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Employees say:"One of the things that makes Constellation a truly great place to work is the flexibility and support it provides remote employees. As a military spouse, being able to relocate across the country and still remain fully engaged in my role has been invaluable. Even while moving states, I've continued to grow professionally. That kind of continuity and opportunity, regardless of location, is rare -- and it speaks volumes about the company's commitment to retaining and investing in its people."

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Employees say:"One of the things that makes Constellation a truly great place to work is the flexibility and support it provides remote employees. As a military spouse, being able to relocate across the country and still remain fully engaged in my role has been invaluable. Even while moving states, I've continued to grow professionally. That kind of continuity and opportunity, regardless of location, is rare—and it speaks volumes about the company's commitment to retaining and investing in its people."

100 Best Large Workplaces for Women

Employees say:&nbsp;"What's unique about this company is both the passion and mission set forth from the top. You find employees across the company with a passion for going above and beyond to 1) do their job and 2) help support others in doing their job as needed. The mission of our company to be the leader in producing carbon-free energy is also about making the world a better place for the future, and volunteering/supporting our communities go hand in hand with that. When you have a community of people that prioritize a future of giving back and making the world a better place for future generations, you have kind and caring employees that feel supported."

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Employees say:"The management of my team promotes flexibility of our work hours and supports work/life balance. This is something I appreciate very much with having younger children that need to be transported to and from school/sports/work on a daily basis."

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Employees say:"The company focuses on an environment that allows their employees to thrive, processes, and innovation, always keeping the customer and environment top of mind."

GPTW Manufacturing & Production Large 2024-Constellation Energy

Employees say:"I feel that committing to our purpose of Accelerating the Transition to a Carbon Free world is KEY to us. It puts all of our strategic decisions into context and allows us to make decisions at the field level that we know are consistent with our business approach."

Industries included in the sector are mining, oil and gas exploration and services, pipelines, refining, and utilities.

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Spun off from Exelon in 2022, Constellation Energy is a major U.S. power generator and retailer, offering electricity, natural gas, and sustainable energy solutions through a diverse portfolio that includes nuclear, wind, solar, natural gas, and hydroelectric assets. The company operates across several key regions, with its generation fleet totaling over 32,400 megawatts. Constellation serves a wide range of customers, including utilities, municipalities, cooperatives, and commercial, industrial, public sector, and residential clients. Strategic investments in nuclear plant upgrades, clean energy projects, and long-term power purchase agreements—such as the Crane Clean Energy Center and partnerships with technology firms—position the company to meet rising demand from data centers and more.

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Q3 2024

Constellation Energy (CEG): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings

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Constellation Energy

constellation energy

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to Constellation Energy Corporation's Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question and answer session. Instructions will follow at that time. As a reminder, this call may be recorded.

I would now like to hand the call over to Emily Duncan, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Strategic Growth. Please, you may begin.

Thank you, Latif. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining Constellation Energy Corporation's 3rd quarter earnings conference call. Leading the call today are Joe Dominguez, Constellation's President and Chief Executive Officer and Dan Eggers, Constellation's Chief Financial Officer. They are joined by other members of Constellation'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 Constellation's website.

The earnings release and other matters which we discuss during today's call contain forward looking statements and estimates regarding Constellation and its subsidiaries 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 Constellation's other SEC filings for discussions of risk factors and other circumstances and considerations 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 Joe Dominguez.

Thanks, Emily. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today and a big thank you to our amazingly talented team at Constellation. Today, Dan and I once again have the privilege to share their results, results that outperform our plan, your expectations and require us to raise guidance. But before I do that, I want to touch upon Friday's FERC ruling that I know is top of mind for many folks.

In Constellation's view, the 2 to 1 ruling rejecting Talend's ISA by a fraction of the commission is not the final word from FERC on co location. The ruling as many of you know is very narrow and we believe that all of the commissioners including the 2 who recuse themselves from Friday's decision understand the critical importance of providing additional guidance. Now how that's going to come could occur in a number of different ways. We could see the commission take action, we could see PJM take action or parties like ourselves could take action. It's premature at this point to say which of those pathways we are going to pursue.

