Hello, and welcome to Exelon's Second Quarter Earnings Call. My name is Danni, and I will 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.
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 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 It is now my pleasure to turn today's program over to Dan Eggers, Senior Vice President of Corporate Finance. The floor is yours.
Thank you, Danny. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our Q2 2021 earnings Conference Call. Leading the call today are Chris Crane, Exelon's President and Chief Executive Officer and Joe Nigro, Exelon's Chief Financial Officer. They're joined by other members of Exelon's senior management team who will be available to answer your questions following our prepared remarks. We issued our earnings release this morning along with the presentation, All of which can be found in the Investor Relations section of Exelon's website.
The earnings release and other matters which we discuss during today's call contain forward looking statements And estimates that are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ from our forward looking statements based on factors and assumptions discussed in today's material And comments made during this call, please refer to today's 8 ks and Exelon's other SEC filings for discussions of risk factors and other factors, Including uncertainties surrounding the planned separation that may cause results to differ from management's projections, forecasts and expectations. Today's presentation also includes references to adjusted operating earnings and other non GAAP measures. Please refer to the information contained in the appendix of our presentation And our earnings release for reconciliations between the non GAAP measures and the nearest equivalent GAAP measures. I'll now
turn the call over to Chris Crane, Exelon's CEO. Thanks, Dan, and good morning, everybody, and thanks for joining us this morning. We had a good quarter financially and operationally. We made progress on our regulatory and policy objectives as we had stated our desires last quarter. We earned $0.41 per share on a GAAP basis and $0.89 per share on a non GAAP basis, And Joe will go through those details when we get to his part of the presentation.
As you know, we've been working with our regulators and Policymakers across our 6 jurisdictions on regulatory mechanisms that would allow us to prudently invest in critical infrastructure to the benefit of our consumers while earning an appropriate return on that used capital. As part of those efforts, the DC, Maryland PSCs approved multiyear plans for PEPCO. The New Jersey BPU approved ACE's electric rate settlement, and we received an order in the PECO gas rate case. It's the first in 10 years. PJM held the 1st capacity auction 3 years.
Results were disappointing, but were slightly better than we had anticipated or expected. Congress and the administration continue to work on the infrastructure package, and there is momentum Building to preserve the existing nuclear fleet to meet the country's energy and climate goals. The President's budget includes And Senator Cardin and Representative, Pascrell introduced legislation to provide $15 per megawatt hour production tax credit to existing nuclear power plants. This legislation would help ensure that the existing nuclear fleet, which provides more than 50% of the nation's carbon free Power remains in operations and available to meet the country's energy needs, while preserving and achieving climate goals. This progress is encouraging.
If the PTC is included in the legislation that passes later this year, It will make an enormous difference for climate and for our nuclear plants. Unfortunately, though, that will be too late for the Byron and the Dresden Which brings me to Illinois. After many months of very tough negotiations, We were able to reach agreement with the governor and his administration that would provide support to the Byron Dresden and Braywood Facilities allowing them continued operation in LaSalle would also be preserved. Unfortunately, The state leaders and other stakeholders are at an impasse at this point on provisions related to the nuclear regulation Excuse me, the nuclear issues in the legislation. There's been no progress towards enacting the legislation Since the session ended and the retirement dates for the plants are now only weeks away.
We don't want to close these plants, but we cannot make decisions based off of hope of legislation being passed in the future. We've been doing that since 2016, while significant losses have been incurred. We must act on the economic facts as they exist today, where no legislation has been passed by the General Assembly Or signed into law by the governor. Absent legislation, closing the plants is the right economic decision, But not an easy one. The talent, the dedicated employees that work at these plants, our colleagues and our friends, Their jobs support their families and the communities.
