American Electric Power Company, Inc.

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us and welcome to the American Electric Power Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star 1 again. This call is scheduled to last approximately one hour. I will now hand the conference over to Andy Gergel, Vice President of Investor Relations. Andy, please go ahead.

Good morning, and welcome to American Electric Power's third quarter 2026 earnings call. A live webcast of this teleconference and slide presentation are available on our website under the Events and Presentations section. Joining me today are Bill Fuhrman, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer and Trevor Mihalik, Chief Financial Officer. In addition, we have other members of our management team in the room, including Kate Dixon, Senior Vice President, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer, and Darcy Reese, Vice President, Investor Relations. We will be making forward-looking statements during the call. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statement we make today. Factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially are discussed in the company's most recent SEC filings. Please refer to the presentation slides that accompany this call for reconciliation to gap measures. We will take your questions following opening remarks. Please start on slide five as I hand the call over to Bill.

Thank you, Andy, and good morning, and thank you for joining us for our third quarter 2026 earnings call. In my remarks this morning, I'll briefly cover our third quarter results before turning to the unique advantages of AEP's portfolio and outline how they are driving sustained outsized growth and differential value for both customers and shareholders. A summary of our updated strategic outlook and financial plan can be found on slides five and six. To be very clear, AEP is extremely well positioned to capitalize on the opportunity ahead through what I would consider a best in class leadership team, strong relationships with state political leaders and regulators, intense focus on financial performance, balance sheet strength, and exceptional execution-driven accountability across the entire organization. Combined with the size, scale, and diversification of our portfolio, AEP provides reliable and affordable electric service, delivers the growth investments our customers need, and create substantial long-term value for our shareholders. Today, we are pleased to introduce a new long-term expected annual operating EPS growth rate of 9 to 11% for 2027 through 2031. We also expect a compounded annual growth rate of greater than 10% through 2031 based on the original 2026 guidance midpoint. This outlook is supported by a $100 billion five-year capital plan one of the largest in the industry, anchored by significant and durable investments in the safety, reliability, and resilience of our system, particularly across generation and transmission. In support of this growth, this past quarter, we finalized commercial agreements for both the Wyoming fuel cell project and the 765 KV transmission build in Piketon, Ohio, allowing us to incorporate both into the updated capital plan. Construction is well underway on the Wyoming fuel cell project, which is underpinned by a 20-year power purchase agreement with Google. The Piketon project is supported by a 20-year offtake agreement with SB Energy, which will fund the project cost and is backed by a highly rated investment-grade counterparty. With construction expected to begin in the first quarter of 2027, we have secured substantially all of the rights of way and plan on submitting the required regulatory filing shortly. We are also pleased to share that AEP reported third quarter 2026 operating earnings of $2.23 per share, or $1.2 billion. As a result, we now have confidence to expect full year operating earnings to be at or above the high end of our recently increased 2026 guidance range of $6.25 to $6.55 per share. Given the visibility we have in our growth and confidence in our execution plans, we are excited to share 2027 and 2028 operating earnings guidance ranges of $6.75 to $7.05 per share and $7.40 to $7.70 per share, respectively. Year over year, the midpoints of these ranges imply an approximate 9.5% increase based on the original 2026 guidance midpoint. Later in the call, Trevor will walk through third quarter performance drivers and provide additional details regarding our updated financial plan and long-term outlook. Please turn to slide seven. The U.S. utility sector is experiencing an unprecedented surge in electric demand and AEP is right in the center of this opportunity. Given the scale of contracted and committed load across our service territory, We expect demand on our system to more than triple by 2031, created by substantial economic development activity throughout our footprint. What sets AEP apart is not simply the scale of that growth, but where it is occurring. The 11 states we operate in generate roughly one quarter of U.S. GDP and are attracting significant investment from data centers, manufacturing activity, and energy infrastructure. These trends are driving a durable increase in electricity demand and creating substantial opportunities for long-term infrastructure investment. Importantly, the states served by AEP pair robust business fundamentals with supportive state political leadership, constructive regulation, and strong investment recovery mechanisms. The combination of compelling demand growth Constructive regulation and transparent cost recovery frameworks position AEP to capitalize on this growth opportunity and reflects the characteristics