Unicom Investments, Inc.) (UII), a wholly owned subsidiary of Exelon Corporation, entered into transactions pursuant to which UII invested in coal-fired generating station leases (Headleases) with the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (MEAG). The generating stations were leased back to MEAG as part of the transactions (Leases).
Pursuant to the applicable authoritative 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 based on the income approach, which uses a discounted cash flow analysis, taking 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.
All the Headleases were terminated by the second quarter of 2016, and no events occurred prior to the termination that required Exelon to review the estimated residual values of the direct financing lease investments in 2016. On March 31, 2016, UII and MEAG finalized an agreement to terminate the MEAG Headleases, the MEAG Leases, and other related agreements prior to their expiration dates. As a result of the lease termination, UII received an early termination payment of $360 million from MEAG and wrote-off the $356 million net investment in the MEAG Headleases and the Leases. The transaction resulted in a pre-tax gain of $4 million which is reflected in Operating and maintenance expense in Exelon's Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Income. See Note 14Income Taxes for additional information.