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 programs 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. See Note 6 — Regulatory Matters for additional information on the Illinois ZES, New Jersey ZEC program and New York CES.

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, Exelon announced that Generation will permanently cease generation operations at TMI on or about September 30, 2019. TMI is currently committed to operate through May 2019 and is licensed to operate through 2034. Generation has filed the required market and regulatory notifications to shut down the plant. PJM has subsequently notified Generation that it has not identified any reliability issues and has approved the deactivation of TMI as proposed. On April 5, 2019, Generation filed the post shutdown decommissioning activities report (PSDAR) with the NRC detailing the plans for TMI after its final shutdown.

On February 2, 2018, Exelon announced that Generation will permanently cease generation operations at the Oyster Creek nuclear plant at the end of its current operating cycle and permanently ceased generation operations in September 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. See Note 13 — Nuclear Decommissioning for additional information on changes to the nuclear decommissioning ARO balance. The total impact for the three months ended March 31, 2019 and 2018 are summarized in the table below.



	Three Months Ended March 31,
Income statement expense (pre-tax)	2019			2018
Depreciation and amortization^(a)
Accelerated depreciation^(b)	$	74		$	137
Accelerated nuclear fuel amortization	5			15
Operating and maintenance^(c)	(83		)	26
Total	$	(4	)	$	178

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(a)	Reflects incremental accelerated depreciation and amortization for TMI for the three months ended March 31, 2019. Reflects incremental accelerated depreciation for TMI and Oyster Creek for the three months ended March 31, 2018. The Oyster Creek amounts are from February 2, 2018 through March 31, 2018.


(b)	Reflects incremental accelerated depreciation of plant assets, including any ARC.


(c)	In 2019, primarily reflects decrease to estimated decommissioning costs for TMI. See Note 13 — Nuclear Decommissioning for additional information on the first quarter 2019 TMI ARO update. In 2018, primarily reflects materials and supplies inventory reserve adjustments, employee related costs and CWIP impairments.

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 its Mystic Generating Station assets absent regulatory reforms on June 1, 2022, at the end of the current capacity commitment for Mystic Units 7 and 8. Mystic Unit 9 is currently 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 agreement 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 March 1, 2019. In the December 20, 2018 order, FERC also directed a paper hearing on ROE using a new methodology. Initial briefs in the ROE proceeding were filed on April 19, 2019 and reply briefs are due on July 18, 2019. On January 4, 2019, Generation notified ISO-NE that it will participate in the Forward Capacity Market auction for the 2022 - 2023 capacity commitment period. In addition, on January 22, 2019, Exelon and several other parties filed requests for rehearing of certain findings of the December 20, 2018 order, which does not alter Generation's commitment to participate in the Forward Capacity Auction for the 2022-2023 capacity commitment period.

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. Exelon filed comments on the Inventoried Energy Program proposal on April 15, 2019. FERC has ordered ISO-NE to file the long-term, market-based fuel security rules by October 15, 2019.

The following table provides the balance sheet amounts as of March 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 a decision to permanently cease generation operations in the absence of long-term market rule changes.



	March 31, 2019
Asset Balances
Materials and supplies inventory	$	30
Fuel inventory	22
Completed plant, net	900
Construction work in progress	2
Liability Balances
Asset retirement obligation	(1		)