But we know this, colocation in competitive markets remains one of the best ways for the U. S. To quickly build large data centers that are necessary to lead on AI. As Chairman Phillips explained, our nation's entire economy and national security is at stake if we do not lead in AI. That sentiment is shared by both presidential candidates.

As National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan warned just 2 weeks ago, Even if we have the best AI models, but our competitors are faster to deploy, we could see them seize the advantage in using AI capabilities against our people, our forces and our partners and allies. We all know that power has emerged as the key to America's ability to meet the challenge and Constellation uniquely is positioned to help. There are multiple regulatory and commercial pathways to resolve the co location issues and we will work quickly with customers and other stakeholders to put these in place. In PJM, we have abundant baseload power almost all times of the year. We can power AI.

I think sometimes we get sloppy and say we have energy issues with AI growth. We don't. We have a capacity issue that manifests itself just a few hours of the year. This problem is fairly simple to address with demand response, peakers and batteries, all provided that we have the right market price signals. But to be fair, we have been a bit challenged on the issue of getting the capacity market moving.

Now we agree with PJM's decision to delay the latest auction and we encourage PJM to do that because we support changing the reference unit and addressing the RMR units. Those narrow reforms should provide clarity, fair pricing and price stability for customers and generators alike. PJM should also proceed with streamlining the process for adding generation like our Crane restart. We're happy to see PJM progressing on this front and we're working hard to bring Crane on in 2027. We trust that FERC will prioritize these RPM matters and urge FERC to act on them quickly.

The load is going up and the market needs the price signal to react. We note that the recent utility filings with PJM already indicate another 5 to 6 gigawatts of load in the next auction that we expect PJM to implement in its planning parameters. The PJM capacity market has a long track record of being able to deliver new capacity and to drive customer demand response, but we need to let it work. Colocation will add not detract from reliability in PJM. Here Constellation's principles have been quite simple.

First, in times of emergency, our power should support the grid. To be absolutely clear about what I am saying, that means that nuclear energy supporting a co located load will be switched to the grid when needed to prevent the reliability crisis and it should be fairly compensated when so called. 2nd, if the co located load has backup power, it should be allowed to offer that power to the grid, subject of course to state and environmental permitting rules. 3rd, co located load should pay its fair share of grid costs for what it uses. These issues should be brought together and advanced at FERC.

Frankly, I think part of the issue with the ISA proceeding is that it did not bring these issues together and understandably some of the commissioners want to see the complete package. We will pursue this regulatory clarity while simultaneously pursuing commercial strategies for co location that are permitted under existing rules. Now turning to our results and guidance updates. In the 3rd quarter, our 14,000 person team here at Constellation delivered GAAP earnings of $2.82 per share and adjusted operating earnings of $2.74 per share. Due to this strong performance, we are raising and narrowing our adjusted operating earnings guidance for

$8.40 per share. This brings our midpoint to $8.20 per share, a whopping $0.60 per share above our original guidance midpoint and we remain bullish on the balance of the year. Our core value proposition is strong and our strategy remains on track. We will provide we will grow our base EPS by at least 13% through 2,030, growth that is backstopped by nuclear production tax credit. We have the best operated and largest fleet of carbon free, reliable nuclear plants that run 20 fourseven and we will be needed by the energy system for decades to come.

These assets will benefit from both increasing demand for carbon free electricity and reliable power. Through our industry leading C and I business, we provide the innovative products and services our customers want. Our strong investment grade balance sheet along with strong free cash flows that can continue to be used for growth, meet our threshold and provide valuable opportunities for you, our owners. And finally, as you've seen this year, we have the ability to do better than our base level of earnings through multiple paths, including optimizing our portfolio and getting better than average margins. It's been an incredible 3 years for Constellation, a remarkable journey that perhaps is best epitomized by the restart of the Crane Clean Energy Center that we announced in September.

Crane validates 3 points that we have discussed many times before. First, it's a powerful symbol of the rebirth of nuclear energy and it happens at a location that once came to represent nuclear energy's demise. 2nd, it confirms our thesis that the most valuable energy commodity in the world today is clean and reliable electricity. And third, it underscores the growing demand for 20 fourseven clean energy driven by the data economy, on shoring and electrification. All of these macro points benefit our owners.

