Avista Corporation

Ladies and gentlemen, please stand by. Your conference call will begin momentarily. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for calling. Please remain on your lines. Your conference call will begin momentarily. Thank you. Thank you. Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Avista Corporation fourth quarter 2021 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are on a 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 telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star, then 0. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Ms. Stacey Wins. Thank you. Ma'am, please begin.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Avista's fourth quarter and fiscal year 2021 earnings conference call. Our earnings and our 2021 Form 10-K were released pre-market this morning. Both are available on our websites. Joining me this morning are Avista Corp President and CEO, Dennis Vermillion, Executive Vice President, Treasurer and CFO, Mark Thies, Senior Vice President, External Affairs, and Chief Customer Officer, Kevin Christie, and Vice President, Controller, and Principal Accounting Officer, Ryan Crasselt. 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 2021, which is available on our website. I'll begin by recapping the financial results presented in today's press release. Our consolidated earnings for the fourth quarter of 2021 were 71 cents for diluted share, compared to 85 cents for the fourth quarter of 2020. For the full year, consolidated earnings were $2.10 per diluted share for 2021 compared to $1.90 last year. Now I'll turn the discussion over to Dennis.

Well, thanks, Stacey, and good morning, everyone. I think we can all agree that 2021 was certainly a memorable year. It's hard to believe that we've been living through this pandemic for nearly two years now. And today we're seeing some signs that we're moving toward establishing a new normal, and we're very excited about that. But we're certainly not out of the woods quite yet. As we reflect on these challenging times, I wanted to take a second just to applaud our employees for making it possible to achieve all that we accomplished in 2021. They've really done a nice job. On the financial front, our 2021 earnings were in the upper half of our guidance range. primarily due to significant gains at our other businesses. And Mark is going to get into some of the details on that in a little bit later. I'd like to focus on some of our achievements on the operations front. In 2021, we finished installing all of our smart electric meters and natural gas modules across Washington State. Now our customers are accessing more real-time data, so they can better manage their energy use. We have proactive high bill alerts or high energy alerts where customers are notified if they could exceed their set energy budgets, which of course helps them eliminate surprises when their bill arrives. The smart meter data also provides more visibility into our system, which helps us run a more reliable and efficient power grid, detect and restore power outages more quickly, and provide customers with a higher level of service. Customer benefits like these helped us receive a full cost recovery on one of our largest capital projects in company history. On the clean energy front, we filed our Clean Energy Implementation Plan in Washington, which provides the framework for achieving our clean energy goals. Also in 21, we set a new aspirational natural gas goal of being carbon neutral by 2045. with a 30% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Two new power purchase agreements with Chelan County Public Utility District were entered into during 2021 and will add more renewable hydropower to our electric generating portfolio starting in 2024. And of course, this will help move us closer to achieving our clean electricity goals. We also announced a request for proposals seeking power generation and demand management proposals to meet our clean energy goals. We also recently published a VISTA's 2021 corporate responsibility report to our VISTA Corp website. In the report, we provide a broad look at our operations and how we're fulfilling our commitments to our people, our customers, communities, and our shareholders. The website also provides links to Avista's reporting on a series of environmental, social, and government disclosures, or ESG disclosures. The information we've shared demonstrates Avista's longstanding commitment to corporate responsibility, and I urge you to check it out. We've done a nice job with that. Avista's new non-regulated subsidiary, Avista Edge, is rolling out an internet broadband pilot in the city of Cheney, Washington, which is about 20 miles outside of Spokane. The Avista Edge patented technology offers a new turnkey, reliable, secure, high-speed internet device that's easy and cost-effective to deploy. As we partner with other utilities and internet service providers to deploy the solution, We hope it will bridge the gap in a widening digital divide that exists in many world communities that struggle with high-speed Internet access and connectivity that is so essential in our daily lives, and we saw that more than ever during the pandemic. Avista Edge builds upon Avista's rich history of innovation. With respect to regulatory filings, in January we filed multi-year general rate cases in Washington. In October of 21, we filed a general rate case in Oregon and expect rate recovery in the second half of 2022. We continue to await the regulatory process in these jurisdictions. In Idaho, a two-year rate case went into effect around September 1st of 21, and we expect to file another rate case in the first quarter of 2023. Looking ahead, we remain focused on continuing to prudently invest capital to maintain and update our infrastructure and provide reliable energy service to our customers. We are confirming our 2022 and 23 earnings guidance with consolidated ranges of $1.93 to $2.13 in 2022 and $2.42 to $2.62 in 2023. This puts us on track to earning our allowed return in 2023. Lastly, earlier this month, the Board increased our dividend by 4.1% to an annual dividend of $1.76 per share. This dividend increase approved by the Board of Directors marks the 20th consecutive year the Board has raised a dividend for our shareholders, and I believe it demonstrates the Board's commitment to maximizing shareholder value. So with that, at this time, I'll turn this presentation over to Mark.