Xcel Energy Inc.

Today, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Xcel Energy first quarter 2020 earnings conference call. Questions will only be taken from institutional investors. Reporters can contact Meteor Relations for inquiries, and individual investors and others can reach out to Investor Relations. Thank you. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I turn the conference over to Paul Johnson, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to Xcel Energy's 2020 first quarter earnings conference call. Joining me today are Ben Folk, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, Bob Frenzel, President and Chief Operating Officer, and Brian Van Abel, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. This morning, we'll review our 2020 first quarter results, share business developments and regulatory developments, discuss how we're managing through uncertainty around coronavirus. There's an expanded list of slides today that accompany our call 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 than those anticipated are designated in our earnings release and our findings at the FCC. 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 the comparable GAAP measures and reconciliations are included in our earnings release. I'm now turning the call over to Ben. Well, thank you, Paul, and good morning, everyone. You know, as I reflect back on the past few months, my heart really goes out to the individuals and families impacted by the coronavirus, the devoted healthcare professionals so bravely serving our communities and the businesses across all sectors experiencing tremendous economic challenges. At Xcel Energy, we understand how critical our work is to the health and safety of our communities and local businesses. I'm so pleased with how our employees and industry have responded during this unprecedented time, working to keep people safe, delivering reliable service to customers, and providing support to those in need as we've done for over 100 years. I also want to thank our employees for their dedication, spirit, and creativity in finding ways to support our communities and stimulate local economic growth. Now turning to the quarter. We've gotten off to a solid start, booking 56 cents per share for the first quarter of 2020, compared with 61 cents per share last year. We believe we can take actions that will allow us to weather the impacts of COVID-19, and as a result, we are reaffirming our 2020 guidance. Brian will discuss the financial results in more detail. At Xcel Energy, we're taking significant strides to help our customers and protect our employees. while continuing to deliver critical energy services. Some of our actions include we're committing to not disconnecting residential customer service and arranging payment plans if they're having difficulty paying their bills. In Minnesota, we are proposing to reduce our approved fuel forecast by $25 million to give immediate relief to our customers. We stepped up our charitable giving and are helping our communities during this time of need. and we are working closely with our regulators and state and local leadership to identify constructive solutions to support our communities and customers. We're keeping our employees safe by implementing work from home policies, providing personal protection equipment, and following CDC social distancing guidelines, and enhancing cleaning practices, conducting temperature checks at critical facilities, segregating crews, and staggering work times. To ensure continued reliability, we've implemented business continuity plans, which allows us to prioritize work and are prepared to sequester critical employees on site if necessary. From a financial standpoint, we've enhanced our liquidity and developed contingency plans to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. Finally, we expect to be part of a solution to help get the economy back on its feet by continuing to invest in our communities through our capital expenditure programs that create jobs and drive demand for equipment and supplies. While this is a fluid situation with considerable uncertainty, Xcel Energy has always shown a remarkable dedication to serving our customers during difficult times, and this set of challenges is no exception. Moving on to business development, We recently announced the opportunistic sale of the Mankato natural gas plant for $680 million. You recall we originally proposed this acquisition as a fully regulated asset. However, when the Minnesota Commission rejected this proposal, we acquired Mankato as a non-regulated asset and stepped into the power purchase agreement. While we thought Mankato would provide significant long-term value, especially as we shut down coal assets, We heard from several investors that having a non-regulated asset clouded the Xcel Energy story. As a result, when several potential buyers expressed interest in acquiring the plan, we decided to sell it and preserve our status as one of the very few fully regulated pure-play utilities. And since the earnings were back-end loaded, we don't expect the sale to materially impact our earnings projections. And while it was not part of the rationale for the sale, the transaction will improve our liquidity in these uncertain times. We will use the proceeds to reduce funding needs and improve our credit metrics. In addition, we will book a game which we will use to fund charitable giving efforts including supporting COVID-19 relief efforts throughout our communities. Finally, we recently announced some important promotions as part of our succession plan. Bob Frenzel