Xcel Energy Inc.

Good day, and welcome to Xcel Energy's second quarter 2022 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, Treasurer, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, and welcome to Xcel Energy's 2022 Second Quarter Earnings Call. Joining me today are Bob Frenzel, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, and Brian Van Abel, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. In addition, we have other members of the management team in the room to answer your questions if needed. This morning, we will review our 2022 results, share recent business and regulatory developments. Slides that accompany today's call are available on our website. As a reminder, some comments made during today's 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 SEC filings. Today we will discuss certain metrics that are non-GAAP measures. Information on the comparable GAAP measures and reconciliations are included in our earnings release. With that, I'll turn it over to Bob. Thanks.

Thanks, Paul. Good morning, everybody. It was certainly an interesting 11th hour twist in legislative news last evening, but we'll get to that in just a minute. Let's start with our financial results. We had another solid quarter recording earnings of 60 cents per share in 2022 compared with 58 cents per share in 21. Our earnings are on track with expectations, and as a result, we're reaffirming our 2022 earnings guidance of $3.10 to $3.20 per share. During the quarter, we made good progress on our clean energy plans, achieving constructive regulatory outcomes. In June, the Colorado Commission approved our resource plan settlement, which includes approximately 4,000 megawatts of utility scale renewable additions, the conversion of our Pawnee coal plant to natural gas by the end of 2025, and the early retirement of our Comanche III coal unit by the end of 2030, which will be the final coal plant retirement in Colorado. We now have the approval of both our Minnesota and our Colorado resource plans, which together will add 10,000 megawatts of utility scale renewables to our system and achieve an 85% carbon reduction by 2030. We anticipate issuing RFPs later this year, submitting our recommended portfolios by mid 2023, and receiving commission decisions in the second half of 2023. We expect the recommended portfolio We expect the recommended portfolio of generation assets will include self-build, build-owned transfers, and power purchase agreements. Our plans are consistent with our seal for fuel strategy, which provides a valuable hedge for our customers against rising commodity prices. Our owned wind farms are projected to generate nearly $1 billion of fuel-related customer savings in 2022 alone, and a total of $2.7 billion since 2017. We're excited about our transmission expansion opportunity. MISO's long-term planning approach identified projects in Futures One with an estimated investment of $30 billion that will be awarded in four discrete tranches. Earlier this week, the MISO Board approved tranche one, which includes $10 billion in projects. Based on the most recent information from MISO, we anticipate a $1.2 billion investment opportunity for Xcel Energy within tranche one. Turning to electric vehicles, we're making progress on our goal to power 1.5 million EVs by 2030, supporting our states in achieving their electrification goals. We are excited to be the first U.S. energy company to introduce all electric bucket trucks to our fleet, and we expect to file comprehensive transportation plans in Minnesota and Wisconsin in early August. These state proposals include single and multifamily residential offerings. commercial customer programs, as well as a school bus pilot. In addition, we're looking to accelerate EV adoption through the development of high-speed public charging infrastructure by partnering with our states and other organizations. The proposed programs will also foster customer affordability, providing significant fuel savings for EV drivers and helping to keep bills affordable for all customers, through load growth and enabling more efficient utilization of distribution grid infrastructure. The Minnesota and Wisconsin proposals reflect capital investment of approximately $325 million from 2024 to 2026, which does not include distribution investment needed to upgrade the grid. Xcel Energy's clean energy leadership, including our longstanding track record of carbon reduction, is the direct result of the passion that our dedicated employees bring to serve our customers and our communities. Earlier this month, we received another exemplary rating from the Institute of Nuclear Power Operators for our Prairie Island Nuclear Power Plant. We've continued to improve performance and cost efficiencies, demonstrating sustainable excellence in operations. I want to congratulate and thank all of our nuclear employees support teams, contractors, and suppliers for their commitment and impact. Nuclear remains a very important source of reliable, carbon-free energy. We're proud to be one of the top operators in the nation. Yesterday, it was announced that Senators Schumer and Manchin had reached agreement on the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. While we still need to analyze the details to understand all of the nuances of the act, it appears to include nearly all the broader clean energy tax credits, including new and extended tax credits for wind, solar, hydrogen, storage, and nuclear. While it doesn't include direct pay for all taxpayers for all tax credits, it does include tax credit transferability as an option when direct pay is unavailable. As we've previously discussed, our capital investment plan is not dependent on changes in federal policy. However, the energy provisions included in the Act would provide substantial customer benefits and help enable our clean energy transition while keeping our customer bills affordable. There's still a lot of twists and turns that can happen in Washington, but we're optimistic that the bill could become law. This past quarter, we were honored to be among the first companies inducted into the Climate Leadership Hall of Fame. which recognizes different organizations across the country for exemplary leadership in response to climate change. We're also recognized with a Hubert H. Humphrey Public Leadership Award for our groundbreaking sustainability goals in Minnesota. And finally, we received the EEI National Key Accounts Award for Outstanding Customer Engagement, which recognizes companies and their account executives for providing excellent support and offerings to corporate customers. Our customers are at the heart of everything we do, and it's great to be recognized for our work in helping them achieve their goals. I want to thank these organizations for the recognition, along with our employees, partners, and stakeholders who make it possible. With that, I'll turn it over to Brian.