Avista Corporation

Welcome to the Q3 2019 earnings conference call. My name is Adrienne, and I'll be your operator for today's call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we'll conduct a question-and-answer session. During the question-and-answer session, if you have a question, please press star, then 1 on your touch-tone phone. Please note this conference is being recorded. I'll now turn the call over to John Wilcox, Investor Relations Manager. John Wilcox, you may begin.

Thanks, Adrian, and good morning, everyone, and welcome to Avista's third quarter 2019 earnings conference call. Our earnings were released pre-market this morning and are available on our website. Joining me this morning are Avista Corp President and CEO Dennis Vermillion, Executive Vice President, Treasurer, and CFO Mark Theis, Senior Vice President, External Affairs, and Chief Customer Officer Kevin Christie, and Vice President, Controller, and Principal Accounting Officer, Ryan Crassel. I would like to remind everyone that some of the statements that will be made today are forward-looking statements that involve assumptions, risks, and uncertainties which are subject to change. For reference to the various factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in today's call, please refer to our 10-K for 2018 report and 10Q for the third quarter of 2019, which are available on our website. To begin this presentation, I would like to recap the financial results presented in today's press release. Our consolidated earnings for the third quarter of 2019 were $0.08 per diluted share, compared to $0.15 for the third quarter of 2018. For the year to date, consolidated earnings were $2.21 per diluted share for 2019 compared to $1.37 last year. Now I'll turn the discussion over to Dennis.

Well, thanks, John, and good morning. I'm very excited to be here today, and I'm deeply humbled by the honor and privilege to serve as Avista's chief executive. I've been at Avista for 34 years, and as Avista's president for the last 10 years, I've worked closely alongside Scott. He has been a great friend and mentor to me, and he has achieved so much for our shareholders, customers, employees, and communities we serve. And I know everyone at Avista is grateful for his leadership. I want to thank Scott for all that he has done throughout his career for our company, and we all wish him well in his retirement. We will miss him greatly, as he is no longer involved in the day-to-day operations of the company. But, of course, we look forward to continuing our work with him on the Board of Directors. At a time of great change in the energy industry, I am excited to meet the future head on, and I am confident that Avista is prepared to meet the challenges ahead, including achieving our clean energy goals that were actively set. Now, turning our attention to quarterly results, our earnings at each of our segments met our expectations for the third quarter, and we remain on track to meet our consolidated guidance for the full year. Regarding regulatory matters, in October, the Oregon Commission approved our natural gas general rate case settlement and new rates will go into effect January 15, 2020. In Idaho, we were able to reach an all-party agreement where, if approved, new rates would take effect on December 1, 2019. This outcome is in line with our expectations. In Washington, A settlement in principle has been reached in the current general rate cases with all parties and all issues with the exception of decoupling and energy recovery mechanism related issues. The settlement stipulation is in drafting stage and the parties including the public council unit of the Attorney General's Office and the Sierra Club are securing the necessary approvals in their respective organizations. The settlement stipulation is anticipated to be filed on or about November 21st, 2019, and will require commission approval. We believe that the terms of the settlement in principle are fair for our customers and shareholders. And finally, we continue to work through the regulatory process to the 2015 remand cases. And then finally, based on our 2019 results to date, For the full year of 2019, we are confirming our earnings guidance with a consolidated range of $2.83 to $3.03 per diluted share. This includes $1.01 per diluted share for the termination fee received from Hydro One in the first quarter, which was partially offset by the payment of related transaction costs. And now I'll turn this presentation over to Mark.