We have talked about them before and I don't think we need to talk about it much more because by now these points have become self evident. In addition to Crane, we have at least 1,000 megawatts of additional nuclear generation that we could bring onto the grid through operates. And I'm pleased to report to you that we are seeing a wave of interest from customers who are interested in these opportunities and in our relicensing and we are making significant progress on contracting. The intensity of our negotiations with hyperscalers and others keeps going up and up. Our entire team is focused on executing transactions and supporting data center development anywhere in PJM.

Now I want to emphasize the word anywhere. Recall that when Microsoft announced the Crane offtake agreement, they explained that their agreement with Constellation enables them to use the energy in 4 different states, not just Pennsylvania. That should tell you that Constellation easily can structure transactions to sell energy, capacity and sustainability products to data economy customers anywhere in PJM and in some cases outside of PJM. And we can make those fixed price deals for as long as our counterparties desire. That's pretty unique to us.

The governors in the states where we operate clean energy centers certainly understand the national security imperative and the value of economic development in their states. They want us to use the clean energy in their states and we want that too, but we will follow the customers to all utilities and regions that are working with us to advance economic development and meet the vital national security needs of the nation. So as we look forward to the inevitable regulatory certainty and flexibility on colocation that Chairman Phillips emphasized in his dissent, Constellation is continuing to hit on all cylinders on colocation opportunities, grid sales and in delivering new megawatts to the grid at attractive prices. We are proud that no one, no one is doing more to sustain and increase clean and reliable energy for America than Constellation. And we continue to lead research on new nuclear energy designs such as SMRs and for natural gas with sequestration.

Our partnership with Rolls Royce Nuclear is advancing a very promising SMR design and we are working with other SMR developers as well. Our pioneering investment in NetPower is poised to undergo advanced engineering tests at our facility in La Porte, Texas. And we're partnering with GE on engineering tests and a pre FEED study for CCUS at Colorado Bend. As I've said to you many times before, natural gas is a big part of our bridging strategy and we continue to be player in natural gas provided we have a real pathway to sustainability. Because while powering the data economy is vital to our nation, defeating the climate crisis is vital to the world.

In conclusion, our people are leading on all fronts. The 13% compounded growth that we've committed to you through the end of the decade is secure and we're very confident that we will outperform this target as we layer in new opportunities just as you have seen us continuously outperform quarter to quarter year to year. Turning to Slide 6. Nuclear performance was once again strong. We produced more than 41,000,000 megawatt hours of reliable, available and carbon free generation from our nuclear plants with a capacity factor of 95%.

Our refueling outage performance was exceptional during the quarter. We completed 2 refueling outages during the quarter with each lasting less than 18 days on average. Great job to Brian Hanson, David Rhodes and that team. For the year, our average is under 20 days, tracking 2 days or almost 10% below our historical averages and well below the industry average of 40 days. Our renewables and natural gas fleet similarly performed very well with 96% renewable energy capture and 98.2% power dispatch matching.

Turning to Slide 7. We talk a lot about the advantage of creating value between our best in class generation fleet and our exceptional commercial business. Our results this year are further proof of the strategic advantages of the combination of these business businesses. This is an area where the numbers not the words do most of the talking and you could see from the numbers just how spectacularly the commercial team has performed. We performed so well because our customer business is meeting demand in many ways, including through our core plus and CFE products, where we enable new renewable generation to be built and carbon free electricity to be shared with our customers.

Since 2020, our core plus business has grown by leaps and bounds as customers look for products to help them meet their energy and sustainability goals. As I mentioned before, through this product, 2,800 megawatts of wind and solar have been added to the system, helping to meet not only our customers' needs, but the system's needs. We think Core Plus is a great way for customers to move forward on their sustainability efforts and it's a complementary pathway to our elite CFE product that provides 20 fourseven time and geographically matched clean energy. I'm now going to turn the call over to Dan for the financial update. Dan?

Thank you, Joe, and good morning, everyone. Beginning on Slide 8, we earned $3.82 per share in GAAP earnings and $2.74 per share in adjusted operating earnings, which was $0.61 higher than last year. Starting with the generation, when we look at the quarter and the year, we've seen actual power prices materialize well below the outlook at the start of the year, largely given weather driven declines in natural gas prices as well as generally good renewables performance. Fortunately, with the nuclear PTC now in place, the means based tax credit worked like it was supposed to, providing the revenue support as anticipated and helping us to meet our expectations. We also benefited from the earnings contribution from our interest in the South

Texas project, which we acquired late last year.