was named President and Chief Operating Officer and Brian Van Abel was named Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Bob has been our CFO for the past four years and has extensive experience in the industry prior to joining Xcel Energy. While Brian has had increasing roles in finance, including treasurer, financial planning and analysis, and corporate development. Both Bob and Brian are extremely intelligent and talented employees who have been instrumental in developing and executing our strategy and delivering our consistently strong financial results. And while I don't plan to retire anytime soon, These promotions reflect the deep bench strength and thoughtful planning we have at Xcel Energy. So with that, let me turn the call over to Brian, who will provide more detail on our financial results and outlook, along with our actions to mitigate coronavirus impacts. Brian? Thanks, Ben, and good morning, everyone. We achieved solid results, recording 56 cents per share for the first quarter of 2020, compared to 61 cents per share last year. The majority of the quarterly deviation is driven by weather. We experienced warmer than normal winter weather this year compared with cooler than normal weather last year, which results in a $0.04 per share unfavorable comparison. Most significant earnings drivers for the quarter include lower O&M expenses increased earnings by $0.03 per share. Our lower effective tax rate increased earnings by $0.03 per share. However, the majority of the lower EPR is due to an increase in production tax credits, which flow back to customers through electric margins and tax reform impacts, both of which are largely earnings neutral. Offsetting these positive drivers were lower margins due largely to unfavorable weather, which reduce earnings by 3 cents per share, and which offsets riders and regulatory outcomes. Increased depreciation and interest expense, reflecting our capital investment program, reduced earnings by 5 cents per share, and other items combined, decreased earnings by 3 cents per share. Next, I want to discuss the potential impact of COVID-19 and the actions we are taking to mitigate a range of outcomes. Starting with sales, our first quarter weather and leap year adjusted electric sales declined by 1.1%, while natural gas sales increased by 0.4%. The coronavirus crisis had a minor impact on first quarter sales. The economic shutdown started in mid-March, so we did not experience the full monthly impact. For March, our total residential sales increased slightly, while C&I sales declined 4%, resulting in a total retail electric sales decline of 3% on a weather-adjusted basis. However, a better reference point on the monthly COVID-19 impact is what we saw in our preliminary April numbers, in which almost all of our states were under relatively strict shelter-in-place orders. Residential sales increased 3.2%, while C&I sales declined 13.7%, and total retail electric sales declined 9.6% on a weather-adjusted basis. And keep in mind, we have a sales throughout mechanism for all electric classes in Minnesota and decoupling for the electric residential and non-demand small C&I classes in Colorado. This covers about 45% of our total retail electric sales. And to help us prepare financially for the pandemic, we developed three sales scenarios as outlined in our presentation. The mild scenario assumes a severe impact through May, followed by a relatively quick recovery in the third quarter. This results in a sales decline of approximately 2% compared to 2019. Our base case, and the case in which we are reaffirming our earnings guidance around, assumes a severe impact through the second quarter with a slower U-type shift recovery with lingering effects for the rest of 2020. This results in a sales decline of approximately 4% on a year-over-year basis. Lastly, the severe scenario assumes a severe impact last through the third quarter followed by a protracted L-type shape recovery. This is a challenging scenario with a deeper and longer bottom in our base case, resulting in a sales decline of approximately 8% for the year. We use these scenarios as we develop our contingency plans. We view the mild and severe case scenarios as having a low probability of occurring. We think the base case scenario is the most likely outcome, or at least within the band around the sales impact we've outlined, and have incorporated the base case into our guidance assumptions. There's considerable uncertainty on what will actually occur, particularly the duration of the downturn and the lingering effects. We're also confident in our ability to mitigate what we view as the most likely scenario, and the April sales results came in slightly better than our forecast, giving us greater confidence. We're also closely monitoring our bad debt expense and working with our customers on payment plans if they're having difficulty paying their bills. While it is difficult to project where we'll land, bad debt expense increased approximately $20 million in the 2008 to 2009 time period as a reference point. Additionally, our commissions in Wisconsin, Texas, and Michigan have issued orders to track and defer pandemic-related expenses. We've also filed for deferred accounting treatment of incremental COVID-19-related expenses, including bad debt in Minnesota, Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, and South Dakota. We are implementing contingency plans to reduce our overall cost structure and mitigate the impact of COVID-19. Some of these actions include cost reductions related to employee expenses, consulting, variable compensation, deferral of