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spk02: Hello and welcome to Avangrid's fourth quarter and full year 2021 earnings conference call. I would now like to hand over to our host, Michelle Hansen, Manager of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
spk04: Thank you, Elliot, and good morning to everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss Avangrid's fourth quarter 2021 earnings results. Presenting on the call today are Dennis Areola, our Chief Executive Officer, Patricia Goscow, our Chief Financial Officer, And also joining us today will be Bob Trump, Deputy Chief Executive Officer and President of Off On Grid, Katherine Stempion, President and Chief Executive Officer of Off On Grid Network, Jose Antonio Miranda, Co-CEO and President Onshore, Bill White, Co-CEO and President Offshore, and Doug Stuber, our outgoing CFO. If you do not have a copy of our press release or presentation for today's call, they are available on our website at www.offongrid.com. During today's call, we will make forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Building Station Reform Act of 1995, based on current expectations and assumptions, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results can differ materially from our forward-looking statements if any of our key assumptions are incorrect or because of other factors discussed in OutlineGrid's earnings news release and the comments made during this conference call in the respective section of the accompanying presentation or in our latest reports and findings of the SEC, each of which can be found on our website. We do not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statements. Today's presentation also includes references to non-GAAP financial measures. You should refer to the information contained in the slides of some of these state presentations for definitional information and reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to the closest GAAP financial measures. I will now turn the call over to Ben.
spk08: Well, thanks, Michelle, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us for our fourth quarter earnings call. Let's get started with the review of 2021, beginning on slide five. By nearly all accounts, 2021 was a banner year for Avangrid as we successfully demonstrated that by focusing on execution and building a culture of accountability, we could deliver on our operating and financial commitments. In 2021, we finished the year with net income and adjusted net income up 22% and 25%, respectively, above our 2020 results. In addition to our strong consolidated financial results, each of our individual business segments delivered as well. At networks, adjusted net income increased 16%, and at renewables, adjusted net income was up 48%. Even with the impact of our equity issuance in May, Auburn Grid's adjusted earnings per share rose 8% compared with 2020 to $2.18 per share. Now, this success was mainly driven by our strong operating performance and customer service and networks, which represents over 80% of our earnings. In renewables, we delivered in critical growth areas, such as offshore wind, by completing the financing and then commencing construction for Vineyard Wind 1, our 800-megawatt joint venture. In December, we were selected as a winner for our largest offshore project yet, a 1.2 gigawatt award for Commonwealth Wind. In addition, we advanced construction and continued improvements to our fleet's energetic availability in onshore wind and solar. Additionally, we were able to raise $4 billion in equity at the market price without a discount, which strengthened our balance sheet and helped fund our growth plans as we continue to work to get the final approval for our merger with PNM Resources. I'm also proud that Avangrid is continuing to be recognized by multiple organizations for our ESG and F leadership. So needless to say, 2021 was a strong foundational year for Avangrid, from which we will continue to build and grow. Turning to slide six, at our last investor day in November 2020, we told you that Avangrid was going to focus on the basics and improve on how we served our customers. In networks, we made great progress in 2021 with a record investment of $2.2 billion and an increase in rate base of 9% to $11.7 billion. A major component of our improvement has been our renewed commitment to the customer experience. We've reduced call handle times and expanded services like e-billing to more customers, increased our customer service contact satisfaction to over 90%, and thanks to our customer service teams, we secured over $100 million in government assistance to help support customers in need. In Maine, we've turned the corner on our customer service challenges, and now, under the leadership of our new Central Maine Power CEO, Joe Purrington, we're focused on the present and the future, not the past. We're pleased to report that last week, the Maine Public Utilities Commission removed the 100 basis point ROE adjustment imposed on CMP as they recognized the consistent improvements we've made. And moving forward, we're redesigning our overall customer experience and improving our communication channels so that our customers can interact with us in a seamless way. In addition, we've increased our proactive planning for storms using data analytics and increased positioning of crews to respond more effectively when we do get impacted by Mother Nature. As a result, we reduced the number of customers impacted by outages in 2021 by 22%. Now, we also supported other utilities across the country in their time and need, and our dedication and hard work were recognized by our national trade group, EEI. In 2021, our team in New York continued the work of implementing the rate plans that were approved at the end of 2020. We're starting to see the results not only in improved operations, but also on the bottom lines. New York makes up about half of our rate base, and with our focus on our new investments, we've started to see the gap in earned ROE improve by approximately 50 basis points, but we still have more work to do. Turning to onshore renewables, our focus on operational excellence and getting back to basics has substantially improved our wind and solar fleet's energetic availability to over 97% in 2021. This focus is what enabled us to successfully meet customer needs during winter storm Yuri in Texas last year. In 2021, we also delivered 386 megawatts of new wind and solar projects and currently have approximately one gigawatt of projects in construction. And we continue to enhance the value of our onshore business by executing contracts for 210 megawatts of solar and 39 megawatts of RECs. 2021 was truly a monumental year for our offshore business, as we became the first company to cross the finish line for permitting