Eversource Energy (D/B/A)

Good morning, and thank you for attending the Eversource Energy Q3 2024 earnings call. My name is Alyssa, and I will be your moderator today. All lines will be muted during the presentation portion of the call, with an opportunity for questions and answers at the end. It is now my pleasure to pass the call to our host, Rima Hyder, VP of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Rima.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. I'm Rima Haider, Eversource Energy's Vice President of 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 the GAAP results is contained within our news release, the slides 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, Rima. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on this call. Let me begin today's call with the year to date progress we have made on our many priorities and what has been accomplished, as highlighted on slide three. First, in the third quarter, we reached an important milestone with the seal of Revolution Wind in South Park Wind. to global infrastructure partners. We have exited the offshore wind development business. We are now a pure play regulated pipes and wires utility that delivers superior service and value to our customers. Offshore wind has been a complex and challenging journey, one where we made the decision to exit. We are proud of our contributions to advance offshore wind projects in New York and New England. We still believe that offshore wind is a vital solution needed for the region that will provide us with regulated investment opportunities. We will continue to be a leader in employing our strong transmission expertise to build our regulated onshore infrastructure that will support the clean energy transition in the region. Second, we have a robust capital plan through 2028, where we expect to invest nearly $24 billion in our regulated electric, natural gas, and water business. Our plan includes nearly $6 billion of transmission and over $10 billion of electric distribution infrastructure investments through 2028. These investments are necessary to meet increasing world growth, maintain safety and reliability and to achieve progress on the clean energy objectives of our three states. Third, we recognize that we have work to do to strengthen our balance sheet and improve our credit position. We have made good progress towards improving our FFO to debt ratio through timely cost recovery, proceeds from the sales of our offshore wind investments, and our equity issuances. As you expect, Our financial strength is critical to continue providing safe, reliable service to our customers and to continue on the journey toward enabling the clean energy future. Additionally, we will continue to advance the sale of Aquarian, work with key stakeholders to advance the need for timely recovery of costs, and maintain our continued focus on O&M cost opportunities to further enhance our cash flows. Fourth, we are confident that our robust five-year capital forecast and our forecasted financing plan will enable us to drive our five to seven percent EPS long-term growth rate through 2028. Lastly, we are a leader in clean energy transition with tremendous regulated opportunities ahead of us. As the largest utility in New England, Eversource is well positioned to meet our state's mandated clean energy goals. Turning to slide four, let me talk about some of the clean energy initiatives we are working on. Recently, working together with the six New England states, we secured approximately $90 million in federal funding for a clean energy hub in southeastern Connecticut. This Huntsbrook offshore wind hub will support New England's clean energy transition while improving grid reliability across the region. We also received approximately $20 million from the US Department of Energy to expand our battery energy storage project for Cape Cod area in Massachusetts. We're grateful to the DOE for this exciting opportunity to take our battery energy storage system to the next level to enhance electric reliability for our customers on Cape Cod. Turning to slide five, we are particularly pleased with our partnership with Massachusetts, as it is clearly the leader in the New England region in connecting decarbonization goals with investment needs. Our Electric Sector Modernization Plan, or ESMP, was recently approved by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities. This plan is the roadmap for clean energy in the state, and we believe It can become the model blueprint for the nation. The ESMP provides for an additional $600 million in distribution investment within our current forecast period and unlocks a significant amount of transmission investment for interconnection infrastructure to enable clean energy projects. In developing our ESMP, we analyzed expected electric growth down to the circuit level. to identify grid investments needed over the next five years and beyond. These investments will increase electrification capacity by over 180%, thereby making Massachusetts a leader in delivering clean energy to its homes and businesses. And finally, as we have stated before, we are very pleased with the progress of our Massachusetts AMI program, which we and other stakeholders know is critical to enabling a clean energy future for our customers. We recently successfully implemented a new customer billing and information system in Massachusetts. The program is on track and we will begin the installation of the first smart meters next year. In Connecticut, we recently received a draft decision from Pura for AMI. While the draft decision is a step in the right direction toward deploying AMI and achieving the state's clean energy goals, we have filed comments on certain provisions of the draft decision that would be challenging for us to move forward. We are hopeful that the final decision will provide a clearer path to allow us to make this important investment for our customers. Turning to slide six, I want to highlight one of the most innovative low growth solutions we are working on in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The $1.5 to $1.6 billion Cambridge underground substation, the first of its kind and the largest underground substation in the United States, is another example of our progressive partnership with Massachusetts to address the growing electricity needs of Greater Cambridge and the region. This project has already received approval from the Energy Facility Siting Board. The project consists of a brand new 35,000 square foot underground substation incorporated into a residential and commercial project led by Boston Properties. It will be built 120 feet below ground and consists of eight new 115 KV underground transmission lines with capability for further expansion. construction is slated to begin in the first quarter of 2025. This unique investment opportunity would not be possible without the close collaboration between us and key stakeholders, including surrounding communities, and we believe this approach can be applied for future projects. I am pleased with our progress to date on all fronts and the dedication of our hardworking employees. As a testament of this hard work, Eversource was recently recognized by Time Magazine as the number one utility in the United States and one of the best companies to work for in the world. We are honored to receive the strong reinforcement of our position as an energy industry leader. Thank you for joining us on the call today. Eversource is uniquely positioned to leverage its skills, expertise, and skill to invest and utility infrastructure that provides a long runway of low risk regulated investment opportunities and earnings growth potential. We have spoken to many of you over the last few months and we recognize the importance of sustainable growth, strengthening our balance sheet and continuing to return value to our investors. I look forward to seeing many of you at the EI conference next week I will now turn the call over to John to walk through our financial results and progress made towards strengthening our balance sheet.