IDACORP, Inc.

Welcome to IDACorp's second quarter 2021 earnings conference call. Today's call is being recorded and our webcast is live. A complete replay will be available later today and for the next 12 months on the IDACorp website. If you need assistance at any time during the presentation, please press star zero on your phone. I will now turn the call over to Justin Forsberg, Director of Investor Relations and Treasury.

Thank you, Paul, and good afternoon, everybody. This morning, we issued and posted to IDACORP's website our second quarter 2021 earnings release and Form 10-Q. The slides that accompany today's call are also available on our website. We'll refer to those slides by number throughout the call today. As noted on slide two, our discussion includes forward-looking statements, including earnings guidance and spending forecasts, which reflect our current views on what the future holds. but are subject to several risks and uncertainties, including those related to any potential further impacts of COVID-19. This cautionary note is also included in more detail for your review in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These risks and uncertainties may cause actual results to differ materially from statements made today, and we caution against placing undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. As shown on slide three, on today's call we have Lisa Groh, IdaCorp's President and Chief Executive Officer, and Steve Keen, IdaCorp's Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. We also have other company representatives available for a Q&A session after Lisa and Steve provide updates. Slide four shows our quarterly financial results. IdaCorp's 2021 second quarter earnings per deluded share were $1.38, an increase of 19 cents per share from last year's second quarter. Earnings per diluted share over the first six months of 2021 were $2.27, which were 33 cents above the same period last year. Both the second quarter and year-to-date earnings are the highest in the history of the company. Today, we also increased our full-year 2021 IDACorp earnings guidance estimate to be in the range of $4.70 to $4.90 per diluted share with our expectation that Idaho Power will not need to utilize in 2021 any of the additional tax credits that are available to support earnings under its Idaho regulatory settlement stipulation. These are our estimates as of today, and they assume normal weather conditions over the last six months of the year and assume a continued return to more normal economic conditions over the balance of 2021. I will now turn the call over to Lisa.

Thank you, Justin, and thanks to everyone for joining us on today's call. I'd like to begin my remarks by highlighting the continued robust customer growth we are experiencing across Idaho Power Service Area. You'll see on slide five that the growth remains strong in the second quarter, increasing 2.9% since June 2020. The influx of businesses and residential customers continues to benefit our company, while we believe the reliable, affordable, clean energy we provide remains one of the drivers for attracting new customers to Idaho. It has been remarkable to see this trend not only sustain, but accelerate over the past several years. We are also seeing a return to normal operations for many of our commercial and industrial customers as our service area rebounds from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. As of the end of June, unemployment in our service area was 3.5% compared with 6% in June 2020, and the current mark of 5.9% nationally. Total employment in our service area has increased 6% over the past 12 months. Moody's forecasted GDP calls for very strong economic growth of 7.6% in 2021 and 6.9% in 2022. As we speak, like many employers in our area, Idaho Power is in the midst of the return to workplace process for many of our office employees. I'm happy to see more people at our offices and thrilled that safely bringing our employees back reflects a significant step forward to our new normal that is taking place across our service area. Idaho Power service area continues to experience significant interest from commercial and industrial projects in food processing, manufacturing, and distribution. Multiple developers, both local and national, are moving forward with the construction of commercial-size back-shelf facilities to better accommodate the speed to market of prospective projects. Idaho Power has also been actively working with Gervois Mining, which announced in early July it will proceed with final construction of its Idaho Cobalt Operations Mine in central Idaho. And just this past week, Lamb Weston announced a $415 million investment in the planned construction of a new French fry processing line at its existing facility in American Falls with expected capacity to produce more than 350 million pounds of frozen French fries and other potato products annually by mid-2023. This expansion is expected to add approximately 130 jobs. In addition to serving more customers than ever, We've experienced very hot, dry weather during the second quarter, with our service area experiencing several very high temperature days in late June and July. Slide 6 shows a recent outlook of precipitation and weather from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Current weather projections for August through October shows 50% to 60% chance of above normal temperatures and a 33% to 50% chance of below normal precipitation in Idaho Power's service area. If the warm and dry weather continues, we expect to see continued strong sales during the third quarter, particularly for residential and irrigation customers. At the same time, dry conditions and overall lower reservoir storage levels have decreased our forecasted hydro generation for the remainder of the year, which Steve will address later on. But it continues to appear irrigators in most parts of our service area should have enough water to get them through the current growing season. The combination of customer growth and hot, dry conditions has created high demand for energy across our region, as noted on slide 7. Idaho Power hit a new all-time peak load of 3,751 megawatts on June 30th, and we have exceeded the previous 2017 peak demand of 3,422 megawatts more than 60 separate hours on 12 different days so far this summer. I'd like to thank the wonderful employees throughout our company who are helping us continue to meet this record demand. The recent heat wave has once again demonstrated the skill and dedication of our employees and the resilience of both our employees and our system. I'd also like to acknowledge our customers for helping us lighten the load during hours of peak usage in the late afternoons and evenings when we also ran demand response programs to help reduce loads. While we've been able to maintain reliable power for our customers during these extreme conditions, we also acknowledge the need for continued planning and preparation to meet the growing demand. The Jackpot Solar 120 megawatt project in southern Idaho is scheduled to come online by the end of next year. And our company also recently issued a request for proposal to add another 80 megawatts of a capacity resource to meet peak energy needs by summer 2023. Separately, early modeling in the 2021 IRP suggests that, subject to the timing of coal unit exits, additional capacity may be needed in future years. The recent spike in energy use and prices also emphasizes the importance of the Boardman to Hemingway Transmission Line, or B2H, which we plan to bring online as soon as 2026. B2H will allow Idaho Power to import up to 500 megawatts to help meet customers' peak summer demand and increase reliability for our system as well as the region. Record heat waves don't last forever, but we believe periods of higher demand in the summer months are here to stay. Of note on B2H, this month all co-participants entered into an agreement and acknowledged that Bonneville Power Administration does not intend to participate in the construction of the project or to be a co-owner in whole or in part of the project, and that BPA intends to sell its interest in the project to either Idaho Power or a third party. Idaho Power continues to evaluate its options regarding BPA's interest. I have a couple of notable Idaho regulatory updates to share. The first is a recent filing Idaho Power made to accelerate the recovery of depreciation expenses at the Jim Bridger Coal Fire Plant, which is noted on slide 8. Our Idaho rates currently reflect a recovery timeline through 2034, but preliminary analysis indicate the potential exit of all four units at the plant sooner than the current timeline. If our filing with the Idaho Commission is approved as filed, rates would increase $30.8 million in December of this year. This would result in a near-term rate increase for our customers, but our study shows the potential for customer savings in the long term. Exiting the Jim Bridger plant early also aligns with our goal to provide 100% clean energy by 2045. Secondly, as seen on slide 9, the Idaho Commission recently approved Idaho Power's request to defer incremental costs associated with our enhanced wildfire mitigation plan. This positive regulatory outcome will allow us to defer associated incremental costs to be included in a future rate proceeding. Our company is working hard to strengthen our grid and keep our customers safe during wildfire events. On our last earnings call, I stated Idaho Power did not plan to file a general rate case in Idaho or Oregon in the next 12 months. That remains true today. Steady customer growth, constructive regulatory outcomes, effective cost management, and economic conditions all play significant roles as we look at the need and timing of a future general rate case. I'll close my prepared remarks by reiterating my thanks to our employees for their hard work meeting the increased demand for reliable energy as our service area grows, particularly during the heat wave. I also commend them for their resilience over the past 17 months as we navigate the challenges of the pandemic together. With that, I will turn the call over to Steve for an overview of our financial performance.