2/12/2026

speaker
Gigi
Event Specialist

Hello, and welcome to Exelon's fourth quarter earnings call. My name is Gigi, and I'll be your event specialist today. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. Please note that today's webcast is being recorded. During the presentation, we'll have a question and answer session. You can ask questions by pressing star 1-1 on your telephone keypad. If you would like to view the presentation in a full screen view, click the full screen button by hovering your computer mouse cursor over the PowerPoint screen. Press the Escape key on your keyboard to return to your original view. And finally, should you need technical assistance, as a best practice, we suggest you first refresh your browser. If that does not resolve the issue, please click on the Help option in the upper right-hand corner of your screen for online troubleshooting. It is now my pleasure to turn today's program over to Ryan Brown, Vice President of Investor Relations. The floor is yours.

speaker
Ryan Brown
Vice President of Investor Relations

Great. Thank you, Gigi. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for joining us for our 2025 Fourth Quarter Earnings Call. Leading the call today are Calvin Butler, Exelon's President and Chief Executive Officer, and Jean Jones, Exelon's Chief Financial Officer. Other members of Exelon's senior management team are also with us today. and they'll be available to answer your questions following our prepared remarks. Today's presentation, along with our earnings release and other financial information, can be found in the investor relations section of Exelon's website. I'd also like to remind you that today's presentation and the associated earnings release materials contain forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. You can find the cautionary statements on these risks on slide two of today's presentation or in our SEC filings. In addition, today's presentation includes references to adjusted operating earnings and other non-GAAP measures. Reconciliations between these measures and the nearest equivalent GAAP measures can be found in the appendix of our presentation and in our earnings release. With that, it's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Calvin Butler, Excellence President and CEO.

