Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. Common Shares

Hello and welcome to the Algonquin Power and Utilities Corporation first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star 1 on your telephone keypad. I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Brian Chin, Interim Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of of investor relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for our first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Joining me on the call today will be Rod West, Chief Executive Officer, and Sarah McDonald, Chief Transformation Officer. To accompany today's earnings call, we have a supplemental webcast presentation available on our website, algonquinpower.com. Our financial statements and management discussion and analysis are also available on the website as well as on CEDAR Plus and EDGAR. We'd like to remind you that our discussion during the call will include certain forward-looking information and non-GAAP measures. Actual results could differ materially from any forecast or projection contained in such forward-looking information. Certain material factors and assumptions were applied in making the forecasts and projections reflected in such forward-looking information. Please note and review the related disclaimers located on slide two of our earnings call presentation at the investor relations sections of our website at algonquinpower.com. Please also refer to our most recent MD&A files on Cedar Plus and EDGAR and available on our website for additional important information on these items. On the call this morning, Rod will provide brief commentary on his first 60 days at Algonquin, followed by a review of key highlights and operational updates for the quarter. I will then detail our financial results. We will then open the line for questions. We kindly ask that you restrict your questions to two, then re-queue if you have any additional questions to allow others the opportunity to participate. With that, I'll turn things over to Rod.

Thank you, Brian, and good morning, everyone. Before I provide my opening remarks on the quarter and my first 60 days, I first want to acknowledge the heartbreaking incident that occurred on April 9th in Lexington, Missouri, within our gas service territory. As members of the community, our thoughts and prayers remain with the affected families whose lives have been devastated by the tragedy Our hearts are with you. Nothing's more important to me and to this company than the safety of our customers, employees, and communities. We remain fully committed to working with the authorities to support the ongoing investigation into the cause of the accident. And we will continue to work in partnership with the community on restoration and recovery initiatives. Moving now to my comments on the quarter. I'd like to start things off by thanking you for your interest in Algonquin, for continuing to support the company through this transformative journey, and for welcoming Brian and I into our new respective roles. It's been a busy first 60 days for me, having had the opportunity to meet with many of our stakeholders and visit several of our regional offices. My observations are consistent with the remarks I shared on the Q4 call. I see significant opportunity ahead, but there's still a tremendous amount of work to do. Algonquin has real potential to be a premium utility. We have a solid, diversified asset base and many talented and hardworking employees, but we have yet to consistently evidence the practices that set premium utilities apart from the rest. Some areas of improvement that come to mind include improving our customer outcomes first, and community engagement, leveraging our economies of scale. I look forward to sharing more insights on our path forward. As promised, we plan to provide a forward-looking multi-year update on June 3rd, which falls approximately 90 days from our Q4 2024 call and my first day in the seat. Also on June 3rd, I plan to share more of my observations regarding the company. And later this year, I do expect to provide a little more color into our longer-term strategic thinking and positioning of the portfolio. With that, let's now turn to the operational highlights from the quarter. Starting with regulatory updates, on March 25th, the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission issued an order approving the Granite State Electric Settlement Agreement with new rates having taken effect on April 1st. On April 21st, the New Hampshire Commission further extended a stay of the Energy North Gas rate case proceeding until May 30th, allowing more time for settlement negotiations to be completed. On our Empire Electric Missouri rate case, the Commission extended the test year true-up period from September 30th, 2024 to March 31st, 2025. which provides an opportunity for us to capture capital invested during that time frame in our rate filing. Moving to a brief update on the Missouri Commission investigation into our customer service and billing issues. As stated on the Q4 call, the investigation opened at the end of February, and we have been working with the investigation team, responding to data requests and providing answers to their questions. shifting from state-level rate cases to transmission. As discussed last quarter, the Southwest Power Pool, SPP, approved its 2024 Integrated Transmission Plan, the largest portfolio of transmission projects ever undertaken by SPO, totaling roughly $7.7 billion. A significant share of this transformative investment, approximately $750 to $800 million, is dedicated to strengthening the Empire District electric service area, underscoring the region's critical role in the future of the grid. Within the Empire District electric footprint, the approved upgrades encompass approximately 80 miles of 161 kV rebuilds or conversions, 90 miles of new 345 kV transmission lines, and the construction of two large-scale transmission stations. On April 23rd, Empire accepted the first tranche of Notices to Construct, or NTCs, for the 161 KV portion of the portfolio. Empire has also received the second tranche of NTCs, and the next step is the official acceptance of the second tranche of NTCs submitted to SPP on or before June 19th. We're excited for the opportunity these projects represent for our stakeholders. I'll now turn things back to Brian to review the financial highlights from the quarter. Brian?