Constellation Retail Business Having "Very Strong" Year, Company Talks Margins

Constellation's retail business is having a "very strong" year, Exelon executives said during a third quarter earnings call

"Our performance was driven by our generation to load matching strategy including a lower cost to serve our load across the portfolio," said Joseph Nigro, CEO of Constellation

Nigro said that retail margins are "well within" the $2 to $4 per MWh benchmark range

Nigro added that risk premiums charged to loads were much higher than what Constellation realized in procuring power in the spot market, primarily driven by the low gas prices during the third quarter

"Our commercial and industrial originations remained solid and we're happy with that," Nigro said

"[O]ur core strategy of matching our generation fleet with our load business continues to provide significant value for our shareholders. It has been paying off across the volatility and price spectrum. We have captured higher prices for our generation during periods of extreme weather while managing our load obligations, and we've captured higher margins during low volatility period like this summer as we've realized lower cost to serve our customers. It also provides us with an important channel to market for our hedging activities which is important in times of low liquidity and in places where there is not an active market," Nigro said