Turning to commercial business. As Joe mentioned, we continue to perform exceptionally well. The team has done an excellent job managing the variability in loads and market prices, reinforcing how it thrives in volatile markets. We are also continuing to see margins above the long term averages we use in our forecast and above the enhanced margins we disclosed in February. Finally, as we discussed last quarter, our financial results and our stock have continued to perform very well year to date, which results in higher employee compensation expense year over year.

Altogether, we had a strong Q3 that is contributing to our improved outlook for the year. Before I turn to guidance, given this timing of our announced Crane restart and where negotiations were during the quarter following our Q2 earnings call, we were unable to be in the market and unfortunately did not repurchase any shares during the quarter. We still have approximately $1,000,000,000 of share buybacks currently authorized by the Board as well as $1,800,000,000 of unallocated capital for 2024 2025 period, which I should remind is not updated for the increase in 2024 earnings guidance or outlook for 2025. Moving to Slide 9, we are raising the midpoint and narrowing full year adjusted operating earnings guidance. The updated midpoint goes from $8 per share to $8.20 with a range of $8 to 8.40 dollars The new range is effectively above the top end of our guidance of our original guidance range of $7.23 to $8.03 per share.

The commercial business continues to outperform plan allowing us to increase our earnings outlook for the year once again. As you can see in the appendix on Slide 21, we increased our enhanced gross margin by $275,000,000 as a result of the commercial team's continued strong performance, creating additional value compared to plan through the optimization of our portfolio. As previously discussed, we are seeing higher O and M due to the strong earnings results in stock comp. On the Q4 call, we will roll forward our earnings guidance and other disclosures to include 2026. As you think through your modeling and as reflected in disclosures in this deck, I want to remind you that we'll have more refueling outages in 2026 than in 2025 and these outages will be longer than our average outages because we'll be installing the first of our planned upgrades at Byron and Braidwood.

As a result, we will produce less electricity and have higher O and M. In addition, we expect the PTC floor to be flat in 2025. We still forecast at least 13% compound based EPS growth through 2,030 and we'll look for ways to further enhance our opportunity from here. Thank you and I'll turn the call back to Joe.

Thanks Dan. Good job as always. Folks, Constellation is like no other company. We have a unique set of existing assets that creates opportunities that no one else has.

we expect to see 13% compounded growth through the end of the decade. Uniquely, it's backstopped by the federal government. We're the best operator of nuclear plants in the world and our plants performance is only getting better. We have 20% of market share in competitive with competitive C and I customers and that's allowed us to have the products and services that now we are uniquely using with the data economy customers. Our strategy from the beginning is to provide America solutions to its energy problems and we're doing that.

We're not done at the company, not far from done. Power demand is growing and at the same time reliability becoming a premium product. We don't need to look further than the recent capacity auctions and the load growth projections to see that. We see increased demand from the data economy, but also from electrification and from onshore. And it's going to mean that our resources are more important than ever.

We have opportunities in the data economy for front of the meter deals. We've shown that through Crane. We've shown that through our CFE product and we continue to see opportunities behind the meter in co location. We've got 2,000 megawatts of new nuclear that we could bring to the grid beginning in 2027. So think about that.

That's 2,000 megawatts, roughly the equivalent of Vogtle and we think we could get that done all within the next handful of years. We're going to benefit from government procurements from clean energy and we're going to be able to capture energy and capacity prices above the PTC floor. Finally, I'd just like to say something about tomorrow's election and how it could impact us at Constellation. We're proud that nuclear energy has strong and bipartisan support from federal and state policymakers and from the American people. And in fact, the majority of Americans support nuclear.

Congress has passed several pieces of pro nuclear legislation in recent years, including the Advance Act, which passed Congress with strong bipartisan support. You'll recall and we've told you this before that the origins of the production tax credit came from Republicans in the House and the Senate. And both Vice President Harris and former President Trump have been strong supporters of existing and new nuclear during their time in office. Politically and unfortunately, there are deep divisions in the country, but all Americans want clean and reliable energy and we're proud to provide what they want. We're proud to provide what our customers and our communities want.