a commercial-scale offshore wind project and completed the financing. As a result, we're now constructing Vineyard Wind 1, which will become the first major offshore wind project to deliver clean energy to U.S. families. We close the year on a high note with another win for our Aubin Grid Renewables team, a 1.2 gigawatt award from Massachusetts for our Commonwealth Wind Project, making it both the largest award for us to date as well as the largest offshore wind project in New England. And last week, Prismian Group announced that it would build the first offshore wind manufacturing plant in Massachusetts, bringing hundreds of new jobs to the state and transforming a former coal power plant site into a clean energy hub. This was part of Avangard's proposal for Commonwealth Wind. And we continue to make progress on Park City Wind and Phase 1 of Kitty Hawk, with BOEM launching the environmental review process for both projects. Now, we did hit a couple of road bumps in 2021 in our PNM merger application approval in New Mexico and with the NECEC referendum in May. However, we remain committed to working toward a successful outcome for both important investments. We've extended our merger agreement with PNM Resources to April 2023, and we filed an appeal with the New Mexico Supreme Court In Maine, we're challenging last year's unconstitutional referendum. We truly believe of these efforts that they're a win-win for all of our stakeholders. With PNM, our merger would bring at least $300 million of benefits to the state of New Mexico, while NECEC would help bring much-needed energy cost relief and stability to New England at a time when families are struggling with rising energy prices. Turning to slide seven, I want to spend a couple minutes on our focus on continuous improvement at Auburn. In early 2021, we launched our Every Day Better Continuous Improvement Journey. And from the very beginning, we wanted to do this to be – we wanted it to be about improving and making it easier to do business every day at Auburn. For these improvements to be sustainable over the long term, they can't just be driven by senior management and outside consultants. The ideas and changes we've implemented are driven and owned by our employees. This includes a range of opportunities, including process improvement, creating capacity in our teams, increasing revenues, and reducing low-value activities. And when we do all these things right, we see the results in health and safety, higher employment and employee engagement, increased customer satisfaction, and improved financial results. And we're very proud of what we accomplished through Every Day Better in year one. We successfully delivered between $40 and $50 million in value, with approximately $30 million pre-tax falling to the bottom line. In addition, new capacity has been created that can be reprioritized to critical activities. We're reinvesting the business, and we're addressing cost avoidance. in 2022 we expect to see further improvements in how we do business and even more value creation let's now turn to our 2022 priorities starting on slide eight this year we plan to invest approximately 1.9 billion dollars in our networks business Basically, bread and butter investments to continue improving our operational effectiveness, as well as safety, reliability, and overall resiliency in our system, including our AMI investments in New York. We'll continue to strengthen our relationships with state and federal agencies in 2022, and we have multiple initiatives underway to resolve open regulatory matters. In renewables, it's all about signing market-based PPAs with our customers and continuing to build out our portfolio on time and on budget with a target of about $1.4 billion in investments. In offshore wind, we'll continue constructing Vineyard Wind 1 and hitting our key project milestones, including the start of offshore construction while advancing the development of Park City Wind, Commonwealth Wind, and Kinyaha. We'll remain focused on prudently managing our balance sheet and credit metrics while actively exploring alternative funding options, including partnerships and asset recycling for investments that may no longer be strategic or may be more valuable to others in the market. Now, given the continuing supply chain challenges and inflationary pressures, we'll stay focused on our supplier partnerships and leverage the purchasing power and global scale of Iberdrola's procurement group where it makes sense. and we'll continue to push forward our legal challenges to deliver successful resolutions in our PNM Resources merger and the NECEC project in May. In addition, we'll continue to implement our Everyday Better journey to generate incremental value of at least $30 million in 2022, with approximately $15 to $20 million pre-tax expected to fall to the bottom line. But make no mistake about it, 2022 continues to be about execution. Now, slide nine provides a high-level summary of where we're focusing our $1.9 billion in investments and networks in 2022. Again, this is really about continuing to make our energy systems stronger, safer, and more reliable, while also beginning the rollout of our advanced meter infrastructure in New York. And about 80% of the investments will go to the electric side of the business and just over 20% to gas distribution. And the result will be a roughly 8% increase to total rate base by year end to $12.7 billion. In onshore renewables on slide 10, we continue to focus on constructing our roughly one gigawatts in projects scheduled for COD this year and in 2023 while mitigating supply chain and inflation pressure. With product availability impacting the entire country as well as our sector, we're managing supply chain challenges as effectively as possible. Our wind projects are contracted for supply through 2023, and our solar modules are contracted for our projects under construction with CODs in 2022 and 2023. We still, however, need to stay focused and work with suppliers to ensure the actual availability of the product. That's where we try and leverage Iberdrola's purchasing power to help further manage risk. As for our offshore wind priorities on slide 11, we'll continue to focus on building Vineyard Wind 1 and hitting key construction milestones. And as a reminder, basically all the supply chain elements have been contracted for Vineyard Wind 1, and the labor costs for the project are either fixed or capped. Development of our other major projects continues to go forward, and we expect to have the Commonwealth Wind PPAs completed by the end of the second quarter in 2022. We believe strongly that our affiliation with Iberdrola is a competitive advantage in the U.S. offshore wind business, and we plan to continue leveraging their experience and resources as appropriate. Now