Alliant Energy Corporation

Good morning and welcome to Alliant Energy's conference call for first quarter 2021 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 Alliant Energy.

Good morning. I would like to thank all of you on the call and the webcast for joining us today. We appreciate your participation. Joining me on this call are John Larson, Chair, President, and CEO of and Robert Durian, Executive Vice President and CFO. Following prepared remarks by John and Robert, we will have time to take questions from the investment community. We issued a news release last night announcing Alliant Energy's first quarter 2021 financial results. 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 www.alliantenergy.com. Before we begin, I need to remind you the remarks we make on this call and our answers to questions include forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks 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-Q, which will be available on our website. At this point, I'll turn the call over to John.

Thank you, Sue. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Our solid first quarter results were as expected. continuing our long track record of delivering value for our customers, communities, and investors. We do this by innovating new approaches and delivering important energy solutions for our customers and the communities we proudly serve. Our purpose-driven strategy is thoughtful, flexible, and well-executed. The results speak for themselves. Later in the call, Robert will share more details on our results. But let me jump to the headlines. We are reaffirming our consolidated 2021 earnings guidance of $2.50 to $2.64. We remain committed to delivering on our 5% to 7% growth target and our 60% to 70% dividend payout ratio. At Alliant Energy, we take pride in our long track record of delivering consistent growth for our investors. And what makes this even more meaningful is in how we have delivered that growth. By living our values to care for others and act for tomorrow, we continuously raise the bar when it comes to our environmental, social, and governance commitments. We're proud to be recognized for our efforts. We're a AA-rated company by MSCI, rank in the top quartile for global utilities by Sustainalytics, and achieved Envision Platinum certification on major generation projects. With our customers in mind, we continue to accelerate our purpose-driven clean energy transition. We call it the Clean Energy Blueprint and recently highlighted our progress towards our sustainability goals during Earth Week. We ended the year 2020 with 42% less carbon emissions than our 2005 levels, nearly 70% reduction in water compared to our 2005 levels, and nearly 70% of our coal generation is either retired or planned for retirement by 2024. We'll be sharing more of our progress and highlighting new initiatives with the release of our updated corporate responsibility report this summer. Equally important to our environmental efforts are the commitments to our employees, customers, and the communities we serve. We know that when we embrace the diversity of our employees and continue to build upon their strong culture, we create a sense of belonging and inclusion that leads to great things for our customers. I'm very proud of the recognition of our efforts in this space by organizations such as the Human Rights Campaign and to be included in Bloomberg's Gender Equality Index. In 2020, we were named one of America's most responsible companies by Newsweek, ranking 12th on the list for our social responsibility efforts. Turning to our recent updates, this week we announced and intend to enter into a settlement agreement for our rate filing in Wisconsin. We continued our open and transparent practices into our rate review process and are very pleased to have reached a settlement in principle with several stakeholder organizations, including the Citizens Utility Board, the Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group, and the Sierra Club. The key terms with stakeholders continues to manage customer costs and enables our thoughtful transition to a clean energy future, adding certainty and flexibility for our business. Just prior to this development, we reached another successful milestone, announcing our plans to add 414 megawatts of solar in Wisconsin, rounding our previously announced plan to accelerate our clean energy transition by adding nearly 1,100 megawatts of solar in the Badger State. Upon completion of this planned expansion, Alliant Energy will own and operate the most solar energy in the state of Wisconsin. These investments are another part of our clean energy blueprint, developed through an extensive and transparent planning process and utilizing our industry-best project execution. In our communities, we are partnering with businesses and community leaders to develop hometown solar projects. These local projects benefit communities through lease payments, supplying clean energy to the local energy grid, empowering homes and businesses. Some of our newest projects include a one-megawatt community solar project located in Perry, Iowa, a customer-hosted project in Dodgeville, Wisconsin, located on the rooftop of Iowa County's new Law Enforcement Center, and solar generation near our West Riverside Energy Center near Beloit, Wisconsin. Before I close, I'd like to recognize our amazing employees. They came together to serve customers during winter storm Yuri. As a result of their efforts, coupled with smart investments we've made to ensure reliability, resiliency, and the proactive planning by our energy markets team, we not only weathered the storm, our teams continued providing safe, reliable, and affordable energy during this extreme weather event. and our customers will not see the significant increases experienced by others around the country. In summary, 2021 is off to a solid start for our company, and we look forward to building on that momentum throughout the year 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 as we fulfill our purpose of serving customers and building stronger communities. Thank you for your interest in Alliant Energy. I'll now turn the call over to Robert.