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Derivative Financial Instruments

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2024

Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities Disclosure [Abstract]

We use derivative instruments to manage commodity price risk, interest rate risk, and foreign exchange risk related to ongoing business operations.

Authoritative guidance requires that derivative instruments be recognized as either assets or liabilities at fair value, with changes in fair value of the derivative recognized in earnings immediately. Other accounting treatments are available through special election and designation, provided they meet specific, restrictive criteria both at the time of designation and on an ongoing basis. These alternative permissible accounting treatments include NPNS, cash flow hedges, and fair value hedges. All derivative instruments, excluding NPNS and cash flow hedges, are recorded at fair value through earnings. For all NPNS derivative instruments, accounts receivable or accounts payable are recorded when derivatives settle, and revenue or expense is recognized in earnings as the underlying physical commodity is sold or delivered.

Authoritative guidance about offsetting assets and liabilities requires the fair value of derivative instruments to be shown in the Combined Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements on a gross basis, even when the derivative instruments are subject to legally enforceable master netting agreements and qualify for net presentation in the Consolidated Balance Sheets. A master netting agreement is an agreement between two counterparties that may have derivative and non-derivative contracts with each other providing for the net settlement of all referenced contracts via one payment stream, which takes place as the contracts deliver, when collateral is requested or in the event of default. In the tables below, which present fair value balances, our energy-related economic hedges and proprietary trading derivatives are shown gross. The impact of the netting of fair value balances with the same counterparty that are subject to legally enforceable master netting agreements, as well as netting of cash collateral, including margin on exchange positions, is aggregated in the collateral and netting columns.

Our use of cash collateral is generally unrestricted unless we were downgraded below investment grade. As our senior unsecured debt rating is currently rated at BBB+ and Baa1 by S&P and Moody's, respectively, it would take a three notch downgrade by S&P or Moody's for us to go below investment grade.

Commodity Price Risk

We employ established policies and procedures to manage our risks associated with market fluctuations in commodity prices by entering into physical and financial derivative contracts, including swaps, futures, forwards, options, and short-term and long-term commitments to purchase and sell energy and energy-related products. We believe these instruments, which are either determined to be non-derivative or classified as economic hedges, mitigate exposure to fluctuations in commodity prices.

To the extent the amount of energy we produce or procure differs from the amount of energy we have contracted to sell and in connection with portfolio optimization, we are exposed to market fluctuations in the prices of electricity, natural gas, and other commodities. We use a variety of derivative and non-derivative instruments to manage the commodity price risk of our electric generation facilities, including power and gas sales, fuel and power purchases, natural gas transportation and pipeline capacity agreements, and other energy-related products marketed and purchased. To manage these risks, we may enter into fixed-price derivative or non-derivative contracts to hedge the variability in future cash flows from expected sales of power and gas and purchases of power and fuel. The objectives for executing such hedges include fixing the price for a portion of anticipated future electricity sales at a level that provides an acceptable return. We are also exposed to differences between the locational settlement prices of certain economic hedges and the hedged generating units. This price difference is actively managed through other instruments which include derivative congestion products, whose changes in fair value are recognized in earnings each period, and auction revenue rights, which are accounted for on an accrual basis.

In general, increases and decreases in forward market prices have a positive and negative impact, respectively, on owned and contracted generation positions that have not been hedged. Beginning in 2024, our nuclear fleet is eligible for the nuclear PTC provided by the IRA, an important tool in managing commodity price risk for each nuclear unit not already receiving state support. The nuclear PTC provides increasing levels of support as unit revenues decline below levels established in the IRA and is further adjusted for inflation after 2024 through the duration of the program based on the GDP price deflator for the preceding calendar year. See Note 5 — Government Assistance for additional information on the nuclear PTC.

In locations and periods where our load serving activities do not naturally offset existing generation portfolio risk, remaining commodity price exposure is managed through portfolio hedging activities. Portfolio hedging activities are generally concentrated in the prompt three years, when customer demand and market liquidity enable effective price risk mitigation. During this prompt three-year period, we seek to mitigate the price risk associated with our load serving contracts, non-nuclear generation, and any residual price risk for our nuclear generation that the nuclear PTC and state programs may not fully mitigate. We also enter transactions that further optimize the economic benefits of our overall portfolio.

Additionally, we are exposed to certain market risks through our proprietary trading activities. The proprietary trading activities are a complement to our energy marketing portfolio but represent a small portion of our overall energy marketing activities and are subject to limits established by the Executive Committee. Proprietary trading includes all contracts executed with the intent of benefiting from shifts or changes in market prices as opposed to those executed with the intent of hedging or managing risk. Gains and losses associated with proprietary trading are reported as Operating revenues in the Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Income and are included in the Net fair value changes related to derivatives line in the Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows. For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2024 and 2023, net pre-tax commodity mark-to-market gains and losses associated with proprietary trading activities were not material.