turning to slide 12, I want to focus on the value creation that takes place in the offshore wind development lifecycle. Now that we've closed our strategic offshore wind restructuring, and I'll speak to that in a little bit more detail on the next slide, we now directly control 4.9 gigawatts of offshore wind potential along the East Coast. This includes 2.4 gigawatts of project in New England, of which 1.2 gigawatts is fully contracted, and another 1.2 gigawatts is in the contract negotiation process, and also 2.5 gigawatts from our Kitty Hawk lease area in North Carolina and Virginia. Now, this control allows us to more easily deliver incremental value and future growth and to fully capture the value of our offshore wind investments. This economic value will be realized over the life of the assets, but may also be realized in part as we determine the optimal financing structure for these investments, including partnerships, which could then generate additional gains to those we are reporting in Q1 2022. You can see the development timeline here, which starts with the acquisition of the lease area. This is one of our competitive advantages. By being an early mover in offshore, we have lease areas which are undervalued on our books based upon current market prices. We then move through permitting, continue with financial closing, construction, and end with COD. Advancing through the development process reduces uncertainty and increases portfolio value. As you move to the right, it not only reduces the project risk and increases the value, but it also makes it easier for new potential partners to participate in our deals. There are various potential partners that don't want, for example, PPA or permitting risk, but they're able to pay a higher valuation premium for a piece of a project once those development steps have been completed. Now that we solely own and control 4.5 gigawatts of our total 4.9 gigawatts offshore portfolio, Auburn Grid controls its own destiny in terms of when we bring in partners to monetize our projects and reduce capital requirements. I don't believe that this optionality and incremental value is fully appreciated by the market and reflected in our stock price, and we need to do a better job of explaining it. However, the restructuring agreement and resulting gain in 2022 clearly demonstrates part of this value. And speaking of value creation, let's turn to slide 13 and spend a couple minutes on our recently restructured joint venture agreement with CMP. As a result of the restructuring agreement, which closed in January 2022, we're now the sole owner of a 1,232-megawatt Commonwealth wind and 804-megawatt Park City wind project in Massachusetts and Connecticut, respectively. We continue to maintain a 50% interest in the 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind 1 project under construction. This strategic restructuring increases Auburn Grid's offshore wind pipeline to 2.4 gigawatts in New England, making us the largest offshore wind supplier in New England. And to help understand the value of leased areas, we made a net payment of $168 million to acquire 100% of leased area 534, which contained Park City wind and Commonwealth wind. And in exchange, CIP, our partner, took full ownership of lease area 522, the easternmost offshore wind area. As a point of comparison, our lease areas for our Vineyard Wind 1, Park City, and Commonwealth projects were acquired in auction for below $1 million. And based on current market prices of offshore lease areas, they are currently valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars. And that's before we continue to develop the portfolio and further increase its value. This strategic transaction allows Ovingrid to generate a gain of about $175 million, which we'll record in Q1 of 2022. This gain is associated with the value generation from the transaction, considering the excess of the net present value of the future cash flows versus our recorded book value of the lease areas in their current stage of development, which will be recognized since here in 2022. So in essence, this gain in Q1 represents the incremental value of future cash flows related to our initial investment. and the synergies of full control and joint development of Park City Wind and Commonwealth. This unlocked future optionality demonstrates additional value in our total offshore portfolio that's going to be realized in real cash flows and real EBITDA over time. We'll provide additional detail of our offshore business at our investor day so you can get a better understanding of the significant value of these assets and their recurring impact to our P&L in the future. Now, sustainability is truly a part of our DNA at Avangrid. It's how we operate our business, and we're fully committed to our ESG&F strategy as core to our long-term value proposition and our investment decisions. And slide 14 provides a little of our bragging rights when it comes to ESG&F. 2022 marks Auburn's second consecutive year on the annual Just 100 list, where we increased our overall ranking by 25 places to number 48. And we continue to be a top performer among industry peers, placing fourth out of 38 utility companies. We were also named one of the world's most ethical companies by Ethisphere for the third year in a row. And our commitment to health and safety every day, and particularly through the COVID-19 pandemic, made Avangrid the first energy company to earn the well health and safety rate. In addition, S&P highlighted Avangrid as a world leader in sustainability. Now, we'll spend more time on this area during Ambassador Day, but ESPNF is integral to our overall strategy. Now, before we go on to the financial results for 2021 in more detail, I think it's important to recognize that the makeup of Avangrid's executive leadership team has really evolved over the last 18 months. And with that, I want to thank Doug Stuber for his steady leadership as CFO over the last four years and wish him all the best in his new role in Pittsburgh with the Steelers organization. So congratulations, Doug, and go Steelers, except when you guys play my L.A. Rams. Thank you, Doug. Today is Doug's last day with the company, and I'm proud to see him here. But I'm also pleased that we have appointed Patricia Cosco as Aubin Grid's interim CFO. And all of you know Patricia well. She joined UIL Holdings over 10 years ago and has served in various roles, including IR, Treasury, corporate finance, retirement benefits, investment management, and insurance risk management since then. It's a long resume. I'm confident that we won't skip a beat with Patricia leading our finance team. So please help me congratulate Patricia on her new role. And with that, let's put her to work to discuss our financial results and 2022 outlook. Patricia.