No matter who wins tomorrow, we're going to continue to do that. With that Latif, we'll end our prepared remarks and open it up for questions.

question comes from the line of Jeremy Tonet of JPMorgan Securities. Please go ahead, Jeremy.

Thanks for all the details on the call. Just want to come back to post FERC here and thoughts. Just wondering if Constellation were to pursue more front of the meter deals, how do you think that I guess impacts value creation and speed to market relative to, I guess, behind the meter solution here? It seems like there's still an opportunity to get to the same place, but just wondering any other thoughts that you can share?

Yes, Jeremy, our foot is on the accelerator pressed all the way down on deals whether they're front or behind the meter. And so we are pursuing both. I think we've as I said demonstrated through Crane our ability to use our power stations to support data center development anywhere. And so I think that's going to create some real opportunities for partnering with utilities that want to ensure that customers in their region or their utility get first access to clean and reliable power so that they could meet their growth objectives. And we look forward to partnering with them and customers who want to be in those areas.

Speed to market is very clearly the most important thing for customers. And so that's going to depend on the transmission configuration in different places and certain places are going to be frankly more attractive to others for the data economy customers and we're going to follow them where they need to go.

Got it. That makes sense. Thank you for that. And then I guess also looking at the state level, you see certain states out there really looking to promote the data economy development in their states. And I think there's some actions coming out of the governors to really promote, I guess, quicker speech market interconnect queue timelines.

And just wondering any other thoughts that you could share there as far as what could be done on the state level?

Yes, that's the irony. I have not look, I've talked to every governor in states in which we operate clean energy centers and I could assure you that they all want to get this economy going. They understand that it's important for national security, but it's also critically important for economic development in their states. And moreover, they understand this kind of fundamental point that they are part of an interstate grid. So that if they don't build the power from power plants that might be in their state is going to flow to different places where those data centers are going to be built and those states are going to get the economic benefits, the jobs, the taxes, all the other things that come with it.

So I see it as a circumstance where they're all leaning into this. And I think we will see more of them lean more aggressively into trying to advance rules at FERC and trying to do things that attract data center development to their jurisdictions. And that's Republicans and Democrats alike. So we're following that closely. We as I said, we'll continue to meet with utilities that we have common interests with and want to really advance data economy development work in those states and we could go anywhere.

We have been selling hundreds of terawatt hours every year to customers across PJM and other RTOs. We know how to do that. We know how to manage the risks. We know what our costs are going to be 10, 20 years from now. We know how to get capacity to all places.

And as more transmission is built, we'll be able to move even more capacity to different places. So we'll follow the customers where they go. That's the entire focus of Jim's team and the work that Kathleen and others are doing right now. And that's when I have said before that the discussion with hyperscalers is only ramping up. It's about this sort of thing.

How do they buy the energy capacity that they could deploy wherever they want? Got it. That's very helpful. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Shar Pourreza of Guggenheim Partners. Please go ahead, Shar.

Appreciate sort of the color you're giving around sort of the markets and stuff, but maybe just if you could speak a little more to the transmission capacity within the ComEd and Pico zones around your plants as you see it? I mean, one of your peers has pitched capacity in its primary zone is kind of advantageous in the shift towards more front of the meter deals. And obviously, some of the stock reactions we're seeing this morning is prompting that. So I just want to get a little bit more color there. Thanks.

Yes. Look, Shar, I think from a temporal standpoint and a long term standpoint, we happen to operate in markets that have fairly robust transmission capabilities, right? When you think about the ComEd zone as an example, it has probably the most robust export capabilities of any zone within PJM. I think numerically that's accurate. And we're seeing new transmission being built all over the place that's really expanding that.

So the ability to move energy and capacity to different places is growing really as these plants come into fruition and transmission is built. But there is a lot of lanes right now for us to move our power. So that's what we're exploring.

Got it. Okay, perfect. And then just the pathways to getting FLIRK some clarity on BTM tariffs. I guess, what is the what do you see as kind of a realistic timeline? Had a conference on Friday, could be a new chair next year with the election tomorrow.

