Duke Energy Corporation (Holding Company)

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Duke Energy third quarter 2024 earnings call. My name is Felicia and I'll be your operator today. Following today's presentation, there will be a Q&A session. You may register for questions by pressing star followed by one on your telephone keypad. I will now hand you over to your host today, Abby Motzinger, Vice President of Investor Relations at Duke Energy. Abby, please go ahead.

Thank you, Felicia, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Duke Energy's third quarter 2024 earnings review and business update. Leading our call today is Lynn Good, chair and CEO, along with Harry Sedaris, president, and Brian Savoy, CFO. Today's discussion will include the use of non-GAAP financial measures and forward-looking information. Actual results may differ from forward-looking statements due to factors disclosed in today's materials and in Duke Energy's SEC filings. The appendix of today's presentation includes supplemental information along with a reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures. With that, let me turn the call over to Lynn. Abby, thank you, and good morning, everyone.

Before I get into the third quarter results, I wanted to take a moment and recognize the extraordinary hurricane season that we've responded to this year. We've had three consecutive hurricanes, Debbie, Helene, and Milton, each of which devastated parts of our communities. And my heart goes out to all of those who are directly impacted by these catastrophic storms, especially those who lost loved ones, homes, or businesses. Harry will provide further details on our restoration efforts in a moment, and Brian will share cost estimates and plans for cost recovery later in the call. But I want to first commend our employees and utility partners, many of whom are personally affected by the devastation, for their remarkable response. Our field teams rose to the challenge working around the clock to restore outages as safely and quickly as possible. And our customer care representatives, corporate responders, community relations managers, and state president offices worked tirelessly to keep customers and policymakers informed. I'd also like to thank our state and local leaders, including Governor Cooper, Governor DeSantis, and Governor McMaster, and officials in our emergency operation centers for their partnership and coordination. I could not be more proud of our teammates and our partners for their unwavering commitment to our customers and communities. It's important to note that our regulators and policymakers recognize the extraordinary efforts of our company in responding to these events, and the feedback we have received has been overwhelmingly positive. We recognize that our work is not done. It will take time for some of our communities to get back on their feet and we'll be with them every step of the way. Turning to quarterly results on slide five, today we announced adjusted earnings per share of $1.62 for the third quarter compared to $1.94 last year. Brian will discuss results in more detail, but I wanted to highlight a few things influencing this comparison. As you know, 2023 was impacted by historically weak weather early in the year, and mitigation in the second half of the year. Significant mitigation efforts positively impacted third quarter 2023 results. Third quarter of 2024 includes the full impact of Hurricane Debbie and the mobilization of resources for Hurricane Colleen. Colleen and Milton will impact the fourth quarter. And for both storms, we're working with preliminary cost estimates, which we will finalize by year end. Hurricane costs are largely deferred or capitalized. However, there are a few exceptions, and there's no recovery mechanism for lost revenues. As a result, and based on what we know today, we are reaffirming our 2024 guidance range, trending to the lower half. We are actively pursuing mitigation measures, some of which will naturally occur because of the resources devoted to the storms, and others we will trigger through controlled spending through the balance of the year. And we will look for every opportunity. without compromising in our commitment to safety and to our customers. As we look ahead to 2025 and beyond, we have strong momentum driven by our track record of constructive regulatory outcomes, including our recent IRP approvals in the Carolinas, as well as our robust growth in our attractive jurisdictions. These tailwinds give us confidence in our long-term outlook, and we are reaffirming our 5% to 7% EPS growth rate through 2028, up the midpoint of our 2024 range. And with that, I'll hand the call over to Kerry.