Eversource Energy (D/B/A)

Good morning and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Eversource Energy Q2 2024 earnings call. My name is Jaquita. I will be your moderator for today's call. Our lines will be muted in the presentation portion of the call with the opportunity for questions and answers at the end. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. I would now like to pass the conference over to your host, Matthew Fallon, with Eversource Energy 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 in our explanation of non-GAAP measures and how they reconcile to GAAP results is contained within our news release, the slides that we posted last night, and in our most recent 10Q. 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. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on the call. Let me begin with an update on offshore wind. I am very pleased to report that we have closed the seal of Sunrise Wind project to Orsted and that we anticipate closing the seal of our South Fork and Revolution Wind projects to global infrastructure partners in the third quarter. Closing these seals delivers on our commitment to exit the offshore wind business and focus our resources on being a pure play regulated utility with tremendous low risk regulated growth opportunities to enable the clean energy transition for customers. Turning to slide three, we continue to be a leader on delivering energy solutions for our customers with our focus on resiliency investments to address aging infrastructure and minimize customer outages on blue sky days and during storm events. We are also very busy preparing for the future of electrification to achieve our region's greenhouse gas reduction goals. Moving to slide four. Shown here are our state's near-term and long-term greenhouse gas reduction goals. To achieve these goals, we are planning investments to our grid to meet the demand growth from electrification of transportation and residential and commercial heating sectors. This effort requires us to upgrade and expand the electric system to handle the new demands that we will face, including more EV charging, more customers turning to heat pumps to warm and cool their homes, and expanded capacity needs to accommodate additional renewable energy resources. In addition, we must make our system smarter and stronger to withstand Mother Nature and the forces of climate change, which are resulting in more frequent and intense storms. We are continuing to invest in our electric system with smart technologies to help the grid automatically adjust to disturbances on the system and empower customers with more information to control their energy use. These increasing demands on the electric system make it critical for us to work together with our regulators to obtain timely cost recovery and maintain a solid financial position for the company. A strong financial position enables Eversource to plan for and meet these increasing demands while continuing to provide high levels of safe, reliable service to our customers. Turning to slide five, our nearly $6 billion in transmission investments over the next five years is the largest program in our company's history and is key to achieving our collective greenhouse gas reduction goals. Based on system needs, Our transmission investment program is moving from overhead line rebuilds and smaller reliability projects to much-needed new substations to meet electrification demands and work toward a carbon-free future. In our five-year plan, these new substations and substation upgrades will equal approximately $1 billion of investment. and over $600 million of transmission projects are planned to enable clean energy resources. Our five-year transmission investment program also includes over $3 billion for investments to replace aging infrastructure. We are also evaluating additional infrastructure requirements that could materialize during this forecast. and we expect incremental projects will be needed as we move forward. As we plan ahead, there are many areas of focus, such as advancing the electric sector modernization plan in Massachusetts, increasing import capacity into Boston, and enabling offshore wind and other renewables to advance regional decarbonization efforts that will drive transmission infrastructure investment for years to come. To give you an example of the magnitude of the incremental transmission investments we are seeing over the next 10 years, we are planning for over a dozen new substations in eastern Massachusetts alone to meet demand, compared to just four new substations constructed in that service area in the past decade. Moving to electric distribution on slide six, we are preparing for substantial growth in distribution investment. In Massachusetts, our current electric distribution investment plan is nearly double the previous five-year plan. As we've moved forward to prepare for significant electric demand growth in Massachusetts to meet the state's clean energy goals, we are constantly evaluating solutions that will provide the right balance in outcomes for our customers. In order to determine our distribution system investments needs in Massachusetts, we have carefully evaluated the factors that drive the needs in each specific area, allowing us to plan efficiently and cost effectively for future system needs. Turning to slide seven, we are very pleased with our progress of our Massachusetts AMI program. which we and other stakeholders know is critical for enabling a clean energy future. As part of the Massachusetts AMI program, we recently completed successful implementation of a new customer billing and information system, replacing a nearly 40-year-old system. This new customer system will provide a critical foundation for our AMI deployment. We are currently working on system design, building, and testing of our meter management and communication applications, which we expect to conclude this summer. Network construction is anticipated to start early next year, with smart meter installation beginning in the third quarter next year. Our Massachusetts AMI program will deliver numerous day one benefits to customers, including improved grid management to enhance reliability and customer access to monitor electric consumption and control energy use. Further customer benefits include greater visibility on outages to enhance storm restoration response and dynamic rate design to enable customers to adjust electric use and lower their bills. Although we're very excited about the future transition to electrification, we are deeply committed to keeping the customer journey front and center. Affordability in fair and balanced rate design, along with a focus on environmental justice communities, is top of mind for Eversource. A good example of Eversource's exploration of creative solutions to enable an equitable transition to clean energy is our first-of-its-kind network geothermal pilot in Framingham, Massachusetts, which came online in June. We look forward to continuing our productive partnership with the state of Massachusetts as we deploy innovative technologies and pursue our carbon emission reduction goals. Turning to Connecticut, I want to thank the Lamont administration for its collaboration with utilities to provide regulatory clarity to continue the electric vehicle charging program. The solution that PURE is now preparing to put in place benefits our Connecticut customers while ensuring timely and adequate recovery of program costs. As I've said before, it is critical to ensure that our customers receive safe, reliable, and affordable service in a balanced regulatory environment is the best way to get there. Also, you may have heard that Governor Lamont has nominated David Arcante as the new Pura Commissioner. to take the place of Vice Chairman Vitkowski, who is retiring this coming January. We are encouraged that David is a nominee with keen interest in energy policy and valuable experience as a former member of the Connecticut General Assembly. We are hopeful that this is a step forward in bringing Connecticut closer to its state policy goals with recognition that investment is needed to support these goals. Touching on New Hampshire, we continue to see positive momentum on the collaborative approach to plan for long-term energy needs with the signing of House Bill 1431 by Governor Sununu in July. This bill requires utilities to file integrated distribution plans with the Public Utilities Commission every five years. A 10-year forecast of electric demand and an assessment of the distribution infrastructure needed to meet projected energy demands. Moving to Eversource's focus on our company's specific emission goals in employee development, I want to highlight the release of our 2023 sustainability report and our diversity, equity, and inclusion report as shown on slide eight. Eversource has been a leader in these areas for many years, and it's a part of our DNA. In this year's sustainability report, we've submitted our specific greenhouse gas reduction targets to the science-based target initiative. We also highlight the progress made towards reaching our goals of carbon neutrality from our operations by 2030, with over 30% reduction in emissions from the 2018 baseline year. We are excited about the future Eversource is uniquely positioned to leverage its skills, expertise, and scale to build utility infrastructure that will enhance system resiliency and transition to a clean energy future for our customers. We have a long runway of low-risk regulated investment opportunities and earnings growth potential focused on delivering long-term value to our customers and our investors. Thank you for your interest in Eversource. I will now turn the call over to John Marrera to walk you through our financial results and progress made towards strengthening our balance sheet.