Ameren Corporation

A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone requires operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Andrew Kirk, Senior Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Modeling for Ameren Corporation. Thank you, Mr. Kirk. You may begin.

Thank you and good morning. On the call with me today are Marty Lyons, our Chairman, President, Chief Executive Officer, and Michael Main, our Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, as well as other members of the Ameren Management team. This call contains time-sensitive data that is accurate only as of the date of today's live broadcast, and redistribution of this broadcast is prohibited. We have posted a presentation on the AmerenInvestors.com homepage that will be referenced by our speakers. As noted on page two of the presentation, comments made during this conference call may contain statements about future expectations, plans, projections, financial performance, and similar matters, which are commonly referred to as forward-looking statements. Please refer to the forward-looking statements section in the news release we issued yesterday, as well as our SEC filings for more information about the various factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. Now, here's Marty, who will start on page four. Thanks,

Andrew. Good morning, everyone. At Ameren, we power the quality of life for millions across Missouri and Illinois. Our strategic approach is built on three fundamental pillars, making prudent investments in rate-regulated energy infrastructure, advocating for responsible energy policies, and continuously optimizing our operations to create long-term, sustainable value for our customers, communities, and shareholders. This strategy is not just about keeping the lights on. It is about paving the way for a cost-effective, more reliable, and resilient energy grid that meets our customers' growing needs and driving regional growth for decades to come. As highlighted on page five, we made solid progress on our key strategic objectives in the first half of the year, which will help us deliver on these commitments to our customers and shareholders. During the first half of the year, we invested over $2 billion in critical infrastructure, advanced key regulatory proceedings, and delivered strong operational performance, all while keeping our average electric rates below the national and Midwest averages. In the second quarter, we experienced a high number of severe weather events, including an EF3 tornado on May 16th that spanned a mile wide and traveled 23 miles through central St. Louis County and northern parts of St. Louis City and into Illinois. This tornado caused extensive damage and widespread outages across Amherst, Missouri and Amherst, Illinois. We deployed more than 2,700 field personnel in the days following the tornado, including Amherst crews, contractors, and supporting resources from across the Midwest, who responded swiftly and safely, rebuilding damaged infrastructure, replacing nearly 1,000 poles, and restoring service to more than 290,000 customers. Weather events like those experienced earlier this year underscore the importance of our ongoing investments in a more resilient energy grid. Enhancements like upgraded substations, composite poles designed to withstand high winds, and smart technologies that enable faster outage detection and automated grid self-healing are helping us restore power safely and more quickly when these serious storms strike. We remain focused on making these investments responsibly, balancing reliability and resilience with affordability. Now let's cover the financial results for the quarter, as shown on page six. Yesterday, we announced second quarter 2025 earnings of $1.01 per share, compared to earnings of $0.97 per share in the second quarter of 2024. The key drivers of these results are outlined on this slide. We continue to expect 2025 diluted earnings per share to be in the range of $4.85 per share and $5.05 per share. Turning to page seven, I'll provide an update on economic development activities in our region and associated sales growth opportunities. We continue to expect approximately .5% compound annual sales growth from 2025 through 2029 in Missouri, primarily driven by increased data center demand. We remain engaged with potential data center customers and are building a robust pipeline of large load opportunities that extend well into the next decade. As discussed on our first quarter call in May, we've executed construction agreements with data center developers representing approximately 2.3 gigawatts of future demand, with this load expected to begin ramp up in late 2026 and beyond. These developers have demonstrated their confidence in and commitment to their potential projects by submitting non-refundable payments totaling $28 million towards the cost of necessary transmission upgrades. And we are actively engaged with potential customers to execute electric service agreements or ESAs that are aligned with our proposed Missouri large load rate structure and, among other things, would establish anticipated minimum ramp schedules. Like our proposed rate structure, which I'll talk about in a moment, these ESAs will be subject to Missouri PSC approval. In addition, data center developers with existing construction agreements have requested that we study expanding their data center projects given our competitive power rates and access to the desirable construction sites with available transmission interconnection. Of course, in order to support economic opportunities, as we outlined in our preferred resource plan in February, we must quickly