speaker
Calvin Butler
President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Ryan, and congratulations on the new role, and good morning to everyone. We appreciate everyone joining us today for our fourth quarter earnings and celebrate the close of our 25th anniversary, we're proud to once again deliver exceptional results for our customers, employees, and investors. Across Exelon, our companies bring more than 800 years of collective experience. Even with that long queue, this moment stands out. The industry is changing at a speed and scale rarely seen. With that comes both great responsibility and opportunity. I've never been more confident that Exelon has the people, the discipline, and the platform to continue to lead the energy transformation and meet this unprecedented demand. This is underscored by our recent results. As you saw from this morning's release, we delivered another strong year. For 2025, we reported adjusted operating earnings per share of $2.77, delivering above expectations. And since 2021, we've achieved a 7.4% annual earnings growth rate and 8% rate-based growth through 2025, highlighting our ability to navigate changes and consistently execute. at below average rates. It was also another exceptional year operation. Exelon continues to set the standard for the industry. Our utilities maintain top quartile reliability metrics once again, and we're ranked one, two, four, and seven amongst our peers based on 2024 benchmarking data. This level of performance is nothing new. In fact, we've delivered top quartile reliability for over a decade. It's who we are and center to our mission. But don't get me wrong, consistency does not come easy. It's the direct result of a culture of continuous improvement, innovation, and a steadfast focus on targeted investments that maximize value for our customers. These investments not only prevent outages and deliver best-in-class service, but they directly benefit local economies, with every $1 million invested creating eight jobs, or $1.6 million, economic output I am truly humbled by the commitment and sacrifice of our employees that make this level of service possible recently their dedication was on full display during winter storm firm despite record low temperatures our investments withstood heavy snow and icing across our territories maintaining strong reliability with only minimal disruptions fewer than 1% of our customers weather impacted our regions. This reflects the tremendous work of our employees over the past decade to invest in the safety, reliability, and resiliency of our system. The performance is remarkable when accounting for the scale of the storm, as well as the demand put on the grid. Fern resulted in the PJM RTO experiencing five days in a row of peak load ranging from 135 to 140 gigawatts, reaching 97 percent of the all-time winter peak our investments combined with our employees around the clock dedication kept nearly 11 million electric and gas customers safe and warm when they needed us most i'd like to express my gratitude to all of our employees who have supported storm restoration efforts locally and afar thank you for all that you do over the last As Gene will detail shortly, it's been an active few months. We've achieved several key milestones, including final settlements for the Atlantic City Electric and Delmarva gas rate cases, reconciliation orders at ComEd and BGE, and the filing of ComEd's second multi-year grid plan. This progress is built on a foundation of hard-earned trust. We work collaboratively with stakeholders and our communities to ensure that our investments aligned with the specific goals and needs of the states we serve. Looking ahead, we now expect to invest $41.3 billion of capital to support our customers with more than 70% of the plan-over-plan increase driven by transmission, where we continue to have a unique opportunity and significant momentum. our utilities to capitalize on the growing need for transmission investments in reliability and resiliency, accelerated by the pace of new business growth. This progress is further evidenced by our success in the recent PJM reliability window results, where $1.2 billion of incremental Exelon investment was recommended, including a jointly developed solution with NextEra. This comes on the heels of other recent large-scale transmission awards, including Brandon Shores, Tri-County, and the MISO Tranche 2.1 project. You should expect us to be active in future windows within PJM and other ISOs, leveraging our competitive advantages where appropriate. And we continue to see robust demand in our jurisdictions, with anticipated load growth exceeding 3% through 2029. This is further reinforced by our large load pipeline, which is now further supported by an increasing number of signed transmission security agreements, or TSAs. Overall, our pure transmission and distribution capital plan is unique and truly differentiated. It's highly diversified across seven regulatory jurisdictions, including FERC, with no one jurisdiction greater than 30% and no single project comprising more than 3% of the plan. It's also actionable. We have line of sight to each project that comprises the $41.3 billion with a significant pipeline of incremental projects over the next 5 to 10 years and the size and scale to execute efficiently. With continued returns on equity in the 9% to 10% range, we expect rate-based growth of approximately 8% and annualized earnings growth of 5% to 7% through 2029. We will continue to fund investments in a balanced and disciplined manner that maintains a strong balance sheet. And for 2026, we are initiating operating earnings guidance of $2.81 to $2.91 per share. Our continued progress is clearly demonstrated by the scorecard on slide five, where we once again met or exceeded every goal we set at the start of the year. At Exelon, Commitments made are commitments meant. That discipline and credibility define who we are and shape how our teams operate every day. In addition to strong operational and financial performance, we continue to lead on customer affordability, which remains a top priority. We continuously drive costs out of the business through efficiency and innovation, maintaining a track record of cost growth well below inflation. In the past year, we executed a $60 million customer relief fund to support low- and moderate-income customers facing higher supply costs. We advanced innovative TSAs that prioritize large loads while ensuring existing customers remain protected. Our award-winning energy efficiency programs continue to deliver meaningful savings. We expanded connections of distributed resources, giving customers more ways to participate and save. and we are steadfast in introducing innovative tools and processes to connect customers to low-income assistance. We continue to focus on actions like these that are directly within our control, in addition to delivering safe, reliable energy while keeping bills as low as possible. In the meantime, we are also actively partnering with federal, RTO, and state leaders to address high supply prices and emerging reliability risks. The supply challenge is real, but not insurmountable. We're encouraged by the growing national focus, including the recent announcement from the White House and our state governors advancing policies to incent new generation and improve affordability. As we've said before, we firmly believe it's going to require an all-of-the-above strategy that includes utility-generated demand-side and merchant solutions. This was further supported by the study released last week by Charles Rivers Associates. The report is an urgent call to action, highlighting the risk of the status quo and the cost and reliability benefits of utility generated energy. Specifically, they note that utility generated power could have saved total PJM customers $9.6 to $20 billion in the 2028-2029 delivery year. while reducing the risk of potential future outages from energy shortages by approximately 85%. We are committed to continue to work with all stakeholders to advance policies that strengthen energy security as quickly and cost-effectively as possible. Finally, I want to take a moment to reiterate why our platform and approach is best positioned for the years to come. As highlighted on slide 6, Our foundation is based upon a customer focus and industry-leading operations. With our size and scale, constructive regulatory frameworks, and diversified footprint and capital plan, we have a disciplined and defensive foundation that is resilient. Yet, at the same time, we're well-positioned to capture credible, meaningful opportunities for sustainable growth. We're excited about where we're headed. Our platform is designed to deliver an attractive risk-adjusted return and long-term value for all stakeholders. I'll now turn the call to Jean to dive deeper into our 2025 results and share more details on our updated long-term plan. Jean?

