NiSource Inc

Good day and thank you for standing by and welcome to the Q1 2021 NISORS earnings conference call. At this time, our participants are in a listen-only mode. After this week's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone keypad. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star 0. I would like to hand today's conference over to your speaker for today, Randy Hewlin, Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasurer. Randy Hewlin, Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasurer. Randy Hewlin, Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasurer.

Randy Hewlin, Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasurer. Randy Hewlin, Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasurer. Randy Hewlin, Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasurer. Randy Hewlin, Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasurer. Randy Hewlin, Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasurer. Randy Hewlin, Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasurer. Randy Hewlin, Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasurer. Randy Hewlin, Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasurer. Randy Hewlin, Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasurer. The purpose of this presentation is to review NYSource's financial performance for the first quarter of 2021, as well as provide an update on our operations, growth drivers, and financing plans. Following our prepared remarks, we'll open the call to your questions. Slides for today's call are available on NYSource.com. Before turning the call over to Joe, Donald, and Sean, just a quick reminder. Some of the statements made during this presentation will be forward-looking. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the statements. Information concerning such risks and uncertainties is included in the MD&A and risk factors sections of our periodic SEC filings. Some of the statements made on this call relate to non-GAAP measures. For additional information on the most directly comparable GAAP measure and a reconciliation of these measures, please refer to the supplemental slides and segment information, including our full financial schedules, available at NYSource.com. With all that out of the way, I'd like to turn the call over to Joe.

Thanks, Randy. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Hopefully you've all had a chance to read our first quarter earnings release, which we issued earlier today. With the successful completion of last month's convertible issuance, NYSource is well positioned to execute the next stage of our growth plan, driven by safety and asset modernization programs, as well as our electric generation transition strategy. In Indiana, we kicked off our 2021 integrated resource plan process, which will inform our strategy beyond 2023. And we initiated four new renewable energy projects. We continue to expect that our infrastructure and generation investments will drive compound annual growth of seven to nine percent in diluted net operating earnings per share from the midpoint of our narrowed 2021 guidance through 2024. We also expect to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 90 percent by 2030. Let's turn now to slide three and take a closer look at our key takeaways. In the first quarter, we delivered non-GAAP diluted net operating earnings of 77 cents per share. These results include increased earnings from our safety and modernization investments and reflect the profile of our business without Columbia Gas of Massachusetts. As you saw in our release, today we narrowed our 2021 non-GAAP diluted net operating earnings guidance to $1.32 to $1.36 per share, which represents the upper half of the previous range. This narrowed range reflects lower than previously expected COVID impacts and more certainty with regulatory outcomes, offset by slightly higher diluted share count resulting from the equity unit issuance. We expect to make approximately $10 billion in capital investments through 2024. These include annual investments of $1.9 to $2.2 billion in growth, safety, and modernization programs. In addition, our investments in renewable generation are now expected to total approximately $2 billion over this period. As we outlined at our 2020 Investor Day, NYSource expects to grow its diluted net operating earnings per share by 7 to 9 percent on a compound annual growth rate basis from 2021 through 2024, including near-term annual growth of 5 to 7 percent through 2023. Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania received an order in its 2020 rate case, and it has filed a new rate case to support its safety and modernization plans which I will discuss in more detail later in this call. In addition, we have continued to successfully execute on our renewable energy strategy, adding four new renewable energy projects as part of our Your Energy, Your Future initiative. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Donald, who will discuss our first quarter financial performance in more detail.