Premature retirement of these plants Is also a loss for the citizens of Illinois. The 4 plants at Byron, Dresden, Brakewood and LaSalle, Which are 8 reactors, provide 28,000 direct and indirect jobs, $3,500,000,000 annually to the Illinois economy, dollars 150,000,000 in Illinois taxes This support the schools, public safety and other critical services in the communities that they reside in. 2 thirds of Illinois carbon free electricity is greatly at risk with these shutdowns. Once Byron and Dresden retire, it will take many years under the proposed legislation to add enough Renewable energy intermittent renewable energy to get back to where Illinois is in terms of clean energy production. In the meantime, more than 100,000,000 metric tons of additional carp will be admitted over the next decade As a result, I remain hopeful that the outstanding differences can be resolved and the bill will be passed very soon That would allow the plants to continue to deliver the carbon free power to the grill grid, But time is really running out on that becoming achievable.
Moving to operations on Slide 6. Reliability performance remains strong despite the frequent storms and the heat across our Service territories. All utilities achieved 1st quartile operating performance in outage duration And frequency, as you can see by the charts, ComEd delivered top decile performance In outage duration and frequency, while BGE and PHI were top decile for outage duration, Customer operation metrics remain strong across the utilities. BG, ComEd and PICO achieved top decile performance in the customer satisfaction indices. On the generation front, our generation fleet performed well during the quarter.
Our nuclear plants provided 36.6 terawatt hours of 0 carbon generation to the grid, Avoiding approximately 20 metric 1,000,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, The fleet had a capacity factor of 93.7 for the quarter. Our fossil and renewable fleet operated above plan With power dispatch match at 99.5% and wind and solar energy capture at 96%. Our Texas plants are running as expected, helping to meet the summer modes. Turning to the separation on Slide 7. We're making progress against our execution plan And remain on track for Q1 close.
The team is working on the organizational and cost structures of each company That will set each business up for long term success. On the regulatory front, we received Comments in each of the dockets for approval, and the process is moving forward as expected. We remain on track to get the necessary approvals. We will continue to update you on the work as it progresses. Turning to Slide 8.
We all are very excited at Exelon To announce that Exelon Utilities, have set a goal to reduce their operations driven admission By 50% by 2,030 and reaching net 0 by 2,050. Since our founding, Exelon has been dedicated to being part of the solution for climate crisis and a leader in providing clean energy to the grid. We were one of the first companies in our industry To commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions even though our emissions were already 10 times lower than our peers. We have met or exceeded our previous three previous goals, and Exelon Utilities' new goal builds upon our long And commitment to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. We'll meet these goals through continued modernization of our gas systems, Electrifying our light duty fleet and exploring, electricity and other 0 carbon alternatives For medium and heavy duty fleet, a focus on energy efficiency and clean electricity for our operations is clearly part of the plan.
Investing in equipment and processes to reduce our SF6 insulating gas from our lagged, Large breakers from our system, exploring and piloting low carbon fuels and new grid technologies and advocating for affordable grid decarbonization. In addition, we remain focused on how we can help our customers And communities decarbonize in an equitable way. The utilities will continue to invest in EV infrastructure across our service territories and join the Electric Highway Coalition, Which will create a seamless network of charging stations on highway systems covering most of the country. We will invest in robust energy efficiency programs in each of our utilities. This is a continuing endeavor, which will enable customers to have low emissions profile, use less energy and save money.
In 2020 alone, these programs avoided 8,100,000 metric tons of carbon emissions. Advocates for policy that will put our state we will continue to advocate for policies that will put our states and our Communities on a path to a clean energy future while ensuring equitable transitions that benefit everyone in our communities. Before I turn it over to Joe on Slide 9, I want to highlight the work we are doing to help transform our communities Through our workforce development programs, which you can see on narrated on the slide, diversity, Quality and inclusion is a core value at Exelon, and we are growing a diverse and inclusive High performing workforce. We operate in some of the most diverse cities in the country, and we have a responsibility to help We have more than 100 workforce development programs spanning from middle schools, high schools And throughout colleges as well as programs for work ready underemployed adults. These programs have already reached more than 22,000 participants.
We recently launched the STEM Leadership Academy Scholarships that are open to graduates of the program, ensures that the graduates are debt free and guaranteed internships with Exelon throughout their college Pat, I recently awarded scholarships to 7 young women and to see their faces on how life changing this was For them and their families, it was quite emotional, not only for the young women, but for myself and the rest of the leadership here at We are committed to supporting our communities by investing in education, job training programs And giving the underserved populations opportunities to grow and succeed. I'll turn it over to Joe now, to Take our financial update.
