CMS Energy Corporation

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the CMS Energy 2024 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 that time. If at any time during the conference you need to reach an operator, please press the star key followed by the digit zero. Just a reminder, there will be a rebroadcast of this conference call today beginning at 12 p.m. Eastern Time running through August 1st. 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. Jason Shaw, Treasurer and Vice President of Investor Relations.

Thank you, Harry. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. With me are Garrick Rochelle, 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. And now I'll turn the call over to Garrett.

Thank you, Jason. And thank you everyone for joining us today. Our proven investment thesis, which delivers six to 8% adjusted earnings growth and affordable bills for our customers has been durable for more than two decades because we focus on what matters. Today, I'm going to highlight two key areas of our thesis. First, Michigan's strong regulatory environment. Built on a solid, constructive framework, much of which is codified in Michigan law. Ten-month forward-looking rate cases, important financial and fuel recovery mechanisms, and increased energy waste reduction incentives, just to name a few attributes. This robust framework supports Michigan's position as a top-tier regulatory environment and provides important supportive incentives for needed investments to make our electric and gas systems safer, more reliable and resilient, and cleaner. And second, our continued commitment to affordable bills for our customers. As I've said before, we work both sides of the equation. We make important investments and we keep customer bills affordable. I consider our use of the CE Way, our lean operating system, one of the best in the industry. This approach limits upward pressure on customer bills and is critical in the delivery of our investment plan. And we continue to see a long runway of cost saving opportunities well into the future. Delivering industry leading results for all our stakeholders. From a regulatory perspective, we're off to a strong start for the year. As you can see on slide four, our regulatory calendar is mostly complete. We received a constructive order in our electric rate case in March, filed our new electric rate case in May, and settled our gas rate case earlier this month. The fourth consecutive settlement in our gas business. four consecutive settlements in gas, yet another proof point highlighting the strong regulatory environment in Michigan. We're very pleased with our recently approved gas settlement, which calls for a $62.5 million of effective rate relief, a 9% or 9.9% ROE and a 50% equity ratio. We plan to follow our next gas rate case in December of this year. Outside of rate cases, our upcoming 20-year renewable energy plan or REP filing in November is the only major remaining filing for the year. Let me pause there for a moment. Midway through the year, our financial related regulatory outcomes are known. This is a great place to be. I also want to talk about our formula to deliver customer affordability as we make important investments. Long-term filings, like our renewable energy plan, detail the significant plan investments that support safe, reliable, clean, and affordable energy for our customers. As we shared previously, we see more investment opportunities as we make the transition to renewables and clean energy. In addition to the $17 billion of needed customer investments in our five-year capital plan, Our electric reliability roadmap and natural gas delivery plans highlight important investments well beyond what's in our financial plan. Now, that's a long way of saying we see a long runway of necessary and important customer investments. These investments must be balanced with a laser focus on customer affordability. We take seriously our ability to create capital headroom to make those investments through continued use of the CEUA. which provides over $50 million of annual customer savings. Renegotiating over-market PPAs and retiring our coal facilities, which together provide well over $200 million in savings as we transition toward cleaner resources. Capitalizing on economic development opportunities, particularly in manufacturing, which brings jobs and significant mission investments, spreading fixed costs over a larger customer base, benefiting all customers. Lastly, leveraging our best-in-class energy waste reduction programs to help customers reduce bills. This is a formula that works for everyone, continuing to strengthen the system with important investments while keeping customer bills affordable. Now, let's look at the results and outlook. For the first half, we reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.63, up 18 cents versus the first half of 2023, largely driven by the constructive outcomes in our electric and gas rate cases. We remain confident in this year's guidance and long-term outlook and are reaffirming all our financial objectives. Our full year guidance remained at $3.29 to $3.35 per share with continued confidence toward the high end. Longer term, we continue to guide toward the high end of our adjusted EPS growth range of 6% to 8%, which implies and includes 7% up to 8%. With that, I'll hand the call over to Reggie.