Item 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
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Item 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
Overview Regarding Market Risks
Our businesses are exposed to, and proactively manage market risk. Market risk is the potential loss that may result from market changes associated with AES power generation or with existing or forecasted financial or commodity transactions. Our primary market risk exposure is to the price of commodities, particularly electricity, natural gas, coal, and environmental credits. AES is also exposed to fluctuations in interest rates and foreign currency exchange rates associated primarily with outstanding and expected future issuances and borrowing, and from investments in foreign subsidiaries and affiliates. We enter into various transactions, including derivatives, in order to hedge our exposure to these market risks.
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The disclosures presented in this Item 7A are based upon a number of assumptions; actual effects may differ. The safe harbor provided in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Exchange Act shall apply to the disclosures contained in this Item 7A. For further information regarding market risk, see Item 1A.—Risk Factors, Fluctuations in currency exchange rates may impact our financial results and position; Wholesale power prices may experience significant volatility in our markets which could impact our operations and opportunities for future growth; We may not be adequately hedged against our exposure to changes in commodity prices or interest rates; and Certain of our businesses are sensitive to variations in weather and hydrology of this 2023 Form 10-K.
Commodity Price Risk
Although we prefer to hedge our exposure to the impact of market fluctuations in the price of commodities, some of our generation businesses operate under short-term sales, have contracted electricity obligations greater than supply, or operate under contract sales that leave an unhedged exposure on some of our capacity or through imperfect fuel pass-throughs. These businesses subject our operational results to the volatility of prices for electricity, fuels, and environmental credits in competitive markets. In addition, our businesses are exposed to lower electricity prices due to increased competition, including from renewable sources such as wind and solar, because of lower costs of entry and lower variable costs. We employ risk management strategies to hedge our financial performance against these effects. The implementation of these strategies can involve the use of physical and financial commodity contracts, futures, swaps, and options. We have some natural offsets across our businesses such that low commodity prices may benefit certain businesses and be a cost to others. Exposures are not perfectly linear or symmetric. The sensitivities are affected by a number of local or indirect market factors. Examples of these factors include hydrology, local energy market supply/demand balances, regional fuel supply issues, regional competition, bidding strategies, and regulatory interventions such as price caps. Volume variation also affects our commodity exposure. The volume sold under contracts or retail concessions can vary based on weather and economic conditions, resulting in a higher or lower volume of sales in spot markets. Thermal unit availability and hydrology can affect the generation output available for sale and can affect the marginal unit setting power prices.
As of December 31, 2023, we project pre-tax earnings exposure on a 10% increase in commodity prices to be less than a $30 million gain for power, less than $15 million loss for gas, and less than $10 million loss for coal. The sensitivities are calculated using industry-standard valuation techniques to revalue all transactions (physical and financial commodity transactions) in the portfolio for a change in the underlying prices the transactions are exposed to and excludes correlation effects, including those due to renewable resource availability. The models reference market prices of commodities across future periods and associated volatility of these market prices. Prices and volatilities are predominantly based on observable market prices.
Exposures at individual businesses will change as new contracts or financial hedges are executed, and our sensitivity to changes in commodity prices generally increases in later years with reduced hedge levels at some of our businesses.
In the Energy Infrastructure SBU, the generation businesses are largely contracted, but may have residual risk to the extent contracts are not perfectly indexed to the business drivers. In California, our Southland once-through cooling generation units (“Legacy Assets”) in Long Beach and Huntington Beach have been extended to operate through 2026 under capacity contracts with the State as part of the Strategic Reserve program. Our facility in Redondo Beach has been retired effective January 1, 2024. Our ability to operate the Long Beach facility at full capacity through 2025 was approved under Tentative Time Schedule Order coverage in November 2023. Approval to operate Long Beach through 2026 will be subject to review with State Agencies. Our Southland combined cycle gas turbine (Southland Energy) units benefit from higher power and lower gas prices, depending on the contracted or hedge position. The AES Andes business in Chile owns assets in the central and northern regions of the country and has a portfolio of contract sales in both. A significant portion of our PPAs through 2024 include mechanisms of indexation that adjust the price of energy based on fluctuations in the price of coal, with an index defined by the National Energy Commission based on the physical coal imports for the energy system. This mechanism mitigates exposures to changes in the price of fuel. The increasing share of renewable energy in Chile's power market may reduce reliance on thermal units and impact power price volatility, which could impact our cost to serve certain unregulated PPAs. In the Dominican Republic, we own natural gas plants contracted under a portfolio of contract sales, and both contract and spot prices may move with commodity prices through 2024. Our thermal asset in Panama has PPAs with distribution companies which matches the term of the LNG supply agreement of such thermal assets. New entrants into the Panama thermal generation market could impact the dispatch of existing generation, requiring purchases in the spot market to satisfy the PPA obligations. Contract levels do not always match our generation availability or needs, and our assets may be sellers of spot prices in excess of contract levels
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or a net buyer in the spot market to satisfy contract obligations, which could impact existing fuel supply commitments. Our assets operating in Vietnam and Bulgaria have minimal exposure to commodity price risk as they have no or minor merchant exposure and fuel is subject to a pass-through mechanism.
