CMS Energy Corporation

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the CMS Energy 2024 third 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 zero. Just a reminder, there will be a rebroadcast of this conference call today, beginning at 12 p.m. Eastern Time, running through November 7th. 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 defer materially. This presentation also includes non-GAAP measures. Reconciliations of these measures to the most directly comparable gap measures are included in the appendix and posted on our website. And now I'll turn the call over to Garrick.

Thank you, Jason, and thank you everyone for joining us today. At CMS Energy, we deliver year over year for all stakeholders. We do that through our investment thesis. This simple but powerful model, coupled with our disciplined execution, sets us apart in the industry and has delivered more than two decades of industry-leading financial performance. Typically, I walk through that investment thesis, but today I want to offer three differentiators at CMS Energy, providing confidence and visibility as we continue to strengthen and lengthen our 6% to 8% EPS growth. First, Michigan's clean energy law. This law is great for our customers, the planet, and our investors, and ensures we have the right legislation in place to move from coal to clean, providing certainty for the investments we need to make in renewable energy. And it gives us the flexibility to either own the assets or utilize a power purchase agreement, doing what is best for our customers. Now, here's what's unique. Earning a financial compensation mechanism approximately 9% on a power purchase agreement. No other state that I'm aware of has this provision. And then add to it requirements for battery storage and an increased incentive on energy efficiency. There is a lot in this law, very little of which is in our five-year investment plan, providing a strong tailwind. And we believe we can do this important work affordably for our customers. flexibility in the law that allows for ownership or power purchase agreements both within Michigan and outside of Michigan provides more options for customers and ensures we can utilize lower cost energy. Furthermore, it provides us the ability to replace existing outdated and above market power purchase agreements with new renewable assets which keeps costs affordable for customers. Our 20-year Renewable Energy Plan, or REP, that we'll file next month will detail our clean energy investments and plans to achieve the targets set by Michigan's clean energy law. This filing will show the renewable assets needed above and beyond our 2021 Integrated Resource Plan, as well as the additional renewable assets needed to meet increasing sales demand and growth in the state. As I've shared before, Michigan's clean energy law is great for all stakeholders. It provides the flexibility we need to find the most cost-effective clean energy for our customers. The second item I want to highlight is our commitment to customer reliability. I'm very proud of the comprehensive plan we have laid out in our five-year, $7 billion electric reliability roadmap. This plan details our actions to move to second quartile reliability performance, or SADI, by the end of the decade through targeted investments in our electric grid. Needed investments for our customers, because we have recorded some of Michigan's highest wind speeds over the last five years, and we are seeing more frequent storm activity. This plan is deliberate and comprehensive. It improves reliability in the short term and builds in long-term resiliency and it does it proactively versus reactively. This plan means we will begin serious efforts to underground more of our distribution wires, better align with Midwest peers, and replace more than 20,000 poles with those designed for more extreme weather. It also means investing in grid technology for more automation and machine learning to speed up restoration in weather events. We're also one of the first utilities east of the Mississippi to file a comprehensive wildfire mitigation plan, which lays out the investments needed to prepare for climate change. These customer investments are based on Electric Power Research Institute, EPRI, best practices, and will bolster our distribution system to a level of performance our customers expect, particularly as the economy continues to electrify. And our plans have been supported. I'm pleased with the recent outcomes from the Michigan Public Service Commission and the Liberty Storm audit, which highlights the vastness of our system, the billions of dollars and decades needed to improve it, and the importance of these strategic investments. And our customers benefit when we improve the system proactively versus reactively. Making these investments in the system now means we can do it at a 40% to 70% lower cost, compared to when we do this work following an outage. Better service, lower customer cost. This is a great story. The third point I want to make today is the nice tailwind of economic development we are seeing in our service area. I'm excited and encouraged about the true Renaissance underway in Michigan. The big story across the industry is sales growth brought by data centers. We are seeing the same, and we're happy to talk more about data centers. But our story is different, and in my opinion, better. In Michigan, we are seeing a manufacturing renaissance, bolstered by onshoring, unique state attributes, and the inflation reduction and the Chips and Science Acts. And we love manufacturing growth because it brings jobs, supply chains, commercial activity, housing starts, and residential growth. where there is greater benefit for the state. We recently updated this slide to highlight several new and diversified examples. Corning, expanding and investing up to $900 million and bringing nearly 1,100 jobs to the state. This is the sort of growth we'd like to see, significant Michigan investment in job growth. Saab has expansion plans for an integration and assembly facility. Saab is new to the state but adding to the nearly 4,000 businesses engaged in defense and aerospace work in Michigan. Two new examples, among many, that speak to the diversified manufacturing growth we are realizing. Over 700 megawatts of signed contracts in 24 months and growing. Our economic development pipeline continues to look promising, with over 6 gigawatts of load looking to either move to or expand in our state. 60% of which is manufacturing. As I mentioned earlier, our renewable energy plan will conservatively reflect our updated low growth forecast based on the strong economic development tailwind we are experiencing. We work hard every day to win our customers' business, and we're honored when businesses see the value in investing in our state and our service territory. So let's take a look at the regulatory calendar for the year. As I shared last quarter, our financial related regulatory outcomes are known for the year, given the constructive March electric rate order and the approved gas rate case settlement. This positions us well as we navigate the last quarter of 2024. Gas rates were effective October 1st, and we plan to file our next gas rate case in December of this year. In our current electric rate case, we saw a constructive starting position by staff. We saw support for further undergrounding, wildfire mitigation, and the continuation of the investment recovery mechanism. I do want to point out that the mechanism for storm recovery and the investments outlined in the electric rate case and in the Liberty storm audit are important for our customers. That probably goes without saying. However, it may require that we go to a fully adjudicated order to get the best outcome for our customers. Know that we are confident with where we are in the process, the quality of our filing, and the proactive nature of the investments we are making to improve reliability for our customers. If we go the full distance, we expect the order in March of 2025. Now, let's spend a moment on the results. For the first nine months, we reported adjusted earnings per share of $2.47, up 41 cents for the same period in 2023, largely driven by the constructive outcomes in our electric and gas rate cases. Given our confidence in the year, we are reaffirming all our financial objectives, including this year's guidance range of $3.29, to $3.35 per share with continued confidence toward the high end. We are initiating our full year guidance for 2025 at $3.52 to $3.58 per share, reflecting 6% to 8% growth off the midpoint of this year's range. And we are well positioned, just like 2024, to be toward the high end of that range. it is important to remember that we always rebase guidance off our actuals on the Q4 call, compounding our growth. This brings you a higher quality of earnings and differentiates us from others in the sector. And like we've done in previous years, we'll provide a refresh of our five-year capital and financial plans on the Q4 call. With that, I'll hand the call over to Reggie.