speaker
Jean Jones
Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Calvin, and good morning, everyone. Today I will cover our fourth quarter and full-year results, key regulatory developments, and updates to our financial disclosures, including 2026 guidance. Starting on slide seven, as Calvin noted, Since becoming a standalone utility, we have continued to execute, and 2025 adds to that track record. In 2025, we delivered $2.73 per share on a gap basis and $2.77 per share on a non-gap basis for the full year, reflecting strong year-over-year growth. For the quarter, Exxon earned $0.58 on a gap basis and $0.59 on a non-gap basis. Full-year earnings above our guidance range primarily benefited from favorable weather and storm conditions and the resolution of certain regulatory proceedings. Throughout the year, we also managed costs well across the platform, ensuring we could accommodate a range of outcomes while monitoring regulatory activity and weather in the fourth quarter. Quarter-to-date and year-to-date drivers relative to prior year can be found on Appendix 5, 37 and 38. Turning to slide 8, we are initiating 2026 operating earnings guidance of $2.81 to $2.91 per share. With much of our growth aligned with completed rate cases and continued strong cost management, the 2026 implied midpoint relative to the midpoint of our 2025 estimated guidance range is ahead of previous disclosures, reflecting midpoint to midpoint growth above 6%. Our performance in 2025 underscores our ability to deliver strong financial results amid uncertainty, all while operating at industry-leading levels and innovating to find new and creative ways to support our customers. We've executed operational efficiencies, capitalized on our growth opportunities, and identified more ways than ever to support our customers. We look forward to furthering this progress in 2026. Looking ahead to the first quarter, we expect earnings to be approximately 31% of the midpoint of our projected full-year earnings guidance range, which is in line with historical averages. This accounts for completed regulatory filing, anticipated revenue shaping, and O&M timing, as well as normal weather and storm conditions throughout the quarter. Turning to slide 9, we executed another busy regulatory calendar in 2025 marking significant milestones and reaching final resolution on open reconciliation and key rate cases, providing cost recovery for the next several years. Starting with Atlantic City Electric in November, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities approved a settlement supporting the recovery of $54 million associated with grid improvements and modernization investments in line with New Jersey's Energy Master Plan and the Clean Energy Act at a 9.6% ROE. New rates went into effect at the beginning of December 2025. Also, in December, the Delaware Public Service Commission issued a final order on the Delmarva Power Gas Rate Case, approving a settlement that supports the $21.5 million revenue requirement and 9.6 ROV, recovering various reliability investments and LNG plant upgrades, which protect customers from price volatility during peak periods. Rates went into effect at the beginning of this year. In addition to closing out base rate case activity, we also received final orders in our open reconciliations at BGE and ComEd in December, now gaining clarity on the recovery of our investments from 2023 and 2024. While we were disappointed to receive about half of the BGE reconciliation, we realigned capital accordingly. Finally, moving to our core regulatory activity for 2026, the PEPCO Maryland base rate case continues to progress according to the procedural schedule with intervener testimony filed at the end of last month. A final order is expected in August this year. In December, Delmarva Power filed an electric face rate case in Delaware, requesting a net revenue increase of $44.6 million to support system reliability investments, storm remediation, and storm damage costs. DPL also requested to implement a bill stabilization adjustment, which will offer customers more predictability as seasonal temperatures grow increasingly volatile. DPL expects to be able to implement interim rates in effect on July 9th. Finally, on January 16th, ComEd filed its multi-year good plan in Illinois, requesting an approval of an investment plan covering 2028 through 2031 in support of the priorities laid out in the state's CEJA and CRGA bills. A final order is expected in December, and the company expects to file its next rate filing in 2027. On slide 10, we provide updated utility capex and rate-based outlook through 2029. We plan to invest almost $10 billion in 2026 and a total of $41.3 billion over the next four years, an increase of $3.3 billion or 9% from the prior four-year planning period. Incremental investments reflect updates to align with recently approved rate cases and jurisdictional priorities and an increase in transmission investments. Of the overall increase, approximately 70% or $2.3 billion is attributable to incremental transmission investments driven by the structural trends that underpin the energy transformation in our jurisdiction. Increased demand for high-voltage investments and capacity expansion to support large load growth, evolving generation supply, and the reliability and resiliency needs of grid customers to withstand increasingly volatile weather. In fact, the majority of the additional transmission relates to continuous system performance and capacity expansion across our platform, supporting incremental data center load in addition to the gradual replacement of an aging network. Our plan also includes an additional year of investment of our two largest transmission projects, Brandon Shores and Tri-County, going into service in 2028 through 2030, along with the early spend of the MISO Trench 2.1 project, which goes into service in 2034. Our annualized rate base growth of 7.9% over the next four years reflects an increase from the prior year plan, with a projected addition of nearly $23 billion in rate base from 2025 to 2029. Having executed within 2% of our capital plans since 2023, we are confident we will execute this next stage of growth, driving progress towards economic and energy goals, and always prioritizing our customer needs in everything that we do. Moving to slide 11, our size and scale, award-winning reliability, and expertise in owning and operating 765KV lines uniquely position us to capitalize on additional transition opportunities that enable us to grow our transmission rate-based CAGR by over 15% from 25 through the end of the guidance period. Coupled with our strength in execution, we now have line of sight to an additional 12 to 17 billion of transmission opportunities over the next decade that strengthen and lengthen our plan, of which over 60% includes projects associated with our existing infrastructure, supporting continued reliability, generator deactivations, and providing additional operational flexibility and efficiency. This upside also includes an estimated $1 billion of transmission associated with high-density load projects with signed TFAs, where we now have a foundation for additional certainty in our pipeline as agreements are presented to customers coming out of our cluster study process. We also remain optimistic about the work associated with MISO tranche 2.1, with over $1 billion of investment in our common service territory, which is now awaiting a cost allocation filing at FERC. Beyond these opportunities, we anticipate additional investment required to support our state's public policy goals, particularly as