Exelon Corporation 2026 Q3 Earnings Call

Thank you, Michelle. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for the 2026 third quarter earnings call. Leading the call today are Calvin Butler, Exelon's President and Chief Executive Officer, and Rob Kleczynski, Exelon's Chief Financial Officer. Other members of Exelon's senior management team are also with us today, and will 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. We would 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 2 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 the presentation and in our earnings release. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Calvin Butler, Exelon's President and CEO.

Thank you, Ryan, and good morning, everyone. It's great to be with you all again. Through the first nine months of the year, Exelon continues the strong execution you've come to expect of this organization. This morning, we reported adjusted operating earnings of $0.87 per share, ahead of expectations, and narrowed our full-year guidance to $2.85 to $2.91 per share. It starts with our most fundamental responsibility, providing the safe, reliable energy our customers and communities count on while keeping bills as low as possible. The final 2025 reliability benchmarking results reinforce that point. Our utilities continue to lead the sector. Our four operating companies now rank first, second, fifth, and sixth for electric reliability among their U.S. utility peers. That consistency comes from years of disciplined investment and the expertise and commitment of our more than 20,000 employees.

Importantly, we deliver that industry-leading reliability while keeping customer bills below the national average, despite significant increases in PJM-driven supply costs, which are outside of our control. The rankings are important, but the proof is in how our system and our people perform when customers need us most. We saw that during one of the most active storm seasons in recent memory. Year to date, our teams have responded to approximately 31 significant weather events across our jurisdictions, including three major storms in ComEd's territory this summer that each impacted more than 400,000 customers. Across those events, we faced 57 confirmed tornadoes and two derechos. Even in those most extreme conditions, our grid investments helped prevent an estimated 6.6 million customer outages, and we were able to restore service to 94% of our customers in less than 48 hours.

Those results mean fewer disrupted workdays and school days, and more time with power for the businesses and public services our communities rely on. What makes that performance even more meaningful is that being on for every challenge doesn't come at the expense of affordability. Last year, our customer rates were 19% below those in the largest U.S. cities, while bills as a percentage of median income were 20% below the national average. That combination of reliability and affordability is a real point of distinction for Exelon, and it's at the heart of The Exelon Promise, our comprehensive plan to deliver exceptional service while keeping bills as low as possible. We recognize our responsibility to invest before the system is strained and customers feel the consequences. Delaying needed investment doesn't make the need go away.

It leads to more outages, greater disruption, lost economic opportunity, and higher costs in the future. That's why our focus is clear: invest responsibly, operate efficiently, and deliver on our commitments. We're in a great position, but you know us well. We're always looking for ways to improve, and the organizational changes we made in August reflect that mindset. We made these changes with a clear goal: get closer to our customers, execute capital more effectively, and make decisions faster. We brought technology and customer operations together, centralized engineering, design, and project management, and aligned our utility CEOs directly to me. That gives us clear accountability and a more direct line of sight into execution across the company. Many of you have had the opportunity to meet Rob Kleczynski and know what a strong, accomplished leader he is.

Rob has stepped into the CFO role, and I'm excited for you to hear from him shortly. With this transition, Jean, in her expanded role leading finance and strategy, is sharpening our focus on where we see the greatest opportunities to create long-term value for our customers, communities, and shareholders. I'll say it plainly. I'm energized by this team, and I've never been more confident in our people, our platform, or our ability to execute. We also continue to make strong regulatory progress across our jurisdictions. We've closed out several key dockets, while our remaining rate cases and proceedings continue to move forward as expected. In Pennsylvania, our discussions with the governor's office, legislators, and the commission remain active and constructive. We look forward to participating in the rate-making working group and helping advance a framework that supports affordability, reliability, and continued investment.

Rob will cover these developments in more detail, but the takeaway is straightforward. We're making progress on the regulatory outcomes needed to support our investment plan and deliver for our customers. Our $41.7 billion investment plan remains diversified, durable, and defensive, with no single project greater than 3% of the total. That plan drives 7.9% rate base growth, underpinned by 16% growth in transmission as we invest to strengthen reliability and resiliency, serve new customers, and address growing constraints across the grid. We see a significant runway beyond the current plan, with $12 billion-$17 billion of identified transmission opportunities and another $3 billion-$7 billion of potential regulated storage investment. Importantly, these investment opportunities directly address the challenges our customers are facing. The biggest challenge for our customers face is in the supply, and candidly, our progress on regional solutions remains too slow.

The reliability backstop auction has been delayed as PJM works through FERC's concerns around cost allocation, credit requirements, and customer protections. Similarly, PJM's IRAS proposal was rejected based on jurisdictional grounds. Neither proposal would have solved the reliability and affordability challenges facing our customers, but both represented important steps forward. We're at a point where our customers simply can't afford continued delays, so we're not waiting for a single regional solution. We're advancing practical solutions that states and utilities can pursue today, where policy supports them and customers are appropriately protected. Our proposed 500-megawatt project in New Jersey is a good example of what's possible, with more than $700 million in expected net customer benefits and no customer bill impact during its first five years of operation. These are investments tied to real customer needs, and we'll pursue them with the same disciplined, risk-adjusted approach our customers and investors expect.

With that, I'll turn it over to Rob.

Thank you, Calvin, and good morning, everyone. I appreciate the comments, and I am excited to step into this role. I also want to thank Jean for her partnership through the transition and for the strong foundation she has built. I look forward to continuing to work closely with her and to engaging with many of you at EEI next month. Today, I will cover the third-quarter financial results and outlook, provide an update on our regulatory agenda and the opportunities Calvin just discussed, and finish with our balance sheet and financing progress. Starting on slide 5, we present our quarter-over-quarter adjusted operating earnings walk. Exelon earned $0.87 per share in the third quarter of 2026, compared to $0.86 per share in the third quarter of 2025.

Including rounding, the one-penny increase was primarily driven by $0.06 from approved distribution and transmission rates, net of depreciation, $0.01 of AFUDC, $0.01 of weather, and $0.03 attributable to lower costs in the quarter. This is largely offset by $0.07 related to storm activity and $0.04 in interest and tax expenses. These results are ahead of our expectations outlined in the second-quarter call. Primarily due to favorable weather and the timing of O&M spend, we continue to deliver customer-focused investments that support top-quartile reliability while managing costs and timing within our full-year plan. Based on our performance through the third quarter, we are narrowing our full-year operating earnings to $2.85-$2.91 per share, with the goal of delivering at the midpoint or better.