Citing Affordability Concerns, Exelon Shuffles Capex Plan and Eyes $350M in Savings
The leaders of Exelon Corp. are shuffling some investment priorities while targeting $350 million in 2027 cost cuts as they confront a growing focus on affordability in its territories that led President and CEO Calvin Butler tell analysts on May 6 that “business as usual is not an option.”
“You don’t step into any of our states without the first thing that governors or commissions talk about is affordability,” President and CEO Calvin Butler said on a conference call discussing Exelon’s first-quarter earnings. “We’re not being tone-deaf. We’re listening and we’re addressing it.”
The earnings call was held about three weeks after leaders of Exelon’s PECO subsidiary, which accounts for 22% of the company’s rate base, withdrew a rate case filing shortly after submitting it to Pennsylvania regulators. The rate case, which had sought $510 million to fund various investments, drew fire from Gov. Josh Shapiro, who demanded the withdrawal before praising PECO for being “willing to prioritize affordability at a time when Pennsylvanians are worried about rising costs.” (PECO President and CEO David Vahos shortly after stepped down from those posts to become an advisor to Butler.)
On the May 6 earnings call, Butler and CFO Jeanne Jones detailed some of the “deliberate adjustments” they’ve since made to Exelon’s capital spending plans through 2029. Most prominently, the company is pulling back on more than $1 billion of planned distribution investments while adding $1.5 billion worth of transmission projects to its pipeline. That shift means Exelon’s four-year capex plan now totals $41.7 billion compared to $41.3 billion early this year.
Broken down by utility, the new spending plans have added roughly $500 million to the investment pipelines at both ComEd in Illinois as well as PECO. Conversely, Baltimore Gas and Electric stands to have roughly $600 million less to invest through 2029.
A prominent part of Butler’s “different plan” includes muscling out $350 million in costs by the end of next year. He told analysts his team is looking for savings that are sustainable, not one-offs, and that the work will be spread across Exelon rather than focus on any of its six operating companies.
“But certain opcos will have to make deeper provisions,” he added. “Because if you’re not investing, you’re going to have to make those adjustments.”
In the first three months of this year, Exelon produced net income of $919 million on total revenues of $7.24 billion. In early 2025, those numbers were $908 million and $6.71 billion, respectively. Operating profits climbed more than 4% from a year ago to $1.6 billion but higher interest costs and tax payments limited bottom-line growth.
Shares of Exelon (Ticker: EXC) fell 2.5% to $45.02 after the earnings report and call. They are also down slightly over the past six months, leaving the company’s market capitalization at about $46 billion.
About the Author
Geert De Lombaerde
Senior Editor
A native of Belgium, Geert De Lombaerde has more than two decades of business journalism experience and writes about markets and economic trends for Endeavor Business Media publications T&D World, Healthcare Innovation, IndustryWeek, FleetOwner and Oil & Gas Journal. With a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri, he began his reporting career at the Business Courier in Cincinnati and later was managing editor and editor of the Nashville Business Journal. Most recently, he oversaw the online and print products of the Nashville Post and reported primarily on Middle Tennessee’s finance sector as well as many of its publicly traded companies.