our jurisdictions assess energy security and economic development needs. For example, achieving CJIS goals and the growing economic development in Illinois will likely require billions in transmission investments. Finally, as we discussed in prior quarters, success in winning competitively bid projects offer additional upside. From our success in winning the Tri-County project to the 1.2 billion in Exxon investment PJM has recommended in this recent window, our size, scale, and expertise positions as well to pursue competitive opportunities outside of our service territories, within and outside of PJM. Our ability to deploy almost $10 billion of capital annually over the next four years is only possible with a rigorous focus on cost management and delivering value through those investments, supporting customer bills at rates 19% to 20% below national averages. This focus is saving our customers approximately $580 million in O&M annually relative to what it would have been growing at a standard inflation level over the last decade. We feel confident we can continue to keep our expense growth well below inflation levels, demonstrating nearly flat expense growth from 24 to 26 and targeting no more than 2.5% adjusted O&M growth through 29. As we talked about last year, our institutionalized team and a one-axle on culture are committed to delivering value. We have taken advantage of our focus operations along with our size and scale to continue to standardize and streamline our structure and operations. Driving out $580 million in annual O&M savings is no small task, but it's something our customers and shareholders have come to expect. Exxon's unique platform and industry best practices enable us to build upon these savings with line of sight to additional opportunities. As investment needs grow to meet unprecedented load growth and reliability needs, our customers remain our top priority. Since 2021, Exxon's portion of the average customer bill to percent of median income has remained relatively flat. growing only 10 basis points while maintaining top quartile reliability, which saved customers $1 billion in avoided outage costs last year alone. We've reduced annual customer interruptions by nearly $2 million since 2021 and made significant economic impact in our community. Since 2021, we've employed 20,000 people, sustained 50,000 jobs, and have fostered nearly $60 billion in economic activity in our community. Bringing value to our customers is foundational to what we do, and it's why we invest in the grid. That's why we've committed to keeping our O&M costs relatively flat from 24 to 26, and in partnership with our jurisdictions, have committed to support our customers through nation-leading programs and advocacy efforts. Conversely, the supply side of the average monthly residential bill in the Mid-Atlantic has increased up to 80% or more over the last five years. Customers are now paying more for less. Since July of 2024, PJM customers have paid more than $32 billion as supply in the market declined 1.2 gigawatts. That's why we continue to be at the forefront for advocating for our customers across federal, PJM, and state levels, ensuring that every dollar customers spend can be tied to additional value they receive. We are pleased that federal discussions proposed the extension of the PJM capacity auction collar, saving customers tens of billions of dollars through 2030. But our advocacy efforts don't stop there. We are committed to advocating for other policies, such as interconnection queue and rate design reforms that protect customers and support economic development. Our first-of-its-kind transmission security agreements filed at FERC do just that, providing a clear path to interconnection while protecting existing customers. We believe all solutions are required to support energy security and drive affordability. This includes encouraging state-procured solutions such as utility-generated power, which can bring certainty that the supply will be there, offer our states control, and ultimately benefit our customers. Turning to slide 14, With prudent O&M spending and $41.3 billion of projected capital spent driving 7.9% rate-based growth, along with earning ROEs of 9% to 10%, we are projecting compounded annual earnings growth near the top end of 5% to 7% from our 2025 guidance midpoint of $269 per share through 2029. We continue to build momentum across our jurisdictions as we make progress on PEPCO and Delmarva rate cases, the ComEd Dirt Plan, and as BGE prepares to file later this year. We look forward to working with our stakeholders to align on the investments that benefit our customers, enable us to maintain and improve upon our operational excellence, all in a fair return. Maintaining our commitment to transparency, we have provided assumptions associated with our expected annual growth and earnings through 2029 on Appendix slide 23. As you can see, we expect to deliver the out years near the top end of the five to seven range allowing for flexibility of rate case timing and keeping us on track to deliver near the top end of our 5% to 7% annualized growth rate from 25% to 29%. We also continue to project an annual dividend growth at 5% and anticipate paying out a dividend of $1.68 per share in 2026 in line with that growth. Finally, turning to slide 15, I will conclude with a review of our balance sheet and financing activities, where we continue to de-risk and secure cost-effective capital to invest for the benefit of our customers. In December, Exxon Corporate issued $1 billion in convertible debt, pulling forward almost over half of our planned long-term corporate debt needs for 26. Through 2029, we expect to fund the $41.3 billion capital plan, with $22 billion of internally generated cash flow, $13 billion of debt at the utilities, and $3 billion of total debt at the holding company, with the balance funded with a modest amount of equity. As a reminder, our policy is to fund the incremental capital needs with approximately 40% of equity. Specifically, our total equity needs of $3.4 billion over the four-year plan implies approximately $850 million of annualized equity needs, less than 2% of Exelon's annual market cap. We have already made progress on 20% of these equity needs, having priced $700 million in 2025 using four contracts under our ATM. Our financial plan has been designed to accommodate the use of other fixed income securities that receive equity credit in place of senior debt on our holding company. Identifying opportunities to mitigate risk and maintaining a strong balance sheet continues to be core to our strategy. And in 2025, our average credit metrics of 13.5% exceeded our downgrade threshold of 12% at Moody's by 150 basis points. With our balanced funding strategy in place, we target credit metrics of 14% over the planning period, providing 100 to 200 basis points of financial flexibility on average over our downgrade thresholds at S&P and Moody's throughout our guidance period. We also continue to advocate for language that incorporates all tax repairs for calculating the corporate alternative minimum tax, which is now reflected in our disclosures. As a reminder, without the implementation of tax repair deduction, our anticipated consolidated credit metrics would average over the plan closer to 13%. Supported by our history of execution, I want to close by reiterating our confidence, not only in the plan we have laid out, but also in the broader opportunity we have to deliver value for our customers and our shareholders for another 25 years and beyond. I'll now turn it back to Calvin for his closing remarks.

