PNM Resources, Inc. (Holding Co.)

Good day and welcome to the PNM Resources third quarter 2022 conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on a touch-tone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Lisa Goodman, Executive Director of Investor Relations. Lisa, please go ahead.

Thank you, Marlies, and thank you, everyone, for joining us this morning for the PNM Resources Third Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. Please note that the presentation for this conference call and other supporting documents are available on our website at pnmresources.com. Joining me today are PNM Resources Chairman and CEO, Pat Vincent-Coulant, President and Chief Operating Officer, Don Terry, and Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Lisa Eden. Before I turn the call over to Pat, I need to remind you that some of the information provided this morning should be considered forward-looking statements pursuant to the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. We caution you that all of the forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and estimates, and that PNM Resources assumes no obligation to update this information. For a detailed discussion of factors affecting PNM Resources results, please refer to our current and future annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, as well as reports on Form 8-K filed with the SEC. With that, I will turn the call over to Pat.

Thank you, Lisa. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today on both National Jersey Friday and National Candy Day. We are all decked out in our jerseys today eating our leftover Halloween candy with, of course, the exception of our general counsel. But since it's also Law of Your Lawyer Day, we're going to let that slide. On slide four, I'll start with our financial results. GAAP and ongoing earnings increased in the third quarter over the prior year, bringing year-to-date ongoing earnings to $2.54. As a result, we are raising our guidance for 2022 ongoing earnings to a range of $2.63 to $2.68. We are maintaining our guidance for 2023 at a range of $2.60 to $2.75 based on the continued strength at the utilities offset by higher interest rates. Lisa will walk through these numbers in more detail. In October, P&M filed its application for a grid modernization plan to bring smart meters and other system upgrades to our customers. We asked for approval of our plan by next July, and hearings have been scheduled for March. Don will talk more about our application. This quarter also brought us a step forward as we execute our plan to be emissions-free by 2040 with the retirement of our last unit of the San Juan Generating Station. This significantly reduces the amount of coal in P&M's generation to less than 10% and brings our portfolio to 55% carbon-free. I'd like to thank the teams at San Juan who operated the plant safely and efficiently to continue serving our customers through one last summer. On the regulatory front, the New Mexico Commission had ordered us to begin providing rate credits associated with the retirement of San Juan. We appealed the order and requested a stay of the rate credits during the appeal. In September, the court responded with an emergency stay, stopping the credits, and then earlier this week confirmed the stay will remain in place for the duration of the appeal. The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission is preparing to change in January to a new appointed commission. the nominating committee will present the governor with at least five names for appointment by November 14th. The governor will select three commissioner appointees who will begin their terms on January 1st of 2023 and serve staggered terms of up to six years. These appointments will need to be confirmed by the Senate, but commissioners will be able to begin acting in their roles while awaiting confirmation. Lastly, in our merger with Aubin Grid, As Tom Petty so beautifully sung, the waiting is truly the hardest part. There have been no procedural updates since our last call. We've requested the court to hear oral arguments and are waiting to see if the court grants that request. There is no requirement for the court to hear oral arguments, nor any time frame for their consideration. We estimate a 12 to 18 month process from our initial filing in January. Before I turn it over to Don, I will cover some quick highlights on ESG on slide five. As I've already mentioned, the shutdown of San Juan significantly reduces the amount of coal in PNM's generation portfolio and marks significant progress in the full elimination of carbon emissions from our generation. Our first interim target was for a 60% reduction by 2025, and we have reached this target ahead of schedule along with significant reductions in NOx and SO2. Particularly important here in New Mexico, this closure also significantly reduces the majority of our freshwater consumption. We've also had a number of social highlights this quarter, as we were finally able to return to some community activities in New Mexico that hadn't happened in person for some time. We volunteered company-wide for our annual day of service, and also returned to hosting our Albuquerque Community Assistance Fair. This is the largest of the PNM customer assistance events held statewide throughout the year, and this one is particularly valued by our customers as we coordinate to bring together resources from the gas and water utilities and dozens of other organizations in the community in a single venue. Our employees coordinated and volunteered at the event and nearly 300 customers and families received over $100,000 in assistance. We've also taken part in activities within our own organization to learn and grow from each other. In recognition of Indigenous Peoples Day in October, we gathered to view a documentary about the recognition of Pueblo independence and the struggle for sovereignty by New Mexico's 19 pueblos. We have these types of learning opportunities regularly to continue developing a mindset of diversity and a culture of inclusion. Native Americans are an important voice in our community. We integrate this mindset into our business decisions as well. We just issued an RFP this week for new resources and are specifically looking for proposals located on Navajo lands utilizing a best-in-class bid evaluation and shortlist elections to encourage more of these proposals. We value our business relationships with our tribal partners and look for opportunities to help this community thrive. With that, I will turn it over to Don for an operations and regulatory update.