I guess what is the fastest this could get resolved at this point? Do you wait for NOPR? Can you or PJM do something to expedite? I mean there's a lot of options that are being thrown around, but nothing seems to be a quick fix besides shifting to sort of in front of the meter? Thanks.

Yes. Look, I probably would agree with you that there's not a quick fix. But by that, I mean, it's not going to happen tomorrow, but there are a lot of parties interested in moving this forward. People are reacting to the tech conference. I think a bigger development wasn't the ISA, which was a narrow thing, but how do we deal with the comments that came out of the tech conference and craft something globally that addresses those comments.

I touched a little bit on that in terms of the principles that we think would be the framework for a bigger deal. How that happens? I don't think we're literally what, 72 hours away from the tech conference and still putting that together. We're meeting with counterparties and we'll figure out how to move forward. I don't know if FERC at this point is going to take the lead, PJM will or other parties will.

And it's just too early in the game for us to say that. But look, I think there's a strong appetite. I don't care who's in the White House. AI is going to be of growing importance. I fundamentally believe this Shar.

This is the issue of our time. It transcends the energy business. This is the issue that will define America's success in this century. Whether we lead or fall behind is going to be of critical importance. That may not be universally known to others.

Clearly, Chairman Phillips understood that with great clarity the other day in his comments, but not everybody does right now in November of 2024. A handful of questions to next year, I think that whole picture will change and the energy around this issue is going to intensify and FERC and others will have to clear up these rules quickly.

Got it. Yes, it's a national security issue. Appreciate it. Thanks so much, Joe. See you soon.

Our next question comes from the line of Steve Fleishman of Wolfe Research.

So I guess I'd like to Joe, you talked about some kind of colocation broad thematics, including the first one being that nuclear would be switched to the grid for emergencies and be fairly compensated. Could you just talk more to that because that seems like a little different than at least the things that we've seen so far structurally. So I'd like to give more color on how that would work. And then tied in with that the Doctor aspect with the data center since that's been kind of a challenge since they run all the time? If you could talk to those 2 issues would be helpful.

Yes, sure, Steve. Let me do it kind of backwards. I think we've seen historically, we've lots of megawatts show up of demand response when the price signals within PJM are consistent and sufficiently robust for commercial industrial customers like ours to pull back energy consumption during peak hours. And the challenge frankly for that Doctor market isn't that the thesis doesn't work, it's that prices dropped so precipitously in capacity markets that it no longer made sense for businesses to participate to be willing to disrupt their business. But at the price levels we saw in the last auction to the extent that prices in that vicinity are sustained, I see a reemergence of Doctor as an immediate resources that's going to address some of these hours of peak demand.

That's what I was talking about. I think we're in a good spot because we have those customers those clients that could respond. And so I happen to know from our commercial team that we believe that those folks will respond if the price signal is right. So that's kind of the answer to that, but we've got to get this capacity market up and running. We can't be doing hand wringing about capacity and then at the same time keep tweaking and delaying auctions that send the price signals to the market, so that's market always fun.

Historically, the market always responds. So that's point 1. Point 2, what I'm talking about in terms of the nuclear units returning is and I think we're seeing some of this in ERCOT At some level, right, of advanced warning when the grid reaches some level and it's kind of multi step hierarchy of a grid crisis, the nuclear unit will shut down the co located load and come back to the grid. And so we could get some legs under that exactly when it will happen, but that's something we're absolutely willing to do and our customers understand we will do. So this kind of notion that we're taking the energy off the grid and it never comes back or some kind of unrealistic fantasy that the grid is down, data center is up surrounding the nuclear plant is just it's a poor narrative.

It's not doesn't accurately reflect what will happen. We will always go back to the grid as primacy. In terms of being compensated, we have offered solutions that allow us to continue to participate in the capacity market and return to the grid in all configurations when needed. Now unfortunately, in the past as an isolated issue that didn't make its way through the PJM committee process. But my point in my opening comments is we've got to bring all of this back together in response to what we heard at the TEC Conference and provide a credible and viable pathway for the nukes to come back when needed, but also to serve the co located load that is vital for this AI development.