speaker
Calvin Butler
President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Jean. As we look ahead to 2026, our priorities are clear and aligned with what matters most to our customers, communities, policymakers, and investors. We have a track record of meeting our commitments, and we will continue to focus on what we do best, executing our capital plan efficiently and maintaining industry-leading operational performance to benefit our customers, driving affordability through disciplined cost management, stakeholder engagement, and pursuing growth and innovative customer solutions. We have the right people, platform, and strategy to continue delivering on these commitments. In 2026, we expect to deploy $10 billion in capital, earning a consolidated 9% to 10% operating return on equity. We anticipate delivering operating earnings of $2.81 to $2.91 per share with the goal of being midpoint or better. And finally, we will execute a balanced funding strategy that maintains and strengthens our balance sheet. Serving approximately 11 million customers across some of the largest and most economically vital metropolitan areas in the country is a responsibility we do not take lightly. Our infrastructure is essential to the economic future of the region on the people who depend on us every day. We are proud of our track record of execution. The sector continues to evolve at a breakneck pace, but Exelon remains steadfast in its priorities, consistently delivering as a proven leader. Gigi, we can now open it up for questions.

speaker
Gigi
Event Specialist

Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, simply press star 11 on your telephone keypad. Our first question comes from the line of Nicholas Campanella from Barclays.

speaker
Conference Moderator
Moderator

Good morning, Nick. Hey, Nick.

speaker
Nicholas Campanella
Equity Research Analyst, Barclays

Hey, good morning, everyone. Thanks for the updates. Appreciate it. So great to see the 5 to 7 outlook refresh near the upper end here. I think just maybe could you comment quickly on, you know, the rate-based growth is near 8%. You do have financing lag against that, you know, which maybe would be greater than 1%. financing lag between equity needs and debt funding. So just what's the tailwind to the plan to kind of keep you at the high end of the five to seven outlook?

speaker
Jean Jones
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, I think I'll start with kind of what we've done, right? Which is if you look back since 2021, we've had actual rate-based growth of about 8% and earnings growth of 7.4. So I think it's really just a continuation of that track record. But if you look at where rate-based is, at the end of 29, and you kind of assume, you know, half equity, and then you look at our earned ROEs over the last four years, I think you can get, you know, to an EPS number that then to your point, you got to back off financing costs. But I think if you look at kind of the equity needs, the sort of assume an average, you know, debt costs, but then I think what you might be missing is the AFUDC associated with transmission capital. And so if you look at that and how much we're growing transmission over that period, that'll get you to kind of the near top end, Nick.

speaker
Nicholas Campanella
Equity Research Analyst, Barclays

Okay, great, great. And then I know that you probably are assuming a range of regulatory outcomes here, but maybe you can just kind of comment on, given so much focus on Pennsylvania, how you're thinking about regulatory strategy for 26, whether you'd file in 26 or wait until 27, and then Any kind of considerations there for the timing of rate cases and how that can kind of impact where you are within this five to seven? Thank you.