Thank you, Chris, and good morning, everyone. Today, I will cover our second quarter results, Our quarterly financial updates and our hedge disclosures. First turning to Slide 10, we earned $0.89 Exelon Utilities delivered a combined $0.49 per share net of holding company expenses. This was primarily driven by strong operational performance and the impacts of distribution rate cases. ExGen earned $0.40 per share in the Q2, and we've begun to make progress on levers we identified To mitigate the Texas loss.
But as we've said before, we expect it will take a full year to realize all the savings. Additionally, unrealized and realized gains from the Constellation Technology Ventures portfolio And realized gains from our nuclear decommissioning trust funds contributed to the favorable quarter. At Holdco, we benefited from expected income tax favorability in the 2nd quarter. As a reminder, HoldCo incurred $0.12 per share drag in the Q1 associated with how consolidated full year tax Expenses are booked due to the impacts of losses incurred at ExGen in Texas during Q1. The remainder of the Q1 hit or reverse over the course of the year and not impact our full year results.
There's still a lot of work to be done this year, but we are confident we will deliver earnings within our guidance range of $2.60 To $3 per share, and you can see the details on Slide 17 in the appendix. On Slide 11, we show our quarter over quarter earnings book. The $0.89 per share in the Q2 of this year Was 0 point 3 $4 per share higher than the Q2 of 2020. Exelon Utilities less HoldCo earnings We're up $0.20 per share compared with last year. The increase was driven primarily by the absence of storms caused from last year's Record setting storm season at PECO and new rates associated with our completed rate cases And the impact of higher treasury rate on ComEd's distribution ROE.
The partial reversal Our first quarter tax expense at corporate also drove favorability relative to last year's results. ExGen's earnings were up $0.14 per share compared with last year, and the increase was due to unrealized and realized gains on our Constellation Technology Venture Investments, realized gains in our nuclear decommissioning trust funds, fewer planned nuclear outage days And higher ZEC revenue from increased volumes in ZEC pricing in New York. As a reminder, the Constellation Technology Venture Investments We'll be mark to market every quarter. And since the quarter end, we have seen some decline in prices. Moving on to Slide 12, looking at our utility returns on a consolidated basis.
Our trailing 12 month ROE as of the 2nd quarter Has improved to 9.6% and is back within our 9% to 10% targeted range. A 50 basis point increase from last quarter was primarily due to higher second quarter earnings across the utilities and the roll off of the that I mentioned that occurred last year. Looking forward, we remain focused on delivering stronger returns with utilities and supporting our growth targets. Now turning to Slide 13. As Chris mentioned briefly in his remarks, there were some Development on the regulatory front.
Notably, we received orders in 2 multiyear planes At Pepco for D. C. And Maryland, multiyear plans provide our customers with great predictability And reduce the administrative costs caused by frequent filing with traditional rate case to recover our costs. We are pleased that we have now received orders in our first three multiyear rate deployments, which will provide timely and predictable recovery For capital investments for the benefit of all our customers. And now moving on to the details of the recent rate case developments.
1st on June 8, the DC Public Service Commission approved Pepco's multiyear plan for the 18 months spanning Year 2021 through 2022 with an allowed ROE of 9.275 percent, a revenue increase of 108 $600,000 along with the acceleration of tax benefits to partially mitigate rate impacts for customers through 2022. Additionally, the order allows for two way reconciliation, including the ability to request recovery of costs That exceed the forecasted cost at the end of the plan. The commission also approved tracking performance incentive mechanisms That are focused on the district's climate and clean energy goals, including GHG, emission reduction, energy savings, Peak demand reduction and distributed energy resources deployed. 2nd, on the 28th June, The Maryland Public Service Commission approved Pepco's 3 year multi year plan for April 1, 2021 through March 31, 2024. The order approved a cumulative revenue requirement of $52,000,000 over the period As well as a 9.55 percent ROE.
