CMS Energy Corporation

Good morning everyone and welcome to the CMS Energy 2026 first 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 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 May 5th. 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 Shore, Treasurer and Vice President of Investor Relations.

Thank you, Rob. 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 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. Our investment thesis, which you see on slide three, continues to stand the test of time. Whether it's our long capital runway, Michigan's top tier regulatory jurisdiction, our ability to keep bills affordable for customers, or the strong economic growth across the state, this model works. And it works consistently. It drives a premium total shareholder return, 6% to 8% adjusted EPS growth with annual compounding paired with approximately 3% dividend yield. It's a simple, durable formula. And it's why CMS Energy continues to be a smart, long-term investment, delivering for more than two decades with consistent industry leading performance. Turning to slide four, you'll see the outcome of our most recent electric rate case. The commission approved over 65% of our ask and maintained our 9.9% ROE in the electric business. I continue to be pleased with our regulatory outcomes and most importantly, the support for our customer investments. On the graph to the left, what stands out is a consistent record of support, constructive outcomes we've seen across our electric rate case filings over the last several years. These outcomes reflect deliberate, customer-focused investments designed to deliver on Michigan's energy law and materially improve the reliability and resiliency of the electric grid. It's the investments approved in this rate case and previous cases that directly support better service. That includes everything from critical capital investments across the grid to advanced tree trimming on a five-year cycle, work that meaningfully reduces outages, restoration time, and customer costs. The Commission's support reinforces that reliability and affordability can, and should go hand in hand. That's good for our customers. Our track record of consistent and constructive rate case outcomes is strong. And that is possible through a deliberate process, a constructive environment, and focused work by the team. These strong outcomes aren't a one-off or by chance. They're the result of a very deliberate and disciplined regulatory strategy. It starts with Michigan's energy law in enabling legislation. From there, we build alignment, support, and pre-approvals through a coordinated set of filings, our integrated resource plan, renewable energy plan, and five-year electric distribution plan. We also utilize proven regulatory mechanisms, like the investment recovery mechanism, that streamline proceedings, ensuring certainty of recovery and drive accountability. When you combine that framework with strong testimony in clear business cases, the result is exactly what you see here. Constructive outcomes that support needed customer investments while maintaining affordability. Looking forward to our upcoming regulatory agenda. In April, we saw the MPSC staff position in our current gas rate case. recommending over 75% of our $240 million ask. Staff also supported nearly 95% of our gas infrastructure investments. These investments continue to ensure a safe and reliable natural gas system while balancing affordability for our customers. Much like electric, we continue to receive constructive outcomes that benefit our customers. We've settled four of the last five cases and continue to see support for our filings. In our electric business, we plan to file our 20-year integrated resource plan or IRP in June. Our IRP will include 1.5 gigawatts of new gas capacity to replace existing retiring capacity, ensuring we have the supply to meet our customer load well into the future. will include 13 gigawatts of renewable and clean energy, much of which was already approved in our 20-year renewable energy plan. Our filing will also include a growth scenario, highlighting the need for additional capacity to ensure we are prepared for the growing customer base in Michigan, as we see data center and manufacturing interests in our service territory. A portion of these renewables and the additional gas capacity are in our current five-year plan, with more upside opportunity given additional storage and renewables to meet Michigan's energy law and customer load beyond the five-year plan. We've identified that for every one gigawatt of new large load, we could see capital opportunity of $2 to $5 billion. Again, those investments would be incremental to our current capital plan. I'm very proud of the team. and the thoughtful work on these plans. The comprehensive analysis and modeling takes months and is done with a deep commitment to building a plan that is best for our customers and our state. At CMS Energy, our customers are at the center of all we do, a promise to deliver safe, reliable, and affordable energy. And while we are committed to the important and necessary investments in our electric and gas systems, we remain laser focused on customer affordability. Our track record is strong. Customer savings driven through the CE way and further optimized with digital automation. Episodic cost savings, low growth, and energy waste reduction as further examples. Our efforts here are meaningful and impactful. As a result, Michigan electric bills are the 14th lowest in the nation, well below the national average, and also below the Midwest average. In our bill growth, you see on the left side of the slide, among the lowest in the country. On the right side of the slide, looking forward, customer bills, electric and gas, below the energy CPI, while investing over $24 billion over our five-year plan period. I am pleased with our progress, but we're not done yet. We're sharply focused on continuing to bring down costs for our customers while delivering for those most in need. Additionally, affordability is supported by growth, and Michigan continues to make headlines and top rankings nationwide as we see new or expanding load materializing in the state and supporting 2% to 3%. annual sales growth. This growth allows us to spread fixed costs over a larger customer base and improve affordability for all customers. We have significant interest in our service territory with contracts for roughly 100 megawatts of new load signed last year, and we've exceeded that in just Q1 of this year, approximately 110 megawatts of signed contracts year-to-date. This is all on top of the approximately 450 megawatts connected last year. As I've shared in many investor meetings, Michigan has more engineers per capita than any other state. We are the second most diverse state in agriculture. We have many aerospace and defense businesses and a rich automotive heritage. Our service territory is growing with manufacturing and industrial processing, bringing with it large investments, jobs, supply chains, and commercial and residential growth. One of our larger recently signed contracts is with Michigan Potash and Salt Company, a strategic and critical mineral manufacturer and the only established and sustainable potash reserve in the US, expanding in our service territory, bringing with it roughly 130 jobs and over $1.3 billion of investment in Michigan. I love seeing growth like this and the value that it brings to Michigan our customers, communities, and investors. There is also a diversity in this growth, which is important in the context of data centers, which I'll cover on the next slide. Moving on to our growth pipeline, you see that win here on slide eight with Michigan Potash moved through the funnel to a signed contract. There were also several other smaller customer expansions not shown on the slide, that make up roughly 110 megawatts year-to-date. In addition to strong manufacturing and industrial processing, Michigan continues to attract data center interest, and I'm pleased with the progress we have made over the last quarter. Our announced data center continues to close in on final contract after reaching commercial terms on the extraordinary facilities agreement and now commercial terms on the rate contract. And as I mentioned in our year end call, another data center has continued to progress in advanced contract negotiations. I'm also pleased with the community engagement in the forward progress experience at a local zoning level. Keep in mind, these data centers are not yet reflected in our five year customer investment plan and associated additional investments will not be subsidized by existing customers. In fact, each gigawatt of new data center load that materializes in our service territory will reduce our average customer rate by 2% annually over a five-year period. Now, on to the financials for the quarter. In the first quarter, we reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.13. We remain confident in this year's guidance and long-term outlook and are reaffirming all our financial objectives. Our full-year guidance remains at $3.83 to $3.90 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%. With that, I'll hand the call over to Reggie.