Eversource Energy (D/B/A)

with an opportunity for questions and answers at the end. I would now like to pass the call to our host, Matt Fallon, Eversource Energy's Director for Investor Relations. Matt, please go ahead.

Good morning and thank you for joining us. I am Matt Fallon, Eversource Energy's Director for Investor Relations. During this call, we'll be referencing slides that we posted yesterday on our website. As you can see on slide one, some of the statements made during this investor call may be forward-looking. These 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. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any of these statements. Additional information about the various factors that may cause actual results to differ and our explanation of non-GAAP measures and how they reconcile to GAAP results is contained within our news release, the slides we posted last night, and in our most recent 10-K. Speaking today will be Joe Nolan, our Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, and John Marrera, our Executive Vice President, CFO, and Treasurer. Also joining us today is Jay Booth, our Vice President and Controller.

I will now turn the call over to Joe. Thank you, Matt, and thank you all for joining us on the call this morning. Let me begin with an update on the sale of our offshore wind business. I am pleased to report that we are on track to close the sale of the three projects over the coming months. We are progressing well on the approvals necessary to close these transactions as shown on slide three. We have filed all regulatory approvals with the New York Public Service Commission and FERC for the sale of Southwalk Wind and Revolution Wind to global infrastructure partners. And we recently executed the purchase and sale agreement for Sunrise Wind with Orsted. For Sunrise Wind, We have also filed applications for regulatory approvals, the New York Public Service Commission and FERC. We anticipate these approvals will take about 90 days. On the construction front, I can't tell you how excited and proud I was of my Eversource colleagues as I stood alongside New York Governor Hochul to flip the switch to energize South Park Wind in March. We will certainly capitalize on lessons learned from South Park, a first of its kind project here in the United States. The same construction processes will be used for the Revolution Wind Project, where onshore and offshore construction is underway. Now that our offshore wind risk is largely behind us, we are very excited about the future of Eversource, delivering safe and reliable electric natural gas, and water service to our 4.4 million customers. Turning to slide four, Eversource is moving forward as a pure play regulated pipes and wires utility business, doing what we do best, delivering clean energy safely and reliably to our customers every day. When we are doing what we do best, our customers are the direct beneficiaries. A good example of this came in early April when a late winter storm caused significant damage across the Northeast. Through our investments in technology, including smart switches and other reliability innovations, we were able to restore 85,000 customers in New Hampshire within five minutes, greatly reducing the impact of the storm to many customers in that area. This amazing response received numerous accolades from customers and personal acknowledgement from Governor Sununu. We take tremendous pride in our emergency response organization and our ability to stand up our emergency response teams for timely restoration. Eversource teams from all three states responded to the storm damage in New Hampshire, minimizing customer outage time. Our resiliency investments help to minimize customer outage impacts. Our preparation enables us to hit the ground running in front of potential severe weather events, and our emergency response plan supports scalable and efficient restoration for those customers who are impacted. And we work tirelessly to communicate that timely recovery of storm costs is critical to support these efforts. Turning to the clean energy future, as you can see on slide five, the states we serve have very aggressive greenhouse gas reduction goals. Both the transportation sector and residential and commercial heating sectors are the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Although the region has acted by reducing carbon emissions from power generation, we have a long way to go on heating and transportation. to achieve the state's targets by 2050. To meet these targets, we project that average household electric demand will double in the summer and more than triple in the winter. That's why it's critical that we all work collaboratively and get started today on making achievement of these targets a reality. Moving to slide six, achievement of Massachusetts decarbonization goals are being addressed. in part through the Electric Sector Modernization Plans, or ESMP. This is the most comprehensive clean energy plan in the nation with planning processes and requirements that will provide the pathway for the state to achieve its clean energy objectives. The Eversource ESMP is a product of our system planning process, incorporating the state's assumptions for projected demand growth from electric vehicles in electric heating. To develop our ESMP, we have analyzed expected electric growth down to the circuit level to identify grid investments needed over the next five years and beyond. These infrastructure investments will convert our distribution grid into the platform for the clean energy transition, will increase electrification capacity by 180%, and will allow for the adoption of 2.5 million electric vehicles, 1 million heat pumps, and 5.8 gigawatts of solar generation, thereby making Massachusetts a leader in delivering clean energy to its homes and businesses. In New Hampshire, we are focused on a number of regulatory initiatives and are evaluating ways to advance clean energy initiatives such as large-scale utility-owned solar development. For example, New Hampshire state legislators are working on a bill that would institute structural reforms to New Hampshire's Energy Facility Site Evaluation Committee, or the SEC, reducing the size of the SEC from nine members to five and eliminating unnecessary process to improve efficiency and to lead to more consistent outcomes. In turn, this will lead to an accelerated siting and permitting process for these clean energy initiatives. Turning to Connecticut, state policy leaders have a vision of solar expansion, electric vehicle adoption, and future renewable purchase power agreements as part of its clean energy transition. We are a strong supporter of these efforts to enable the clean energy future for our customers. And we certainly are looking to partner with the state collaboratively and productively to achieve this important vision for our customers. While we continue to work diligently to support state policy leaders on thoughtful and reasonable policies aimed at increased adoption of clean energy technologies and the reduction of carbon emissions we have serious concerns with the lack of alignment between state policy and regulatory decisions implementing that policy. As it stands, regulatory policies in Connecticut discourage investment and utility innovation, as well as our participation in a wide range of clean energy initiatives that rely on our balance sheet and our capital resources. Upfront program funding by the utilities does not work where cost recovery is continually deferred and delayed into the future on uncertain terms. Without recognition that our funding sources rely on a secure and predictable cost recovery path, we cannot move forward to put additional capital resources on the table. We are encouraged by Pura's decision last month to provide timely reimbursement of deferred public policy costs through the company's electric annual rate adjustment mechanism. Decisions that adhere to law and legislative policy are critical to assure a constructive regulatory environment in Connecticut and to make the vision of a clean energy future a reality for our customers. Looking forward to the future, we remain committed to our extensive outreach plan across Connecticut, furthering our efforts to engage collaboratively and productively with Connecticut's leadership. Lastly, I want to thank my Eversource colleagues for their unwavering commitment and dedication to our customers. I have the utmost confidence in our team to deliver safe and reliable energy service to our customers with daily progress toward a clean energy future. I will now turn the call over to John Marrera to walk through our financial results.