spk00: Thank you, Dennis, and good morning, everyone. Turning to our financial performance, Avangrid reported strong consolidated financial results for 2021. We produced adjusted net income of $780 million for the year, a 25% increase from our full year 2020 results. Additionally, embedded in the consolidated results are O&M cost mitigation efforts from our Every Day Better journey, which resulted in O&M as a percent of revenue that was slightly declined in 2021, helping to mitigate the impacts of inflation on our business. While our quarterly results were lower year over year, we remind you that in the fourth quarter of 2020, we recorded approximately $68 million, or $0.22, for the implementation of our New York rate plan, which included a make-hold back to April 17, 2020. This was a very important rate settlement for us, as New York represents approximately half of our rate base, and we were able to enhance our ability to mitigate storm outages and restoration costs with the key measures approved as part of these plans. Now, networks, our largest business segment, led the strong consolidated performance for the year, with adjusted net income increasing 16% in 2021. Networks adjusted net income also improved in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared to the fourth quarter of 2020 by 2%, even with the fourth quarter 2020 make whole benefit. This is largely due to the implementation of our rate plans, primarily at our New York companies, which added 68 million after tax in 2021. The electric and gas distribution and electric transmission investments in 2021 also positively impacted earnings. adding financial income from AFEDC of $18 million after tax, offset by depreciation from new assets placed in service. Importantly, these investments enhance safety, reliability, and resiliency, and further support our customers and communities. Renewables adjusted net income for the full year 2021 was 48% higher than for 2021. Our strong operating performance during the Texas weather event, which enabled us to deliver more energy than our firm commitment, contributed $93 million after-tax to the 2021 results. Production from the addition of new capacity in 2020 and PTCs also added $34 million after-tax to results for the full year 2021 compared to 2020, as did solid performance in thermal and asset management and improved pricing. which were $28 million and $22 million higher after tax in 2021 versus 2020. Moderating the annual and quarterly results for 2021 versus 2020 were lower wind production, ongoing costs related to growing the business, and higher taxes. Finally, when looking at the drivers in terms of adjusted EPS, the May 2020 equities, which increased average shares from $309 million for 2020 to $358 million for 2021, had an impact of negative 26 cents. Yet even with that higher amount of shares, we had an 8% improvement in adjusted EPS year over year. Moving to the next slide, we deployed new capital to drive growth in our business in 2021 with total investments of 3.3 billion, up 20% over the prior year. In network, our 2.2 billion of investments advanced ongoing efforts to enhance and modernize our system and ensure safe and reliable service by replacing gas pipeline mains and replacing and repairing aging infrastructure. We are also continuing to roll out AMI and enable distributive resources in New York, which was approved as part of our rate plan. As a result of these investments, we are able to grow our rate base in 2021 by 9% to $11.7 billion. In renewables, we invested $1.1 billion as we constructed over 1 gigawatt of wind and solar assets with PPAs and kick-started the U.S. offshore wind industry with the start of construction for our Vineyard Wind One project. In 2021, we also increased our renewables and stock capacity by 4% to 8.2 gigawatts. In renewables, we also saw the value of our investments with a 22% growth in adjusted EBITDA with tax credits for the year. This captures the positive contributions of our assets during the Texas weather event earlier in the year. However, even without this impact from earlier in the year, we had the benefits I mentioned related to new capacity, tax credits, and pricing, which improved adjusted EBITDA with tax credits by 12% in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared to the fourth quarter of 2020. Moving on for financing activities in 2021. Our successful sustainable financing program and equity issuance in 2021 provided approximately $7 billion in funding, including the unconsolidated Vineyard Wind project financing, and resulted in ample liquidity and improved credit metrics, positioning us strongly for the execution of our future growth. We have an ongoing financing program that focuses on sustainable funding sources. We were proud in 2021 to be awarded the Global ESG Deal of the Year by Project Finance International for the $2.3 billion financing for Vineyard Wind 1, the inaugural offshore wind financing in the U.S. This key financing achievement highlights the excitement for the banking community for offshore wind in the U.S., with nine global banks completing exhaustive due diligence and signing on to this construction and loan financing. Closing the financing was an important milestone, enabling us to issue notice to proceed to store suppliers and start construction last fall. As we previously communicated, we also issued our first green bonds at the utility level this year, totaling $625 million out of the $840 million of bonds we issued. We also refinanced our sustainability-linked credit facility, increasing the size from $2.5 to $3.575 billion. And with the $4 billion equity issuance this past May, we have significant resources to support our approximately $6.6 million of investments covering 2021 and 2022. Issuing this equity at the $5.5140 share price last year with no discount to the market also saved us approximately $13 million shares and $24 million in annual dividends at our current dividend level compared to if issued at the closing price on February 18th. The equity proceeds were used to repay borrowings, which lowered our borrowing costs. And they also strengthened our balance sheet, which we expect to use to fund the PNM acquisition, should it incur later this year with incremental debt. With our financing activities in 2021, we ended the year in a strong liquidity position. With $1.4 billion of cash, Our credit metrics have also improved, with the cash from operations pre-working capital to debt metric of 19% at the end of 2021, compared to 12.6% at the end of 2020. We value our credit ratings, and we are pleased that Moody's recently affirmed BMP's rating of A2 and a stable outlook, and affirmed United Illuminati's rating of BAA1, increasing its outlook to positive. We also highlight that the Board approved a quarterly dividend of 44 cents per share at its February 16th Board meeting, payable on April 1st to shareholders of record as of March 1st. Moving on to the next slide, we're pleased with our continued strong results this year, a reflection of our commitment to ongoing execution, which we are continuing from the prior year. We are providing our outlook ranges for 2022 of net income and adjusted net income of 850 to 920 million and EPS and adjusted EPS of $2.20 to $2.38 per share. On an adjusted net income basis, the midpoint of our outlook for 2022 represents a 13% increase from 2021, which as we noted was a 25% increase from 2020, providing a 19% CAGR for the two-year period. The adjusted EPS outlook, which reflects the share issuance in May of 2020, is a 5% increase at the midpoint of $2.29 from 2021 and a 6.5% CAGR from 2020. On the next slide, we show the key drivers of our 2022 long-term outlook. Note that the 2021 EPS figures includes the annualized amount of the shares, reflecting and we do not have any additional shares included in our 2022 outlook, so that the $387 million for 2022 reflects the full amount of outstanding shares for the year. As we manage our businesses to add value and support future growth, we restructured our offshore wind lease areas, as Dennis has noted, resulting in a gain that reflects the current market value of our own lease areas, which is based on the expected future cash flows of the project. As required by accounting standards, Due to the change in controls from the restructuring, the after-tax gain of approximately $175 million will be recognized in 2022 and depreciated over 25 years. It represents real earnings to the company that we are required to recognize now and that replaces future earnings, as earnings from the revalued portions of the lease areas will be lower in future periods due to greater depreciation from the stepped-up assets. In 2022, we will also have incremental revenues from our New York weight plan, additional production from renewable projects placed in service in 2021 and in 2022, including PTC. The trend in market pricing for renewables has been increasing, and we expect additional savings opportunities from our everyday better journey. These incremental positive drivers, we expect to offset the absence of the storm URI benefit in 2021 and costs related to the growing of the business. Additionally, construction on the NECEC transmission project has been suspended pending our appeal of the referendum in Maine, so we are not including AFUDC for the project in our outlook. And you are aware that our merger with PNM Resources did not close at the end of 2021, so we are also not including any earnings for that transaction in our 2022 outlook. Overall, we continue to get stronger and grow the earnings of the company. Even while the PNM and NECEC contributions that have shifted out of our 2022 outlook and even with the equity we issued in 2021. Our ongoing focus remains to execute our investment plans with discipline and continuously drive for excellence in our operations and customer service. And I wanted to summarize, again, highlighting that we had a strong year in 2021 as a result of our focus on the achievement of our financial targets and strategic initiatives. And we have successes with the execution of our financing plan that strengthened our balance sheet and supports our future growth. As we noted, 2022 will be continuing to focus on execution as we invest an additional $3.3 billion in the business that will be the foundation for the generation of future earnings, including with our longer-dated offshore wind investment program. We will efficiently fund our investments. We will continue to pursue successful resolution of our pending P&M merger and ACAC project, and we will manage supply chains and drive continuous improvement in value creation. Thank you for joining us today with our update on results. We also look forward to talking with you again at our Investor Day on March 22nd, where we will provide an update of our five-year outlook through 2025. At that time, we expect to provide more information and updates on our earnings expectations, our annual CapEx plans by business segment and utility, our network rate-based growth, how we are incorporating PNM resources and NECC into our expectations, and our financing plans. We'll also continue to provide additional information on the value creation of our offshore wind business and our ESG Plus apps initiative. I'll now hand the call back to our operator for questions, followed by closing remarks from Dennis.
