Exelon (EXC) Risk Analysis

The impacts of significant economic downturns on the Utility Registrants' customers and the related regulatory limitations on residential service terminations for the Utility Registrants, could result in an increase in the number of uncollectible customer balances and related expense. Further, increases in customer rates, including those related to increases in purchased power and natural gas prices, could result in declines in customer usage and lower revenues for the Utility Registrants that do not have decoupling mechanisms. See ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK for additional information on the Registrants’ credit risk.

The Registrants rely on the capital markets, particularly for publicly offered debt, as well as the banking and commercial paper markets, to meet their financial commitments and short-term liquidity needs. Disruptions in the capital and credit markets in the United States or abroad could negatively affect the Registrants’ ability to access the capital markets or draw on their respective bank revolving credit facilities. The banks may not be able to meet their funding commitments to the Registrants if they experience shortages of capital and liquidity or if they experience excessive volumes of borrowing requests within a short period of time. The inability to access capital markets or credit facilities, and longer-term disruptions in the capital and credit markets as a result of uncertainty, changing or increased regulation, reduced alternatives, or failures of significant financial institutions could result in the deferral of discretionary capital expenditures, or require a reduction in dividend payments or other discretionary uses of cash. In addition, the Registrants have exposure to worldwide financial markets, including Europe, Canada, and Asia. Disruptions in these markets could reduce or restrict the Registrants’ ability to secure sufficient liquidity or secure liquidity at reasonable terms. As of December 31, 2021, approximately 20%, 17%, and 16% of the Registrants’ available credit facilities (not including Generation's credit facilities) were with European, Canadian, and Asian banks, respectively. See Note 17 — Debt and Credit Agreements of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on the credit facilities.

By separating the Utility Registrants and Generation, Exelon created two publicly traded companies with the resources necessary to best serve customers and sustain long-term investment and operating excellence. The separate companies are expected to create value by having the strategic flexibility to focus on their unique customer, market and community priorities. However, the separation may not provide such results on the scope or scale that Exelon anticipates, and Exelon may not realize the anticipated benefits of the separation. Failure to do so could have a material adverse effect on Exelon's financial statements and its common stock price.

Long-lived assets represent the single largest asset class on the Registrants’ statements of financial position. In addition, Exelon, ComEd, and PHI have material goodwill balances. The Registrants evaluate the recoverability of the carrying value of long-lived assets to be held and used whenever events or circumstances indicating a potential impairment exist. Factors such as, but not limited to, the business climate, including current and future energy and market conditions, environmental regulation, and the condition of assets are considered. ComEd and PHI perform an assessment for possible impairment of their goodwill at least annually or more frequently if an event occurs or circumstances change that would more likely than not reduce the fair value of the reporting units below their carrying amount. Regulatory actions or changes in significant assumptions, including discount and growth rates, utility sector market performance and transactions, projected operating and capital cash flows for ComEd’s, Pepco’s, DPL’s, and ACE’s business, and the fair value of debt, could potentially result in future impairments of Exelon’s, ComEd's, and PHI’s goodwill. An impairment would require the Registrants to reduce the carrying value of the long-lived asset or goodwill to fair value through a non-cash charge to expense by the amount of the impairment. See ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS — Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates, Note 8 — Property, Plant, and Equipment, Note 12 — Asset Impairments and Note 13 — Intangible Assets of the Combined Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on long-lived asset impairments and goodwill impairments.

The Utility Registrants' operating agreements with PJM and PECO's, BGE's, and DPL's natural gas procurement contracts contain collateral provisions that are affected by their credit rating and market prices. If certain wholesale market conditions were to exist and the Utility Registrants were to lose their investment grade credit ratings (based on their senior unsecured debt ratings), they would be required to provide collateral in the forms of letters of credit or cash, which could have a material adverse effect upon their remaining sources of liquidity. PJM collateral posting requirements will generally increase as market prices rise and decrease as market prices fall. Collateral posting requirements for PECO, BGE, and DPL, with respect to their natural gas supply contracts, will generally increase as forward market prices fall and decrease as forward market prices rise. If the Utility Registrants were downgraded, they could experience higher borrowing costs as a result of the downgrade. In addition, changes in ratings methodologies by the agencies could also have an adverse negative impact on the ratings of the Utility Registrants. The Utility Registrants conduct their respective businesses and operate under governance models and other arrangements and procedures intended to assure that the Utility Registrants are treated as separate, independent companies, distinct from Exelon and other Exelon subsidiaries in order to isolate the Utility Registrants from Exelon and other Exelon subsidiaries in the event of financial difficulty at Exelon or another Exelon subsidiary. These measures (commonly referred to as “ring-fencing”) could help avoid or limit a downgrade in the credit ratings of the Utility Registrants in the event of a reduction in the credit rating of Exelon. Despite these ring-fencing measures, the credit ratings of the Utility Registrants could remain linked, to some degree, to the credit ratings of Exelon. Consequently, a reduction in the credit rating of Exelon could result in a reduction of the credit rating of some or all of the Utility Registrants. A reduction in the credit rating of a Utility Registrant could have a material adverse effect on the Utility Registrant. See ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS — Liquidity and Capital Resources — Credit Matters — Market Conditions and Security Ratings for additional information regarding the potential impacts of credit downgrades on the Registrants’ cash flows.

