DTE Energy Company

Good morning and welcome to DTE Energy's Q3 2022 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question at that time, you will need to press star followed by 1 on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 again. If you need operator assistance at any time, please press star 0. I would now like to turn the call over to Barbara Tuckfield, Director of Investor Relations. Ms. Tuckfield, please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Before we get started, I would like to remind you to read the Safe Harbor Statement on page two of the presentation, including the reference to forward-looking statements. Our presentation also includes references to operating earnings, which is a non-GAAP financial measure. Please refer to the Reconciliation of GAAP Earnings to Operating Earnings provided in the appendix. With us this morning are Jerry Norcia, Chairman, President, and CEO, and Dave Rude, Senior Vice President and CFO. And now I'll turn it over to Jerry to start the call this morning.

Thanks, Barb, and good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us. Let me start by saying that three-quarters of the way through 2022, we are on track for a very successful year, and we continue to be well-positioned for the future. This morning, I will highlight some of the successes we have accomplished this year, and Dave will provide a financial update and wrap things up before we take your questions. We are very well positioned to achieve our operating EPS guidance. The $6 guidance midpoint provides over 8% growth from our 2021 original guidance midpoint. As many of you know, we will be filing our integrated resource plan, or IRP, next week. This filing will provide updates on our path for decarbonization and our commitment to continuing to provide clean, reliable, and affordable energy to our customers. Our team has been working hard on this filing, going through multiple scenarios and taking into account stakeholder feedback to develop a plan that works best for all of our customers, as well as incorporating the benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act or the IRA. I'm extremely proud of all of our team members who have put their energy into this filing. Naturally, the IRP will impact our five-year capital plan, and we are excited to provide further details in a couple of weeks at EEI. Along with our capital plan update, we will provide an update on our long-term growth strategy at this conference. We will also provide updates on our voluntary renewables program, My Green Power, which continues to show substantial growth. Just this week, we subscribed a new 400 megawatt customer, increasing the program to 2,100 megawatts of subscription. As climate change remains our generation's defining public policy issue, DTE is committed to doing our part by continuing to invest for our customers and to ensure reliability. Our electric grid needs to be modernized to be resilient against extreme weather and also be able to accommodate significant new demand that will be coming in the future. Our electric grid will continue to see increased load as the pace of electric vehicle adoption accelerates. We are focusing on updating and improving our aging infrastructure for this additional demand while continuing to provide safe, reliable, and affordable energy. Recently, we saw the passage of the IRA. We see the IRA as a positive overall for our company with benefits for both our utility and non-utility businesses. Dave will go into the specifics in a few minutes on the positive impacts of the IRA. Let's move to slide five to discuss how we are delivering for all of our stakeholders. We know that with our engaged and talented team, we will continue to deliver for our customers, communities, and investors. We are working hard on all these fronts, and I'm pleased to highlight some of the recognition we have received. VTE was recently named a top 10 employer in the state of Michigan by Forbes magazine. Additionally, after our most recent engagement survey with Gallup, VTE ranks in the top 4% of companies worldwide in employee engagement, which continues to give me confidence that our team will deliver for our stakeholders. We also continue our efforts to support our customers. As I mentioned earlier, we will be filing our IRP next week. This will provide detail on our plans to generate safe, clean, reliable, affordable energy as we accelerate our decarbonization efforts. We continue to be an integral part of the community. We recently joined the City of Detroit and the White House to form the Detroit Tree Equity Partnership, This ambitious program aims to build Detroit's tree canopy by planting tens of thousands of trees over the next five years, cooling urban areas while providing beauty and air quality improvements. The program will also hire and train workers to plant and maintain the trees in the city, bringing jobs to our community. We are also partnering to drive economic development in the state of Michigan. Our Next Energy recently announced that they will be bringing 2,000 jobs to Michigan with a $1.6 billion investment in new battery operations. We are helping the state transition to a new automotive future with electric vehicles. Given all of this positive momentum, we also feel great about our financial position as we head into the final months of 2022 and are on track to achieve our 2022 operating EPS guidance. Let's turn to slide six. With the opportunities we have in front of us, DTE is on track to make significant customer-focused capital investments across our businesses. These investments are transforming the way we produce power as we shift toward renewables and natural gas and away from coal generation. Two important factors affecting our grid are climate change and emerging electrification technologies. We need to build the grid of the future to ensure we can continue to provide clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy. Additionally, At our gas utility, we continue our important main renewal work, which further reduces greenhouse gas emissions. I'm happy to say we are on target to complete another 200 miles this year. Finally, at DTE Vantage, we continue to add new RNG projects and other energy solution projects for our customers, which enables growth with a focus on decarbonization. We execute on all this investment with a sharp focus on customer affordability. and ensuring that we continue to manage our business to achieve that. Our distinctive continuous improvement culture drives cost management. The shift from coal to natural gas and renewables also helps to further reduce operating costs. Our diverse energy mix helps reduce fuel costs as well, and it allows us to maintain flexibility to adapt to future technology advancements. The IRA supports this transition to renewable energy while achieving customer affordability goals and further enhances opportunities for growth at DTE Vantage. With that, let me turn it over to Dave.