Exelon Corporation

Exelon Corporation is an American Fortune 100 energy company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois and incorporated in Pennsylvania. It generates revenues of approximately $33.5 billion and employs approximately 33,400 people. Exelon is the largest electric parent company in the United States by revenue, the largest regulated electric utility in the United States with approximately 10 million customers, and was formerly the largest operator of nuclear power plants in the United States and the largest non-governmental operator of nuclear power plants in the world until the generation sources were spun off into an independent company, Constellation Energy, in 2022.

Exelon was created in October 2000 by the merger of PECO Energy Company of Philadelphia and Unicom Corp of Chicago, which owned Commonwealth Edison. Exelon operates regulated utilities in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and Washington, DC. In October 2009, Exelon had full or majority ownership of 23 nuclear reactors in 14 nuclear power plants. Exelon has operations and business activities in 48 states, the District of Columbia and Canada, and was formerly the largest competitive U.S. power generator with approximately 35,500 megawatts of owned capacity until the 2022 company separation. Exelon merged with Constellation Energy in March 2012 and acquired Pepco Holdings in March 2016. Exelon consists of six regulated utilities, Commonwealth Edison (Illinois), PECO Energy Company (Pennsylvania), Baltimore Gas and Electric (Maryland), Delmarva Power & Light (Delaware and Maryland), Atlantic City Electric (New Jersey), and Potomac Electric Power Company (Washington, DC and Maryland).

History

Exelon Corporation was created as the result of a merger between PECO Energy Company and the Unicom Corporation in October 2000. Unicom was based in Chicago and the city became the home of the new entity. The merger was overseen by the CEO of Unicom, John Rowe who joined the corporation in 1998 and went on to lead the newly-formed Exelon until 2012, becoming the nation's longest-serving utility executive.

Under Rowe, Exelon explored a number of mergers and acquisitions. On June 30, 2005, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the merger of Exelon and Public Service Enterprise Group Inc., a New Jersey utility. Under this merger, Exelon would have become the largest utility in the United States. The two companies later broke off the agreementPress Releases
/ref> due to pressure put on the NJ Board of Public Utilities by public interest groups, including New Jersey Citizen Action. The merger sat pending in front of the NJBPU for nineteen months before Exelon concluded that they were fighting a losing battle. On April 28, 2011, Exelon announced a merger with Constellation Energy for $7.9 billion with the combined company owning more than 34 gigawatts of power generation (55 percent nuclear, 24 percent natural gas, 8 percent renewable including hydro, 7 percent oil and 6 percent coal). The merger was completed on March 12, 2012.

In 2012, when announcing the cancellation of new nuclear construction for Victoria County Station, Texas, Exelon stated that economic and market conditions, especially low natural gas prices, made the "construction of new merchant nuclear power plants in competitive markets uneconomical now and for the foreseeable future".

In 2008, Christopher Crane was named CEO following Rowe's retirement and the completion of the merger with Constellation Energy. Exelon announced the proposed purchase of Pepco Holdings, Inc on April 30, 2014, for $6.8 billion in an all-cash transaction. The merger was rejected by the District of Columbia Public Service Commission in August 2015, though it was approved by other federal and state regulators. The companies appealed the decision. On March 23, 2016, the merger was approved by the Washington DC Public Service Commission, under a revised set of terms. The merger was completed later that day making Exelon the largest regulated utility in the United States by customer count and total revenue.

On February 2, 2022, Exelon completed the separation of its energy generation business to Constellation Energy.

Controversies

PECO Energy, one of Exelon's local power companies, has been involved in two controversies with activists. In the 1970s, activists delayed the opening of nuclear power plants. In 2015, Earth Quaker Action Team began a campaign to pressure PECO to expand the solar power it purchases, and to purchase it locally to create jobs.

Exelon's merger with Pepco faced stiff opposition from community groups and the D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.

