Exelon Sees Profit Cut By Up to $710 Million From Texas Cold

(Bloomberg) -- Exelon Corp. expects its first-quarter net income will be reduced by $560 million to $710 million because of last week’s cold blast in Texas, saying three of its power plants were forced to shut down.

The company cited periodic outages beginning Feb. 15 at three of its natural-gas plants in Texas in a statement Wednesday. Exelon said the losses would be offset by $410 million to $490 million in deferred maintenance costs, one-time savings and additional revenue opportunities.

“This loss is unacceptable to us,” Exelon Chief Executive Officer Christopher Crane said on a call with analysts.

Exelon shares fell as much as 2%.

The Chicago-based company’s gas plant operators routinely plan for harsh weather, but this was “unprecedented and sustained” cold, Exelon said in the statement.

The historic outage caused billions in economic losses, and the impact to individual companies is just starting to emerge. At its peak, more than 4 million Texas homes and businesses were without power over several days of unprecedented cold.

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