speaker
Calvin Butler
President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, no problem, Nick. I will tell you this is that we are constantly in conversations with all of our stakeholders, and that goes from the governors to the regulatory bodies to talk about what makes sense for the jurisdictions and our customers. And with affordability at front and center in all of our jurisdictions, we lean into that first. But we also recognize that we have to maintain a reliable and resilient grid. So to your point, we're looking at what we are going to do in Pennsylvania and what we're going to do in Maryland. I think in our documents, we've already laid out that we're filing in Maryland this year, and we're considering what is the best approach to action in Pennsylvania. But we will keep you updated on that. But right now, please keep in mind, everything centers on affordability and maintaining a reliable system.

speaker
Jean Jones
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, and to your point, Nick, the disclosure kind of accommodated a variety of scenarios. So, looking at a variety of scenarios around rate case timing, we felt confident in that, you know, the 8% rate-based growth, the earned ROEs, and the, you know, sort of manageable amount of equity delivers that, you know, five to seven year of the top end.

speaker
Nicholas Campanella
Equity Research Analyst, Barclays

Great. And then just, you know, Calvin, if I could squeeze one more in, you talked about in your prepared remarks just supply being a real challenge and I know this RBA process is in its early innings at PJM, and we've all seen the comments from the IPPs and what they're looking for, but just maybe what are the T&Ds advocating for here, and how do you see that process shaping up? Do you expect it to still be on time for, you know, a September auction, if you could comment at all there?

speaker
Collette Honorable
Executive Vice President, Federal Government Affairs

Certainly. Good morning, Nick. Thank you for the question. We've really been focused on engaging not only at PJM, but With our regulators, we were really pleased to see the administration's, to Calvin's point, the administration's focus on this issue. We do support the development of this reliability backstop option, and we really endeavored also to bring a bit of clarity to the discourse. That's why we enlisted Charles River Associates' support in helping us crystallize what we're dealing with. We need to focus on supply because we know it will lower customer electric costs. We know that we will also see improved reliability. To the point on costs, as Calvin mentioned, utility generated power, which you know is something we are very focused on because if no one else is going to build, we know that supply costs are an ever increasing portion of the customer bill. So we really have to be focused on driving more build. And as this report outlaid, utility generated power could reduce PJM customer costs by between $9.6 billion and $20 billion in the 28-29 delivery year. So while we're focused on supporting the RBA, we also have to, in the near term, focus on extending the price cap, getting more supply on the grid, And as Calvin mentioned, improving reliability. We know that those things will bring greater price stability and ultimately help address affordability, which is an ever-growing concern in each of our jurisdictions.

speaker
Calvin Butler
President and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks for the update. Hey, Nick, I know she doesn't need an introduction, but that was Collette Honorable.

speaker
Nicholas Campanella
Equity Research Analyst, Barclays

All right. All right.

speaker
Gigi
Event Specialist

Thank you very much.

speaker
Calvin Butler
President and Chief Executive Officer

You're welcome.

speaker
Gigi
Event Specialist

Thank you. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Shar Puritza from Wells Fargo. Good morning, Shar. Hey, Shar.

speaker
Shar Puritza
Equity Research Analyst, Wells Fargo Securities

Morning, Calvin. Morning, guys. Just on Colette's, maybe a quick question for Colette. I mean, obviously, you know, there's a lot of affordability things out there, whether you're looking at Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware. We saw that in obviously Shapiro's budget speech. There's several bills out there in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Jersey on resource adequacy. I guess a little bit more specifically, how are the conversations going on the legislative fronts? Like, can you strike a middle ground in a state like Pennsylvania with the IPPs around a new generation PPA structure, which is currently being proposed under the House and Senate bills, or are the conversations just too wide apart right now? Thanks.

speaker
Calvin Butler
President and Chief Executive Officer

Hey, Char. So this is Calvin. I'll jump in at first and just And just say, first and foremost, man, we understand where Governor Shapiro is coming from because we're all frustrated with the affordability, the limit that's hitting all of our customers and his constituents. So at the forefront, we start from a foundation of alignment, that we all have to do something together. And you notice our approach has always been an all-of-the-above approach. How can we help deliver solutions that satisfy everyone? So to your direct question, is there an opportunity to have conversations and engage with the Absolutely, because we have never said we are going to do this on our own, but we do believe it must involve everyone. And I think you talked about Shapiro, but Governor Moore in his State of the State even talked about an all of the above. It requires everyone to come together to solve this problem, and we are committed to that. So when you talk about the House and Senate bills, it's always in the details, but please know that we're showing up every day in the capital and with the governor and the PSC to talk about delivering solutions. And you notice from us, it's not one or done, it's everyone coming through and it's an all of the above approach. Collette, anything you'd like to add there?

