Alliant Energy Corporation

Good afternoon and welcome to Align Energy's conference call for fourth quarter and year-end 2020 results. This call is being recorded for rebroadcast. At this time, all lines are in listen-only mode. I would now like to turn the call over to your host, Susan Gill, Investor Relations Manager at Align Energy. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon. I would like to thank all of you on the call and on the webcast for joining us today. We appreciate your participation. Joining me on this call are John Larson, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, and Robert Durian, Executive Vice President and CFO. Following prepared remarks by John and Robert, we will take time for questions from the investment community. We issued a news release last night announcing Alliant Energy's fourth quarter and year-end 2020 financial results and affirmed our 2021 earnings guidance. This release, as well as supplemental slides that will be referenced during today's call, are available on the investor page of our website at AlliantEnergy.com. Before we begin, I need to remind you the remarks we make on this call and our answers to your questions include forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to risk that could cause actual results to be materially different. Those risks include, among others, matters discussed in Alliant Energy's press release issued last night and in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We disclaim any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. In addition, this presentation contains references to non-GAAP financial measures. The reconciliation between non-GAAP and GAAP measures are provided in the earnings release and our 10-K, which are available on our website. At this point, I'll turn the call over to John.

Thank you Susan. Hello everyone and thank you for joining us. 2020 was a year we will all remember. It was also another successful year of growth and solid operations for Alliant Energy. We continue to consistently deliver on our purpose to serve customers and build stronger communities. I'm proud of what our team accomplished and how we delivered on our purpose in a year with many challenges from the ongoing global pandemic to racial injustice and a destructive derecho windstorm. In the face of these challenges, we finished near the top of our original earnings guidance range with a 2020 consolidated earnings per share of $2.47. Our non-GAAP temperature normalized earnings grew more than 7% over 2019. This was the 10th year in a row of achieving our 5% to 7% growth objective. This consistent growth, solid execution, and operational results showcases the resiliency and flexibility of our company. I'll highlight a few of our many strategic and operational achievements from the year, then I'll turn it over to Robert who will provide more details on our solid financial and regulatory outcomes. I'd like to start by mentioning a few of our recognitions from 2020. I mentioned earlier the August derecho windstorm. I'm proud that our efforts to restore electricity to our customers was recognized by receiving the Edison Electric Institute's Emergency Response Award. Alliant Energy was also included in Bloomberg's Gender Equality Index, highlighting just 380 companies from around the world who are committed to supporting gender equality in the workplace. And we were recently named to Newsweek's Most Responsible Companies list, where we ranked 12th overall for our social responsibility efforts. And to top it off, for the fourth year in a row, Alliant Energy has earned a perfect score in the Corporate Equality Index issued by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. As I reflect on these achievements, they each showcase how we live our values as we care for others, do the right thing, and act for tomorrow. I'm proud of our Alliant Energy team and thankful for all they do. From an ESG perspective, we've made incredible progress on our goals and objectives. We ended 2020 with 42% less carbon emissions than our 2005 levels, well on our way to our goal of a 50% reduction by 2030. This result is largely driven by the completion of our major wind expansion, making us the third largest owner-operator of regulated wind in the U.S. It was also achieved by building our highly efficient West Riverside Generating Station. To further support our efforts to advance a clean energy future, we joined the Low Carbon Resource Initiative through the Electric Power Research Institute. This initiative is designed to identify, test, and develop technologies to enable a low carbon future. The results of this important work will help guide our company and our industry as we look toward our aspirational goal of net zero carbon dioxide emissions from the electricity we generate by 2050. 2020 was another great year in advancing our clean energy blueprints. which serve as our guide to create a cleaner energy future for our customers and communities. Last fall, we advanced our Iowa Clean Energy Blueprint with our announcement to add approximately 400 megawatts of new solar energy by 2023. This follows our very successful one gigawatt wind energy expansion in Iowa, all delivered on time and on budget. When the 400 megawatts of planned new solar combined with our 1,300 megawatts of own wind, our existing solar farms, and purchased renewable resources, we're on a path to have more than 50% of Alliant Energy's Iowa generation to come from renewables by 2030. We also continue to advance battery storage in the state. We plan to add 100 megawatts of distributed energy resources in the next several years. The additional distributed energy resources follows the successful completion of battery storage systems near Marshalltown and Wellman, Iowa, and a storage facility in Decorah, Iowa, that includes a partnership with the United States Department of Energy and the Iowa Economic Development Authority. Turning to Wisconsin, our Clean Energy Blueprint helps advance the Badger State to a clean energy future. Our plans to add at least 1,000 megawatts of new solar power is on schedule. Last spring, we announced our first phase of this effort, identifying six future solar sites totaling 675 megawatts. That's enough to power 175,000 homes. Later this spring, we plan to announce the second phase of our solar expansion, which will include three projects we purchased in the last five months, as well as our self-developed sites. As we carefully plan the closure of our remaining coal-powered units in Wisconsin, our plans will include ways to support our employees and our communities. Our clean energy blueprints are comprehensive and transparent and designed to follow our proven track record of a thoughtful energy transition. And our solar story in Wisconsin doesn't stop there. We recently announced a community solar project in Fond du Lac County where a portion of the energy generated from the one megawatt site will be donated to Habitat for Humanity to reduce electric bills of residents. We're also partnering with Dane County on a 17 megawatt solar development. which will help bring the county to 100% renewable offset to the electricity consumed at their own facilities. And we're partnering with the city of Sheboygan to install a one megawatt solar facility in the Sheboygan Business Center. As we advance our clean energy blueprints, we'll continue to seek solutions that serve our customers' growing demand for sustainable solutions to help build stronger communities. We also remain focused on our continued investments in our connected energy network across Iowa and Wisconsin by advancing the deployment of an advanced distribution management system, a fiber optic network, and expanding the use of smart energy systems and automated metering. In addition, our customer-focused investments in the energy grid will result in more of our electric lines placed underground, a major part of our efforts to improve grid resiliency, energy efficiency, and reliability. Speaking of reliability, I'm proud of the efforts by our team during the extended polar vortex that gripped much of the country these past two weeks. Our customer-focused investments are designed to ensure that we will continue to provide our customers with safe, reliable, and affordable energy for decades to come. We remain committed to advancing our clean energy vision through this balanced approach. In summary, 2020 was an excellent year for our company, and we look forward to building on that momentum in 2021 as we focus on continuing our role as a leader in advancing renewable energy, completing customer-focused investments on time and on budget, delivering solid returns for our investors, and living our values. Thank you for your interest in Alliant Energy. I'll now turn the call over to Robert.