ComEd 2004 Annual Report Download - page 7

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For the very first time, we will create an integrated U.S. electric system with
the scope and scale of European and Japanese companies – a company that
can successfully compete in the emerging national market.
The key to our success – past, present and future – is our total commitment
to the Exelon Vision Statement, and our unrelenting effort to implement it.
Exelon can only provide reliable service to our customers, exceptional value
to you, our shareholders, and become the best and most consistently profitable
electric and gas company in the nation, if we live up to our commitments,
perform at world-class levels and continue to build value through disciplined
financial management.
We are not there yet. But we make progress every day. And I will not rest
until it is so.
unrelenting effort
We are a low-cost wholesale provider in a growing and increasingly competi-
tive wholesale market. You are all familiar with the remarkable job that our
nuclear team – management and employees – have done in reviving our
nuclear program. The average annual nuclear capacity factor has increased
from 47 percent at ComEd in 1997 to 93+ percent for the entire fleet in 2004.
Nuclear production costs have decreased from $26.80/MWh at ComEd in
1997 to $12.43/MWh fleet-wide in 2004. Under John Young and Chris Crane’s
careful leadership, our nuclear capacity factor during the critical summer
months actually exceeded 97 percent, while our non-nuclear generating
facilities reached record levels of commercial availability.
We have succeeded despite volatile wholesale markets. Under Ian McLean’s
watchful eye, we made money when markets were down, and we are making
more money now that the markets are recovering. Given our strength as a low-
cost generator, we are able to optimize the financial value of the commodity
we generate by actively managing our exposure to economic and commodity
price cycles. Our record has been one of solid risk management, commercial
responsiveness and the successful matching of physical assets to load.
We have successfully cut costs across our entire business. The Exelon Way,
our ongoing effort to simultaneously improve performance and wring out
unnecessary operation and maintenance, and capital expense across our
entire business, met our announced goal of $300 million of total program,
after-tax cash savings during 2004. Jack Skolds, Frank Clark, Denis O’Brien
and Ruth Ann Gillis have been engaged in an all-out effort to bring The
Exelon Way to our energy delivery business by adapting and applying the
nuclear management model to the wires business by the end of this year.
We are focused on the fundamentals of productivity improvement, cost
managementand operational excellence. Similarly, Pam Strobel and her
team have captured significant savings in Business Services through
aggressive management of IT and the Supply Chain.