The following tables provide a summary of the derivative fair value balances recorded as of September 30, 2024 and December 31, 2023:


September 30, 2024	Economic Hedges		Proprietary Trading		Collateral (a)(b)		Netting(a)		Total
Mark-to-market derivative assets (current)	$	5,514	$	1	$	228	$	(5,120)	$	623
Mark-to-market derivative assets (noncurrent)	3,911		—		193		(3,373)		731
Total mark-to-market derivative assets	9,425		1		421		(8,493)		1,354
Mark-to-market derivative liabilities (current)	(5,866)		(1)		258		5,120		(489)
Mark-to-market derivative liabilities (noncurrent)	(3,923)		—		212		3,373		(338)
Total mark-to-market derivative liabilities	(9,789)		(1)		470		8,493		(827)
Total mark-to-market derivative net assets (liabilities)	$	(364)	$	—	$	891	$	—	$	527

December 31, 2023
Mark-to-market derivative assets (current)	$	7,927	$	2	$	703	$	(7,472)	$	1,160
Mark-to-market derivative assets (noncurrent)	3,345		—		330		(2,682)		993
Total mark-to-market derivative assets	11,272		2		1,033		(10,154)		2,153
Mark-to-market derivative liabilities (current)	(9,019)		(2)		922		7,472		(627)
Mark-to-market derivative liabilities (noncurrent)	(3,545)		—		445		2,682		(418)
Total mark-to-market derivative liabilities	(12,564)		(2)		1,367		10,154		(1,045)
Total mark-to-market derivative net assets (liabilities)	$	(1,292)	$	—	$	2,400	$	—	$	1,108

_________

(a)We net all available amounts allowed in our Consolidated Balance Sheets in accordance with authoritative guidance for derivatives. These amounts include unrealized derivative transactions with the same counterparty under legally enforceable master netting agreements and cash collateral.

(b)Includes $606 million and $1,712 million of variation margin posted on the exchanges as of September 30, 2024 and December 31, 2023, respectively.

Economic Hedges (Commodity Price Risk)

For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2024 and 2023, we recognized the following net pre-tax commodity mark-to-market gains (losses), which are also located in the Net fair value changes related to derivatives line in the Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows.


	Three Months Ended September 30,				Nine Months Ended September 30,
Income Statement Location	2024		2023		2024		2023
Operating revenues	$	519	$	173	$	774	$	1,317
Purchased power and fuel	(119)		(36)		404		(1,448)
Total	$	400	$	137	$	1,178	$	(131)

Interest Rate and Foreign Exchange Risk

We utilize interest rate swaps to manage our interest rate exposure and foreign currency derivatives to manage foreign exchange rate exposure associated with international commodity purchases in currencies other than U.S. dollars, both of which are treated as economic hedges. The notional amounts were $883 million and $562 million as of September 30, 2024 and December 31, 2023, respectively.

The mark-to-market derivative assets and liabilities as of September 30, 2024 and December 31, 2023 and the mark-to-market gains and losses associated with management of interest rate and foreign currency risk for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2024 and 2023 were not material. The mark-to-market gains and losses associated with management of interest rate and foreign currency exchange rate risk are also included in the Net fair value changes related to derivatives line in the Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows.

Credit Risk

We would be exposed to credit-related losses in the event of non-performance by counterparties on executed derivative instruments. The credit exposure of derivative contracts, before collateral, is represented by the fair value of contracts as of the reporting date.

For commodity derivatives, we enter into enabling agreements that allow for payment netting with our counterparties, which reduces our exposure to counterparty risk by providing for the offset of amounts payable to the counterparty against amounts receivable from the counterparty. Typically, each enabling agreement is for a specific commodity and, with respect to each individual counterparty, netting is limited to transactions involving that specific commodity product, except where master netting agreements exist with a counterparty that allows for cross product netting. In addition to payment netting language in the enabling agreement, our credit department establishes credit limits, margining thresholds and collateral requirements for each counterparty, which are defined in the derivative contracts. Counterparty credit limits are based on an internal credit review process that considers a variety of factors, including the results of a scoring model, leverage, liquidity, profitability, credit ratings by credit rating agencies, and other risk management criteria. To the extent that a counterparty’s margining thresholds are exceeded, the counterparty is required to post collateral with us, as specified in each enabling agreement. Our credit department monitors current and forward credit exposure to counterparties and their affiliates, both on an individual and an aggregate basis.