The Utility Registrants face risks associated with their regulatory-mandated initiatives, such as smart grids and utility of the future. These risks include, but are not limited to, cost recovery, regulatory concerns, cybersecurity, and obsolescence of technology. Such initiatives may not be successful.

The Registrants have entered into various agreements with counterparties that require those counterparties to reimburse a Registrant and hold it harmless against specified obligations and claims. To the extent that any of these counterparties are affected by deterioration in their creditworthiness or the agreements are otherwise determined to be unenforceable, the affected Registrant could be held responsible for the obligations. Each of the Utility Registrants has transferred its former generation business to a third party and in each case the transferee has agreed to assume certain obligations and to indemnify the applicable Utility Registrant for such obligations. In connection with the restructurings under which ComEd, PECO, and BGE transferred their generating assets to Generation, Generation assumed certain of ComEd’s, PECO’s, and BGE's rights and obligations with respect to their former generation businesses. Further, ComEd, PECO, and BGE have entered into agreements with third parties under which the third-party agreed to indemnify ComEd, PECO, or BGE for certain obligations related to their respective former generation businesses that have been assumed by Generation as part of the restructuring. If the third-party, Generation, or the transferee of Pepco's, DPL's, or ACE’s generation facilities experienced events that reduced its creditworthiness or the indemnity arrangement became unenforceable, the applicable Utility Registrant could be liable for any existing or future claims. In addition, the Utility Registrants have residual liability under certain laws in connection with their former generation facilities. The Registrants have issued indemnities to third parties regarding environmental or other matters in connection with purchases and sales of assets, including several of the Utility Registrants in connection with Generation's absorption of their former generating assets. The Registrants could incur substantial costs to fulfill their obligations under these indemnities. The Registrants have issued guarantees of the performance of third parties, which obligate the Registrants to perform in the event that the third parties do not perform. In the event of non-performance by those third parties, the Registrants could incur substantial cost to fulfill their obligations under these guarantees.

The Registrants could be the subject of public criticism. Adverse publicity of this nature could render public service commissions and other regulatory and legislative authorities less likely to view energy companies in a favorable light, and could cause those companies, including the Registrants, to be susceptible to less favorable legislative and regulatory outcomes, as well as increased regulatory oversight and more stringent legislative or regulatory requirements.

The Registrants face physical security and cybersecurity risks. Threat sources, including sophisticated nation-state actors, continue to seek to exploit potential vulnerabilities in the electric and natural gas utility industry, grid infrastructure, and other energy infrastructures, and these attacks and disruptions, both physical and cyber, are becoming increasingly sophisticated and dynamic. Continued implementation of advanced digital technologies increases the potentially unfavorable impacts of such attacks. Additionally, the U.S. government has warned that the Ukraine conflict may increase the risks of attacks targeting critical infrastructure in the United States. A security breach of the Registrants' physical assets or information systems or those of the Registrants competitors, vendors, business partners and interconnected entities in RTOs and ISOs, or regulators could materially impact Registrants by, among other things, impairing the availability of electricity and gas distributed by Registrants and/or the reliability of transmission and distribution systems, or by leading to the theft or inappropriate release of certain types of information, including critical infrastructure information, sensitive customer, vendor, or employee data, or other confidential data. The risk of these system-related events and security breaches occurring continues to intensify, and while the Registrants have been, and will likely continue to be, subjected to physical and cyber-attacks, to date none have directly experienced a material breach or material disruption to its network or information systems or our operations. However, as such attacks continue to increase in sophistication and frequency, the Registrants may be unable to prevent all such attacks in the future. If a significant breach were to occur, the Registrants' reputation could be negatively affected, customer confidence in the Registrants or others in the industry could be diminished, or the Registrants could be subject to legal claims, loss of revenues, increased costs, or operations shutdown. Moreover, the amount and scope of insurance maintained against losses resulting from any such events or security breaches may not be sufficient to cover losses or otherwise adequately compensate for any disruptions to business that could result. The Utility Registrants' deployment of smart meters throughout their service territories could increase the risk of damage from an intentional disruption of the system by third parties. In addition, new or updated security regulations or unforeseen threat sources could require changes in current measures taken by the Registrants or their business operations and could adversely affect their consolidated financial statements.

Advancements in power generation technology, including commercial and residential solar generation installations and commercial micro turbine installations, are improving the cost-effectiveness of customer self-supply of electricity. Improvements in energy storage technology, including batteries and fuel cells, could also better position customers to meet their around-the-clock electricity requirements. Improvements in energy efficiency of lighting, appliances, equipment and building materials will also affect energy consumption by customers. Changes in power generation, storage, and use technologies could have significant effects on customer behaviors and their energy consumption. These developments could affect levels of customer-owned generation, customer expectations, and current business models and make portions of the Utility Registrants' transmission and/or distribution facilities uneconomic prior to the end of their useful lives. These factors could affect the Registrants’ consolidated financial statements through, among other things, increased operating and maintenance expenses, increased capital expenditures, and potential asset impairment charges or accelerated depreciation over shortened remaining asset useful lives.