Clearway Energy, Inc.

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Clearway Energy Inc. first quarter 2024 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, please press star 1-1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today. Chris Sotos, outgoing president and CEO of Clearway Energy, Inc.

Good morning.

Let me first thank you for taking the time to join Clearway Energy, Inc.' 's first quarter call. Joining me this morning are Akil Marsh, director of investor relations, Sarah Rubenstein, CFO, and Craig Cornelius, president and CEO of Clearway Energy Group, our sponsor, and incoming president and CEO of Clearway Energy, Inc. Before we begin, I'd like to quickly note that today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements, which are based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable as of this date. Actual results may differ materially. Please review the safe harbor in today's presentation, as well as the risk factors in our SEC filings. In addition, we will refer to both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. For information regarding our non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures, please refer to today's presentation. Turn to page four. C1's first quarter delivered solid results, primarily due to strong renewable resources at Alta, generating $52 million of CAFTE, establishing a strong start for the year, allowing for a reaffirmation of our 2024 guidance of $395 million. Clearway also increased its dividend by 1.7% for the quarter, bringing our quarterly dividend to quarterly dividend to 0.4102 a share, or $1.6408 on an annualized basis, in line with our targeted dividend growth of 7% for 2024. Our latest investments continue to achieve commercial operations, with Cedar Creek and Texas Solar Nova II now contributing to C1's CAFTE. C1 also committed to approximately $65 million of new corporate capital deployments since our last earnings call. generating five-year annual average CAFTI yields of approximately 10%, with the extra agreements on Danz Mountain and Rosemont South 1. As a result of our continued execution around deployment of the thermal proceeds, C1 is increasing our pro forma CAFTI outlook to $420 million from $415 million. In the medium term through 2026, the remaining drop-down offers to fully allocate the thermal proceeds are on track to become commitments in 2024. allowing C1 to achieve $2.15 of CAFI per share by 2026 with no external capital and reaffirm the ability to achieve the upper range of 5% to 8% DPS growth through 2026. Finally, as Craig will go into more detail in a couple slides, C1's visibility to grow beyond 2026 We have completed a joint development agreement with Clearway Group that optimizes our Utah solar assets with the potential to invest up to $85 million in 2026 at a 10% CAFTI yield. In addition, C1 has executed RA contracts for Marsh Landing and Walnut Creek with strong pricing, enhancing visibility into organic CAFTI per share growth in 2027 and beyond. Importantly, these contracts were signed outside of the large procurement processes conducted by the utilities and demonstrate the critical role Clearway's gas assets play in the California grid. Finally, our sponsor's 30-gigawatt renewable pipeline continues to develop with approximately 8 gigawatts of late-stage projects targeting CODs over the next five years. In summary, Clearway has started the year in a strong position with solid CAFTE performance, continued execution around our 2026 CAFTE goals, and continued progress and growth for 2027 and beyond. Page 5 provides a summary of Clearway's $65 million of committed growth investments signed between our February call and now, with anticipated commercial operations in the first half of 2025. These investments are expected to generate five-year annual average CAFTE yield of approximately 10%, underpinned by long-term contracts of 12 to 15 years, adding strong accretion to C1's asset mix and strong returns on a risk-adjusted basis. On the left side of the page is Dan Mountain Wind Asset at 55 megawatts in Clearways First in Maryland, providing additional exposure to the PGM market with a strong long-term outlook for energy and REC pricing in the future. On the right side of the page, you see the corporate capital anticipated CAFTI frozen on South 1, a 257 megawatt solar plus storage project in California with no settled revenue contracts with a diversified offtake profile. Both of these investments continue to expand the fleet with strong CAFTI accretion and significant contracted tenors, adding to long-term CAFTI growth prospects of C1. I'd be remiss if, in my last call as C1 CEO, I did not see our graph showing growth through 2026. Our sponsor, through Craig's leadership and the work of so many colleagues at Clearway Energy Group, had developed and dropped to C1 over 1,800 megawatts and 15 different drop-down assets in order to redeploy the thermal proceeds efficiently and accretively. The Clearway enterprise has always been about execution. execution of developing quality assets, execution of raising capital to fund them, both during construction and long-term, and execution of being stewards of those assets and the cash they generate over their useful lives. Slide 6 demonstrates our path to $2.15 per share, with the remaining approximately $150 million of excess fundable proceeds to be deployed in an approximate 10% five-year annual average cap to yield. These remaining assets should achieve commercial operation dates during 2025, putting C1 in a good position for 2026 and beyond for CAFTE generation and dividend growth. So while I'm moving on from Clearway to find new opportunities, I feel confident that Craig, who has led so much of the execution that has put C1 on its current growth trajectory through this volatile period, will continue the enterprise's legacy of execution, regardless of market challenges. Craig, turning over to you.