IDACORP, Inc.

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to IDACorp's first quarter 2026 earnings call. Today's call is being recorded and our webcast is live. A replay will be available later today for the next 12 months on IDACorp's 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. 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 things like earnings guidance, spending forecasts, financing plans, regulatory plans and actions, and estimates and assumptions that reflect our current views on what the future holds. These are all subject to risks and uncertainties. Those 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. We've included our cautionary note on forward-looking statements and various risk factors in more detail for you to review in our filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission. As shown on slide three, also presented today, we have Lisa Grove, President and CEO, Brian Buckham, EVP, CFO and Treasurer, and John Wunderlich, Investor Relations Manager. Slide four has a summary of our first quarter financial results. IDA Corp's diluted earnings per share were $1.21 compared with $1.10 last year. Our key operating metrics and guidance are unchanged except for our hydropower generation forecast as we reduce the top end of the range. We're reaffirming our full year 2026 IDA Corp earnings guidance estimate in the range of 625 to 645 diluted earnings per share, which includes our expectation that IDA Power will use less than 30 million of additional tax credit amortization to support earnings. These estimates assume historically normal weather conditions, and normal power supply expenses for the rest of the year. Now I'll turn the call over to Lisa.

Thank you, Amy, and thank you all for joining us today. I'll start my remarks with a look at our continued growth on slide five. We've seen an overall customer increase of 2.3% since last year's first quarter, with growth across all customer segments, including 2.4% for residential. From a load perspective, industrial energy sales grew by 5.7% over the same period. After years of thoughtful planning and execution, we're starting to see the ramp up in loads and revenues from some of our large industrial customers, and that ramp will accelerate during the year. Two of our industrial customers, Micron and Meta, are examples of that. As you can see in our latest photos on slide six, construction of Micron's first fabrication facility continues to progress. And Micron has started ground preparation for the second FAP. META's data center has reached the testing and commissioning stage. We've worked tirelessly to be ready to serve their needs as they ramp up operations. In addition to these large industrial projects, we continue to see significant interest from core industries of food processing, manufacturing, distribution, and warehousing, as well as inquiries from other large customers in other industries looking to operate in our service area. As we serve one of the fastest growing areas in the nation with what we view as a leading rate-based growth, we're doing it thoughtfully so that growth pays for growth to help protect our existing customers from cost shifting. As you can see on slide seven, our approach to contracting with new large industrial projects is focused on protecting both existing customers and shareholders from potential negative financial impacts, as well as being transparent and responsive to the new customers. We provide clarity in how we will serve the new load, including timelines, rates, and other terms. We've used pay-per-pay provisions, certain upfront payments, credit and security requirements, termination or exit payments, customized pricing terms, and other contractual features in some cases. Like everything we do, we take a thoughtful approach to our customer pipeline. Turning to slide eight, we remain focused on affordability. We work hard to keep our costs down and provide exceptional value to our customers, and our rates remain 20 to 30% lower than the national average. Our rates have increased at a much slower pace than national averages, increasing by 23% over the past decade, compared to 41% nationally. This increase also compares favorably to the consumer price index, which increased 36% over the same period. The benefits of our low-cost system, and hydro in particular, help with our affordability focus. Our regulatory model in Idaho, a growth pays for growth system, also helps us retain that affordability, and it has been working. Legislation was passed in Idaho this year that effectively codified the way we currently develop large load contracts with one change. It established a deadline of nine months for the PUC's contract approval process, which had previously been more open-ended. As we discussed on our last call, Idaho Power is not planning to file a general rate case on June 1st. And at this point, we're unlikely to file one at all this year. While we're seeing higher depreciation and interest expense associated with growth and our infrastructure build-out, as well as wildfire mitigation costs, we expect that revenues from new large load contracts will help offset those additional costs. We also continue to benefit from careful and thoughtful spending. As we move towards summer and moving to slide nine, I'm happy to report that the Idaho Commission approved our 2026 wildfire mitigation plan earlier this month. As a reminder, the commission approved plan establishes the standard of care in Idaho under the Wildfire Standard of Care Act beginning this year. Moving to slide 10, Idaho Power continues full speed ahead on major infrastructure projects, including three major transmission lines that will add critical flexibility and reliability to our system. Work is progressing quickly on our B2H transmission project which we expect to be in service in late 2027. Nearly half of the access roads and structure paths have been completed, along with 200 structures, about 15% of the total structures for the project. On the Swift North transmission project, we received our CPCN from the Idaho Commission. Several project authorizations remain in progress, including final construction authorization from BLM. The construction contractor plans to break ground this June in Nevada and this September in Idaho, and we expect SWPPP North to be complete as early as 2028. We're also continuing to work with Pacificor on the Gateway West transmission project, and we recently filed a joint request for a CPCN with the Idaho Commission. We anticipate a critical section of that line between our Hemingway and Midpoint substations will come online as early as 2028. If all continues to go as planned, customers will be served by three new large transmission lines on our system by 2028, bringing with them the benefits of access to diverse markets and transmission wheeling revenues. Turning to slide 11, I have some updates on the new gas plants we discussed last quarter. We've received a CPCN from the Idaho Commission for the company-owned 167-megawatt natural gas plant that will be next to the to our existing Bennett Mountain power plant. We've also secured an EPC contractor as we continue to work toward an in-service date of summer 2028. Since our last call, we've also filed for CPCNs in Idaho for two additional natural gas plants. As a reminder, both were included in the CapEx forecast update we shared at year end. We plan to bring the 222 megawatt South Hills project online in 2029. and the 430 megawatt Peregrine project in 2030. These natural gas projects will provide firm dispatchable resources we need to meet growing customer demand, and we view these projects as affordable, low-risk solutions to our near-term capacity deficits. We also have 250 megawatts of new company-owned battery storage that will come online this quarter, and we'll be adding 125 megawatts of third-party-owned solar generation to our system later this year. We remain on track to complete the conversion of Volmi Unit 2 from coal to natural gas before the summer peak this year. These resources support our efforts to add capacity, flexibility, and affordable energy to help serve our customers. As you can see, we're continuing a major expansion cycle, and Idaho Power is an exciting place to be. Turning to slide 12, Idaho Power recently received approval of the 2032 RFP from the Idaho Commission. The RFP is aimed at solving a projected capacity deficit of at least 200 megawatts. Idaho's new procurement rules will allow us to complete a timely and competitive resource evaluation, and we'll have additional details about potential resources and projects to meet these energy needs on future calls. I'll close my remarks by following up on last quarter's announcement regarding the sale of our Oregon service area. The transaction continues to progress ahead, and we plan to make filings in the next couple months with the Oregon and Idaho Commissions and FERC for the approval of the sale. And with that, I will turn the time over to Brian.