Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc.

Please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star one a second time. I will now turn today's call over to Mateo Garcia, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Welcome everyone to HEI's first quarter 2024 earnings call. Joining me today are Scott Siu, HEI President and CEO, Scott DeGhetto, HEI Executive Vice President, CFO and Treasurer, Shelly Kimura, Hawaiian Electric President and CEO, and Tara Nishi, American Savings Bank President and CEO, and other members of senior management. Our earnings release and our presentation for this call are available in the investor relations section of our website. As a reminder, forward-looking statements will be made on today's call. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations can be found in our presentation, our SEC filings, and in the investor relations section of our website. Today's presentation also includes references to non-GAAP financial measures. You should refer to the information contained in the slides accompanying today's presentation for definitional information and reconciliations of historical non-GAAP measures to the closest GAAP financial measure. Now, Scott Hsu will begin with his remarks.

Aloha kākou, welcome everyone. For today's call, I'll start with key updates regarding the Maui wildfires, followed by operational updates, and then Scott Togedo will walk you through our first quarter financial results before we open it up for questions. We continue to work in earnest with key stakeholders to help our community recover from the devastating impacts of the Maui wildfires. Last quarter, we discussed Governor Josh Green's One Ohana initiative, which is intended to help the families most impacted by the fires heal and to help our state move forward. The first phase of One Ohana launched on March 1st and has seen a steady uptake. 58 total registrations have been received thus far, including 43 from families of decedents and 15 from injured survivors. On April 29th, Governor Greene announced that the registration deadline has now been extended to May 31st. the governor has said that the deadline for completed claims forms will be July 1. Hawaii's annual legislative session concluded in early May, and last week the governor signed into law Senate Bill 582, which sets aside critical funding to help address the ongoing Maui wildfire recovery efforts, including the state's contribution to the $175 million One Ohana Fund. Although we are disappointed that we ran out of time in this legislative session to pass legislation supporting the key priorities we laid out on our last earnings call, our state's lawmakers and leadership remain highly engaged in determining how to design wildfire legislation that makes sense for Hawaii, our customers and our company. Legislation that creates a framework to reduce wildfire risk is critical to ensure Hawaii can attract low-cost capital. which ultimately lowers the cost to customers of needed investments. Our state's leadership recognizes this, and last week, Governor Greene announced the formation of a new climate advisory team that will play a critical role in drafting comprehensive climate resilience policy. As one of its first projects, the advisory team will recommend steps to create a fund to mitigate the impacts of climate change, and to develop a fair and comprehensive structure to resolve claims related to future disasters in our state. The Governor has expressed the Fund's necessity for stabilizing the insurance market and addressing the financial burdens arising from the increased impacts of climate change. We'll continue to work constructively with Governor Green, our regulators, and other parties to advance solutions that help keep Hawaii safe and will stabilize our energy future in the face of increasingly severe weather events. Last month, we saw the publication of two key reports, one from the County of Maui's Department of Fire and Public Safety and the other from Hawaii's State Attorney General. Both the Fire Department's After Action Report and the Attorney General's Lahaina Fire Comprehensive Timeline Report were consistent with our understanding of the events that took place on August 8th, namely that a morning fire appears to have been caused by power lines that fell in high winds. The Maui County Fire Department responded to this fire, reported that it was 100% contained, and later declared it extinguished. A second afternoon fire began in the same area later that day, after Hawaiian Electric's power lines in West Maui had been de-energized for more than six hours. Neither of the reports released last month focuses on the cause of the Maui wildfires. The cause of the afternoon fire that devastated Lahaina has still not been determined and is the focus of a separate investigation being conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Turning to an update on litigation. As of May 9th, HEI and Hawaiian Electric Company have each been named as a defendant in approximately 400 lawsuits by plaintiffs claiming losses related to the August 8 windstorm and wildfires. Subrogation claims from about 160 different insurers with exposure in Maui have also been filed. The Maui Circuit Court has set a September 9, 2024 trial date for six cases concerning the fires in upcountry Maui. As a reminder, those fires were separate from the fires that occurred in Lahaina. The upcountry fires occurred in the Olinda and Kula areas of Maui, over 35 miles from Lahaina. Fortunately, there were no fatalities in the upcountry fires and relatively few structures damaged in comparison to the Lahaina fires. The Maui Circuit Court has also set a November 18, 2024 trial date for four of the Lahaina cases filed. No trial dates have been set in cases pending in the Oahu Circuit Court or in federal court. Turning to operational updates, on slide 4, the utility continues to advance wildfire mitigation and resilience efforts, and in the first few months of this year, progressed applications for federal funding to help limit the cost of these investments to customers. In February, Hawaiian Electric received PUC approval for its five-year, $190 million grid resilience plan, enabling the utility to move forward with finalizing $95 million in Department of Energy Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funding by matching it with $95 million in rate recovery. In addition to this, the utility is also pursuing $450 million of matching federal funding for $900 million of projects addressing wildfire focused grid resilience, grid modernization, and grid innovation projects. While pursuing these longer term projects, the utility continues to take more immediate action to address wildfire risk. Over 35% of the utility's 2024 capital budget, nearly $120 million, is dedicated to wildfire mitigation work. The utility is implementing enhanced wildfire operational strategies and practices, which will include a public safety power shuttle program as a last resort. Investments are also being made to improve situational awareness through advanced technologies, including cameras utilizing artificial intelligence. The utility also continues to progress grid hardening work. These interim wildfire safety measures are part of the utility's longer term wildfire safety strategy. which is being developed collaboratively with our communities and other stakeholders, and which we expect to begin implementing in 2025. Turning to the bank, ASB continues to perform well, and in the first quarter the bank saw the benefits of the strategic actions undertaken in the fourth quarter of 2023. As you'll recall, last quarter the bank sold low yielding securities and reduced high cost deposits with the proceeds. We saw the benefits from that balance sheet repositioning this quarter, as ASB's cost of funds decreased and net interest margin expanded, leading to improved profitability compared to last quarter. The bank also released a portion of the reserves initially taken following the wildfires on Maui, reflecting Maui's resilient economy and better than expected outlook. ASB's loyal and long-tenured deposit base remained stable, and as of March 31st, 86% of deposits were FDIC-insured or fully collateralized. Customer deposits are safe, and there is no risk to deposits as a result of legal claims related to the wildfires. I will now turn the call over to Scott Taguero, who will discuss our financial results. Thank you, Scott.