Acceleration of tax benefits to offset customer increases We're improved for the 1st year with years 23 to be determined later. COVID-nineteen and electric vehicle regulatory assets were also approved for recovery. 3rd, on June 22, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission issued an order Approving increase in PECO's annual natural gas distribution revenues of $29,000,000 Reflecting an ROE of 10.24%. And 4th, on July 14, The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities unanimously approved ASUS settlement in both the electric distribution rate case as well as our AMI meter The rate case settlement was for $41,000,000 revenue increase And a 9.6% ROE. There will be no rate impact to customers until January 1, 2022, Due to improved offsets from acceleration of tax benefits, we are excited about the AMI decision that will bring that will allow us to bring the benefits of this technology to our customers in South Jersey.
We've also had several rate cases still in progress, Including Delmarva Delaware's electric case where we expected to be vigilant in the 3rd quarter, the Pico electric case in the 4th quarter And ComEd's annual formula rate filing in December. And overall, we're very pleased with the progress in advancing Progressive regulatory designs that benefit our customers while easing regulatory burden and improving visibility for our utilities. As a reminder, we expect nearly 100% of our rate base growth will be covered by alternative mechanisms by the end of our planning period, A differentiator for our utilities when compared to our peers. And more details on the rate cases Can be found on Slides 21 through 28 of the appendix. And before discussing our gross margin update on Slide 14, I want to remind you that we will not be providing any ExGen disclosures beyond 2021 at this time.
And given the separation, we expect to provide the 2022 hedge disclosures closer to completion When we're able to give a full financial picture for the new spun off company. Turning to the table on gross margin. There is no change to the 2021 gross margin since last quarter. In 2021, open gross margin is up 7 $150,000,000 relative to the Q1, primarily due to the impact of higher prices across all regions And the execution of $50,000,000 of power new business in the new implementation. Our mark to market of hedges were down 600,000,000 Due to our highly hedged position, partially offset by the execution of Power New Business, we executed 150 I'll stop there.
Thank you. And I'll now turn the call back to Chris for his closing remarks.
Thanks, Joe. Appreciate it. Turning to Slide 15, I'll close on our priorities and commitments. We will meet or exceed our financial Commitments delivering earnings within our guidance range and maintaining a strong balance sheet. We will complete preparations to separate the business, including obtaining the regulatory approvals.
At Exelon Utilities, we will prudently and effectively deploy nearly $6,600,000,000 Capital to the benefit of our customers and to help meet our state's energy policy goals. And we will work with our regulators to ensure timely recovery of these investments. We will continue to advocate for clean energy and climate policies, with the new administration, Congress in our states to put the country on the path to meeting the carbon reduction goals that all desire. And we'll continue to partner and support our customers in the communities that we serve. Thank you.
And I'll now open it up for questions. Before I do that though, I have one error in my prepared reading. I said we're at impasse on the nuclear issues on the bill, and that's not where the impasse is. We've resolved the nuclear issues. We're working with all the constituents on other elements.
So Just want to make sure that my blunder there didn't go too far down the path of what the hell is going on. But with that, I'll open it up for questions.
The first question will be from Julien Dumoulin Smith of Bank of America. Your line is open. Go ahead please.
Hey, good morning, team. Thanks for the opportunity.
Good morning.
Hey. So I'll let the legislative comment on Illinois be. I know it's dynamic and there's probably not too much more you can comment on there. But I'd love to spend a moment, if you can, talking more high level with respect to the federal efforts afoot And perhaps outside of Illinois, can you speak a little bit to the ability to potentially tap into this CNC program specifically in other states like Maryland and Pennsylvania, As well as the ability perhaps in some of the states that have various programs, to, shall we say, true up Against future pressures, should those ZECs prove insufficient against pressures on power curves and renewables into the future?
