Alliant Energy Corporation

Thank you for holding and welcome to Alliant Energy's third quarter 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all lines are in listen-only mode. Today's conference call is being recorded. 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. With me here today are John Larson, Chair and CEO of Lisa Barton, President and COO, and Robert Durian, Executive Vice President and CFO. Following prepared remarks by John, Lisa, 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 and year-to-date financial results, narrowed our 2023 earnings guidance range, provided 2024 earnings and dividend guidance, and provided our annual capital expenditure plan through 2027. This release, as well as earnings presentation, will be referenced during today's call and is available on the investor page of our website at www.alignenergy.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 risks that could cause actual results to be materially different. Those risks include, among others, matters discussed in Align Energy's news 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 quarterly report on Form 10-Q, which is available on our website. At this point, I'll turn the call over to John.

Thank you, Susan. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I'm pleased to report that we are firmly on track for delivering another year of solid financial and operating results. Consequently, we are narrowing our 2023 earnings guidance range, and I am affirming our long-term earnings growth range of 5% to 7%. We take great satisfaction in consistently achieving our earnings growth objectives. Continuing that momentum, turning to 2024, I'm pleased to share our earnings guidance and dividend target. Our 2024 earnings guidance midpoint represents a 6% increase to our forecasted 2023 adjusted earnings, and our 2024 annual common stock dividend target is $1.92 per share, which is a 6% increase from this year's dividends. We are focused on delivering steady and predictable results. We have several key headlines and highlights this quarter, but before I get to them, I'd like to touch on the news you likely saw last week. I'm incredibly honored to have been with Alliant Energy for the past 35 years, and I'm excited to be continuing that journey and moving into the role of executive chairman of our company as Lisa Barton assumes the role of CEO. Lisa is an exceptional leader with a well-established track record of success. Together with the board of directors, I have complete confidence that she is well-positioned to further Alliant Energy's ability to deliver consistent results as we continue to focus on our purpose of serving customers and building stronger communities. Speaking of that purpose, let me take a few minutes to share a few headlines from Quarter 3 that I'm particularly proud of, then I'll pass it over to Lisa and Robert to provide more details. The first headline centers on our strong core investment thesis, that is, why you choose to invest in our company. Simply put, we consistently deliver strong results. The well-executed forward-thinking actions our team took to mitigate rising financing costs positions our company to deliver on investor expectations. Coupled with our exceptional project execution and unwavering commitment to cost management and efficiency makes us well-positioned to achieve our long-term earnings guidance objective for the 14th consecutive year. Our second headline highlights our updated customer-centric capital investment forecast through 2027. which increases our CapEx by almost $600 million compared to the four-year plan we announced last year. Lisa will cover the details of these exciting investments later in the call. To build on my earlier comments, I continue to take immense pride in the work of our dedicated teams who have diligently navigated through challenging financial, procurement, and economic conditions. I'm especially pleased with our team's efforts in taking advantage of the enhanced benefits from the Inflation Reduction Act. We are nearing completion of executing our contracts to monetize tax credits generated by our wind, solar, and energy storage investments. This helps us reduce our financing needs, create substantial cost savings for our customers, all while taking advantage of zero fuel cost resources and reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. Now let me highlight two innovative projects we are excited about. First, we celebrated our first Iowa customer-hosted solar project, which is nearing completion near Ames, Iowa and is expected to be operational in the first half of 2024. This solar farm at Iowa State University will serve as a one-of-a-kind setting to advance the concept of agrivoltaics. We are partnering with both Iowa State and the University of Wisconsin in this innovative area of research. Agrivoltaics research is intended to uncover how solar, agricultural land, and farming can harmoniously coexist for mutual benefit. The second project is our long-duration storage project at the Columbia Energy Center near Portage, Wisconsin. A first-of-a-kind energy project in the United States, the 200-megawatt-hour energy storage system will be built to deliver 10 hours of energy storage capacity by compressing carbon dioxide gas into liquid. We are particularly excited this project will be built in the same community that has hosted our Columbia Energy Center for the last 40 plus years. Citing this project at an existing generating facility enables us to take advantage of the existing grid interconnection. Our company was selected for a $30 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Clean Energy to support this project. Importantly, both projects exemplify our purpose and showcases how our forward thinking efforts, partnerships, and innovation are helping us build stronger communities. Our investments are made in our backyard, in the communities we serve, where our customers live, and where we partner with local suppliers, contractors, and vendors. Now before I turn the call over to Lisa, I'd like to recognize that the farmers in our service territory are in the later stages of harvest season. And I'd like to extend my appreciation to all farmers and farm families for your commitment and partnership. Together we are using the Earth's natural resources to provide vital services. Please be safe as you wrap up your harvest. And I'd also like to take a moment to reflect on the achievements of our dedicated employees as we conclude another strong quarter. They have done a tremendous job of serving our customers and positioning us for success. Their efforts to keep the lights on and the gas flowing, irrespective of weather conditions, underscores our unwavering commitment to our purpose. I will now turn the call over to Lisa.