certain work activities, and the implementation of a hiring freeze. Based on our contingency plans, we now expect annual O&M expenses will decline 4% to 5% in 2020, which would offset the impacts of COVID-19 in the base scenario. We also have plans in place to ensure that we can implement additional contingency plans if the negative impacts of COVID-19 exceed our base case scenario. However, there are limitations to what we can offset. We will focus on providing strong customer service and reliability, and we will not make short-term decisions that have a negative long-term impact on our customers or shareholders. Turning to supply chain, the situation is fluid, but we have not had any material impacts to our supply chain with the exception of our wind farms. In mid-April, we were informed of supply chain disruptions, which will likely result in delays in the completion of two of our wind farms into 2021. We are monitoring the situation closely and are striving to complete the projects this year. However, we have fully documented our activities since 2016 and have maintained continuous efforts since then, so we are confident these wind farms will qualify for 100% PHC benefit, even if they are completed in 2021. The last topic I want to cover on COVID-19 is liquidity. We're in a very strong position after enhancing liquidity in March by entering into a $700 million term loan with attractive terms, and we issued a $600 million 10-year holding company bond. We now have available liquidity of approximately $3.1 billion. In addition, the sales proceeds from the Mankato plant will increase liquidity by approximately $650 million. And finally, We issued an equity forward last year, which we expect to settle later this year and will provide another approximately $740 million in cash. In total, this will provide liquidity of nearly $4.5 billion. We also plan to issue $1.9 billion of operating company debt throughout the year. As a result of our enhanced liquidity, we have the flexibility on issuance timing to ensure the capital markets are accessible at attractive terms. For more detail on liquidity, please see our earnings release. Next, let me provide a quick regulatory update. We have three rate cases pending and the coronavirus has not resulted in any material delays in regulatory proceedings. In New Mexico, we reached a constructive unanimous settlement that reflects a rate increase of approximately $31 million, a ROE of 9.45%, an equity ratio of 54.8%, and acceleration of depreciation on the Tote coal plant to reflect an earlier retirement. We are awaiting a hearing examiner recommendation and commission decision. In Texas, SPS and intervening parties have reached an unopposed constructive settlement agreement in principle. We are working with parties to document and file the settlement, which we expect to appear shortly. We anticipate a commission decision in the third quarter. In February 2020, we filed a natural gas case in Colorado seeking a net rate increase of $127 million. based on an ROE of 9.95% and an equity ratio of 55.8%. This is fairly early in the process, so there's not much to report, but the procedural schedule has been set with new rates expected to become effective in November based on statutory requirements. In terms of earnings, there is considerable uncertainty around the coronavirus impacts. Therefore, we have implemented contingency plans to manage our cost structure and made regulatory filings that will help to offset the impact of COVID-19. As a result, we still expect to deliver 2020 earnings within our original guidance range of $2.73 to $2.83 per share based on our base case scenario, which we think is the most likely scenario. In addition, we can implement additional O&M contingency plans if the COVID-19 impacts exceed the base case. However, there are limitations to what we can offset as we balance the short-term and long-term for both our customers and investors. Our contingency plans are not offset the severe scenario, which would likely result in earnings of lower guidance range, but we feel the severe scenario has a low probability of occurring. With that, I will wrap up. We have implemented steps to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. We sold the Mankato facility for a modest gain. We increased our dividend 6.2%. We reached constructive rate case settlements in New Mexico and Texas. We remain committed to delivering on our 2020 guidance and our long-term earnings and dividend growth within our 5% to 7% objective range. We continue to provide reliable energy service to our customers while ensuring the safety and well-being of our employees and communities. Despite the near-term economic challenges, we are executing our strategy extremely well and we remain positive about the opportunities in front of us for the benefit of our customers, communities, and shareholders. And finally, We believe we can help rejuvenate our local economies and work with our regulators and state leadership to help our communities and customers recover from the crisis. We're looking forward to being part of the solution. This concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, we will now take questions.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, you may do so by pressing star 1 on your telephone keypad. Please make sure the mute function on your phone is turned off so the signal can be read by our equipment. Star 1 for questions. We'll pause a moment to assemble the queue. We'll take our first question from Stephen Byard with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning. I hope you all are doing well.