I'm going to add a little bit more color onto Illinois and then let Kathleen talk about the federal side. The governor and his administration, the leaders in the legislature have a really tough job to do. They are bringing together coalitions that have, in cases, differing priorities. And as a member of in inputting into these coalitions, We're at a point that we need to figure out how to best support our leaders so they're able to on legislation that supports all within the right timing, within the right economics. But we're here to support, and we recognize the tough job Ahead of our leaders, especially in the legislature, the committee leaders Being able to bring something to fruition.
So I just want to make sure that we're clear on that point. And with that, I'll turn it over to Kathleen, to talk about the federal.
Sure. Good morning, Julian. So while we're certainly Very grateful for the attention in Washington to the importance of continuing the operation of the existing fleet in order to achieve climate goals. What's going on is there are a number of policy tools that are under discussion, and, we'll sort of take them in order while there, as Chris mentioned, has been a production tax Credit for nuclear introduced in both the House and Senate. There are discussions of a clean energy standard potentially being developed for And you asked about CMCs.
I think what you mean is DOE grant program that has Then discuss for a potential inclusion in the infrastructure bill. So those are 3 very different kinds of policy Solutions, the first two being far more comprehensive and ones that, as you mentioned, in Maryland, Pennsylvania and other states, If the existing nuclear team is potentially seeing a significant amount of support and, as Chris said, providing a real benefit to the climate, The grant program, a little bit more challenging and more limited given the limited amount of funding that will be available under that program, at least as it's currently Drafted. The real point though is that all of these programs are just that. They're just sort of Proposed programs, nothing has yet been enacted, as you know. And so we're watching it very closely.
And again, very grateful for the growing amount Support for preserving nuclear fleet through federal legislation, the reality is that, as Chris said, we need to make decisions based on Laws that have actually been enacted and nothing has yet come to fruition in DC as of yet.
Yes. No, I appreciate that very much.
If I can pivot the business or the attention to the other side of the business a bit more, As you think about opportunities described by some of your peers on carbon free attributes and specifically some of the new novel off takers like miners, Can you speak to the willingness with some of your counterparties, especially considering the extent of your C and I relationships already to perhaps pay a premium and contract Directly with some of your nuclear assets, if you don't mind.
I'll let Joe start and then Jim can jump in, Making sure we've got your question right here.
Yes, Julian, if I understand your question, I think you're asking What some of these larger companies and customers are looking for, is there an opportunity with our carbon free generation to marry to them? And there is. And I'm sorry, go ahead.
No, no, no. Yes, exactly.
Yes. So I think there is, and that's something That the Constellation team is looking at and we've created some products already. When you look at renewable offtakes that we back To 3rd party customers, large third party commercial industrial customers and we've had some success in different areas doing that as well as some of the things You mentioned these large mining companies, cryptocurrency type companies, and I'll let Jim fill
in the blanks on there.
Yes. Thanks, Joe. Hi, Julian. Yes, we definitely had a lot of demand from our customers for Multiple areas of interest, right, in order for them to hit their sustainability targets. They're interested in carbon free energy, renewable energy, both, We've had some success in selling emission free energy credits and other renewable type products to some of our larger C and I customers.
They're also interested in just sustainability information and data around energy usage and how to be more efficient. So there There's kind of this burgeoning suite of different products and services that we're working through with our team and with our customers that they're very interested in. And we certainly have also seen the demand for direct offtakes and large energy purchases for Both data centers and mining as well as also people that are interested in the hydrogen business. So We have a pipeline of activity and different products and services that we're talking to our customers about and we'll have more to come on that as that develops.
Excellent. Well, I wish you all best of luck and we'll speak to you soon.
Thanks.
The next question will be from Stephen Beard of Morgan Stanley. You may ask your question.
Wanted to just focus on the Texas assets for a little bit. There's been a lot of movement in terms of market design and a lot of those moves seem constructive. The forward curve has Moved up a lot. I was just curious your latest thoughts in terms of how satisfied are you with the improvements in market design? I know I think it was a question in terms of Whether those assets would be a fit unless there were improvements, what's your general take on the progress in Texas?
I'll let Kathleen start, and then I'll finish on the actual plants themselves and what we're doing In what we see as a potential new market design?
