IDACORP, Inc.

Welcome to IDACORP's third quarter 2024 earnings conference call. Today's call is being recorded and our broadcast is live. A 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 Amy Shaw, Vice President of Finance, Compliance, and Risk.

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. We appreciate you joining our call. This morning, we issued and posted to IDACORP's website our third quarter 2024 earnings release and Form 10-Q. The slides we'll reference during today's call are available on IDACORP's website. As noted on slide two, our discussion today includes forward-looking statements, including earnings guidance, spending forecasts, regulatory plans and actions, financing plans, and estimates and assumptions that reflect our current views on what the future holds. all of which are subject to risks and uncertainties. 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. Our cautionary note on forward-looking statements and various risk factors are included in more detail for your review in our filings with the Security and Exchange Commission. As shown on slide three, we have Lisa Groh, IDACorp's President and CEO, and Brian Buckham, IdaCorp Senior Vice President, CFO, and Treasurer presenting today. We also have other members of our management team available for a Q&A session following our prepared remarks. Slide 4 shows a summary of our financial results. IdaCorp's third quarter 2024 diluted earnings per share were $2.12 compared to $2.07 for last year's third quarter. In the third quarter of this year, we recorded $2.5 million of additional tax credit amortization under the Idaho regulatory stipulation, but recorded no additional ADITC amortization during the same period last year. Earnings per diluted share were 482 for the first nine months of this year, compared with 453 for the same period last year. Those results include additional tax credit amortization of 22.5 million through Q3 of 2024, compared to 7.5 million for the same period last year. Today we updated certain key metrics and guidance for 2024. We increased the lower end of our previously reported full year 2024 earnings guidance to a range of 535 to 545 per diluted share. Our expectation of additional tax credit Idaho Power plans to use to support earnings also improved to a range of 25 to 35 million. We're pleased to see our strong operating performance reduce our full year estimate on tax credit usage again this quarter, preserving credit for the future. These estimates assume historically normal weather conditions and normal power supply expenses for the remainder of the year. Now I'll turn the call over to Lisa.

Thanks, Amy, and thanks to everyone for joining us on Halloween. We have a treat for you today. I want to begin by acknowledging the incredible work our employees have done during a very hot and busy third quarter. According to the National Weather Service, 2024 was Boise's second hottest summer on record. When coupled with the robust customer growth in our service area, the demand for energy continues to grow. We set a new record system peak of 3,793 megawatts on July 22nd, and we also hit new record monthly peaks in August and September. Our ability to maintain reliable service for our customers during the hot summer months is a testament to our innovative, resilient, and hardworking employees. Despite its challenges, the hot weather led to strong energy sales, which Brian will provide more color on during his remarks. The hot, dry conditions led to an active wildfire season across the West, including in our service area. On the prevention side, as I mentioned during our last earnings call, we had our first public safety power shutoff event this summer, enacting the plans we've had in place for several years. A PSPS is one of our many wildfire mitigation efforts, and we continue to mature and implement our wildfire mitigation plan to help keep our communities and our systems safe. We're still experiencing strong customer growth and economic expansion across Idaho Power Service Area, as you can see on slide five. Our customer base has grown 2.6% since last year's third quarter, including 2.9% for residential customers. We now serve more than 640,000 customers across southern Idaho and eastern Oregon. Many of our commercial and industrial customer segments increase their usage compared to 2023, including year-to-date growth of 15% for manufacturing, 12% for food processing, 8% for sugar production, and 5% for dairy. We see sustained interest from large load customers evaluating Idaho Power Service Area. As we prepare for our 2025 IRP, the preliminary five-year forecast for our retail sales growth rate is 7.7% annually. That's a notable increase from the already significant 5.5% growth rate we had in our 2023 IRP. This updated rate doesn't include the load for two prospective energy intensive projects for which we recently completed and delivered detailed construction and generation studies. We're working with these prospective customers to determine whether they intend to move forward with construction of their facilities. If either were to take that step, these projects would represent another significant increase in industrial load on our system, likely increasing the 7.7% rate. Additionally, our customer pipeline includes a robust mix of data centers, manufacturing, food processing, distribution, warehousing, and cold storage projects. We've also experienced an uptick of biodigester projects partnering with our local dairy customers, and we're engaged with several proposed large-scale residential developments intended to serve growing workforce needs in southern Idaho. As our service area grows and energy demand increases, we're working to secure additional resources to meet current and future needs. Turning to slide six, As part of our RFP process, we have selected several wind, solar, and battery projects, along with several power purchase arrangements, to meet projected load deficits through 2027. Notably, we're under contract to purchase and own a 300 megawatt wind generation facility, which would become Idaho Power's first company-owned wind project. Brian will touch on how these additional projects have impacted our CAPEX plans in a bit. As we look beyond 2027, we've initiated an all-source RFP for resource needs in 2028 and 2029. Along with our important transmission projects, new dispatchable resources will be part of the solution as we work hard to find a balance of lease costs, lease risk resources to serve our customers. Turning to slide seven, I'll address our regulatory cases in Idaho and Oregon. The Oregon Commission approved our general rate case settlement in September, resulting in an overall base revenue increase of $6.7 million or around 12% for Oregon customers effective October 15th. This was our first general rate case in Oregon since 2011, driven primarily by the significant infrastructure investments we've made since then to serve our customers safely and reliably. In Idaho, we've requested an increase of $99 million or 7.3% through a limited scope case we filed in late May to focus on recovering period end infrastructure investments through 2024, as well as our increased labor expenses. We're making our way through that proceeding and expect to go to case, expect the case to go to hearing in December. We have requested new rates to be effective on January 1st, pending approval from the Idaho Commission. I'll close with a look at hydropower conditions. As we head into winter, our outlook remains good. We're hopeful this winter snowpack will further bolster hydro conditions as we head into 2025. And if you look out our windows from our offices, there's some nice snow at the top of those mountains. As I mentioned last quarter, our multi-year efforts to refurbish our hydro fleet were critical this summer. Those resources were key in helping us serve and balance load during the hot, high-demand summer months. As you can see, we have work to do to continue to provide our customers with safe, reliable, affordable, and increasingly clean electricity in these exciting times. And we're up to the challenge. With that, I'll turn the time over to Brian.