OGE Energy Corp

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the OGE Energy Corp 2024 Second Quarter Earnings and Business Update Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Jason Bailey, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Hope, and good morning, everyone, and welcome to our call. With me today, I have Sean Trotsky, our Chairman, President, and CEO, and Brian Buckler, our CFO. In terms of the call today, we will first hear from Sean, followed by an explanation from Brian of financial results. And finally, as always, we will answer your questions. I would like to remind you that this conference is being webcast and you may follow along at OGE.com. In addition, the conference call and accompanying slides will be archived following the call on that same website. Before we begin the presentation, I'd like to direct your attention to the safe harbor statement regarding forward-looking statements. This is an SDC requirement for financial statements and simply states, that we cannot guarantee forward-looking financial results, but this is our best estimate to date. I will now turn the call over to Sean for his opening remarks. Sean? Thank you, Jason.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. It's certainly great to be with you. The second quarter of the year delivered solid results, and we are ahead of plan for the year. This morning, we reported consolidated earnings of 51 cents per share, including 54 cents per share for OG&E, and a holding company loss of $0.03 per share. Before we get underway, I do want to recognize our team. We have experienced our share of severe weather this spring and summer, and as they always do, our team's response was quick and it was safe. We do that for our customers every day, and we answer the call for mutual assistance to restore electricity to other companies' customers when we travel away from home. Our teams stay focused on our North Star to generate, transmit, distribute reliable and affordable electricity every day, and I'm proud of all of them. With that, let's move on to the business at hand. Our second quarter delivered solid operational, customer, and financial results. With weather normalized demand for electricity up 5.8% year to date, we are confident in our guidance for the year and expect to be in the top half of the range. With regard to the Oklahoma rate review pending before the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, that process is moving forward. Last week, the ALJ recommended our uncontested settlement for approval, and we anticipate a final order in the coming months. A number of factors in the settlement benefit our customers, including an increase in our smart hours discount for seniors, additional funds for forestry and vegetation management, which our customers regularly ask us to prioritize. And this time last year, our rates were 40% below the national average and the lowest in both states. And then in May of this year, we reduced the Oklahoma fuel factor, meaning year-over-year impact to customer summer bills would be $25 less per month, creating even more headroom. We've issued RFPs in support of our current integrated resource plan and look forward to working through those. And our plan is to incrementally layer in generation capacity through a combination of new generation, continued plan upgrades, and energy efficiency and demand response. Speaking of energy efficiency and demand response, our new energy efficiency filing in Oklahoma last month reflects increased support for energy efficiency and demand response programs to economically drive 337 megawatts of energy and demand savings over the next five years. This doubles. the contribution to capacity reductions from these programs. Our strong load growth is driven by consistent customer growth exceeding 1%. This momentum is driven by continued economic growth and expansion in communities across our service area. Recent announcements reflect both geographic diversity from Van Buren, Arkansas to Seminole, Oklahoma, and industries as diverse as manufacturing, aerospace, and defense. Each expansion brings new residential and small business customers as well. Our low rates continue to make Oklahoma and western Arkansas attractive to a number of industries, including data centers. While we don't have anything to announce today, as we continue discussions with several potential projects, we continue to work through generation and transmission capacity and availability as we determine the right regulatory construct to support these projects. All the success we experienced today is underpinned by our commitment to drive economic expansion. We put a stake in the ground years ago, and we continue to see dividends from those investments. So far this year, the 10 new projects our team announced represent nearly 20,000 new jobs. And the nation is watching and recognizes the benefits of expanding and relocating to our service area. And just in the last year, the Wall Street Journal recognized Oklahoma City as the fifth hottest job market Forbes ranked Oklahoma City as the second best metro for young professionals. U.S. News and World Report listed Oklahoma City as the third most resilient housing market. And unemployment in both Oklahoma and Arkansas remains well below the national average. Our customer growth aligns well with our efforts to deepen relationships with our customers, offering them new self-service technologies and providing them additional tools and resources to manage their energy usage and monthly bills. Investments in affordability and reliability provide direct benefit to our customers and improve our overall performance. Our new self-service technology in our mobile app, online, and in the IVR have driven customer calls down 19% year over year, lowering costs and improving the experience. Grid enhancements we're making provide more reliable and resilient electric service for customers with fewer and shorter outages. So as I wrap up my comments, I hope you'll take away that our sustainable business model that begins with low rates is the foundation to attract new customers, which leads to revenue growth, technology expansion, and efficiencies across our business. This virtual cycle sustains momentum, sustains momentum for our customers, sustains momentum for our communities, momentum for our employees, and momentum to you, our shareholders. With that, thank you, and now I'll turn the call over to Brian. Brian? Thank you, Sean.