Exelon (EXC) Risk Analysis

The Registrants are required to make judgments to estimate their obligations to taxing authorities, which includes general tax positions taken and associated reserves established. Tax obligations include, but are not limited to: income, real estate, sales and use, and employment-related taxes and ongoing appeal issues related to these tax matters. All tax estimates could be subject to challenge by the tax authorities. Additionally, earnings may be impacted due to changes in federal or local/state tax laws, and the inherent difficulty of estimating potential tax effects of ongoing business decisions. See Note 1 - Significant Accounting Policies and Note 13 - Income Taxes of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.

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 because 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, 2024, approximately 17%, 11%, and 17% of the Registrants' available credit facilities were with European, Canadian, and Asian banks, respectively. Additionally, higher interest rates may put pressure on the Registrants' overall liquidity profile, financial health and impact financial results. See Note 16 - Debt and Credit Agreements of the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on the credit facilities.

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 7 - Property, Plant, and Equipment, Note 11 - Asset Impairments, and Note 12 - 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 and Cash Requirements - Security Ratings for additional information regarding the potential impacts of credit downgrades on the Registrants' cash flows.

The Utility Registrants face risks associated with regulator-mandated or other new business initiatives, such as smart grids and broader beneficial electrification. Such risks include, but are not limited to, cost recovery, regulatory concerns, cybersecurity, and obsolescence of technology. Such initiatives may not be successful, and failures could result in adverse financial or reputational consequences.

The Registrants could be the subject of public criticism. Adverse publicity could render public service commissions and other regulatory and legislative authorities less likely to view energy companies generally, or the Registrants specifically, in a favorable light, and could cause 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.

Risks from cybersecurity and physical threats to energy infrastructures are increasing. Threat actors, including sophisticated nation-state actors and criminal groups, exploit potential vulnerabilities in the electric and natural gas utility industry, grid infrastructure, and other energy infrastructures. Attacks and disruptions, which could involve physical, cyber, and hybrid targeting of physical and cyber assets, are increasingly sophisticated and dynamic. The increased implementation of, and reliance on, information technologies and networks to manage business operations, including the operation of technical systems, as well as the Registrants' use of numerous vendors and suppliers, create additional points of vulnerability that could be, and in certain instances have been, exploited by malicious threat actors. Several U.S. government agencies have warned that the energy sector and its supply chains are subject to increasing risks of physical attacks, ransomware attacks and cybersecurity threats, and that the risks may escalate during periods of heightened geopolitical tensions. In addition, the rapid evolution and increased adoption of artificial intelligence technologies may intensify the Registrants' cybersecurity risks. A security breach of the Registrants' physical assets or information systems or those of the Registrants' competitors, vendors, business partners and interconnected entities (including RTOs and ISOs) 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, damaging grid infrastructure, interrupting critical business functions, impairing the availability of vendor services and materials that the Registrants rely on to maintain their operations, or by leading to the theft or inappropriate release of certain types of information, including critical infrastructure information, system data and architecture, sensitive customer, vendor, or employee data, or other confidential data. While Registrants and some of the Registrants' vendors have experienced cybersecurity incidents, such incidents have not, to Registrants' knowledge, resulted in material impact to any of the Registrants to date. If a material physical or cybersecurity breach or disruption were to occur, the Registrants' reputation could be negatively affected, customer confidence in the Registrants could be diminished and the Registrants could be subject to legal claims, regulatory exposure, loss of revenues, and increased costs, including infrastructure repairs or operations shutdown, all of which could materially affect the Registrants' financial condition and materially damage their business reputation. Moreover, the amount and scope of insurance maintained against losses resulting from any such security breaches or disruptions may not be sufficient to cover losses or otherwise adequately compensate for any resulting business disruptions. The continued increase in Federal and state regulatory requirements related to cybersecurity and evolving threat actor-capabilities could require changes to measures currently undertaken by the Registrants or to 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. Increasing pressure from both the private and public sectors to take actions to mitigate climate change could also push the speed and nature of this transition. 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.