Eversource Energy (D/B/A)

Good morning and welcome to the Eversource Energy first quarter 2021 results conference call. My name is Brandon and I'll be your operator for today. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session during which you may dial star 1 if you have a question. Please note this conference is being recorded and I will now turn it over to Jeffrey Kotkin. You may begin, sir.

Thank you, Brandon. Good morning and thank you for joining us. I'm Jeff Kotkin, Eversource Energy's Vice President for Investor Relations. During this call, we'll be referencing slides that we posted this morning on our website. And as you can see on slide one, some of the statements made during this investor call may be forward-looking as defined within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to risk and uncertainty, which may cause the actual results to differ materially from forecasts and projections. These factors are set forth in the news release issued this morning. Additional information about the various factors that may cause actual results to differ can be found in our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020. Additionally, our explanation of how and why we use certain non-GAAP measures and how those measures reconcile to GAAP results is contained within our news release and the slides we posted this morning and in our most recent 10-K. Speaking today will be Joe Nolan, our new President and Chief Executive Officer, and Phil Lembo, our Executive Vice President and CFO. Also joining us today are John Marrera, our treasurer and senior VP for finance and regulatory, and Jay Booth, our VP and controller. Now I will turn to slide two and turn over the call to Joe.

Thank you, Jeff. We hope that all on the phone remain healthy and that your families are safe and well. Over the past couple of years, I've spoken to many of the investors who were on this call when I've joined Jim, Phil, and Jeff. at various industry conferences, including the last couple of EEI finance conferences. I'm looking forward to meeting many more of you over the coming years and sharing my optimism and enthusiasm for Eversource's future and excellent investment thesis. I'm grateful to the Eversource Board of Trustees and to Jim for allowing me to lead an incredibly dedicated and high-performing organization. I'm also thankful that Jim will remain a full-time employee of Eversource as Executive Chairman. In approving these executive-level changes, the Eversource Board is signaling its confidence in our long-term strategy that focuses on our core regulated business with an exciting investment in offshore wind. We are in a world where customer service, safety, and reliability have never been more important. We will never forget that we would not be in the business without our 4.3 million customers. They are our top priority. Customers pay the bills, and they deserve the reliable and safe utility service that we must provide. Over the coming decades, the tens of billions of dollars we will invest in our energy and water delivery systems will be critical in helping New England prepare for a clean energy future. And we expect to be a central catalyst for that clean energy transition. This morning, I want to cover a couple of topics associated with Eversource's energy initiatives and then turn over the call to Phil. But first, I need to address our company's relationship with Connecticut. We have thousands of employees in Connecticut who work hard each day to provide our 1.7 million natural gas, water, and electric customers with the most reliable and responsive service possible. During emergency situations, which we have had far too often over the past year due to the historic storm levels, they are working up to 16 hours a day for as many days as it takes to ensure that our customers have their service restored promptly and safely, even in a pandemic. So I cannot tell you how painful it was for me to read certain elements of the tropical storm Isaias decision that was released on April 28th. It did not reflect the hard work of our dedicated employees in the company I've been chosen to lead. Our customers, Pura, and our company all want the same thing. Great service each and every day of the year. And when there's a storm event, power restoration as safely and quickly as possible. The women and men of Eversource work hard each and every day to meet these expectations. The Pura order on storm response clearly identified areas for improvement. We know we have to work to do not only our response plan, but also on our relationship with Pura. This was apparent from the April 28 decision and a subsequent notice of violation. I can assure you that we hear this loud and clear and already doing all we can to improve on both counts. Turning to our clean energy initiatives, you are probably aware of the climate legislation that Massachusetts Governor Baker signed into law earlier this spring. Among many elements, the law will allow each of the state's utilities to build up to 280 megawatts of solar generation. Enstar Electric will be able to increase its level of solar generation in rate base from 70 megawatts to 350 megawatts. As Phil mentioned during our year-end earnings call, we have budgeted approximately $500 million for this initiative from 2022 to 2025. The other item with direct impact on us is the 2400 megawatt expansion of Massachusetts offshore wind authorization from 3200 megawatts to 5600 megawatts. This expansion will help keep the state at the forefront of offshore wind development in the United States. As you can see on slide two, there are now more than 10,000 megawatts of unawarded offshore wind authorizations in southern New England and New York, with Massachusetts set to award up to 1,600 megawatts later this year. In fact, Massachusetts RFP was just issued on Friday of last week. Our offshore wind partnership with Orsted is very near and dear to my heart, since I have always seen that relationship and worked closely with our partner in recent years. It is an important element of our clean energy growth strategy, and we have had a number of positive offshore wind developments already this year. Starting with slide three in early January, the Bureau of Ocean Management, or BOEM, released its draft environmental impact statement on south walk project comments received by late february and we expect to see a final eis late this summer home is scheduled to rule on our final federal permits for that project in january of 2022 assuming that the january date is met we expect to begin construction early next year and complete the project in late 2023 Additionally, in late March, the New York Public Service Commission approved the necessary New York State siting permit for the project, while the local town and trustees of East Hampton approved the local real estate rights required for the project. Turning to Revolution Wind. Late last month, BOEM released a schedule for reviewing the 704 megawatt project. The schedule calls for a final environmental impact statement to be issued in March of 2023 and for a final decision on construction and operating plan by the end of July 2023. The release of that schedule represents a significant step forward for this project. Revolution Wind and South Park are two of only three projects in the Northeast that have achieved that milestone. Over the coming months, we in Orsted will be reviewing the BOEM and the State of Rhode Island permitting process to develop a projection for the Revolution Wind construction schedule. Finally, we expect to receive BOEM review schedule for our 924 megawatt Sunrise Wind project later this year. We continue to make significant progress in preparing for the commencement of construction. Over the past couple of months, we have announced agreements with two critical ports that will serve as staging grounds for construction. New London, Connecticut will serve as a hub for turbine construction, and Providence, Rhode Island will be the center for foundation construction. Enormous economic benefits will accrue to these communities as a result of their role in our construction activities, including hundreds of direct jobs. We are also very encouraged by the extremely positive signs we see from Washington. President Biden has underscored his support for offshore wind construction along the Atlantic seaboard and has marshaled multiple members of his cabinet to support it. Their goal was to have about 30,000 megawatts of offshore wind turbines operating in the U.S. by 2030. We expect to be a significant contributor to that output through our partnership with Orsted. Already, more than 1,750 megawatts are under contract to serve load in Connecticut, New York, and Rhode Island. Again, I look forward to speaking with many of you at the AGA virtual conference later this month. Now, I will turn over the call to Phil.