FirstEnergy Corp.

Hello and welcome to First Energy Corp's first quarter 2026 earnings call. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Karen Saget, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Karen.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to First Energy's first quarter 2026 earnings review. Our earnings release, presentation, and related financial information are available on our website at firstenergycorp.com. Today's discussion will include the use of non-GAAP financial measures and forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. Factors discussed in our earnings news release during today's conference call and in our SEC filings could cause our actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements. The appendix of today's presentation includes supplemental information, along with the reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures. Please read our cautionary statement and discussion of non-GAAP financial measures on slides two and three of the presentation. Our Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, Brian Tierney, will lead our call today, and he will be joined by John Taylor, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Now it's my pleasure to turn the call over to Brian.

Thank you, Karen. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. We are off to a solid start this year with first quarter core earnings 7.5% above last year, reflecting our customer-focused investment plan and strong financial discipline. We are on track for a successful year with expected results in line with our 2026 earnings guidance range of $2.62 to $2.82 per share, and our long-term outlook remains strong. The team executed extremely well in the first quarter, Despite numerous storms that rolled through our service territory, our employees demonstrated a strong commitment to our customers by their performance safely restoring power. What I observed during the first three months of this year further strengthens my commitment to our strategic direction. We are investing in our electric system to improve reliability, resiliency, and the customer experience, listening and responding to our communities and investing in our people to be safe, well-trained, and productive. By doing these things, we improve the well-being of our customers, our communities, and our teammates and provide a strong value proposition to investors. Over the last three years, we have fundamentally transformed First Energy. We sharpened our strategic focus and strengthened our alignment around our core values. I am pleased to share with you that we have recently completed a couple of key hires, further strengthening our leadership team. I am pleased to announce Chris Beam as our new president of West Virginia and Maryland. Chris replaces Jim Myers, who retired after 40 years of remarkable service. I'm also pleased to announce that Dan Puskas has agreed to serve as our chief information officer after serving on an interim basis for the last six months. Both Chris and Dan bring deep technical, industry, and leadership experience to the executive team. At the core of our strategy is improving the service we provide to customers. Each of our business units are working with customers, elected officials, and regulators to prioritize investments for local needs. Collaboration with our key stakeholders drives alignment and better outcomes for customers and better results for our company. You see this in action across our footprint and is a key reason why we are positioned for long-term success. Our investment plans focus on fundamentals, addressing aging infrastructure, reducing operational risk, and building more capacity to serve growing customer demand. For instance, in Pennsylvania, we are accelerating investments under the long-term infrastructure improvement plan that we expect will significantly improve reliability particularly across the rural portions of our service territory. In West Virginia, we see a compelling opportunity to support economic development with new generation, which is strongly aligned with the state's energy goals. And our transmission investment plan remains a key focus given the location and critical nature of our system in PJM. Across the company, our business units are executing against tailored investment plans and regulatory strategies that are focused on improving the customer experience. Affordability remains central to how we lead the company. On average, our rates are 20% below our in-state peers, with the T&D component of our bill being 35% below those peer companies. We are proactively having constructive conversations with elected officials and regulators in each of our states to look for ways to address questions around affordability for our customers. The main driver behind the affordability conversation today is a demand and supply imbalance from a capacity market construct that is not attracting any significant incremental generation. Our conversations with key stakeholders are about how we get more dispatchable generation at a fair price while still protecting our existing customers. We believe that PJM's proposed reliability backdrop procurement auction could be a step in the right direction, although there is a significant amount of detail needed to ensure the right amount of dispatchable generation is procured at affordable rates. Additionally, we still have the capacity auction cap in place for the next two auctions through 2030. These were initially negotiated by Governor Shapiro on behalf of all PJM customers. We are also discussing what we can control through operational efficiencies, alternative distribution rate designs, and innovative solutions on other costs on the customer spill. Since 2022, we have reduced our base O&M by more than $200 million, or 15%, and we are continuing to look for ways to work smarter and more efficiently. We are also exploring other ways to protect our customers. For instance, in Pennsylvania, we recently filed an innovative proposal to reform our default service program protecting customers from higher supply rates on variable price contracts. Had this mechanism been in place in 2025, customers would have saved $80 million. We want to protect them from paying higher prices in the future. Customer affordability continues to be a significant part of our regulatory strategy, and we are proactively working with stakeholders to balance affordability and the critical investments required to ensure a safe and reliable electric system. Looking ahead, the rapidly evolving energy landscape will continue to require new transmission and generation investments that are above our current plan. Substantial investments in our transmission system are needed to ensure we proactively address aging equipment before it fails. We believe that new transmission capacity is a critical component to energy dominance and economic development. We continue to see ongoing opportunities with regional transmission planning investments through the PJM open window process. Our scale, planning expertise, and strategic location position us well for these types of opportunities. Over the last four years, we have been awarded more than $5 billion in competitive projects. and we expect more opportunity in future solicitations. Turning to generation, in West Virginia, in addition to the recently filed CPCN for our 1.2 gigawatt natural gas facility, our data center demand in the state continues to grow with approximately 1.8 gigawatts of highly credible projects, an increase of 50% since February. Beyond that, we are having constructive dialogue with prospective customers representing over six gigawatts of load in West Virginia. This data center growth would support incremental generation and economic development, which is strongly aligned with Governor Morrissey's 50 gigawatts by 2050 initiative and a significant priority for First Energy. We are prepared to move forward with incremental generation projects as additional large loads enter our pipeline and become contracted, subject to regulatory approval. Our data center interest continues to grow beyond just West Virginia. Approximately four gigawatts of our total pipeline is in final contract negotiations and are expected to become contracted with a construction agreement within this quarter, nearly doubling our contracted demand. This is an exciting time for our industry and our company. We are confident in our customer-focused strategy and our operating model that aligns with key stakeholders and local needs. Our focus is to drive great outcomes for our customers, communities, and teammates, which will result in a strong value proposition for investors. Now, I'll turn the call over to John to discuss our financial results and regulatory updates.