speaker
Collette Honorable
Executive Vice President, Federal Government Affairs

Thank you, Calvin. Good morning, Char. I would add it will, I hope, put in better context why we showed up as a company the way we did around co-location issues. Co-location can be a great solution We knew when we saw this headed our way that we needed to focus on affordability. Now you see others jumping in with us. It's great to see. And we need these discussions because this is how we will solve the problem. We've been very active, to your question, Char, not only in Pennsylvania, on the ground there, on the ground with the governor. As you know, we joined Governor Shapiro in the filing at FERC. on extending the price caps. We'll continue to partner with him, his administration, and engage heavily in the legislature. Not only in Pennsylvania, we're having these same discussions in Maryland, in Delaware, in New Jersey. And I think that, for instance, in the address by Governor Moore, you could see very clearly he has a view on what needs to happen. Take a look at New Jersey with Governor Sherrill. stepping in and really focusing in on the solutions that need to come about in PJM. This is heartening to see, and you will continue to find us engaging in each of our jurisdictions to help solve this issue of affordability. Let me close by saying we're bringing solutions. We've been focused, as you know, on our customer relief fund that we developed last year, and then we further supplemented. ahead of the winter season in anticipation of these issues. And then we will continue focusing on low-income discounts in our jurisdictions. We have those well underway. And as well as focusing on longer-term solutions such as utility generation. So we are very active in our jurisdictions and will continue to be active.

speaker
Shar Puritza
Equity Research Analyst, Wells Fargo Securities

And is it fair to just assume that there is some level of collaboration with the generators, or is that bit-ass too wide apart? Sorry, I'm just trying to tease that out.

speaker
Jean Jones
Chief Financial Officer

At the right price, right? Like, I think it's always going to be our customer advocates. So I think right now, what's the problem, right? Right now, our customers are paying more for less. And so we've got to get to the right place where there's actual new generation at the right price. If they want to build it at the right price, wonderful, right? But at the end of the day, to Collette and Calvin's comments, the Charles Rivers report was really helpful because it said if we had been doing this and we had the generation needed for 28 and 29, that cost would have been $10 to $20 billion lower. We can't go back in time and build that generation, but we can take action now, and that's what we're focused on is getting the generation built at the right price.

speaker
Shar Puritza
Equity Research Analyst, Wells Fargo Securities

Got it. And then just the last question here, just to tease out Nick's question around the CAGR. There's not a lot of delta between rate-based growth and the EPS growth, so that sort of makes sense where you are. But, I mean, Eugene, clearly from the slide this morning, there's plenty of incremental upsets, whether you're looking at, you know, PJM, RTEP, or MISO trenches, data center TSAs, resource adequacy, I guess. What's the correct podium to step function change the trajectory, which has been out there for some time? It could be as simple as we need a few more quarters to execute, I guess, How do we sort of think about the upsides that are evident on these slide decks? And it will be incremental to rate-based growth. It will be incremental to EPS growth. I guess what do you need to see the step function change that five to seven? Thanks.

speaker
Jean Jones
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, no, good question. And I think at the end, we feel like it is kind of progressing, right? So last rate-based category was 7.4%. We're sitting at 7.9% now off of that 7.4%. you know, we delivered above expectations through 25. So I think we are seeing continued progress there. I think, you know, given the deconcentrated plan, in addition to progress, it's really executable. We, as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we've delivered within our capital within 2% since separation. And you look at our rate base this year within 1%. That's no small task on $64 billion of rate base. So we feel not only is it really executable, but you should feel confident in that growth, but it is continuing to progress. Like we're not going to be this flashy, right? It's going to go up several digits, but it's going up and it's highly executable, defensible, and we're not going to give you a number that I can't sit here and say that. So I think that's how we should think about it.

speaker
Shar Puritza
Equity Research Analyst, Wells Fargo Securities

Okay. Yeah, that's actually a perfect answer. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. Congrats, Calvin. Bye.

speaker
Calvin Butler
President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Sean. Appreciate you.

speaker
Gigi
Event Specialist

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Paul Zimbardo from Jefferies.

speaker
Conference Moderator
Moderator

Good morning, Paul.

speaker
Paul Zimbardo
Senior Equity Analyst, Jefferies

Hi. Good morning, team. Kudos. Nicely done. Thank you. To continue the theme a little bit from Nick and Char, almost asking an inverse, it seems like rate-based growth is pretty consistent with historical, the 7.9, and you did grow it 7.4 despite some headwinds in Illinois and elsewhere, and of course tailwinds too. Why could you not grow at that kind of zip code, the same 7.5% growth rate? Again, doing even better than the top end. Is it kind of the conservatism like you were mentioning or just getting more comfort? If you could elaborate a little bit more.

speaker
Jean Jones
Chief Financial Officer

Sure. I mean, I think we're always going to strive to to exceed expectations. But I think, again, giving you a number you can count on. I think, you know, financing costs are increasing, right? So you've got to account for that. But, you know, we are investing more in transmission. And so that gives us confidence in the, you know, that we can continue with the strong earned ROEs that we've had. So I think, you know, I think it's defensible It is growing, I think, you know, but you've got to think about giving a number that's defensible that we can manage, but also accounts for the associated financing costs. But we're always going to strive to exceed your expectations, Paul.