In the Renewables SBU, our businesses have commodity exposure on unhedged volumes and resource volatility and benefit from higher power prices, where generation exceeds contracted levels. In Colombia, we operate under a shorter-term sales strategy with spot market exposure for uncontracted volumes. Because we own hydroelectric assets there, contracts are not indexed to fuel. In Brazil, the majority of the hydroelectric and other renewable generating facility volumes are covered by contract sales. Under normal hydrological volatility, spot price risk is mitigated through a regulated sharing mechanism across all hydroelectric generators in the country. Under drier conditions, the sharing mechanism may not be sufficient to cover the business' contract position, and therefore it may have to purchase power at spot prices driven by the cost of thermal generation. Our Renewables businesses in Panama are highly contracted under financial and load-following PPA type structures, exposing the business to hydrology-based variance. To the extent hydrological inflows are greater than or less than the contract volumes, the business will be sensitive to changes in spot power prices which may be driven by oil and natural gas prices in some time periods.
Foreign Exchange Rate Risk
We operate in multiple countries and as such are subject to volatility in exchange rates at varying degrees at the subsidiary level and between our functional currency, the USD, and currencies of the countries in which we operate.
In the normal course of business, we are exposed to foreign currency risk and other foreign operations risks that arise from investments in foreign subsidiaries and affiliates. A key component of these risks stems from the fact that some of our foreign subsidiaries and affiliates utilize currencies other than our consolidated reporting currency, the USD. Additionally, certain of our foreign subsidiaries and affiliates have entered into monetary obligations in USD or currencies other than their own functional currencies. Certain of our foreign subsidiaries calculate and pay taxes in currencies other than their own functional currency. We have varying degrees of exposure to changes in the exchange rate between the USD and the following currencies: Argentine peso, Brazilian real, Chilean peso, Colombian peso, Dominican peso, Euro, and Mexican peso. Our exposure to certain of these currencies may be material. These subsidiaries and affiliates attempt to limit potential foreign exchange exposure by entering into revenue contracts that adjust to changes in foreign exchange rates. We also use foreign currency forwards, swaps, and options where possible to manage our risk related to certain foreign currency fluctuations.
AES enters into foreign currency hedges to protect economic value of the business and minimize the impact of foreign exchange rate fluctuations to AES' portfolio. While protecting cash flows, the hedging strategy is also designed to reduce forward-looking earnings foreign exchange volatility. Due to variation of timing and amount between cash distributions and earnings exposure, the hedge impact may not fully cover the earnings exposure on a realized basis, which could result in greater volatility in earnings.
AES has unhedged forward-looking earnings foreign exchange deterioration risk from the Argentine peso that could be material. Additionally, as of December 31, 2023, assuming a 10% USD appreciation, cash distributions attributable to foreign subsidiaries in the Brazilian real, Colombian peso, and Euro, individually, may be exposed to exchange rate movement of less than a $5 million gain. These numbers have been produced by applying a one-time 10% USD appreciation to forecasted exposed cash distributions for 2024 coming from the respective subsidiaries exposed to the currencies listed above, net of the impact of outstanding hedges and holding all other variables constant. The numbers presented above are net of any transactional gains or losses. These sensitivities may change in the future as new hedges are executed or existing hedges are unwound. Additionally, updates to the forecasted cash distributions exposed to foreign exchange risk may result in further modification. The sensitivities presented do not capture the impacts of any administrative market restrictions or currency inconvertibility.
Interest Rate Risks
We are exposed to risk resulting from changes in interest rates primarily because of our current and expected future issuance of debt and borrowing.
Decisions on the fixed-floating debt mix are made to be consistent with the risk factors faced by individual businesses or plants. Depending on whether a plant’s capacity payments or revenue stream is fixed or varies with inflation, we partially hedge against interest rate fluctuations by arranging fixed-rate or variable-rate financing. In
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certain cases, particularly for non-recourse financing, we execute interest rate swap, cap, and floor agreements to effectively fix or limit the interest rate exposure on the underlying financing. Most of our interest rate risk is related to non-recourse financings at our businesses.
As of December 31, 2023, the portfolio’s pre-tax earnings exposure to a one-time 100-basis-point increase in interest rates for our Argentine peso, Brazilian real, Chilean peso, Colombian peso, Euro, and USD denominated debt would be less than $35 million on interest expense for the debt denominated in these currencies. These amounts represent 2024 full year exposure and do not take into account the historical correlation between these interest rates.
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