Avista Corporation

Good morning. Welcome to Avista. Go ahead. Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Avista Corporation Q4 2022 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in 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 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Stacey Wenz, Investor Relations Manager. Please go ahead.

Good morning. Welcome to this is fourth quarter and fiscal year 2022 earnings conference call. Our earnings and our 2022 Form 10-K were released pre-market this morning. Both are available on our website. Joining me this morning are our VistaCorp President and CEO, Dennis Vermillion, Executive Vice President, Treasurer, and CFO, Mark Deese, Senior Vice President, External Affairs, and Chief Customer Officer, Kevin Christie, and Vice President, Controller, and Principal Accounting Officer, Ryan Crossholtz. Some of the statements we will make today are forward-looking and involve assumptions, risks, and uncertainties which are subject to change. For reference to the various factors which could cause results to differ materially from those discussed in today's call, please refer to our 10-K for 2022, which is available on our website. I'll begin by recapping the financial results presented in today's press release. For the full year, consolidated earnings were $2.12 per diluted share for 2022 compared to $2.10 last year. Our consolidated earnings for the fourth quarter of 2022 were $1.05 per diluted share compared to $0.71 for the fourth quarter of 2021. Now I'll turn the discussion over to Dennis.

Well, thanks, Stacey, and good morning, everyone. I hope the new year is off to a great start for you all. Avista ended 2022 with a memorable accomplishment in November. Mark and Kevin and I were among a group of senior executives and board members who stood on the podium above the New York Stock Exchange to ring the closing bell to celebrate our 70th anniversary of being listed on the NYSC. It was pretty cool. We are among the top 10% of the longest listed members of the NYSC, Very few companies can stake claim to such an extraordinary achievement. As Avista's president and CEO, I couldn't be more proud of all the current and former employees who came before us, who helped achieve this major milestone. We certainly could not have done it without them. And it was certainly an honor for me, a very special experience that I'll never forget. If you look back over more than 133 years to when our business was founded, you'll see that our employees always demonstrate their diligence and determination to pull us through challenging times. That's certainly true for 2022. We worked hard to manage our costs and run our business amidst the highest inflation in decades. We had extreme volatility in the power natural gas markets and, of course, a rapid rise in interest rates. Despite our best efforts, the Vista Utilities earnings were slightly below expectations. On a consolidated basis, our earnings were better than our expectations due to a significant increase in the fair value of certain non-regulated investments, and Mark will have a little bit more on that in a minute. As we begin 2023, I'm counting on the grit and determination of our employees to propel us forward, and I know they'll answer the call once again just like they always do. So for 2023, regulatory outcomes are key to our success. The Washington Commission's approval of the settlement agreement and our multi-year rate cases in December was the first step. And earlier this month, we filed a multi-year rate plan in Idaho that would allow the company to recover the cost of our ongoing investments in utility infrastructure and the increased operating costs that we experienced in 2022. We also plan to file a general rate case in Oregon within the next few weeks. We expect rates associated with this case to go into effect in January of 24. We continue to execute on our clean energy implementation plan, and we've taken steps toward achieving our aspirational clean energy goals, including issuing a request for proposal to seek renewable natural gas resources for our customers and signing contracts for renewable, hydro, and wind resources to meet our customers' energy needs. As we work through this clean energy transition, we believe that natural gas serves an important role to support both the reliability and affordability for our customers, especially for those most vulnerable among us. In December, we updated Avista's corporate responsibility report, which showcases recent examples and the latest data that demonstrate our commitment to our environment, our people, our customers and communities, and along with our shareholders. This latest update includes Avista's aspirational goals for workplace equity, inclusion, and diversity, an aspirational goal related to supplier diversity, and Avista's continued reporting on a series of key industry ESG disclosures and metrics. Finally, earlier this month, the Board increased our dividend by 4.5% to an annual dividend of $1.87, excuse me, $1.84. The dividend increase approved by the board marks the 21st consecutive year the board has raised the dividend for our shareholders. This demonstrates the board commitment to maximizing shareholder value. At this time, I'd like to invite Mark to discuss our earnings. Mark, take it away.