Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. Limited Partnership Units

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Brookfield Renewables second quarter 2024 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 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Connor Teske, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our second quarter 2024 conference call. Before we begin, we would like to remind you that a copy of our news release, investor supplement, and letter to unit holders can be found on our website. We also want to remind you that we may make forward-looking statements on this call. These statements are subject to known and unknown risks and future results may differ materially. For more information, you are encouraged to review our regulatory filings available on CDAR, EDGAR, and on our website. On today's call, we will provide a review of our second quarter performance, the environment for renewables, and how our differentiated access to capital and capabilities has positioned us to excel in the current market. Then, Ed Bayford from our investment team, will speak to our recently announced proposed acquisition of NEOIN. And lastly, Wyatt will conclude the call by discussing our operating results and financial position. Following our remarks, we look forward to taking your questions. The business performed well this quarter, building on our strong start to the year. We delivered record funds from operations for the second quarter, benefiting from our growth and development activities and we remain well-positioned to deliver on our double-digit FFO per unit growth target for the year. During the quarter, we successfully deployed significant capital into growth opportunities that further enhanced our market-leading reach and scale. We did this by adding leading platforms and attractive markets with large operating businesses and development pipelines that complement our current operations and further diversify our cash flows. We also progressed the projects in our development pipeline and successfully commissioned approximately 1.4 gigawatts of new capacity in the quarter. Altogether, across our development activities and M&A capital we deployed or committed to deploy, we invested up almost $9 billion or almost $1 billion net to Brookfield Renewable, a record for our business. Our success in identifying and executing on attractive opportunities that deliver returns at or above our target is a function of both our differentiated capabilities and access to capital at a time when funding is scarce for some players. This is currently paired with a very constructive market environment for renewables where demand is outpacing supply driven by data center demand and broader electrification. Indicative of this, just this past week, PJM, a top market for data center development and a market where we have significant presence, had its capacity auction for 2025 and 2026 delivery. In this auction, prices hit record highs, increasing almost 10 times from the last auction, indicative of supply and demand dynamics in the market. Data center investment continues to accelerate globally. and it is widely estimated that data centers could reach up to 10 and 20% of electricity consumption globally and in the United States respectively by the end of the decade. This is on top of the electrification of industrial capacity, heating for houses, and other uses that is driving unprecedented demand for electricity. To put this in perspective, the global installed capacity for electricity generation is expected to more than double over the next 20 years, while also trying to replace half of the existing capacity that will be retired as it is very carbon intensive, a truly unprecedented undertaking. Coming at this dynamic from a different perspective, as recently as two decades ago, energy production from wind and solar accounted for a negligible portion of the global electricity mix. which compares to last year where it accounted for approximately 13% of the electricity consumed globally. This means consumption from these sources has doubled every three and a half years, or grown at almost 25% compound annual growth rate for 20 years, a staggering achievement over a sustained period of time. Remarkably, this trajectory is expected to continue, driven by the demand we are seeing from technology companies, electrification, and replacement of thermal capacity. This sustained level of growth has resulted in the development and scaling of a supply chain for renewable energy that has helped position these technologies as the lowest cost sources of bulk power in most markets globally. We've seen the cost for solar and wind decrease 90 and 65% respectively in the last 15 years. And while there was policy support and tax credits that helped the initial growth of these technologies, It is squarely the cost competitiveness and other features, such as energy independent and clean characteristics, that, together with the accelerating demand from commercial and industrial customers to support digitalization and electrification, are driving increased returns for these assets both today and going forward. Renewables are fundamentally acting as an enabler of growth. as increased access to clean, low-cost power permits further investment from businesses, which results in increasing consumption of power like we are seeing with data center growth. A side effect of the increase in demand for power is that it further reduces costs from the build-out of a larger and more competitive supply chain, creating additional economies of scale, reducing costs further, and spurring even further incremental demand. In this very constructive environment, We are continuing to differentiate ourselves with a large operating fleet and expansive development pipeline, which now stands at over 230,000 megawatts, of which approximately 65,000 megawatts has advanced stage land interconnection and permitting status in core renewables markets. This large advanced pipeline and our credibility in delivering projects is enhancing our position as the partner of choice for the largest buyers of clean power. To put it very simply, nobody has better place to provide clean power on a global basis to fuel this AI revolution and the growing increase in electricity demand. Our activities this quarter further enhance our position as a key enabler of the technology sector, including our acquisition of Naon that adds a large operating and development pipeline in new core renewables markets. This is an increasingly valuable pipeline as we are seeing growing near-term demand for clean energy outpacing supply in these regions. It is this pipeline, our diversity across technologies, and our strong reputation and capabilities that we have built up over decades that have allowed us to secure partnerships