The Southern Company

Good afternoon. My name is Malika and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Southern Company fourth quarter 2023 earnings call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. At that time, if you have a question, please press the one followed by the four on your telephone. If at any time during the conference you need to reach an operator, please press star zero. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded February 15th, 2024. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Scott Gemmell, Vice President, Investor Relations and Treasurer. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Malika. Good afternoon and welcome to Southern Company's fourth quarter 2023 earnings call. Joining me today are Chris Womack, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Southern Company and Dan Tucker, Chief Financial Officer. Let me remind you, we'll be making forward-looking statements today in addition to providing historical information. Various important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements, including those discussed in our Form 10-K and subsequent securities filings. In addition, we'll present non-GAAP financial information on this call. Reconciliations to the applicable GAAP measure are included in the financial information released this morning, as well as the slides for this conference call, which are both available on our investor relations website at investor.southerncompany.com. At this time, I'll turn it over to Chris.

Thank you, Scott. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today. 2023 was an exceptional year for Southern Company, a year in which we proved once again that we can do extraordinary things, including delivering strong financial results in the face of unprecedented headwinds and the successful completion of of Plant Vogel Unit 3, the first newly constructed nuclear unit in the United States in over three decades. Since its July 30th in-service date, Unit 3's performance has exceeded our expectations, delivering over 5 million megawatt hours of safe, reliable, carbon-free energy across Georgia. Other noteworthy items for 2023 included Constructive resolution of the Vogel 3 and 4 prudence process, resolving all issues of reasonableness, prudence, and cost recovery. Successfully completed construction and commissioning for a brand new 720 megawatt combined cycle plant on schedule and on time at Alabama Power's Plant Berry. Acquired two new solar projects at Southern Power. which once construction is complete, will add an additional 350 megawatts of carbon-free generation to its portfolio of fully contracted renewable generation. Continued progress toward our greenhouse gas emission reduction goals, including our interim goal of a 50% reduction versus 2007 levels by 2030, achieving a 49% reduction in 2023. earned the National Accounts Award for outstanding customer engagement by the Edison Electric Institute and top honors from J.D. Power for residential and business customer satisfaction. And just last week, Southern Company was ranked as the number one most admired electric and gas utility in Fortune Magazine's world's most admired companies list for 2024. These achievements reflect our team's steadfast commitment to keep the customers and the communities we are privileged to serve at the center of everything we do. Throughout 2023, our electric and gas franchises continued to excel at the fundamentals and started this year strong as evidenced through our preparations and execution during January's winter storm, Heather. When electricity demands reached all-time winter peaks, and Southern Company Gas' system continued reliably serving customers throughout severe weather conditions across its four-state territory. Our ability to navigate through such severe weather events further demonstrates how our customers benefit from the combination of outstanding operational performance by each of our utilities and the value of our vertically integrated state-regulated business model. Our state's long-term integrated planning processes which include adoption of important planning assumptions like a 26% winter reserve margin for our electric utilities, benefit our customers by providing a reliable and resilient mix of energy resources. Before turning the call over to Dan for a financial update, I'd like to provide an update on Vogel Unit 4. We continue to make meaningful progress toward the completion of Unit 4 with initial criticality achieved yesterday. Initial criticality represents a key step during startup, whereby operators for the first time safely begin the self-sustaining nuclear reaction to create heat for steam production. As we approach the initial sync with the grid, Unit 4 continues with the remaining startup and pre-operational testing activities that precede the declaration of end service, which is projected in the second quarter of 2024. Our 2024 adjusted earnings per share guidance range, which Dan will get you on shortly, assumes Unit 4 achieves commercial operation in April. Dan, I'll now turn the call over to you.