Good morning, Stephen. So I think The progress is a little bit slow. The ERCOT leadership and the PUCT have really been focusing on How to react to what happened in February, and there's been, as you know, a lot of work associated with that. So the changes looking forward, I think our in some ways helpful in that we have finally seen a proposal for how to address Weatherization, but on the broader questions of market design, there's a lot of discussion, but we do not yet at this point have Some solid proposals that have been either filed or approved. So while there are a number of stakeholders working on ways to address changes to the OIDC curve or introducing new products into the market, In my view, there's just not enough progress yet to evaluate whether we're going to see the kinds of changes that will be necessary To prevent an event like February from happening again.
So on the plant side, which should help inform what we need from the market Brian Hanson, who's our Chief Operating Officer, who's on the phone for the Genco, has a team technical team Working through what the design basis temperature would be We would have to install capital to be able to reach that. The plants in Texas were never designed for the weather That we saw, and especially the duration of the weather That we saw. So if we go to something much lower in temperature as a design basis, We have to look at what adequately would preserve the piping. Is it heat trace? Is it insulation?
Is it other type of barriers and what's the most economic way to get there? And Brian, I don't know if you want to add anything, but That team is well underway at this point.
Yes, Chris, I would just add, we built a model That has some certain assumptions on temperature, wind speed, prolonggevity of the weather event that will calculate the engineering changes we need to make The plant, in which case, I will be able to price that out. And then once the weatherization standards are published and accepted in ERCOT, we can then Tune that model to come up with our final outcomes and then establish the price points for those plants.
And that will definitely have to feed into what ERCOT is Doing on market design. Just as we saw in PGM some years back on the reliability standards that they were looking for, There was an expense to that. We all were willing or many of us were willing to invest That into that reliability, but we have to have some assurance that we're going to get a return on that invested capital.
All very helpful and it's fair that we still have to wait and see how the rules develop to figure out sort of what you What your stance is with those assets, so that's all very fair. I wanted to shift over to the utility. You gave a very good thorough update on the utility. I wanted to just step back at a high level, utilities already an above average grower, but I was just curious, are there what are the biggest Categories of sort of upside potential in terms of growth of the utility business that you're most excited about over really a multiyear period, not so much in the near term, but sort of longer term.
Let me turn that over to Calvin Butler.
Hey, thanks, Stephen. Good morning. I would sit back and say Our opportunities is really in partnering with each of our jurisdictions to understand what their needs are and how we're really hardening the system And building resiliency throughout. As you sit back and look, I think our efforts around our path to clean, as Chris talked about and Jill talked about earlier, It's really understanding where they're taking us and electrifying our entire distribution system, also in Really setting up our gas distribution system for the future and replacing that infrastructure is also a key ingredient in several of our jurisdictions. In addition to that, around the security of the overall system as well.
So when we look at where we're going electrifying Our vehicle fleet, electrification of our system, the replacement of our gas system and also ensuring that it's secure Really our opportunities across each of our jurisdictions.
Thanks, Calvin. That's all I have. Appreciate it.
The next question will be from Steve Fleishman at Wolfe Research. Your line is open. You may ask your question.
Thank you. Good morning. My questions are focused on Illinois. Just we have seen a decent move up in power prices recently and I could particularly, I guess, in the near term. Just Any sense on is there any chance that, that could be enough to wait this out longer with the plants?
Yes.
I can give you the beginning, which is the end, and then Joe can fill in the blanks. No, It doesn't give us what we need, but Joe? Thank
you, Christian. Good morning, Steve. It really isn't that simple. I think certainty, Steve, it's very important. As you know, the plants face near term financial challenges.
And as Chris said in his script, Absent legislation closing the French plant is the right economic decision and obviously not an easy one. I would tell you, we've Seeing an uptick in energy prices many times before, never have they held. And when you look at it, the front end of the power curve is up more materially And the back end of the power curve in terms of price movement. In addition, we've seen capacity prices decline. The stability and certainty provided by a contract better address clearly better address the financial challenges of these plants without being Obviously, we are workforce and personnel planning and we just think it's a much more certain outcome and a better way to proceed.