that investors continue to reward with premium valuation. Turning to slide eight, AEP's scale, expertise, and leadership in transmission, particularly 765 kV infrastructure, provide a sustainable and increasingly valuable strategic advantage. We own and operate the nation's largest transmission network, which positions us to capture significant organic growth opportunities while offering customers a differentiated single provider solution across multiple RTOs and states. AEP pioneered the 765 transmission system in North America and has spent more than six decades refining the capabilities, expertise, and institutional knowledge required to efficiently operate and expand this infrastructure at scale. That experience continues to drive innovation today. As an example, our engineering team has recently developed new proprietary designs that materially reduce both tower height and right-of-way requirements, allowing 765 kV infrastructure to be deployed with physical characteristics largely in line with 345 kV transmission but deliver six times the electricity. These types of innovations reinforce our ability to deliver transmission solutions more efficiently, support growing customer demand, and create differentiated value for our customers, communities, and shareholders. Please turn to slide nine. One of the most compelling aspects of our growth strategy is that it simultaneously supports both investment and affordability. As new large load customers connect to our system, They contribute incremental revenues that help offset fixed costs for existing residential customers. Supported by fully executed take-or-pay ESAs, we estimate that this could now generate up to $21 billion of benefits for existing residential customers across our vertically integrated utilities over the life of the contracts. This is up from $16 billion discussed on AEP's prior earnings call. This creates a powerful virtuous cycle in which economic development and load growth support customer affordability. We are already seeing this dynamic play out in real time. In Indiana, new large load growth enabled us to file a second rate decrease this past quarter. In short, growth, when managed responsibly, can benefit both customers and shareholders. I would now like to briefly address AEP's early stage nuclear strategy. Last week, we announced a development agreement with two exceptional companies, X Energy and Amazon, to evaluate a potential small modular reactor project in Indiana, which is the only early-stage nuclear project we are currently advancing. Importantly, the agreement with X Energy and Amazon is limited to development activities and feasibility work requiring minimal investment by AEP. Any potential project would need to successfully progress through multiple stage gates before a final investment decision is made. The earliest that could occur is sometime in 2030, subject to meeting clear strategic and financial objectives. And as we have consistently stated regarding our approach to nuclear development, we remain highly disciplined to ensure that we are protecting our existing customers, shareholders, and balance sheet. Please turn to slide 10. This has been an extraordinarily productive year so far for AEP as we continue to execute with urgency to serve our customers and capture what we believe is a once-in-a-generation growth opportunity. Our scale, diversification, and exposure to some of the most attractive growth markets in the country position AEP exceptionally well to drive sustainable long-term value for both customers and shareholders. To deliver on our commitments, we are advancing projects through standardized designs, early procurement of long lead equipment, long-standing key relationships with industry leaders such as Kiewit, GE Renova, and Mitsubishi, and a formalized partnership with Quanta. Supported by decades of experience designing, building, and operating large-scale infrastructure, these key suppliers are providing top craft labor teams, manufacturing capacity, and technical expertise needed to execute our plan with speed and certainty. A key component of our execution strategy is continuing to work with our states to achieve constructive regulatory outcomes and enhance cost recovery across our portfolio. In Texas, a constructive unanimous settlement was filed for Swepco's base rate case with a proposed 9.53% ROE, up from 9.25%. and a proposed 51.98% equity layer up from 49.4%. This position swept CoWell to advance growth plans and enhance safe, reliable and affordable electric service for customers. In Virginia, APCO filed a constructive rate case settlement with a proposed 9.8% ROE up slightly from 9.75%. There are two key features of this settlement. A substantial portion of operating costs, including vegetation management, are proposed to move from base rates to annual riders, thereby reducing earnings lag. Second, base rates are expected to decrease in the first year following an order, further supporting efforts to drive customer affordability. To summarize, the key takeaway is simple. We are not preparing to execute this plan. We are already well into executing on it. We have the experience, partnerships, and operational capabilities in place to deliver this plan at the pace our customers need and create differential long-term value for our shareholders. I could not be more confident in the team we have assembled, the strategy we are executing, the improvements we have made, and the opportunities ahead. With that, I'll turn the call over to Trevor, who will walk through our third quarter financial performance and provide additional detail on our long-term growth and financial outlook. Trevor? Thanks, Bill.