that de-risk our future growth. Like the framework agreement with Microsoft, where we have agreed to deliver over 10.5 gigawatts of new renewable energy capacity between 2026 and 2030. In the past quarter, we continued to build on our strong relationships with commercial and industrial customers, and 90% of generation we contracted for new assets was signed with these types of buyers. Looking forward, we are also seeing a similar scenario to solar play out in terms of the economics and demand for battery energy storage systems. where cost reductions are spurring increased demand resulting in further cost reductions and again further more incremental demand growth. Cost for batteries have declined 85% in the last decade and 60% in the last six years. Batteries are benefiting from economies of scale with the growth of the electrical vehicle market, from incremental demand for capacity and grid stabilizing services, and from enabling increased penetration of low-cost renewables by providing a power solution for customers when the sun is not shining or the wind is not blowing. With lower capital costs, higher potential revenues, and increasing demand for this type of solution from customers, we are focused on deploying capital into battery energy storage solutions in select markets. This quarter, inclusive of NEOEN, We were awarded 20-year capacity contracts for 800 megawatts of battery storage from the grid operator in Ontario. The projects have attractive risk-adjusted return profiles given the long-dated fixed revenue stream and high-quality off-taker. We also began construction on 220 megawatts of battery storage capacity in Texas, targeting commissioning in the second half of 2025, where we expect very strong returns. With this development project and the closing of the NEOIN acquisition, we will be one of the largest battery storage developers globally with over 2.3 gigawatts of operating and under construction capacity. Including our pump storage assets, which are benefiting from the same demand drivers as batteries, we will have almost 5 gigawatts of operating and under construction storage capacity. Alongside our hydro assets, which have significant reservoir capacity, These assets are increasingly critical to enabling the deployment of low-cost, 24-7, clean power solutions that meet customers' needs and represent a significant competitive advantage for our business. With that, we will now turn it over to Ed to discuss how we are approaching growth and speak to our acquisition of Naon.

Thank you, Connor, and good morning, everyone. This quarter, we have successfully sourced and executed several acquisitions by leveraging our global investment team, access to scale capital, and experience integrating complex platforms. We are a customer-focused business guided by the needs of our partners. With this in mind, we were able to execute on acquisitions that bring increased scale and breadth to our portfolio, further differentiating our platforms. in particular, enhancing our position as the global leader in servicing technology and AI-driven power demand, and doing so at a time when there is less funding available in the market, enabling us to secure acquisitions at good value. The quarter was highlighted by our proposed acquisition of publicly listed NIOEN, which values the company at a $6.7 billion equity value. and is the largest investment to date within our renewable power and transition business. We have signed an agreement to acquire 53% of the outstanding shares of the company. Following closing, which is subject to customary regulatory approvals, we intend to launch an all-cash tender offer for the remaining shares, which we expect we will complete in early 2025. Neon is a business that we have closely monitored since their IPO in 2018. And we have been impressed by the pace and profitability of their growth, enabling Neon to consistently meet ambitious targets year over year. We secured this opportunity as we were able to offer a compelling solution to the existing anchor shareholders. Funding certainty, access to capital, and underwriting capabilities across our global team were key differentiators that enabled us to acquire, for good value, a high-quality platform that really complements our existing global footprint. Neon is a fully integrated pure-play renewables platform with best-in-class management and market-leading positions in each of France, Australia, and the Nordics. The company owns and operates a diversified portfolio of over 8 gigawatts of operating or under-construction assets across three core technologies, solar, onshore wind, and battery energy storage. These assets are young and highly contracted through long-term offtake contracts with high-quality counterparties, contributing visible cash flows and meaningful downside protection on our investment. In addition, Niuen brings over 20 gigawatts of advanced stage development pipeline and more than 10 gigawatts of additional early stage pipeline diversified across those same three core technologies. Niuen's growth has always been overwhelmingly organic through their leading in-house development engine, which has a strong track record of launching well over one gigawatt of new capacity into construction in each of the last few years. With enhanced access to capital and complementary capabilities, we intend to support and accelerate the build-out of NEOEN's pipeline, growing the annual run rate deployment to 2 gigawatts per year or more. NEOEN's core markets are some of the fastest growing for renewables globally, with strong corporate power demand and high barriers to entry. Neoend's pipeline and development capabilities perfectly fit the growing demand we are seeing for clean energy solutions. The addition of Neoend to our portfolio immediately makes us a top player in each of its three core markets, where we can supplement the company's existing end-to-end local capabilities with our global value add in areas such as procurement, corporate contracting, and capital markets. Lastly, we highlight that NEO-N is a global leader in battery storage. As Conor discussed, we are seeing a real inflection point for this technology, driven by steep cost declines and its role as a key enabler of increased renewables penetration. Today, NEO-N has almost two gigawatts of battery storage operating or under construction and a significant global pipeline. which will further diversify and complement our technology toolkit, allowing us to service our partners with even more complete and integrated clean energy solutions. NeoEN is a textbook example of the type of transaction that leverages the core competencies of our business, and we are very excited about its future prospects within our platform. With that, I will pass it on to Wyatt to discuss our operating results and financial position.