NiSource Inc

Good morning. My name is Rob and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the NYSource first quarter 2022 earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, again, just press star one. Thank you. Chris Turnier, Director of Investor Relations, you may begin your conference.

Good morning, and welcome to the NYSource First Quarter 2022 Investor Call. Joining me today are Lloyd Yates, our Chief Executive Officer, Donald Brown, our Chief Financial Officer, Sean Anderson, our Chief Strategy and Risk Officer, Pablo Vegas, our Chief Operating Officer, and Randy Hewlin, our VP of Investor Relations and Treasurer. The purpose of this presentation is to review NiceHorse's financial performance for the first quarter of 2022, as well as provide an update on our operations and growth drivers. Following our prepared remarks, we'll open the call to your questions. Slides for today's call are available on NiceHorse.com. Before turning the call over to Lloyd, Donald, and Sean, 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. Additionally, some of the statements made on this call relate to non-GAAP measures. For additional information on the most 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 of that out of the way, I'd like to turn the call over to Lloyd.

Thanks, Chris. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Hopefully, you've all had a chance to read our first quarter's earnings release, which we issued earlier today. NYSource's first quarter shows continued strong execution on our plans for growth and sustainability while providing reliable service to our customers. The resiliency and flexibility of our business plan continues to support our commitment to deliver 79% compound annual growth in NOEPS non-GAAP from 2021 through 2024. First of all, I want to thank the employees and contractors of NYSource for their continued commitment to safely serving our customers. Now let's turn to slide three and take a closer look at our key takeaways. While we are committed to completing our generation transition from coal by 2028, we expect delays in most of the solar and storage projects intended for completion in 2022 and 2023. These are due to the uncertainty hanging over the solar panel market as a result of the Commerce Department investigation. As a result of the projected delays, We now expect to retire the remaining two coal units at Schaefer Generating Station by the end of 2025. Despite those delays, we are confident in reaffirming our 2022 guidance of $1.42 to $1.48 diluted non-GAAP NOEPS. And we are reaffirming our forecast for the 79% compound annual growth rate from 2021 through 2024. including near-term annual growth of 5% to 7% through 2023. We will exercise flexibility in our business plan by pulling forward modernization projects in our gas and electric business and employ O&M expense agility to support our plan. NYSERCH will host an investor day in the fall where we expect to have more clarity on our business review and solar project completions. we intend to provide you with a definitive long-term plan beyond 2024. We continue to make strong progress in our regulatory agenda with a settlement in NIPSCO's gas rate case and new cases filed in Pennsylvania and Virginia. And NYSOR has posted non-GAAP diluted net operating earnings per share, or NOEPS, of 75 cents in the first quarter versus 77 cents last year. We have a lot to discuss this morning, but I would like to take a few moments to share some observations from my first few months here at NYSource. I've had the opportunity to meet with employees, leaders, customers, regulators, policymakers, and many others. I see some real strengths, and I also see opportunities for improvement. Here are some areas we will be focusing on. First and foremost, we will continue to focus on enhancing safely. This allows us to provide the best possible service to our customers. We are intent on maintaining our regulatory excellence. We have completed several rate cases in the past year. We have a number of cases pending. Together, they will provide additional visibility underpinning our rate-based growth forecast. We will relentlessly pursue operational excellence across the businesses to ensure safety, reliability, and enhance customers' experience and organizational productivity and efficiency. Our focus on these areas will help us build on the core strengths of our business, our investment-driven growth plan, and the opportunities we see in the NYSource footprint. Now, we want to update you on how the government solar panel investigation is affecting our renewable generation plan. I'd like to turn it over to Shawn Anderson.