I mean, is there any appreciation that to the flip side that the law as proposed at least would actually Be below where current price levels are in the near term?
That's something that We see today, but we've seen this dance before. Something happens in the market, the near term rises, It's flat or low in the backside. As we drift into the out years, We come right back down. And so we really have to focus on the long term viability of the economics Versus the cyclical nature of the markets, the loads and all the variables, We're agreeing to and support a significant renewable build out within the legislation. We know that, that will have a depressing factor on prices As low demand periods with excess generation We'll bring the prices down, and that will drop not only the forwards, but the back years.
So it's There's consumer protection in the legislation that ensures we don't over earn. But The to bet on the come that these forwards are going to maintain and eventually lift The out years is a gamble that we're not willing to take.
I guess My other question just on the law is, it doesn't seem like anyone, as you mentioned, is debating the nuclear provisions. But the issue as I guess the governor said is that as he Kind of commented on the labor unions that they're preventing potential job loss in 2,045 Over certain job loss in 2021, can you maybe do the union Group not believe you're shutting the plants? Or are they just willing to take potential Benefits in 2,045 over 2021.
First of all, let me make it clear. We're not engaged and involved In that negotiation, as far as the shutdown of the coal and the jobs issues They go along with that. We understand what the union is asking for. We understand what the governor is asking for, and it's put on the lap of the legislative body to Figure out what's the right thing to meet the state goals, continue to have Adequate employment certainty, and so it's A tough situation, but I can say that that's not a fight that we're involved in. And We are very dependent on the support for our power plants to be maintained by our union partners, Building trades in the IBW, they're very aware of the dire situation for the nuclear plant.
So I don't think that their dedication to saving the jobs at these plants are in question. They have some other priorities and other constituents within their organizations that are dealing with issues. So, I would just leave it at that.
Okay. Thank you.
And the next question is Jeremy Tonet at JPMorgan. Please ask your question.
Hi, good morning.
Good morning.
Just wanted to turn to the storm offsets For a second here, the $600,000,000 ish that you were targeting here from Uri to offset Uri, just wondering if you could help Update us as far as how that's progressing, where you see yourself versus What you're targeting,
how much is left to do
at this point?
Yes. Good morning. So we did achieve more in the And when we had done our planning originally in Q1, what we would have expected to achieve, we We've achieved somewhere between 20% 25% of the offsets That we expected and we said they would come in a number of areas. When you look at deferral of costs And one time cost savings opportunities, whether it's things like contracting dollars, holding labor vacancies, Reductions in travel and entertainment expense, deferring non critical maintenance capital, those type of things. There were some revenue opportunities when you see the improvement in treasuries.
We've talked about our technology ventures investments. So we were ahead of what we
Got it. That's very helpful there. And then turning towards the utility business as Hold here. Given the potential moving pieces at ComEd and then some positive outcomes, it seems like with Maryland and D. C.
With the multiyear plans, better outlooks in those jurisdictions. How should we think about both the trajectory of utility earned ROEs And how this might impact the 6% to 8% utility growth rate that you guys see?
Hey, this is Calvin. I would just sit back and tell you that we are very confident in achieving the stated financial performance For each of our utilities and to your reference on the multi year plans that have gone taking place in Maryland and in D. See and Joe outlined in terms of the rate cases across our business, it goes to show you the partnership that we've established with our jurisdictions and understanding what their needs are And how our investments are meeting those goals. We are committed to $6,600,000,000 annual investments in capital And recovery of real time on that capital and the alternative rate making that has been taking place across those utilities Indicate that we are recovering and returning on that capital in real time. If you think about the jurisdictions in which we operate, They have typically been some of the more difficult across the country and we're changing that landscape.
So I'm very proud of the team across each of the utilities And really building that partnership and showing that we understand the needs and we're meeting those objectives.
Steve, Joe wants to Yes.
I would just add one thing on top of what Calvin said, I thought you did a very comprehensive job. As you know, we target 9% to 10% ROEs in all of our utilities. And this quarter, you saw us jump 50 basis points back across the composite to 9 point 4% and that factors into our 6% to 8% earnings projection.
