Alliant Energy Corporation

Good morning and welcome to Alliant Energy's conference call for third 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 our host, Zach Fields, Lead Investor Relations Analyst at Alliant Energy.

Good morning. 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, Chair, President, and Chief Executive Officer, 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 third quarter financial results, updated our consolidated 2021 guidance range, and announced our 2022 Earnings Guidance and Common Stock Dividend Target. This release, as well as supplemental slides that will be referenced during today's call, are available on the Investors page of our website at www.alliantenergy.com. Before we begin, I need to remind you that 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 the Line 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.

Thanks, Zach. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today as we highlight our solid results for the third quarter of 2021. To start us off, I'm pleased to share our narrowed and increased 2021 earnings guidance range of $2.61 to $2.67, which represents a forecasted 12th consecutive year of 5% or greater earnings growth. We are also announcing our 2022 earnings guidance range of $2.65 to $2.79 per share, marking yet another year of forecasted 5% to 7% growth. We understand the importance of delivering consistent returns for our investors and solid operations for our customers. And in keeping with our plan to grow dividends commensurate with earnings growth, I'm pleased to share that our Board of Directors has approved a 6% increase in our targeted annual common stock dividend to $1.71 per share. In a few moments, I'll turn the call over to Robert to share more details of our excellent third quarter financial results. But before I do, I'll highlight some of our many accomplishments from the quarter. Over the past several weeks, I've been pleased to meet with many investors and continue to share our ESG story. It's been a natural journey for us and a direct outcome of how we deliver on our purpose to serve customers and build stronger communities. We know that a clear vision and solid execution are very important factors when making investment decisions. We're proud that our progress and results have been recognized by several key ESG rating organizations who rate us near the top of the utility industry. Our top performing results can be seen on supplemental slide number two. Our recent corporate responsibility report highlights many of our achievements. We continue to make steady progress, such as our commitment to plant more than one million trees across our service territory over the next decade. Not only will this support our care for the environment value and our carbon reduction efforts, It is also responsive to the impact from the 2020 derecho windstorm that devastated our service territory. In Wisconsin, we celebrated our first community solar project with a public open house and tours in the town of Fond du Lac. The one megawatt solar garden will supply clean energy to up to 1,000 homes and is expected to be operational by the end of 2021. Celebrating this solar garden reflects the community's innovative spirit and passion for clean energy. In Iowa, we are excited to have received IUB approval for our first solar garden. It's expected to be constructed in 2022 at a site near Cedar Rapids. In the third quarter, we also assumed ownership of the Bear Creek, North Rock, Wood County, and Grant County solar projects in Wisconsin. Construction is either started or will be started shortly on these projects that total 450 megawatts. And here in the fourth quarter, we acquired the Crawfish River project and expect to acquire the Onion River project before the end of the year. With those acquisitions, we will have assumed ownership of all 675 megawatts of solar that was approved as part of our first CA filing in Wisconsin. Two final highlights I'll share are tied to the social side of ESG. In September, we committed $4 million to the Hometown Care Energy Fund, to help customers who need financial assistance to help pay their energy bills during the upcoming home heating season. The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that Midwest natural gas expenditures will rise by nearly 50% compared with last winter. And while we expect the proactive planning by our energy markets team will keep us in line or below those forecasted increases, we know customers will welcome the additional support from this donation to help them stay on track with their energy bills during this time of increased natural gas demand. And finally, I'm excited to share that with the support of our suppliers and partners, our 15th annual Drive Out Hunger event raised over $400,000, bringing our 15-year fundraising total to more than $5 million. This event has provided over 17 million meals to families in need across our service territories. Combating hunger is one of the focus areas of our charitable foundation, and we are proud to partner with our Feeding America Food Bank partners in Iowa and Wisconsin to help thousands of our customers access nutritious food to strengthen their families. With all the great results from the quarter, I would be remiss in not mentioning that our economic development and customer growth efforts have resulted in our third year in a row of being named a top utility in economic development by Site Selector Magazine. Our economic development team, in collaboration with local, regional, and state partners in Iowa and Wisconsin, created more than $900 million in new capital investments and more than 2,200 new jobs across Iowa and Wisconsin. I look forward to meeting with many of you next week at the EEI Financial Conference to share even more about our company, including our clean energy vision, flexible and well-executed capital investment plan, our long track record of consistent financial and operational results, and our focus on the well-being of our employees, customers, and communities. Thank you for your confidence in Align Energy. I'll now turn the call over to Robert.