spk02: Thank you for our Q&A. If you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad now. If you change your mind, please press star followed by two. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure your phone is unmuted locally. Our first question comes from Angie Skowronczynski from Seaport Research Partners. Please go ahead.
spk05: Thank you. And Patricia, congratulations. And Doug, we basically live vicariously through your career path, even without Big Ben. I mean, that's pretty impressive.
spk03: Thank you.
spk05: Anyway, OK, I wanted to talk about the NECC and the ASUDC. So you're no longer booking any AFUDC from basically starting from December, or you are excluding the AFUDC that was embedded in 21 numbers as well, meaning despite ongoing efforts to continue with this project, you are not recognizing any earnings stream related to NECC?
spk08: Yeah, good morning, Angie. This is Dennis. Yeah, you're correct. When we decided to suspend the construction back in December, we stopped recording any new AFUDC going forward. So we had a slight impact in 2021 at the end of the year, but we have not recorded any in 2022. But all of the AFUDC that was recorded prior to that remained in our 2021 results. And 22.
spk05: right?
spk08: No. In 22, again, we are not reporting any active AFUDC in our income statement because we're not constructing at this point in time for any CEC. That's correct.
spk05: Okay, I understand. Then secondly, could you comment about what your expectations of capex, offshore wind capex are, especially in like dollars per kW? I remember that you used to quote around $3,900 per kW, which was supposed to be an all-in cost. Can you give us a sense where the estimate is now?
spk08: Sure. You know, we haven't really given any further updates. I think as we've said on our previous calls, I think it's important to recognize that for Vineyard Wind, we have substantially all of the contracts have been entered into. And in the case of labor, we either have those labor costs fixed or with caps. So we don't see that really moving around very much. So for Vineyard Wind, we're looking at a total project cost bill of around $4 billion. And as far as for Park City and for Commonwealth, you know, we haven't finished, obviously, actually we haven't gone into the major part of the overall procurement, but we've been targeting about $4,000 per kilowatt. Okay. Okay.
spk05: And then moving on to Maine, it's really great to see that the ROE penalty has been lifted, but there's this regulatory review that the commission started, and I just wonder what type of financial implications this could have on CNP.
spk08: Sure. Let me start off, and I'll ask Catherine to jump in as well. But I think, as you said, we're really pleased that the Commission last week recognized, I think, the extraordinary work by our team in Maine to focus on customer service, and not just for one month, but consistently. And, you know, I think, as I said, the team under Joe's leadership is really focused on the present and the past, the present and the future and not on the past. Now, this issue here, we're actually, it's not something that we're really concerned about because we think that, you know, we're open to, you know, comments by the commission and things that we can be doing better. But, Catherine, maybe you want to provide a little bit more color on what we expect there.
spk01: Sure. Thanks, Dennis. And hi, Angie. A little bit of context on what's going on in Maine. You may recall that we had a management audit that we were undergoing under a summary investigation that dates back to the previous customer care issues that Dennis had mentioned. but that we're now very confident that we have resolved. As part of that proceeding, CNP filed a performance improvement plan with the Commission. And as part of that, we agreed to continue to keep the Commission informed of all of our progress, both in terms of customer service progress, but also in terms of the changes that we're making with management and in working with our customers and our communities and our stakeholders in Maine. The summary investigation process that the Commission started does not procedurally allow for that kind of a continued open docket and update with the Commission. And so in addition to our ability to continue to update them, they had a couple of additional questions with respect to our capital planning and budgeting process. So that's why they opened up this additional investigation. It's really just to have that follow-up on those couple of opening questions and allow us the ability to continue to update them on our progress. We feel very confident that this is part of our strategy on improving our regulatory relationships and our stakeholder relationships in Maine, and we'll continue to look forward to work with the PSA in order to answer any remaining questions that they have and continue to show our improvement in our service and our customer quality in Maine. Very good. Thank you.
spk05: Thanks, Angie.
spk02: We now turn to Richard Sunderland from J.P. Morgan. Your line is open.