Thank you. You too.

Good morning. I wanted to just get an update at a high level in terms of the opportunity for additional PPA buyouts, just What are you seeing in terms of the opportunity, or is that sort of a little bit on pause just given the COVID-19 dynamics? I'm just curious at a high level what your views are on that opportunity. Great question, Stephen, because we're all focused on COVID-19, but we're still running a business and still looking for opportunities. Brian, do you want to? Yeah, good question. And so as we think about it, we're in regular contact with our counterparties. And obviously, there could be potential here as you see what's happening. And if any of them have an interest of selling, we're certainly in regular contact. We have our proceeding of the malware acquisition in front of the commission, and we hopefully see a decision on that in Q2 or Q3. But then we're also looking at how we use the ERP and our IRP processes to help jumpstart some of that, too. You know, some of the discussions around our acquisitions in Minnesota is, you know, how can we better improve the process with the department and our stakeholders to ensure that we're bringing it forward and have a comprehensive discussion. So we're certainly active on that stage, and, you know, we've talked about it before. It continues to be part of our plan, but we don't include any of that in our base capital plan. Understood. And just maybe at a high level, in terms of resource planning, how do you think about the opportunity for further acceleration of renewables? I guess on the positive side, you know, renewable costs keep dropping. We may, there's always a potential for tax credits to get extended. The wind credit got extended again last year. You know, on the negative side, I guess we have demand uncertainty from COVID. In Texas, we had, you know, uncertainty around the the status of the energy sector overall, but how do you think about the potential for additional sort of renewables growth, additional shutdowns of some of your coal assets? Do you feel about the same as you felt before? Are there reasons to be more bullish or more cautious? How would you think about that? I guess the short answer is probably a little more bullish. You know, the costs, as you mentioned, Stephen, continue to come down, and so our steel for fuel strategy continues to be, I think, obviously economically attractive. And, you know, I think the test of that was the ability to get our renewables approved in Texas and New Mexico and basically on economic terms. I think the element, the other element too, Stephen, which makes me bullish is that, and this is where I think we can partner with our states and our commissions and state administrations to be part of the, you know, the solution to getting people back to work, and that's potentially accelerating some of our capital opportunities and using that to build more renewables at a great price point that actually helps save customers money and employs jobs, good jobs. So not unlike when we had the Great Recession, I can tell you many times I've had people people stop me, people that typically work in our labor unions, and actually thank myself and really the company for continuing to go forward with projects because that was the only job in town. And, you know, that's something to be really proud of, and I think we can replicate that again. That's helpful. I'll pass it on. Thank you. Thank you.

We'll take our next question from David Peters with Wolf Research. Please go ahead.

Yeah, hey, good morning, guys. Good morning. I was wondering if you could just give a view of where you guys see yourself within the guidance range under the space scenario. Did you say where we are in the guidance range? Yeah. Let me just. I guess I would say take a look at our track record over the last 15 years. I think we've demonstrated that we can deliver within the earnings gains range. Typically that's been at the middle or above. So we're quite proud of that and we expect we'll be able to do that this year. But if you look at what we've done in the past in our track record, on the first quarter earnings call, we don't give any additional guidance whether we're going to be the bottom, the top, or whatever. That's the first quarter. We're confident under the base case scenario, we'll be in the earnings gains range, and as the months and quarters roll on, as we've done in the past, we'll potentially get more color on it. Great. And then just on the preliminary sales data for April, do you have a sense of which states are seeing more weakness than others, just, you know, understanding that you have decoupling in Minnesota and some protections in Colorado as well? David, will you suggest, what is the question about what states were affected, what the divergence in the states for April? Is that basically what you're asking? You're kind of breaking up on us. Yeah, yeah. That's right. Yeah, I'm happy to provide a little bit of color on that. You know, I think as we look at it, you know, we saw the most resiliency on the CNI side in SPS. and probably the biggest impacts on the CNI side in Minnesota and Wisconsin and other northern territories. So I think that's a calling. We'll certainly watch it as we go over time. A part of what we saw in Minnesota is we did have a combined heat and power plant, as we talked about in our call before, go online in May of last year. So that's part of what we see and we look at month over month. But Overall, in the commentary, you know, greatest weakness in CNI side in Minnesota and in Wisconsin and less so in SPS and Colorado is roughly in the middle of those two. Okay. And the last question I had is just I think you said the equity floor, do you expect to settle around the year end? But just on the Nancato sale, does that impact the equity plans at all either for this year or next, just kind of what you guys laid out last year? No, it doesn't. We'll use it for our financing costs for this year. We don't expect to not settle our equity forward this year. We do plan to settle it. But what Mankato does is really it's an infusion of cash of $650 million and it'll provide some additional headroom on capital investment if we have an opportunity to potentially accelerate investments and really help our communities and and customers and the regulators accelerate some of this rebound from this crisis. So I think it gives us just an additional capital headroom. As we think about longer term, you know, we think about our five-year plans. So we'll reevaluate that and overall financing plans as we get to Q3 and lay out a new five-year capital plan. Great. Actually, the final question is the two renewable projects that you mentioned that could slip into 21, which ones are that? Those are the two Minnesota farms that we're looking at. But I would say, you know, we've done, as you'd expect from us, right, we've taken a very conservative approach and made sure we've had all the documentation since 2016, and we've maintained continuous efforts since then. So we're highly confident, even if they do slip a month or two into 2021, that we'll qualify for harm-sent PPCs. Great. Thanks, guys. Take care. Another question? Operator, can you advance to the next question, please? We know we have some people in the queue, so maybe we're having some technical difficulties. Is somebody on mute for us? They're with us. Meanwhile, Paul Johnson will sing a song. If you can hear me, you are thankful that I won't do that. I apologize for the delay.