Thanks. One other, I guess, follow-up question. Just in the event that you wanted to shift to co located structures that are more, I guess, front of the meter. Could you give us a sense of just

timeline that delay that, that would cause in your kind of key regions relative to being able to do it behind the meter?

Yes. Look, I don't know, Steve. It'll probably require some more study process, but I think we've got it's going to depend on what the transmission is around the site and how long that study process will be. I think it is a bit of a longer solution, but I think it could be staged cooperatively in a manner that really doesn't cost that much time. Look, we have some ideas about how we will do that in accordance with the existing tariffs that allow us to get to the end state fairly quickly.

We're probably going to be a little careful here on an earnings call spelling out exactly how that will work.

Got it. Thank you for the color. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Paul Zimbardo of Jefferies.

Hey, good morning team. It's Julian. Thanks for the time. I appreciate it. Just wanted to follow-up a little bit on the sort of the cadence of the last few questions and asking, how do you think about confidence is probably pretty key here right now.

Do you think about being able to come to market with whatever it is, whether it's a behind the meter type arrangement or some sort of portfolio front of the meter type deal? How do you think about Friday representing any kind of setback in timeline on your front? Or do you think that you're still front foot here in terms of being able to bring something in the market sooner than later?

Look, I think Friday is just what I said. I think it's a narrow ruling by 3 commissioners. I'm not even sure that's the ruling we would have seen if the 2 commissioners didn't recuse themselves. So, it's going to be dependent on how fast. We always anticipated after the tech conference there'd be a process to deal with issues that came up.

So that has been in our thinking from a strategic standpoint and in the thinking of our customers. And I just don't over rotate on what happened on Friday in the ISA, because I don't think that really brought the issues together in the most favorable way. So my point is from our internal planning, it's kind of the same thing. In terms of front of the meter deals, we're doing that already. We've done it with dozens and dozens of customers already in PJM and you'll see those numbers in our disclosures.

So and as well as the upgrades and other opportunities, those things are moving along at pace and if anything have intensified. After the Microsoft deal with Crane, the appetite and desire to talk to us about the upgrades has gone up pretty considerably. So we're moving at pace on all of those things and I think they're all going to be additive to the 13%. We just got to get the deals done and incorporate them into our numbers and you'll see it.

Yes. Thanks, Joe. And I appreciate all this takes some time, right? I mean, obviously, TMI took a lot of planning. How do you think about the upgrade structures here?

I mean, obviously, there's incremental megawatts potential here. But as you think about contracting here, would you think that is being have an opportunity to recontract entire plants? Or would you think about this being more discrete to the additionality provided by the specific megawatt upgrades when you think about the structure of that and timing?

All of the above. But guys, I think we're seeing such interest in the upgrades that we want to package it with other opportunities, okay? I think I have fewer up rates than I have customers to sell them to. So there is a scarcity of that product and so that tells us we should pair it with other things that we care about. Re licensings are another thing that hyperscalers want to be a part of and support, right.

So that makes a good pairing. So I think about the upgrades as a scarce opportunity that we have at Constellation and an opportunity we want to share with customers that are interested in a broader or strategic relationship than perhaps just the upgrades.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of David O'Cao of Morgan Stanley.

Wondering, what's the perspective that you're hearing from the hyperscalers? What's the urgency level? Are they worried about regulatory issues in PJM? Are they sticking with PJM and still looking for a behind the meter approach? Any changes in their thinking?

David, where are they going to go? Right. It's not like it's a lot better anywhere else than PJM. I think the reality everyone is facing is simply this. This power issue has become the key to unlocking the whole deal.

They're investing 1,000,000,000 and as you can see from their disclosures, they're not slowing the pace of their investment. But what they're saying is that there is no Nirvana out there. There is no place where you could easily hook up the amount of energy that they're looking to hook up. So no, I don't see them as saying, oh no, PJM is not the place to go. I think competitive markets and PJM very much remain on their list of priority sites.

But the truth of all of this and I think Phillips had it exactly right is this is going to require a degree of regulatory flexibility and creativeness that's going to stretch everybody. And that's no less true by the way in vertically integrated markets than it is here. And you see that time and again. What won't I'll tell you what won't be the solution. And I know this with absolute certainty.

Constellation Energy (CEG) Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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