spk10: Good morning, Richard. Good morning. Thanks for the time today. Maybe just starting with the offshore game. Just want to unpack that a little bit. If I'm following the commentary correctly, the earnings you're recognizing this year is then somewhat offset later with the higher depreciation, or if I'm following this correctly, there's a timing element at play here. Just want to confirm that dynamic, meaning that the higher depreciation ultimately lands in operating results and not something adjusted out in the future. Could you just walk through those parts for me?
spk08: Yeah, no, you're looking at it the right way. Basically, we're required by accounting regulations to look at, as a result of the change in control, of what the future cash flows are going to be related to our initial investment in Park City Wind and Commonwealth. And so we work with an outside group that helped validate what those cash flows would be relative to the current market conditions and expected market conditions. And as a result, we're basically taking the net present value of those earnings here in in 2022. And as you've said, we will continue to basically amortize the depreciation in the future. So you'll see a reduction in net income related to what we're booking here in 2022. But you will see the corresponding EBITDA in those years. So, and the cash flow, obviously. And so, when you think about what we're booking, it truly represents the value that we're going to, and cash flow that we're going to be getting in the future.
spk10: Understood. That was helpful. So just to be clear on the sort of EBITDA and cash flow point, the value here is essentially non-cash, but then going forward, you'll see the EBITDA and cash flows associated with this.
spk08: Yeah, I guess the way that I think about it, Richard, is it represents the economic value of the true cash value that's going to be received in the future.
spk10: Understood. That's helpful. And then maybe just circling back to 2022 and blocking on a net income basis. I know there are several moving parts here with the URI contribution, the offshore gain in 22, and then I guess any CEC as well. But it looks like kind of on net of these factors, net income looks to be a little flattish year over year, maybe in consideration of any CEC. Obviously, some other positives with CMP penalty and your rate plans. Could you just walk through the drivers maybe on the cost side as well that are driving that and anything you'd call out that we may not appreciate there on the shape of net income growth specifically?
spk08: Sure. I think when you look at it, you touched on the major ones, but obviously from 21 to our forecast for 22, on the positive side, you've got continued improvement from the New York rate case. You talked about the CMP, the 100 basis points. That's obviously a positive. We do have increased depreciation and operating expenses on the network side of the business. And obviously, you've got the loss of the AFUDC going forward. that won't be included in 2022. And there are some finance costs related to debt. When you look at the renewable side of the business, you touched on the Texas. Now, what I'm saying about the Texas is even though we don't expect that to replicate here in 2022, the importance of Having our turbines ready or solar panels ready to take advantage of market opportunities when demand is high and prices are volatile is something that, you know, really does help differentiate us. And we've got to make sure that when those opportunities do come out like they did last year, that we take advantage of them. The other pieces that add to what's going on, obviously, are the new bill that we've added, the capacity in renewables, you know, wind output as related to that, and basically, it's offset slightly by the financing costs as well related to the business that are allocated there. But those are the major ones, and obviously, from an EPS standpoint, you've got the additional shares.
spk10: So, again, thinking of net income, what's flattening out the growth into 22 then, you know, when you have 8% rate-based growth in the backdrop here?
spk08: You've got depreciation that's adding to that, the operating costs that are being added to in networks as well. Those are the primary ones.
spk10: Understood.
spk08: Thanks for the color. Okay. Thanks, Richard.
spk02: Our next question comes from David Alcaro from Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.
spk06: Morning, David. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Morning. Could you maybe comment on how much of the supply chain for Park City is contracted at this point? What are your kind of assumptions there for any inflation that could hit the cost structure for that project? And then maybe a little bit more broadly, but what's your view on the return profile of the offshore wind project here?
spk08: Yeah, David, what I would tell you is at this point in time in Park City, literally very little, if any, materially has been contracted at this point. We're still going through, obviously, the permitted approvals and everything. Yeah, we've obviously had discussions with some of the major you know, supplier companies. But at this point in time, it doesn't make a lot of sense to enter into it until we get the final or get closer to getting the final approvals. What I think is going to be hopeful to us, having said that, is now that Commonwealth is there, when we do start bidding out for whether it's turbines or other things, We're going to have additional scale that, and obviously leveraging off of Iberdrola's expertise and their buying power as well. We're going to have additional scale and purchasing power that we wouldn't have had if it would have just been Park City. So I think there's no doubt that, you know, in some cases we're seeing some inflationary pressures and some supply constraints. But fortunately, we don't need to be going into contract for those things right now because the construction isn't going to happen for several years. The other thing that I would say is that we did see this and we're benefiting from it for Vineyard Wind 1. As time goes on, similar to what happened in the solar and the onshore wind industry, technology continues to innovate. Turbines get bigger, costs come down when you look at the overall cost per kilowatt produced. And so our plans are to be able to take advantage of that as well.
spk06: Yep, got it. That makes sense. And maybe could you talk a little bit just about your internal offshore wind capabilities here, taking on 100% of the projects from CIP? Were there Were there functions or capabilities that you needed to backfill without CIP there, or where does the internal organization stand?
spk08: You know, it's a great question because we had been adding certain people both to the team directly and being complemented by Iberdrola. So we still have people that are part of the joint venture with CIP, but I'd say it's much more of a project joint venture than it is a business growth joint venture. Alvaro Ortega, who's our new vice president of finance, was formerly the CFO of the joint venture, and he's now joined Avangrid here. So there are various people that we're basically shifting from the project team back to our team that will focus on our business 100% of their time. And we are in the process of hiring. I think that, you know, with the addition of common goal and the additional work that we'll have there on the permitting and the approval side, we're naturally filling spots. So in some cases, you know, we're taking people that are already within the Avangrid family of companies or Iberdrola and shifting them over. But in other cases, we're bringing on new people that want to be part of this team.