We'll take our next question from Jeremy Tanay with J.P. Morgan.

Hey, Jeremy. Hi. Good morning. Thanks for having me. Thanks for having me. Thanks for all the call this morning. Really helpful. Just wanted to start off, I guess, do you have any regulatory obligations or guarantees associated with the wind that could impact earnings because of the project that went into 21 here? Just wanted to touch base on that point. Can you take that one too, Brian? Yeah. No, I mean, in terms of we have no obligations in terms of getting in service in 2020. And, you know, we're certainly working towards that. And that's our goal is to get them completed in 2020. Okay. But in terms of obligations, in terms of timing, we don't. There are obligations in terms of an overall cost gap, but we're certainly working to mitigate any impacts on that as you start to see a delay in schedule. We're certainly working with our suppliers and our balance plan contractors to ensure that we bring them in under the original order of PUC cost gap. Yeah, so we're pretty comfortable with that, Jeremy. In addition, the SPS plan projects do have 100% PTC guarantee, but again, we think that those will get into construction by the end of the year, and we're very confident on 100% PTC. That's great to hear. Thanks. And just a cleanup question, slide 17. It seems like AFTDC equity ticked up a bit there. Just wondering if you could give a little bit more color on that. Yeah, from our original guidance, it did. As you start to see some delays in some projects, and part of that was our Blazing Star 1 wind farm that we just put in service in April. That took, as we were in the wintertime, it took a little bit longer. So that's part of it. So just kind of across the board, as you see, part of it's the wind farms and part of it's some other investments that we're making. And there's also a little bit higher, as we took steps to improve our liquidity, also a little bit higher FGC rates. Got it. That's helpful. That's it for me. Thanks.

We'll take our next question from Julian Julian Smith with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

This is Alex Morgan calling in for Julian. Good morning. Can you hear me?

You can, Alex. How are you doing? Yes, good morning.

I'm doing well. How are you? Thanks so much for taking my question.

Well, if we would have known you, of course we would have answered your questions.

Aw, thank you. My first question is about your rate case filings that you have for this year. I was wondering if you have any updates on whether or not you could potentially push out Minnesota again or potentially push out Colorado and maybe if how you're thinking about using existing trackers to track that rate base instead.

Hey, Alex. Good morning. It's Bob. Thanks for the question. You know, we recognize that these are challenging times, and we do like to work with our regulators in advance. You know, in both Colorado and Minnesota, we have been investing in infrastructure and assets that our customers value and our regulators support. But like in the past, we do think there are mechanisms that would allow us to not file those rate cases, and you can be assured that those conversations are happening with the staff and the commissions as applicable in the respective states. We'd like to not file those cases, and we'll probably have more information for you on the second quarter call later this year.

Okay. Thank you. Understandable. My second question and my last question is, It's just about your CAGR over time. I was wondering if you're still anticipating being potentially the upper end of that long-term guidance. And thank you again.

Yeah, I think it's a great question. You know, again, and I talked a little bit about it with an earlier question, but, you know, you look at what drives our 5% to 7% growth, and it's investing time. and projects and opportunities that are very much aligned with our states, our communities, our regulators, our legislators. So, you know, I don't see that changing, and I don't see changes to our CapEx forecast unless they're to the upside going forward. So that's what drives our growth, and that's where we'll get it from. I should mention, too, that I think we have – You know, one of the things I think we've done as a company is on sunny days prepare for the stormy days. And we've got great dry powder on our balance sheet. Brian mentioned the other things we did. We also continue to invest in our system, keeping it strong and reliable. So that allows you to weather. situations like that and potentially come back stronger and a partner with our states as we look to, you know, jumpstart the economy when we all get through this.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. We'll take our next question from Travis Miller with Morningstar. Good morning. Go ahead.

