Alliant Energy Corporation

Thank you for holding and welcome to Alliant Energy's year-end 2024 earnings conference call. Note that at this time, all lines are in the listen-only mode. Today's conference is being recorded. 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 the webcast for joining us today. We appreciate your participation. With me here today are Lisa Barton, President and CEO, and Robert Durian, Executive Vice President and CFO. Following prepared remarks by 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 year-end and fourth quarter financial results and affirmed our 2025 earnings guidance range. This release, as well as an earnings presentation, will be referenced during today's call and are available on the investor webpage 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 Alliant Energy's news release 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 ongoing earnings per share, which is a non-GAAP financial measure. References to ongoing earnings exclude material charges or income that are not normally associated with ongoing operations. The reconciliation between ongoing and GAAP measures is provided in the earnings release, which is available on our website. Non-GAAP adjustments include an asset valuation charge related to IPL's Lansing Generating Station of 17 cents per share recorded in the second quarter of 2024. Restructuring and voluntary employee separation charges of $0.08 per share recorded in the fourth quarter of 2024. An asset retirement obligation charge for STEAM assets at IPL of $0.06 per share recorded in the second quarter of 2024. And an adjustment of deferred tax assets due to Iowa tax reform of $0.04 per share recorded in the fourth quarter of 2024 and in 2023. At this point, I will turn the call over to Lisa.

Thank you, Sue. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. 2024 marked another year of solid financial and operational performance during which we made considerable progress on our key strategic priorities. As we review our strong operational and financial performance for 2024, We'll look ahead to 2025, providing updates on our progress towards achieving key strategic objectives that enhance our ability to support our customers, communities, and importantly, drive shareholder growth now and for generations to come. Reflecting on 2024, I'm extremely proud of the progress we made and the strong foundation we built, one that positions us well to drive sustainable growth and deliver meaningful value. Our ongoing 2024 EPS growth aligns with our long-term target of 5% to 7%. We increased our dividend with 2024 marking the 21st straight year of dividend increases. We successfully commissioned 1.5 gigawatts of solar energy investments, adding to our 1.8 gigawatt wind generation fleet, reinforcing our leadership in regulated owned renewables. Our approved electric rate review construct in Iowa stabilizes electric base rates for customers through the end of the decade and allows us to grow in tandem with our economic development success rate. Positions the company to earn its authorized return on equity through the retention of new tax credits, energy margins, and capacity revenues, while we invest in energy resources to support growing energy demand. provides a framework to support economic development through an individual customer rate construct, enabling the company to capture meaningful economic development growth to benefit our communities. By putting our newly IUC-approved construct into action, we reached a significant milestone in our economic development efforts, securing commitments with signed agreements of up to 1.9 gigawatts of data center load at our Big Cedar site in Cedar Rapids. Our individual customer rate or ICR construct in Iowa and Wisconsin are key tools for economic development and community growth. We recently filed an ICR contract for one of two Iowa data centers, and we look forward to the IUC's review of this contract. We expect the second ICR contract to be filed in the first quarter. As we have highlighted in previous calls, we are committed to ensuring all ICRs benefit existing customers, new customers, and our shareholders, which will be demonstrated in these confidential filings. Our team continues to advance our purpose-driven strategy and is taking measures today to enable the achievement of our financial and operational objectives over the long term. We operate in two states that have enacted legislation to fast track and support economic development, creating new opportunities for growth and investment. To complement legislation adopted last year to support megaprojects, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds recently introduced legislation to continue providing tools to accelerate economic development in the state. Key provisions of the bill include non-contested integrated resource plan filings with the IUC and the requirement to file non-contested IRPs at least every five years. Lowering the threshold for advanced rate making to 40 megawatts and expanding eligibility requirements for advanced rate making to encourage all of the above energy solutions and technologies in Iowa. In Wisconsin, the legislature enacted a sales and use tax exemption for data centers. This legislation is designed to increase investments and growth in the sector. With that in mind, I'm excited to announce we have an agreement in principle with a data center customer that has purchased land in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. As noted in previous calls, we have increased our focus on economic development, and this will continue to be our focus in the months and years ahead. Expanding the competitive advantage of our service territory through our efforts to drive economic development in Iowa and Wisconsin is driving meaningful outcomes, attracting new investments, creating jobs, and supporting investments in the infrastructure needed to support long-term growth in the communities we serve. Tying our economic development wins back to our CapEx plans, as you recall, in November 2024, We refreshed our capital expenditure plan to incorporate energy resource investments to meet the first phase or up to 1.1 gigawatts of our data center growth. At this time, we also, at that time, we also indicated that we had an additional 800 megawatts of data center load backed by fully executed land transmission and energy supply agreements where we were awaiting greater clarity on the timing of the load ramp. We now have that clarity. Given our confidence in our Wisconsin Beaver Dam location, we expect to add this new data center demand to our updated resource supply plan, capital expenditure plan, and financing plan, which will be provided as part of our Q1 2025 earnings release. As noted in slide five, we are taking a responsible approach to meeting these needs using a combination of existing capacity, new generation, demand response, and capacity purchases. This allows us to accelerate our ability to serve the load while building length in our CapEx plan well into the future. Our economic development efforts, including the addition of new data center loads, are projected to increase energy sales. This increase in sales will help distribute fixed costs across a larger customer base, contributing to more stable and manageable rates for our customers. We recognize speed to market is critical for meeting the needs of growing and new customers, whether they are large load industries or local expansions. Our reliable, balanced portfolio of existing resources, combined with our inventory of MISOQ positions, to connect new energy resources, short-term market purchases, and our track record of successful execution gives us confidence in our ability to capture these opportunities. Now, let me briefly touch on the investment growth opportunities associated with our 16% interest in American Transmission Company. MISO transmission investments present a strategic opportunity for us to enhance regional grid stability. Earlier this year, MISO announced capital investments for tranche 2.1. ATC expects to be assigned approximately $2 billion of tranche 2.1 with an additional opportunity through the right of first refusal or competitive bid process of up to $1.8 billion. We do not expect a material impact to our current capital expenditure plan since the majority of investments related to Tranche 2.1 would be post-2030. At Alliant Energy, we are committed to strengthening the energy grid by reducing outages, improving recovery times, and expanding capacity with a balanced mix of cost-effective and proven technologies. At the same time, we continue investments in future innovations to meet growing demand while maintaining affordability for our customers. Looking back on my first year as CEO, I'm proud of our team's relentless dedication and execution of our purpose-driven strategy. Their dedication not only strengthens our service to customers and communities, but also fuels sustainable long-term value creation for our shareholders. As we celebrate National Engineers Week, I'm proud to recognize the exceptional contributions of our engineers whose innovation and expertise continue to propel our industry forward. Equally important, I extend my deepest gratitude to our dedicated generation team, line crews, and extended team for their unwavering commitment to delivering reliable energy to our customers. Your hard work and dedication are the backbone of our operational success and the driving force behind our continued progress. I will now turn the call over to Robert to provide our financial results, financing plans, and an update on regulatory matters.