Xcel Energy Inc.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to today's Xcel Energy Year-End 2022 Earnings Conference Call. For your information, today's conference is being recorded. Questions will be taken from institutional investors. Reporters can conduct media relations with inquiries of individual investors, and others can reach out to Investor Relations. At this time, I turn the conference over to your host today, Mr. Paul Johnson, Vice President, Investor Relations, and Treasurer. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning and welcome to Xcel Energy's 2002 fourth quarter earnings call. Joining me today are Bob Frenzel, Chairman, President, Chief Executive Officer, 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 questions if needed. This morning we will review our 2022 results and highlights and share recent business developments and regulatory developments. Slides that accompany today's call are available on our website. As a reminder, some of our comments during today's call may contain forward-looking information. Significant factors that could cause results for those anticipated are described in our earnings release and our SEC filings. Today, we'll also discuss certain metrics that are non-GAAP measures. Information on the comparable GAAP measures and reconciliations are included in our earnings release. I'll now turn the call over to Bob Frenzel.

Thanks, Paul, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our fourth quarter call. We had another very successful year at Xcel Energy, continuing to execute on our strategy while delivering strong financial and operational performance. For our investors, we delivered EPS of $3.17, representing the 18th consecutive year of meeting or exceeding our initial earnings guidance. In February, we raised our annual dividend for the 19th straight year, increasing it 12 cents per share or 6.6%. More recently in November, we extended our long-term investment plan, which features a 10-year capital outlook with an approximate 7% rate-based growth. We ranked in the top quartile in customer reliability, or SADI, and our residential electric bills are more than 20% below the national average. And amidst the backdrop of significant commodity increases this year, Xcel Energy's 4,500 megawatts of owned wind farm continued to be an industry leader in net capacity factor performance and generated approximately $1 billion of fuel-related customer savings in 2022 and almost $3 billion since 2017. Our nuclear fleet remains the top-performing fleet in the country and achieved a capacity factor of 96% last year. We had an active regulatory year and resolved multiple rate cases in URI storm cost recovery proceedings. The Commissions in Minnesota and Colorado approved resource plans that will add nearly 10,000 megawatts of utility scale renewables to our systems through this decade. The Minnesota Commission approved our 460 megawatt Sherco solar project. The Colorado Commission approved our $2 billion power pathway transmission project. And MISO awarded us $1.2 billion of transmission projects, and we accelerated our timeline for transitioning out of coal and now expect to be coal-free by the end of 2030, all of which contribute to our leadership in clean energy transition for our customers. We continue to lead in carbon reduction as well. 2022, our estimated carbon emissions were approximately 52% below 2005 levels, And we remain on track to achieve 80% carbon reduction across the company by 2030. The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act will reduce the cost of renewables for our customers, improves cash flow and credit metrics for the company, and enhances the competitiveness of our renewable offerings. Continue to execute on our electric vehicle vision, implementing multiple new programs for our customers. We also filed comprehensive transportation plans in Minnesota and Wisconsin that are pending commission approval. We've advanced our ESG leadership and have been recognized by multiple entities, including an upgraded rating by MSCI from AA to AAA. And finally, we are named among the world's most ethical, admired, and responsible companies. And we are recognized for being a best veteran employer, as well as for our disability inclusion in the workplace. I'm really proud to lead a team that can deliver on operational, financial, environmental, and diversity goals all simultaneously. Looking ahead, we're well positioned for sustainable organic growth over the next decade, including affordable renewable additions in our resource plans, the transmission needed to enable those carbon-free resources, and responsible community transitions as we retire our coal plants. We've recently issued requests for proposals in Minnesota, Colorado, and at SPS seeking approximately 6,000 megawatts of new renewable generation, a portion of the 10,000 megawatts that have been approved in our jurisdiction. We'll submit our recommended portfolios of generation assets to our commissions by the middle of this year and anticipate decisions in the second half of this year. We also expect to issue additional RFPs in Minnesota and Colorado this year, and next year for the remainder of our approved needs. As we've discussed in the past, we believe that we have a geographical advantage in the clean energy transition due to the strong wind and solar resources in our service territory. This access to low-cost renewable energy should also give us further advantage in developing green hydrogen and other clean fuel projects, which are becoming more feasible as a result of federal support from the Infrastructure and Jobs Act and the IRA. Late last year, we submitted hydrogen hub concept papers for both the Rocky Mountain and the Upper Midwest regions to the Department of Energy to compete for awards from the $8 billion hydrogen hub program. In December, we received favorable notice from the DOE for our concepts and were encouraged to submit full applications in April. In addition, our pink hydrogen production pilot at our Prairie Island nuclear generating stations expected to be operational this year. Finally, we expect to bring forward opportunities this year to utilize clean fuels and green hydrogen blending at both our gas fire generation stations and in our gas networks for home and building heating. As we continue to utilize innovative technologies to decarbonize our business, we are well positioned to take advantage of potentially significant hydrogen capital investment opportunities in the future. As the penetration of renewable assets in our states increases, we're also interested in pursuing advanced storage opportunities to balance our electric system needs. Today, we're excited to announce a new partnership with Form Energy to develop two long-duration energy storage pilot projects. Form Energy's 100-hour battery technology could be a critical component to our decarbonization strategy, providing the resiliency and reliability that we need on the system to support our significant renewable portfolio. We plan to deploy a 10 megawatt multi-day storage system at a retiring coal plant in both Minnesota and Colorado. These projects are expected to be online as early as 2025. And as we wrap up, I want to thank the thousands of employees who worked in below zero temperatures, sustained high winds, and several feet of wet, heavy snow to keep the lights on and the houses warm during our recent winter storms. Your efforts exemplify our company values of connected, committed, trustworthy, and safe. And I believe that our dedicated employees and partners are what distinguishes Xcel Energy with our customers.