Alliant Energy Corporation

Good morning and welcome to Alliant Energy's conference call for second quarter 2023 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. Please go ahead.

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, Board Chair and CEO, Lisa Barton, President and COO, and Robert Duran, Executive Vice President and CFO. Following prepared remarks by John, Lisa, and Robert, we'll have time to take questions from the investment community. We issued a news release last night announcing Alliant Energy's second quarter 2023 financial results. This release, as well as an earnings presentation 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 your questions include forward-looking statements. Those 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. At this point, I'll turn the call over to John.

Thank you, Susan. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Our second quarter results were on track with expectations and we have made solid progress towards achieving the consistent full year growth that our shareholders have come to expect from our company. As we continue our long standing track record of consistent execution, we have several areas of progress to highlight that will also serve to reinforce our strong investment thesis. Our focus on 2023 began well before the start of the year. As we shared last quarter, we took actions in the latter half of 2022 to advance our resource plans and added additional focus on cost management and resilience. We are pleased with the positive results from those efforts. The results are clearly shown through the advancement of key regulatory filings, great progress we've made on our major capital projects, and our expectation to reduce 2023 O&M compared to 2022. and we continued our focus to de-risk 2023 in the early part of this year by successfully mitigating rising interest rates through our convertible debt offering and interest rate hedging. In addition, we've seen strong core operations year to date. I am incredibly proud of the great progress our team has made in the first half of this year. We have seen remarkable advancements across all fronts, including our focused efforts on operating a safe and resilient energy grid, our commitment to advancing clean energy, and our unwavering dedication to delivering exceptional service to our customers and communities. In a moment, I will turn the call over to Lisa Barton, our President and Chief Operating Officer, to share more details on our investment and operating progress. And Robert will close the call with more updates relating to our financials and regulatory progress. But before I do that, I'll highlight a couple of key themes from this quarter. We continue to make exceptional progress advancing our investments that make our energy network efficient, reliable, and resilient. We remain a leader in the renewable energy sector, currently ranking nationally as the third largest owner-operator of regulated wind assets. We are continuously investing in a more diverse generation portfolio. prioritizing both value and reliability in our energy supply. A great example of this is our recently approved 175 megawatts of battery storage projects, which will complement our solar investments at Wood and Grant counties in Wisconsin. We continue to excel in power quality and reliability, as recognized by J.D. Power. Our ongoing efforts and results are centered around enhancing the resilience of our energy grid through the undergrounding of our distribution system. We continue to achieve new levels of efficiency in this area and have undergrounded more than 25% of our distribution system, further solidifying our commitment to a more robust and secure infrastructure. We are actively pursuing the exploration of cutting-edge technologies to establish energy storage capabilities. highlighted by our advancement of a first in the United States long duration storage system at our Columbia Energy Center site. As we anticipate the retirement of the Columbia Coal Fired Energy Center in 2026, we are committed to leveraging the existing infrastructure and interconnections at this site to promote resilience. The project has generated significant excitement within our organization, serving as a prime illustration of our commitment to pursue federal funding and embrace innovation to contribute to a sustainable future. We remain agile and proactive in identifying and capitalizing on financing opportunities that arise both at the federal and state level. Simply stated, we continue to execute our forward thinking strategy and are consistently delivering financial and operating results. Our strong results are made possible by our dedicated employees. Every day, They work tirelessly to fulfill our purpose, which is to serve our customers and build stronger communities. Their exceptional contributions throughout the past year have been truly incredible. I want to thank and recognize them for everything they do. We eagerly anticipate another year of strong financial and operational performance, and we deeply value your ongoing interest in our company. As a result of our team's efforts, our strong investment thesis remains. Our first half 2023 results are on plan. We have reaffirmed our annual earnings guidance, and we remain committed to delivering on our long-term consistent 5% to 7% growth in earnings and dividends. I will now turn the call over to Lisa.