Xcel Energy Inc.

Good day and welcome to the Xcel Energy third quarter 2019 earnings conference call. Questions will only be taken from institutional investors. Reporters can contact media relations with inquiries and individual investors and others can reach out to investor relations. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Paul Johnson, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning and welcome to Xcel Energy's 2019 third quarter earnings conference call. Joining me today are Ben Folk, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, and Bob Frenzel, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. In addition, we have other members of the management team available to answer your questions. This morning we will review our 2019 third quarter results, discuss earnings guidance, update our financial plans and objectives, and also update you on recent business and regulatory developments. Slides that accompany today's call are available on our website. As a reminder, some of the comments during today's conference call may contain forward-looking information. Significant factors that could cause results to differ from those anticipated are described in our earnings release and our findings with the SEC. On today's call, we will discuss certain metrics that are non-GAAP measures, including ongoing earnings and electric and natural gas margins. Information on comparable GAAP measures and reconciliations are included in our earnings release. With that, I'll turn the call over to Ben.

Well, thank you, Paul, and good morning, everyone. Let's start with earnings. Today, we reported third quarter earnings of $1.01 per share, compared to 96 cents per share last year. Three quarters of the year behind us, we are on track to deliver earnings in the upper half of our guidance range. Consistent with our third quarter tradition, we've updated our investment plan, which now reflects $22 billion of capital expenditures over the next five years. This represents rate-based growth of 6.7% off a 2019 base year. Our updated capital forecast is, of course, driven by our investment in renewables as we continue the clean energy transition. The forecast also includes investment in our advanced grid initiative, expenditures to improve the customer experience, additional investment in the transmission system to maintain asset health and reliability, and a natural gas combined cycle plant and our SHRCO facility to ensure reliability as we retire coal plants. This represents a base capital forecast, and we are also confident that there are likely additional upside investment opportunities not included in this base plan. We're also initiating 2020 guidance of $2.73 to $2.83 per share. which is consistent with our 5% to 7% long-term EPS growth objective. We're very excited about our plan, which provides customer value, delivers attractive returns for investors, and keeps customer bills low. Next, let me update you on our PPA buyouts and wind projects. In September, the Minnesota Commission denied our proposal to acquire the Mankato Combined Cycle Plant as a rate-based asset. Over its life, we believe the Mankato asset brings tremendous value and reliability to the system, especially as we retire coal plants. As a result, we have filed to acquire Mankato as a non-regulated asset and assume the existing PPAs with NSP Minnesota, which run through 2026 and 2039. We anticipate the acquisition will generate utility-like returns over the life of the asset. However, we expect the non-regulated returns will be lower in the near term as the benefits are back-end loaded. We've made wholesale generation filings at FERC and affiliate interest filings with the Minnesota Commission, and we expect approval in December or January. We believe that our PPA buyout strategy can provide significant customer benefits. As a result, we'll continue to evaluate customer beneficial acquisition opportunities and we'll proactively work with our stakeholders to identify the costs and benefits of the transactions. Please note, our capital forecast does not include any incremental PPA acquisitions. Our two proposed wind PPA acquisitions, Long Road and Maurer, produce significant savings for our customers, and these benefits are front-end loaded as the PTCs would flow back to customers in the first 10 years. We expect a Minnesota Commission decision on Long Grove by the end of the year and Maurer in the first half of 2020. We continue to achieve important milestones in our nation-leading wind expansion. We have completed the development phase of our 522 megawatt Sagamore wind project in New Mexico, with construction slated to begin later this year and commercial operation expected by the end of 2020. In the Upper Midwest, a developer scaled back the Crown Ridge wind project by 200 megawatts due to increased MISO transmission and interconnection cost. We had planned to own 100 megawatts of Crown Ridge as a built-owned transfer project. While this has an immaterial impact on our capital forecast, it does highlight the need to expand transmission investment to address congestion and ensure the viability of future renewable projects. So as a result, we, like the Blues Brothers, are on a mission to put the band back together again. And we are working with the original CapEx 2020 utilities, which built over $2 billion of transmission projects in the Upper Midwest over the last 10 years. We expect similar constraints and investment opportunities in SPP and Colorado as well. While it's not in our five-year forecast, and it will take some time to develop and implement plans, The need for additional transmission highlights the long runway for capital investment for Xcel Energy. With that, let me turn the call over to Bob. He'll provide more detail on our financial results and outlook and a regulatory update.