UNITIL Corporation

good day thank you for standing by welcome to the q3 2024 unitil earnings conference call at this time all participants are in a listen-only mode please be advised that today's conference is being recorded after the speaker's presentation there will be a question and answer session to ask a question please press star 1 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced to withdraw your question please press star 1 1 again i would not like to hand the conference over to your speaker today Todd Diggins, Chief Accounting Officer and Controller.

Good morning and thank you for joining us to discuss Unitil Corporation's third quarter 2024 financial results. Speaking on the call today will be Tom Meissner, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Dan Herstack, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. Also with us today is Bob Hebert, President and Chief Administrative Officer. We will discuss financial and other information on this call. As we mentioned in the press release announcing today's call, we have posted information, including a presentation, to the investor section of our website at Unitil.com. We will refer to that information during this call. Moving to slide two, the comments made today about future operating results or events are forward-looking statements under the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements inherently involve risks and uncertainties that can cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted. Statements made on this call should be considered together with cautionary statements and other information contained in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and other documents we have filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements speak only as of today and we assume no obligation to update them. This presentation contains non-GAAP financial measures. The accompanying supplemental information more fully describes these non-GAAP financial measures and includes a reconciliation to the nearest GAAP financial measures. The company believes these non-GAAP financial measures are useful in evaluating its performance. With that, I will now turn the call over to Chairman and CEO, Tom Eisner.

Thanks, Todd, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. Beginning on slide three, today we announced break-even results for the third quarter. Through the first nine months of the year, net income was $31.5 million, or $1.96 per share, representing an increase of 11 cents per share over the same period in 2023. Our results for the quarter were consistent with our expectations, and we remain confident that our full-year earnings will be within our long-term guidance range. I'll also mention that we provide a graph of the expected distribution of our quarterly earnings in the call supplement each quarter, and our quarterly results have been generally consistent with that guidance. Looking beyond 2024, we reaffirm our long-term earnings growth of 5% to 7%, supported by rate-based growth in the range of 6.5% to 8.5%, and a dividend payout ratio between 55% and 65%. As discussed on our previous earnings call, in July we entered into an agreement with Hope Utilities to acquire Bangor Natural Gas. Beginning this quarter, we disclosed adjusted net income and earnings per share in our third quarter Form 10-Q to reflect the company's baseline operating performance, excluding transaction costs. Through the first nine months of the year, adjusted net income was $32.1 million, or $2 per share. We're pleased with the strong results of the first nine months and believe they reflect strong operational performance, disciplined cost management, and the successful execution of our regulatory agenda. On the regulatory front, Granite State Gas Transmission, our interstate gas transmission subsidiary, recently filed an uncontested rate case settlement with FERC. Later in the presentation, Dan will provide more detail about the settlement as well as an update on the regulatory proceeding for Bangor natural gas acquisition. Moving now to slide four, I'm pleased to announce that we recently published our 2024 Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility Report. As we have emphasized in the past, sustainability is fundamental to our strategy, and I believe this report comprehensively addresses our accomplishments, initiatives, and commitments related to sustainability. We have created a robust sustainability framework that we believe will allow us to navigate the uncertainties ahead and attain our goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by 2050. We continue to make steady progress towards that goal, and to this point, we have achieved an 18% reduction in emissions compared to 2019 levels. I'd like to take a minute to highlight our advanced mobile leak detection program, which uses best-in-class PECARA leak detection technology to more accurately measure methane emissions from our distribution systems. We initially focused on our Massachusetts distribution system, and the results there showed significantly lower fugitive emissions than what we've been reporting using EPA and Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection emission factors. We also found that approximately half of our fugitive emissions came from a relatively small number of leaks, which allows us to quickly address and eliminate those sources of methane leakage. Building on our success in Massachusetts, this year we implemented PCARO's advanced mobile leak detection technology across all of our natural gas systems to measure, investigate, and mitigate fugitive emissions. This initiative is expected to drive significant reductions in Scope 1 emissions. I'm also pleased to report that we have once again been recognized as one of the best companies to work for in New Hampshire. Employees are our greatest asset, and we strive for a diverse and inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued, engaged, and proud to be part of Unitil. We hope to build on this success as we remain a top employer of choice in the region. The corporate sustainability report contains a wealth of information, and I encourage everyone to read the report and learn more about our ongoing initiatives. Turning now to slide five, I'd also like to highlight our advanced metering infrastructure upgrade, or AMI project, which is now underway. This project will replace a legacy AMI system that has been in service for over 15 years now. and which relied on power line carrier communication to transmit metering information over the power lines. The new system uses wireless radio frequency and cellular communication to allow for media reading intervals as frequent as every 15 minutes. As part of this project, we will replace all the electric meters in our service areas with new state-of-the-art advanced meters. This new functionality will provide transparency to customers regarding their usage and provides opportunities for new rate structures such as time-varied rates. We expect this project will cost approximately $40 million over the next three years. In Massachusetts, the costs associated with this project are eligible for accelerated recovery. We believe this initiative will provide a wide range of benefits to our customers and supports the clean energy transition. With that, I'll now pass it over to Dan, who will provide greater detail on the quarterly and year-to-date results.