Ameresco, Inc.

Good day, and welcome to the Q1 2022 MRF Go, Inc. Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star then 1 on your touchstone telephone, and we ask that you please limit yourself to one question, and then you may return to the queue. If anyone should require assistance during the conference, please press star then 0 to reach an operator. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. I would like to turn the call over to Layla Dillon, Senior Vice President of Marketing. You may begin.

Thank you, Michelle, and good afternoon, everyone. We appreciate you joining us for today's call. Joining me here are George Sakalaris, Amoresco's Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer. Doran Hull, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and Mark Chiplock, Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer. Before I turn the call over to George, I would like to make a brief statement regarding forward-looking remarks. Today's earnings materials contain forward-looking statements, including statements regarding our expectations. All forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties. Please refer to today's earnings materials, the Safe Harbor language on slide 2, and our SEC filings for a discussion of the major risk factors that could cause our actual results to differ from those in our forward-looking statements. In addition, we use several non-GAAP measures when presenting our financial results. We have included the reconciliations to these measures in our supplemental financial information. I will now turn the call over to George.

George? Thank you, Lila. Good afternoon, everyone. We started 2022 with excellent quarterly performance as the team executed on our contracted backlog We are also booking significant future opportunities across all of our lines of business. This execution by our employees, together with our customers, was all the more impressive given the well-publicized supply chain and inflationary challenges faced by our industry. Now I want to take some time to talk about our Southern California Erison project. As a reminder, the Southern California Aerosol Project is actually three separate contracts which we are executing independently when it comes to individual budgets, procurement items, and completion schedules. Second, Maresco has a proven track record for completing some of the most complex energy projects in our industry. The actual engineering and construction of these battery projects are nowhere near as complex as what we have successfully achieved in our other projects, such as the Savannah River biomass plant or our various green gas plants, which we have been constructing and operating since 2001. I remain confident in our ability to deliver these three battery projects to our customer in a satisfactory and profitable manner. Third, when we signed the contract last year, we knew we were operating in a challenging COVID environment with a potential for supply chain disruptions. And like in all of our projects, we do risk materials and labor as much as possible before going to contract. However, Given the scale of the Southern California Arizona battery projects, we took extra precautions. We negotiated contract protections for potential COVID delays and included an appropriate contingency in our budget. In terms of the battery supply, we pre-negotiated firm battery supply terms with priority slots at the factory for our BIT. The majority of these custom batteries have been constructed, paid for, and the first shipment is already on the water as of this call. Importantly, the COVID delays that we are experiencing in China for the remaining batteries are not related to the battery cells, all of which have already been manufactured for us. We are actively working with Southern California Arizona regarding the COVID, the impact of the COVID-related delays. Our contract with them allows for financial and delayed relief for forced major events such as COVID, and we are in discussions with Southern California Arizona. Based on this, together with the contingencies built into the projects, We do not expect our margin to be materially impacted by these delays. As noted in the April 10th press release, and as shown in our quarterly results, many significant milestones in the Southern California Erasmus projects progressed during the quarter, driving Q1 revenue ahead of our expectations. Major equipment, has been sourced, and construction-related activities are proceeding at all sites in preparation for battery delivery. And Maresco continues to actively work with its suppliers in Southern California Airson to avoid or mitigate potential delays, including working with the ports on the West Coast on expedited ship and container handling. Apart from the battery deliveries, we expect to complete all other aspects of the three projects construction by the original August 1st deadline, including the installation of the batteries that are currently in transit. We expect up to 300 megawatts of capacity to be online in August 2022, and the remainder to be online this year. Well, recent events might cause a shifting of our expected quarterly revenue cadence. We remain confident in our annual guidance. Lastly, I would like to take a minute to recognize Southern California Aerosmith as a true partner. They have been very helpful with the design and execution of the overall project. We wish to thank them and the state of California for their cooperation. Turning back to our Q1 highlights. The first quarter strong revenue growth was led by our projects business as we continue to execute to the Southern California Erasmus contracts. But equally important, we achieved good growth and profitability across all of our lines of business. And we not only had great core results, but also continued to build upon our strong multi-year visibility. We added 60 megawatts of energy assets in development, including a 50 megawatt battery asset and a new R&D opportunity while our O&M business booked over $100 million in additional multi-year contracts. During the quarter, we also added over $400 million in new project awards as customers continue to seek solutions to address their increasing energy costs, resiliency needs, and carbon reduction goals. One of these awards that I wanted to highlight is our currently announced partnership with the City of Bristol in the UK. This project is actually the second-largest award in Emoresco's history, only behind the Southern California Edison contract. Once contracted, the unique 20-year partnership will encompass a full range of advanced technologies, energy efficiency, and renewable solutions involving project work, O&M, as well as energy asset ownership. The Bristol City LEAP project is targeting an ambitious 2030 carbon neutrality goal and is designed to attract approximately 1 billion pounds of inward investment that could be shared between us and our partner, Vattenfall. We anticipate that this project will serve as a blueprint for other cities, campuses, and corporations across the U.S. and Europe as they develop their own net zero and cost savings initiatives. We are particularly excited about other similar opportunities in Europe, given the elevated energy prices there, ongoing geopolitical risks, and the drive to net zero. As one of the largest energy services companies in the UK, Maresco is very well positioned to continue winning and executing on such transformative projects. I will now turn over the call to Doran to provide some comments on our financial performance. Doran?