Exelon 2001 Annual Report Download - page 6

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4
Keeping the Lights On
WE MET THIS OBJECTIVE This commitment is the minimum expected of any electric company. However, anyone who
was a part of ComEd in the summer of 1999 would agree that we failed and lost the confidence of our customers and
the public we serve. Regaining that confidence was paramount. We made a promise to our customers to “Keep the
Lights On” and we have kept them on. And we believe we have regained their confidence.This is reflected in the ComEd
Customer Satisfaction Survey—according to the survey, residential customer satisfaction increased from 77% to 82%
in the fourth quarter of 2001, exceeding the all-time high of 79% set in 1994.
In order to keep this promise, we focused our efforts on reliability, while maintaining the highest level of safety. Last
summer, both ComEd and PECO successfully met the challenge of severely high heat, record-breaking demand, and
powerful thunderstorms.
After a week of 90-degree weather and major thunderstorms that knocked out power to more than 103,000 ComEd
customers, on August 9, 2001 ComEd experienced an all-time peak demand of 21,574 megawatts—breaking the
record set only two days before. The ComEd system performed well, due both to the significant infrastructure
improvements we have made and to the dedicated efforts of better organized and trained employees to improve
system reliability since the outages of 1999. ComEd has reduced the number of interruptions by 41% and shortened
the length of interruptions by 56% for the two years ending in December 2001.
PECO experienced six successive days of excessive heat, recording five of its top eleven demand days and reaching a
near all-time peak of 7,957 megawatts on August 9, 2001. PECO’s delivery system performed well throughout the heat
wave, with only localized equipment problems.
Exelon Nuclear played a crucial role in keeping the lights on and in meeting our other corporate objectives by operating
its units at a 94.4% capacity factor, making it the nation’s largest fleet’s best performance ever. This is exactly what
we think the nation’s biggest nuclear fleet should be. Exelon Power improved its dispatch rate (getting its units on
line within 30 minutes) to 94.4%, a two-percent increase over 2001.
Meeting Our Financial Commitments
WE CAME CLOSE Exelon produced earnings of $1,428 million or $4.43 (diluted) per share despite the collapse of Exelon
Enterprises’markets in the telecommunications industry, lower than expected wholesale electricity prices, and lower
than expected demand. We achieved a 15% increase over pro forma 2000 earnings of $1,247 million, or $3.86 earnings
per share (EPS), assuming the merger occurred on January 1, 2000. This performance underscores the strength and
stability of Exelon’s integrated portfolio of generation and distribution assets. In January of this year, the board
declared a dividend of 44 cents-per-share. This 4.1% increase results in an annual dividend rate of $1.76. Of course,
future dividends are subject to approval and declaration by the board.