Exelon Expects to Own Regulated Generation Again Within 5 Years

The 11 GW figure is lower than before. POWER notes that Exelon put high-probability load at 18 GW at the end of 2025, before screening through transmission security agreements cut it to about 11 GW in the second quarter of 2026. Under those agreements, customers have 30 days to sign and then owe 10 years of transmission bills matched to their requested load, which Khouzami said filters out developers who are only holding options.

Why Exelon Blames the PJM Capacity Market

Khouzami argued that PJM's capacity market gives generators one year of pricing three years ahead, while plants take five to seven years or more to build, making projects hard to finance. "Over the past two years, PJM customers have paid $32 billion in capacity pricing, and they've gotten 1.2 GW less of generation," he told POWER. Exelon said it calculated that figure from the 2026/2027 and 2027/2028 auction results against the 2025/2026 auction.

POWER also reports that PJM's 2028/2029 capacity auction cleared 6,831 MW short of the grid operator's reliability requirement. For data center developers, that gap is the context for the grid-connection and cost questions that Voltgrid has covered at PJM, where a utility with 11 GW of committed-looking load is now arguing that it should build supply itself.

The first utility-owned supply Exelon has proposed is storage. It has proposed a 500-MW battery in New Jersey that would go into rate base after a review of about six months. Khouzami said the project would mean no bill increase through at least 2035, with market revenues returned to customers and a net benefit of $761 million over the asset's life. Those are Exelon's own figures, and the proposal has not been approved.

Exelon is also leaning on transmission. Its latest investor presentation projects $41.7 billion in capital spending from 2026 through 2029, up from $31.3 billion in the earlier 2023-2026 plan, with transmission at 39%, or $16.3 billion. It identifies a further $12 billion to $17 billion of potential transmission projects.

What Is Not Confirmed Yet

No state has changed its law to let Exelon build generation, and Khouzami's five-year timeline is his own view, not a filed plan. The 500-MW New Jersey battery is a proposal under review. The load figures are Exelon estimates, and Khouzami acknowledged that developers may drop out. His argument is that new supply is a no-regrets move: if the load arrives it prevents shortages, and if it does not, extra supply lowers prices.