Good morning, Travis. Good morning. Thank you. And a question on the contingency plans. I think you might have answered this real quickly, but on the O&M side, how much of these contingency plans have you been able to accomplish so far? I mean, we're talking about first four or five months of the year. And then any change to the CapEx plan within those contingency plans? I think you just answered no, but just want to clarify the O&M side and then the CapEx side. Yeah, Travis, thanks for the question. And Ben did answer the capital question. You know, we really see no plans in our CapEx for this year. On the O&M side, you know, this crisis hit relatively recently, so we're working through all those plans, and we have a plan for balance of the year in terms of implementing them. I mean, Ben said it pretty well. You often hear Ben and Bob talk about dry powder in O&M. You know, that's been used in the context of our financial dry powder with our strong balance sheet, our conservative dividend payout ratio. But we also have operational dry powder. And, you know, we've invested in the system. And then in the good days and as a time of crisis year, we're able to weather it. And we look at and we think about the O&M contingency plans we're putting in place, whether it's we've implemented the hiring freeze. We're looking at reducing employee expenses, and that will happen over time, reducing consulting spend and other programs. And as we think about it, right, we're targeting, as I talked about, targeting 4% to 5% to really mitigate that base case scenario. But we do have the ability to flex up a little bit in case it's a little bit worse. Okay. So evenly spread more or less throughout the year. That's a fair assumption. Okay. And then on the renewable development, How much are those delays project-specific, and how much are you seeing just across the entire industry, supply chain issues or other financing delays or construction delays, stuff like that, industry-wide versus the couple projects you mentioned? Hey, Travis, it's Bob. I'll just comment. You know, we work with our – our OEM vendors, as well as our balance of plant providers to execute the schedules. We have seen some supply chain disruptions started when China shut down for a while. We've had mild disruptions from other plants where we get some of our components. We think that's an industry-wide phenomenon. I think, as Brian mentioned, we've been exceptionally diligent in tracking our costs, we are really comfortable with our ability to meet the safe harbor provisions for achieving 100% PTC. These are projects that were originally scheduled to be, you know, later in this year anyway. And so while we're trying actively to get them completed in 2020, there's the potential to do slip into 21. But I do think it's stuff we're seeing around the industry. And also, not only is it our vendors, but there's a logistics and a supply chain issue with and parts transport that we're seeing. You know, it's not – I wouldn't say it's catastrophic by any stretch. It's just mild. We just happen to have these for later dated projects for us. Yeah, and again, we're trying – you know, we're very, very confident. You know, I've worked with outside law firms to know that we'll pass the continuous efforts test. Okay. Any difference you're seeing between solar and wind in terms of what you just talked about with supply chain and other logistics? You know, right now, Travis, we're only building wind farms on our own balance sheet. I haven't seen or heard a lot of solar delays. There's been a couple of public force majeure filings on some solar farms around the country, but I don't think we can speak with any authority on the solar side. Okay, great. Appreciate it. Thank you.

We'll take our next question from Sophie Karp with KeyBank. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. Thanks for having me. I was curious if you could provide a little bit more color on the supply chain disruptions that we've been talking about, particularly with these two wind farms, what you guys have seen in the supply chains. And also, do you expect that these issues may infect sort of other areas, maybe traditional power generation, transmission, distribution businesses where it might affect the availability of, you know, parts and things like that as we move forward in the lockdowns and trying to continue? Thank you.

Yeah, sure. We haven't seen any supply chain disruptions on any of our other components, you know, other than maybe toilet paper and hand sanitizer and face masks. But on the wind farms themselves, you know, a lot of the components are manufactured overseas and assembled here. And so depending on the progress of the pandemic and which country it's in, which factories, has caused, you know, two-, three-, four-week delays in various places, which compounded equals maybe a six or seven or eight week delay on our projects. And that was enough to potentially push them across the goal line. We're seeing not just constraints on the OEM side, but we do see logistics constraints around ports and air travel and shipping as well. And so that's caused some of the problems. I can't say that we've seen Any other disruptions on any of our other components, we just haven't. But those discrete items are stuff we're watching closely. As Ben and Brian have said, we feel very confident in our ability to qualify for the PTCs at 100%, and we're working diligently with our vendors and our transportation providers to get all the components here and get them constructed by the end of the year.

Thank you. This is all for me.

Ladies and gentlemen, this will conclude today's question and answer session. At this time, I turn the conference back to Brian Van Abel for any additional or closing remarks.

Yes, thank you. And thank you for all participating in Ernie's call this morning. Please contact our investor relations team with any follow-up questions. And have a good day. Thank you.

Thank you, everyone. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference. We appreciate your participation. You may now disconnect.