spk06: Okay, great. That's helpful. Thanks so much.
spk09: Thanks.
spk02: Our next question comes from Julian Dumoulin-Smith from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
spk09: Julian, good morning. Hey, good morning, team. Hey, thanks for the time. And Patricia, congratulations. Really well deserved here, I got to say. And Doug, best of luck to you as well here, sir. Thank you. So if I can, I want to take the conversation in a slightly different direction and just talk about renewable growth aspirations here. As you think about 2022, we've heard a lot from other peer companies out there. I'm just curious, how are you guys thinking about framing your growth aspirations here in 2022 just in terms of, you know, kind of bucketing PPA signups, right? I'm not saying, you know, construction this year, but how are you framing that pipeline? We saw, obviously, some shifts in what you saw your pipeline as being presently. What are you targeting? What are you looking at just in the near term?
spk08: Yeah, let me start on that, Julian, and I'll ask Jose Antonio to jump in as well, recognizing that at our investor day, we're going to go into a lot more detail here. But I think directionally what we're looking at is the same direction that we talked about in November 2020 at our investor day there. I think recognizing that the market's changed. Obviously, with inflationary pressures and what's going on in the electric markets, PPA prices have been going up. And I'd say that we've been working very closely with our customers to help them get up to speed on what the new realities of the market are. And, you know, we're in the process in many cases of revisiting some of the prior discussions we've had with customers. And I think that there, again, is the realization that it's a different market than it was a year or two years ago. Having said that, look, we're focused on signing attractive PPAs that make sense for us and for our customers. We don't want to just grow PPAs and add capacity at any cost. We're going to continue to stay disciplined and focused and make sure that we're providing smart energy solutions for our customers, whether they be utilities or CNI customers. But Jose Antonio, maybe I'll let you add a little bit more color to that.
spk11: Thank you, Denis. And hi, Julian. I think you are spot on, Denis. Yes, actually, it's true that we are in a very advanced stage of conversations with many customers for our project. But it's also true that we have our strict internal approval process. And we are not just bringing megawatts for the sake of bringing megawatts. We want to bring profitable megawatts. And I have to say that the customers, they received graciously our talk about the volatility in the supply chain and the need of renegotiating some PPA prices. And this is the process that we are undergoing now. And again, we remain very positive in closing PPAs.
spk08: The other thing, Julian, that I'd say is, look, one of the reasons we have ranges in our guidance is because things can move, positive or negatively. And I'm less focused on, you know, a project moving by a month or two versus making sure that we do it right, it's on budget, and we provide the customer what they need. There's no doubt that with everything going on in the economy, with challenges in the labor markets relative to COVID, we, like others, have had some challenges there. But overall, I still feel really good about the direction that we're going on, sure.
spk09: Excellent. I mean, can we talk about profitability on the offshore side? I know one of your peers has talked about it of late, and I just wanted to check in on how you guys are framing that today, right? Admittedly, you all have talked about this in the past, but given some of the updates across the sector, how would you frame that for Vineyard Wind and Park City today? What returns on equity or IRRs, you know, specifically are you guys projecting presently? And, again, if there's anything to be added on the cost front that gives you comfort, again, this is in the context of your peers more than you all updating anything specifically here, obviously.
spk08: Yeah, you know, I want to be careful that we're not comparing, you know, one project that we have with another project that a competitor has, because I think it's really apples and oranges. And every project is different depending upon the size, where it is positioned in the ocean with the depth of the water and everything. So I just want to make sure that we're careful on that. What I would say, and I'll ask Bill White to jump in as well, is that, you know, again, on Vineyard Wind, as we look at the overall contracts that we've signed, we're still very comfortable on the overall cost side. And what we've said before, and I have no reason to believe that this has changed, is is that on a levered basis, we're still looking at a low double-digit type return there. But, Bill, you may want to just talk a little bit more about, you know, how we're thinking about Park City Wind and Commonwealth. And I know that we haven't given out specific profitability numbers on those, but just directionally. Bill? yeah i i think uh thanks dennis we feel really quite quite confident i mean touching and building a little bit upon what dennis had already articulated you know being able to build these these two projects you know two gigawatts you know 800 megawatts from park city 1.2 megawatts from commonwealth this will probably be among the larger uh offshore wind projects in the world so to drive that economy of scale and benefit from those synergies. We're talking, you know, in the tens and hundreds of millions of dollars in savings because we're going to build those with one project team, with one procurement strategy, with one deployment port. And we think and feel very good about what we're seeing in the market, particularly from the OEMs, as the technology is advancing. The other thing, Julian, that I think is important to recognize is that given that we were just awarded the Commonwealth back in December, we're actually just in the process right now of having the discussions with the utilities that we'll be entering into the PPAs with. So, you know, it would be premature to start talking about what the returns on those projects are going to be.
spk09: Got it. All right. Well, best of luck, guys. And, again, Patricia, look forward to it. See you guys soon.
spk08: Thank you. Thanks, Julian.
spk02: Our next question comes from Insoo Kim from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
spk08: Insoo, good morning.
spk07: Thank you. Hey, good morning, Dennis. First question, just wanted to go back to the 22 EPS guidance a little bit. Sorry to harp on it. I'm just trying to reverse engineer just based on I think when PNM was still ongoing and the potential guidance you gave for 22, I think around 250 at the midpoint there. Recognizing this offshore wind amount, if you back that out just from an operational perspective of about 46 cents, Gets you to a little over $1.80 a share for 22 just operationally. You know, I understand NECC, the share count, dilution, all that, and try to, you know, back into that a little bit. But I'm still getting to some level of gaps. So I guess my question is versus, you know, 12 months ago, 15 months ago, what are some other items? You mentioned some of the costs there, but what are some of the bigger items that are accounting for the remaining difference?