accelerate generation portfolio additions to provide the energy and capacity needed to serve these customers. On page eight, we provide an update on generation resources currently under development at Amern, and new certificates of convenience and necessity, or CCNs, requested from the Missouri PSC. In June, we requested a CCN for the Big Hollow Energy Center, which, as proposed, will consist of an 800 megawatt simple cycle natural gas energy center and a 400 megawatt battery energy storage facility. Both of these facilities will be located at the site of Amern's retired Rush Island Energy Center, which will reduce construction time and costs for our customers and keep jobs and tax space in the community. Subject to commission approval, we expect the Big Hollow Energy Center will begin serving customers in 2028. Our generation development efforts remain on schedule as we work toward achieving targeted in-service dates. To proactively manage supply chain risks, we've already secured key components with long lead times, such as turbines and transformers, for our energy centers with expected in-service dates through 2029. And we've begun equipment procurement activities for our first natural gas combined cycle energy center. We expect to have purchase commitments in place for turbines and related equipment by the end of this year and for the combined cycle energy center to be serving customers by 2031. It's important to note that the significant investment needed to construct data centers, as well as the energy infrastructure needed to support them, will create meaningful job growth and tax revenues to support our local economy. In addition to the energy and capacity to serve these large load customers, to realize this opportunity, we must also offer attractive rates. On slide nine, we outline Amern Missouri's proposed large load rate structure, which we filed with the Missouri PSC in May. Under the proposed large load rate structure, we would deliver service under our existing large primary service base rate, which is currently approximately six cents per kilowatt hour, and customers would agree to additional terms and conditions as part of an ESA. The additional terms would include a minimum service term of 15 years, a minimum demand In addition, new customer programs would be available, allowing customers to advance their clean energy goals by supporting the carbon-free energy resource of their choice through incremental payments. In summary, this rate structure would offer a competitive rate designed to ensure large customers pay their fair share of the cost of service. We're actively engaging with key stakeholders as we seek Missouri PSC approval for our proposed large load rate structure and related customer programs. While no deadline exists for Missouri PSC approval, based on the existing procedural schedule, we would expect a decision by February 2026. Moving now to page 10 for an update on the long-range transmission planning process at Our focus remains on building the Tronch 1 and Tronch 2.1 long-range transmission planning projects assigned to us and developing strong proposals for Tronch 2.1 long-range transmission planning competitive projects. The bidding and selection process for the $6.5 billion portfolio of competitive projects will take place over this year and next. We are carefully evaluating each bidding opportunity and will submit bids for projects where we believe we offer a clear advantage on project design, cost, and execution to deliver value for customers in the MISO region. As we have successfully done in the past, when it enhances the strength and competitiveness of our proposals, we expect to partner with other entities. Further, MISO continues its future scenario redesign efforts, which will incorporate significantly increasing energy demand and updated resource mix assumptions across the region. We expect this analysis to show the need for significant transmission investment in the region, which is expected to be incorporated into later project portfolios in MISO's long-range transmission planning. MISO is now expected to issue its final report outlining four scenarios of possible future energy grid conditions in early 2026. We expect this will lead to identification of specific transmission infrastructure investment needs in our region late in 2026. Moving to page 11. Looking ahead over the next decade, we have a robust pipeline of investment opportunities, which stands today at more than $63 billion that will deliver significant value to all of our stakeholders by making our energy grid stronger, smarter, and cleaner, and powering economic growth in our communities. Turning to page 12. In February, we updated our five-year growth plan, which include our expectation of a 6 to 8% compound annual earnings growth rate from 2025 through 2029. And we expect to be near the upper end of our guidance range in the mid to latter part of our five-year plan. This earnings growth expectation is primarily driven by our sales growth assumptions and strong anticipated compound annual rate-based growth of 9.2%, reflecting strategic allocation of infrastructure investment to meet these demands and strengthen the grid in each of our business segments based on their regulatory frameworks. We expect to deliver strong long-term earnings and dividend growth, resulting in an attractive total return. I'm confident in our ability to execute our investment plan and strategy across all four of our business segments as we have an experienced and dedicated team to achieve our growth objectives. Again, thank you all for joining us today and for your continued interest in Amron. I will now turn the call over to Michael.