Constellation splits from Exelon to become largest U.S. clean energy company

As of this week, Exelon Corp. finished separating Constellation Exelon Corp. into its own entity, making its former power generation and competitive energy business into the nation’s largest clean energy company.

“Today is an important milestone in Exelon’s history,” Christopher Crane, president and CEO of Exelon, said. “With the successful completion of our separation, we step forward in a strong position to serve customer needs, drive growth and social equity in the communities we serve, and deliver sustainable value as our industry continues to evolve. As we look to the future, we will advance our core business strategies to meet unique customer and community priorities. We will continue to invest in and modernize the grid for safe, clean, and affordable energy choices, a world-class customer experience, and more equitable communities.”

Even after Constellation’s spin-off, Exelon is currently the largest utility company in the United States, serving more than 10 million customers through six regulated transmission and distribution utilities. For Constellation, this moment marks its emergence as a standalone, publicly-traded company. Headquartered in Baltimore, it shall operate in 48 states, Canada and the U.K. With this reach, it will continue to supply power to residential, public sector, and business customers, with more than 32,400 MW of capacity and a nearly 90 percent carbon-free annual output.

“The future health and prosperity of our nation is inextricably linked to our success in eliminating carbon pollution, and our entire focus will be on helping our customers and communities achieve that goal,” Joseph Dominguez, CEO of Constellation, said. “Our clean generation fleet and leading customer-facing platform are the foundation on which we will sustain and grow our business. Today begins an exciting transition for our company and employees as we affirm our mission to accelerate the transition to a carbon-free future and advance economic progress and equity in the communities we serve.”

Exelon will remain trading on Nasdaq as EXC and, in general, continue operations under the same corporate name. Constellation will begin trading on Nasdaq as CEG. Exelon will also remain headquartered in Chicago after the split.

A new identity demands new strategies, though, and Constellation released its path through the climate crisis in the wake of its separation. It included goals such as providing fully carbon-free electricity by 2040, 100 percent reduction of operations-driven emissions by 2040, a nuclear push, and dedicated environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles.

Exelon will continue commitments to its Path to Clean plan, which calls for cutting operations-driven emissions by 50 percent or more by 2030, with net-zero to follow by 2050. Both companies intend to help customers reduce emissions through a variety of efforts.