The following tables provide information on the credit exposure for all derivative instruments, NPNS and payables and receivables, net of collateral and instruments that are subject to master netting agreements, as of September 30, 2024. The tables further delineate that exposure by credit rating of the counterparties and provide guidance on the concentration of credit risk to individual counterparties. The amounts in the tables below exclude credit risk exposure from individual retail counterparties and exposure through RTOs, ISOs, NYMEX, ICE, NASDAQ, NGX, and Nodal commodity exchanges.


Rating as of September 30, 2024	Total Exposure Before Credit Collateral		Credit Collateral(a)		Net Exposure		Number of Counterparties Greater than 10% of Net Exposure	Net Exposure of Counterparties Greater than 10% of Net Exposure
Investment grade	$	722	$	17	$	705	—	$	—
Non-investment grade	13		3		10		—	—
No external ratings
Internally rated — investment grade	120		—		120		—	—
Internally rated — non-investment grade	207		43		164		—	—
Total	$	1,062	$	63	$	999	—	$	—

__________

(a)As of September 30, 2024, credit collateral held from counterparties where we had credit exposure included $8 million of cash and $55 million of letters of credit.


Net Credit Exposure by Type of Counterparty	As of September 30, 2024
Investor-owned utilities, marketers, power producers	$	733
Energy cooperatives and municipalities	130
Financial Institutions	48
Other	88
Total	$	999

Credit-Risk-Related Contingent Features

As part of the normal course of business, we routinely enter into physically or financially settled contracts for the purchase and sale of capacity, electricity, fuels, emissions allowances, and other energy-related products. Certain of our derivative instruments contain provisions that require us to post collateral. We also enter into commodity transactions on exchanges where the exchanges act as the counterparty to each trade. Transactions on the exchanges must adhere to comprehensive collateral and margining requirements. This collateral may be posted in the form of cash or credit support with thresholds contingent upon our credit ratings from S&P and Moody's. The collateral and credit support requirements vary by contract and by counterparty. These credit-risk-related contingent features stipulate that if we were to be downgraded or lose our investment grade credit ratings (based on our senior unsecured debt rating), we would be required to provide additional collateral. This incremental collateral requirement allows for the offsetting of derivative instruments that are assets with the same counterparty, where the contractual right of offset exists under applicable master netting agreements. In the absence of expressly agreed-to provisions that specify the collateral that must be provided, collateral requested will be a function of the facts and circumstances of the situation at the time of the demand. In this case, we believe an amount of several months of future payments (e.g., capacity payments) rather than a calculation of fair value is a reasonable estimate for the contingent collateral obligation, which has been factored into the disclosure below.

The aggregate fair value of all derivative instruments with credit-risk-related contingent features in a liability position that are not fully collateralized (excluding transactions on the exchanges that are fully collateralized) is detailed in the table below:


Credit-Risk-Related Contingent Features	September 30, 2024		December 31, 2023
Gross fair value of derivative contracts containing this feature	$	(1,285)	$	(1,894)
Offsetting fair value of in-the-money contracts under master netting arrangements	578		925
Net fair value of derivative contracts containing this feature	$	(707)	$	(969)

As of September 30, 2024 and December 31, 2023, we posted or held the following amounts of cash collateral and letters of credit on derivative contracts with external counterparties, after giving consideration to offsetting derivative and non-derivative positions under master netting agreements.


	September 30, 2024		December 31, 2023
Cash collateral posted(a)	$	917	$	2,449
Letters of credit posted(a)	868		777
Cash collateral held(a)	26		64
Letters of credit held(a)	87		61
Additional collateral required in the event of a credit downgrade below investment grade (at BB+/Ba1)(b)(c)(d)	1,873		1,914

__________

(a)The cash collateral and letters of credit amounts are inclusive of NPNS contracts.

(b)Certain of our contracts contain provisions that allow a counterparty to request additional collateral when there has been a subjective determination that our credit quality has deteriorated, generally termed “adequate assurance”. Due to the subjective nature of these provisions, we estimate the amount of collateral that we may ultimately be required to post in relation to the maximum exposure with the counterparty.

(c)The downgrade collateral is inclusive of all contracts in a liability position regardless of accounting treatment and excludes any contracts with individual retail counterparties.

(d)A loss of investment grade credit rating would require a three notch downgrade from their current levels of BBB+ and Baa1 at S&P and Moody's, respectively.

We routinely enter into supply forward contracts with certain utilities with one-sided collateral postings only from us. If market prices fall below the benchmark price levels in these contracts, the utilities are not required to post collateral. However, when market prices rise above the benchmark price levels, we are required to post collateral once certain unsecured credit limits are exceeded.