CMS Energy Corporation

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the CMS Energy 2022 second quarter results. The earnings news release issued earlier today and the presentation used in this webcast are available on CMS Energy's website in the investor relations section. This call is being recorded. After the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. Instructions will be provided at the time. If at any time during the conference you need to reach an operator, please press the star followed by zero Just as a reminder, there will be a rebroadcast of this conference call today, beginning at 12 p.m. Eastern Time, running through August 4th. This presentation is also being webcast and is available on CMS Energy's website in the Investor Relations section. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Siri Madipati, Treasurer and Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations.

Thank you, Elliot. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. With me are Garrett Groschow, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Reggie Hayes, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. This presentation contains forward-looking statements which are subject to risks and uncertainties. Please refer to our SEC filings for more information regarding the risks and other factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially. This presentation also includes non-GAAP measures. Reconciliations of these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in the appendix and posted on our website. Now I'll turn the call over to Gary.

Thanks, Sri, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. I'm excited to share another strong quarter at CMS Energy in a great first half of the year, bolstered by favorable weather and higher weather-normalized sales at the utility. Great tailwinds. And over the course of the quarter, two outstanding regulatory outcomes which provide further evidence of the top-tier regulatory jurisdiction in Michigan and give us continued confidence in our plan. First, our integrated resource plan. If I could open this up for just a moment. 18 months of sophisticated supply modeling, thousands of pages of testimony, 10-month schedule, alignment across dozens of stakeholders, intervenors, the attorney general, business stakeholders, and the commission staff. to reach a settlement with close to 20 parties. This plan, approved at the end of June, solidly positions us to lead the clean energy transformation. Outstanding. Next, our gas rate case. Important investments to ensure a safe, reliable, affordable, and clean natural gas system settled with many of the same parties and approved on July 7th. a $170 million increase. Over 95% of our customer investment approved. Excellent. Both outcomes demonstrate the quality of our regulatory environment in Michigan and increase our confidence in delivering the rest of the year and our long-term plan. I want to emphasize why we continue to be confident in our plan. Delivering is not new for us. We have nearly two decades of commitments made and kept for all our stakeholders, including you, our investors. A key element in our performance is strong energy law in Michigan. We have a productive and solid energy law passed in 2008, which was enhanced and updated in 2016, both with bipartisan support. This allows for timely recovery of investments, which we've outlined through long-term plans, such as our IRP, as well as our electric and natural gas distribution plans, which we filed in our rate cases. This, coupled with separate mechanisms, allow us timely recovery of fuel and power supply costs, as well as attractive economics on renewable energy investments and energy waste reduction programs. uniquely positioned Michigan as one of the safest places to invest capital. But let me be clear, we don't take this for granted. We continue to improve our processes for stakeholder alignment, testimony development, and business cases, so we are confident that our proposed customer investments deliver measurable benefit while keeping bills affordable. At CMS, we deliver. Our productive and supportive environment and our deliberate approach ensure that no matter the condition, we are positioned to deliver industry-leading results. We remain committed to leading the clean energy transformation. On the solid foundation of strong energy law, we delivered and settled our IRP. This makes us one of the first utilities in the country to completely exit coal. As of the end of second quarter, we have nearly eliminated our long-term economic exposure to coal, which is now less than 2% of property, plant, and equipment. Not only have we reduced our long-term financial risk, but we've significantly mitigated our operational risk as well. The acquisition of simpler, more flexible natural gas units means fewer people to operate, a better heat rate, and less maintenance. The ability to quickly ramp up and down the dispatch of these units will allow us to flex with changing market conditions and to better support the intermittent nature of renewables. The acquisition of Covert, combined with the RFP for 700 megawatts of capacity through PPAs, the build out of 8 gigawatts of solar, and our ongoing energy efficiency and demand response programs ensure that we have sufficient capacity to meet the needs of our customers. This plan improves the liability. and limits our customers' exposure to potentially volatile capacity and energy prices. The IRP strengthens and lengthens our financial plan, eliminates our exposure to coal, improves reliability, and is a solid win for everyone. Strong execution and constructive regulatory outcomes lead to strong financial results, and I couldn't be more pleased with the first half of 2022. As I stated in my opening remarks, a strong quarter in a great first half of the year where we delivered adjusted earnings per share of 53 cents for the quarter. We remain confident in delivering full-year adjusted earnings per share of $2.85 to $2.89, and we continue to guide toward the high end of our long-term adjusted EPS growth range of 6% to 8%, which, as I noted, is strengthened and lengthened by our IRP. We continue to guide for long-term dividend growth of 6% to 8% with a targeted payout ratio of about 50% over time. And we'll update our current $14.3 billion five-year customer investment plan on our year-end call to include the anticipated upside from the approval of our IRP. We are strongly positioned to deliver in the remainder of the year. With that, I'll turn the call over to Reggie to offer additional detail.