Finances

For the fiscal year 2017, Exelon reported earnings of US$3.770 billion, with an annual revenue of US$33.531 billion, an increase of 6.9% over the previous fiscal cycle. Exelon's shares traded at over $35 per share, and its market capitalization was valued at over US$42.1 billion in October 2018. Exelon ranked No. 92 in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.

Exelon companies

Exelon Utilities

Exelon Utilities is the corporation's regulated transmission and distribution companies.

Atlantic City Electric

Atlantic City Electric is a regulated utility located in New Jersey with 545,000 electric customers.

Baltimore Gas and Electric

Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE) is a regulated utility located in Maryland with 1.25 million+ electric customers and 650,000+ natural gas customers. It was previously the leading subsidiary of Constellation Energy Group until Constellation was acquired by Exelon in 2012. As part of the deal, Exelon split off BGE from Constellation's nonregulated energy supply business, and placed BGE under the umbrella of its regulated utilities.

Commonwealth Edison

Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) is regulated utility located in Illinois with 4 million electric customers.

Delmarva Power

Delmarva Power is a regulated utility located in Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland with 515,000 electric customers over 5,000 square miles of service territory. They provide natural gas to 130,000 customers in northern Delaware.

Philadelphia Electric Company

Philadelphia Electric Company (PECO) is regulated utility located in eastern Pennsylvania with 1.6 million electric customers and more than 500,000 natural gas customers.

Potomac Electric Power Company

Potomac Electric Power Company (PEPCO) is a regulated utility in Washington, D.C. that serves 842,000 electric customers in the district and parts of Maryland.

Exelon Transmission Company

Exelon Transmission Company is specifically focused on the development of power transmission lines—specifically the RITELine project which involves work in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.

Political activity

Exelon's political action committee (PAC) is EXELONPAC. Since divesting from coal, the company is better positioned than many of its competitors to benefit from carbon pricing under a cap and trade plan for reducing carbon dioxide emissions.Jonathan Fahey he Carbon Windfall Exelon's John Rowe has been planning for expensive carbon for a decade. Now it's time to push for the payoff. Pages 70–74. January 18, 2010. Forbes "ormerExelon CEO John Rowe is a vociferous and longtime advocate of climate change legislation. In 2009, ''Forbes'' reported that if the Waxman-Markey climate legislation became law, 'the present value of Exelon's earnings stream would increase by $14 a share, or 28%.'"Carney, Timothy (2011-03-30
radioactive after Japan accident
, ''Washington Examiner'' Exelon also disclosed multiple contributions to political nonprofit organizations, the largest of which was $290,000 given to the American Energy Alliance – a 501(c)(4) nonprofit with ties to the conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch and led by former Koch Industries lobbyist Thomas Pyle.

Pollution, security incidents

In 2005, Exelon was required to pay a $602,000 fine for exceeding the permitted sulfur dioxide emission limit from April to October 2004 at its Cromby Generating Station in Chester County, Pennsylvania.

Exelon and Illinois state officials waited for four years until 2006 before disclosing that Exelon's Braidwood Nuclear Generating Station, a nuclear plant 60 miles southwest of Chicago, had spilled millions of gallons of water containing tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, multiple times over a decade. Exelon officials eventually apologized and said the risks from the leak were "minimal", with tritium levels in surrounding wells all found to be below regulatory limits.

In 2009, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced its plan for a $65,000 fine against Exelon for permitting its contracted security guards that were guarding its Peach Bottom Nuclear Generating Station, a two-reactor nuclear plant located in Delta, Pennsylvania, to sleep on the job. The incidents did not come to light until a videotape of the security guards was leaked to news media. As a result, Exelon terminated the security contract of the Wackenhut security firm that had been involved and now operates its own in-house nuclear security force.

References

External links

Exelon Corporation websiteConstellation websiteBGE websiteComEd websitePECO websiteExelon PowerLabs website

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Companies listed on the Nasdaq
Companies in the Dow Jones Utility Average
Electric power companies of the United States
Companies based in Chicago
Energy companies established in 2000
Natural gas companies of the United States
Nuclear power companies of the United States
Hydroelectric power companies of the United States
2000 establishments in Illinois