Got it. That's very helpful. Thank you.
The next question will be from Michael Lapides of Goldman Sachs. Go ahead please.
Hey guys, couple of ex gen questions. First of all, the offsets or the O and M savings you're trying to realize this year to help offset the winter storm Yuri impact, How much of that do you think will remain in place as we go out into 2022 or 2023? Or should we assume there's a sizable step back up in O and M in those years?
Yes. I think what we've said is a lot of that is one time in nature. When you Think about deferring some things that you ultimately need to get done. I talked about things like labor vacancies and contracting, Travel and entertainment, at this point, a lot of that is one time in nature. But what I would add to that is, as you know, Michael, we've done a good job across the enterprise and as well as at XGen in really driving efficiencies and cost here in the last 5 or 6 years.
And we continue to look at new ways to do that, whether it's leveraging technology or the scale of our business when you look at our Supply organization doing a nice job in that area, and we'll continue to challenge ourselves. But some of these costs specifically are going to be one time in nature.
Yes. I can tell you that each cost as we bring it back in, in 2022, We'll be scrutinized against what is the new workplace in the future, What's the productivity we're able to achieve with these reductions? It is not a healthy recipe To forego capital maintenance or required O and M maintenance and let the systems decay. So You can buy yourself some time on some of those decisions. But at the end of the day, Reliability on the system is critical, and We'll watch that.
But there are other areas that, there's teams working on reentry, looking at staffing needs As we go through the design of the organizations, as we look at the split, There are savings that we're not ready to announce yet, but that will be coming into play And each one of the companies, in the design of the future state of 2 entities, strong entities Working on their own.
Meaning when you think about the 2 entities as separate entities, we should think that there are costs, I don't want to call them synergy, but there are cost opportunities as separate entities versus maybe having dis synergies on the cost side.
Well, yes, that what you focused on at the start is making sure you attack the synergies, And that's what we're doing. And then from there, when you're attacking the dis synergies, it will expose potential Business shifts in how we perform. So We're working through that. Bridget Reedy, our Chief Operating Officer of Corporate, is leading A lot of that as long as along with our project management team that is daily following each One of the designs staffing expenses, and we'll continue to Report out to the senior team on where we're at on obtaining. The first goal is to Try to minimize, neutralize, do away with any dis synergies.
And then from there, what New efficiencies can we drive into the business.
Got it. And one last one just on Byron and Dresden. Is there a scenario where you could push out the refueling outages until next year, meaning early next year And keep them afloat or keep them operating through the end of this year or is that kind of physically or for safety reasons impossible to do?
Well, what happens at the end of cycle, which we're heading towards on these Plants, your fuel becomes less and less effective and the term is coast down. And so you start power out of the reactor, the thermal megawatts out of the reactor Is reduced, which compounds to the electric megawatts produced. And so you get to a point that you're running And within a month or so period, you're running inefficient steam paths And inefficient operations. So, you make the call as the coast down start and you shut the facility down. The one thing to reiterate in shutting down a nuclear plant is the goal is You shut down, you cool down, you disassemble the reactor, you offload all of the fuel Into the spent fuel pool and you relinquish the license to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and there is no path back from that.
There's no regulatory path back. And so what we do is start into The phases of the chosen decommissioned using the decommissioning trust fund and it comes out of our expense column, It's in the prefunded category of the decommissioning trust. So it's irreversible. And Running a year is physically impossible. Running an extra month is very challenging on The steam supply system and maintaining adequate controls on the physics.
Got it. Thank you, Chris. Much appreciated, guys.
That concludes the Q and A session, and I'll turn it back to Chris Crane.
I want to thank everybody The time this morning for joining the call, we're working hard to run the businesses at best in class levels And taking the necessary steps to set up 2 strong independent companies. There's quite a focus on both of those goals, And we'll continue to update you as we go along. We appreciate your support. And with that, I'll close the call
Thanks to all our participants for joining us today. This concludes our presentation. You may now disconnect.