spk08: Let me have Patricia handle that.
spk00: Sure. Hi, Insu. Actually, rather than go back and kind of tick and tie back to reconcile back to a number we gave before, I mean, a lot has changed since that guidance. That was, you know, back in November of 2020. And, of course, you know, since then we've done the offshore wind restructuring. We have acquired the 1.2 gigawatts of Commonwealth wind. We actually put in place an negotiated a rate settlement in New York. And we've comprehensively changed some of the things in the way we look at, you know, costs and efficiencies in the business. So, you know, we'd rather kind of focus on – try to answer your question, but focus more on going forward in the business and the fact that starting off with a really good 2021, which we said was provided – 25% growth from 2020. So focusing on the big picture and then the next value creation that we're adding in 2022, which also provides growth. And Dennis highlighted some of the key items, but at a summary level, we're looking at in 2022, moving forward, we're adding benefits from our rate plan, from primarily New York, you're adding benefits from transmission rates as well, and the CMP removal of the rate case, You're adding new production on the renewable side that comes with PTCs. We've seen increases in pricing as well. But you're removing things compared to, you know, the prior year, APDC from NECC you're removing. You're moving the Texas event. And there's also cost of the business. I think we talked a lot about how we're investing billions of dollars, $3.3 billion in 2021 and $3.3 billion in 2022. That's really setting a foundation for future growth, improving and enhancing the reliability and the safety and resiliency in our network system and constructing renewable projects that will come in service in 2022 and in 2023, so providing future growth. But it comes with some costs of the business as we move through 2023. We'll have depreciation associated with the new assets in both of those businesses. There's interest costs. There's O&M for new staff as well associated with those businesses. So I think that on the cost side, those are some of the things that are offsetting some of the pure increased numbers.
spk07: Okay, got it. Thanks for that caller. My second question is just, you know, as we think about the PNN process and the New Mexico Supreme Court playing out, you know, what is – How do we think about the best-case scenario in terms of timing if this ultimately goes in your favor? And while we await that process or the decision, how should we think about the excess cash that you have from that equity issuance and how we should bake that in? I know you may be giving more of that color in March, but just wanted to see if you had any color there for now.
spk08: Sure. Let me start with the second part of the question, then I'll ask Bob to jump in specifically to P&M. In hindsight, the issuance of the equity back in May at the time, given what was going on in the market, continues to be, have been a really good decision, I think, on our part. You know, are we disappointed that PNM shifted given the timing? Yeah, the answer is yes. But I think when you look at the cash that we have on hand, the continued growth plans that we have, the new projects that we're looking at, like the announcement of Commonwealth Wind, we didn't have that in hand when we raised the equity. So I think that there's plenty of uses for the capital that we raised. We reduced the amount of debt, so that obviously helped us from an interest expense standpoint. And our credit ratings and metrics went up. So I think all in all, having a stronger balance sheet, having some dry powder, if you would, for a short period of time until we consummate P&M and we get started on the construction of any CEC is a good thing. Bob, let me let you kind of give an update on how you're thinking about P&M. Sure. Good morning, and so how are you? So, I mean, obviously, we remain, as does P&M, absolutely committed to this transaction, and I think that's indicative in the fact that we've reached the merger extension out until the end of April of 23. In terms of the mechanics of the appeal, you know, we filed that early in the year. We just recently issued what's called joint issues at the beginning of the month. There'll be a period for briefs, reply briefs, oral arguments. Typically, this is a 12 plus month process at the Supreme Court in New Mexico. Having said that, we continue to work very closely with PNM and quite frankly, all the supporters that we've had to this transaction. Recall that 23 out of the 24 parties in the case either supported or were neutral on the project. So we continue to focus on and work with P&M on the benefits that the transaction can bring to the combined companies and to consumers in New Mexico. And you look at some of the issues that are being faced, whether it's in New England or in New Mexico. You know, in New England, we had the ISO talk about potential for brand outs this winter because of a lack of supply. They're talking about that now in New Mexico for this summer and next. You know, we think there's a lot of things we can learn from each other and continue to work and move this forward. Obviously, there's going to be changes this year as the year progresses. There's going to be, you know, a new commission being appointed by the governor by the first of next year. So there's a lot of pieces to this that continue to move forward. But the bottom line is, you know, we, along with the folks at PNM, are absolutely committed to getting this thing done.
spk07: Understood. Thank you very much, and that's all we have left, Doug.
spk08: Thanks, Instu.
spk02: We've come to the end of our Q&A. I want to hand back to Dennis Arriola for any final remarks.
spk08: Well, great. Look, with a strong foundational year behind us, I'm really proud that we're effectively executing on our commitments and delivering consistent performance. 2021 was a really important year for Avangrid for a lot of reasons. And as we've said, it certainly wasn't without challenges. But our successes are due to our people, our wonderful and dedicated team who have worked hard to serve our customers, respond to storms, work safely through COVID-19, and enable the clean energy transition. So I want to use part of this presentation to say thank you to Team Avangrid. Your work really continues to make a difference every day. I also want to thank everybody on the call for your questions and for your overall support in 2021. Again, we're proud of our results, but we recognize there's a lot more work we need to do, and we're focused on being successful in 2022. We look forward to using the momentum of 21 to deliver another strong year in 2022. And we look forward to sharing more information with you about our strategy and our outlook in 2022 and beyond at our next month's investor day. So thanks again. If you have any other questions, please follow up with Patricia, who tomorrow officially becomes our interim CFO, or Michelle. And stay safe and have a great day. Thanks, everyone.
spk02: This concludes today's call. We thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.
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