speaker
Paul Zimbardo
Senior Equity Analyst, Jefferies

No, and you have been. So if you give a mouse a cookie, you always have to ask for more.

speaker
Calvin Butler
President and Chief Executive Officer

I noticed that, Paul. Thank you.

speaker
Paul Zimbardo
Senior Equity Analyst, Jefferies

The last one I want to ask, just on the incremental financing call, so you definitely made a lot of progress on the balance sheet. How should we think about financing incremental capital opportunities as they come? Should we be using kind of that 40% in this roll forward or maybe a lower number?

speaker
Jean Jones
Chief Financial Officer

No, it's the 40%. We want to maintain and keep that push, and we've worked so hard to get on the balance sheets. So what that results in is about the $3.4 billion over the four-year period. On an annual basis, it's less than 2% of market cap, very manageable. And as you probably saw, we've already made good progress on that. So we've priced $700 million of that $3.4 billion. So on an annual basis for 26, it's a small amount to do. And given our ATM and our trading activities, it's very manageable. But we're going to stick with that 40%.

speaker
Paul Zimbardo
Senior Equity Analyst, Jefferies

Okay. Thank you very much, team.

speaker
Calvin Butler
President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Paul.

speaker
Gigi
Event Specialist

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question will be from the line of Steve Fleischman from Wolf.

speaker
Conference Moderator
Moderator

Good morning, Steve.

speaker
Steve Fleischman
Analyst, Wolfe Research

Hey, good morning. So maybe just with the move to more transmission continuing, that 9% to 10% earned ROE range, Are we seeing some kind of movement up within that range that helps kind of put all these pieces together on the growth rate?

speaker
Jean Jones
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, I think, you know, again, yeah, yeah. If we go back to, I think, since separation, 22 to 25, our average earned has been somewhere around 9.4. To your point, as we have been turning the ship towards transmissions, I think you can expect that, if not slightly better. But it's going to take some time for some of these transmission projects to close. We've got some longer dated ones, the big ones. But that's the direction we're headed.

speaker
Steve Fleischman
Analyst, Wolfe Research

Okay. Okay. And then on the CAMT that you mentioned, when do you expect to actually have that full clarity on that? Sounds like sometime this year?

speaker
Jean Jones
Chief Financial Officer

Yes. Yes, we are hopeful that we have a final, final resolution here in the near term.

speaker
Steve Fleischman
Analyst, Wolfe Research

Okay. And then lastly, just tying up some loose state stuff, are we going to get a Maryland lessons learned at some point? Or is there any chance they just say kind of we're moved on to

speaker
Calvin Butler
President and Chief Executive Officer

No, I don't know. Steve, I hear in your voice my frustration, so thank you. We do believe we're going to get a lessons learned, and I know the team has been talking to the commission and the new chair, who we've worked with as a former state senator, and he understands the need for this. So we do believe we'll get a lessons learned, and I wish I could give you a timeline, but we do believe it will happen in 2026.

speaker
Steve Fleischman
Analyst, Wolfe Research

Okay. But you'll file BG&E probably before you get it?

speaker
Jean Jones
Chief Financial Officer

Yes. We're going to file probably the first half and would love to accommodate whatever's in there, but to Calvin's point, we've been transparent with the commission around the fact that the rates expire in 27 and so we have to do something here.

speaker
Steve Fleischman
Analyst, Wolfe Research

And then a last quick one. I know New Jersey's not one of your larger states, but just Curious your take so far under the new governor.

speaker
Calvin Butler
President and Chief Executive Officer

Absolutely. Not to your point, not one of our largest, but it's very important. And Tyler Anthony, the CEO of Pepco Holdings, has spent time with the other EDCs with Governor Sherrill. Mike Innocenzo, our chief operating officer, spent time. And I'll let Mike elaborate further on New Jersey if you would like to, Mike.

speaker
Mike Innocenzo
Chief Operating Officer

Yeah, I would just say, you know, it's certainly got a lot of headlines during the election campaign. But if you look at the content of the executive orders, we think that they're very constructive. They're things that we can live with. And I would say behind the scenes, the conversations are focused on the right areas, which is, you know, if we're really going to go after affordability, we need to bring more supply in an affordable way and an efficient way. And we fully support those discussions.

speaker
Steve Fleischman
Analyst, Wolfe Research

Great. Thank you. Thank you, Steve.

speaker
Gigi
Event Specialist

Thank you. Thanks to all our participants for joining us today. This concludes our presentation. You may now disconnect. Have a good day.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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