Hydro One Limited

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Hydro One Limited's second quarter 2024 analyst teleconference. At this time, all participants are on 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. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. I would now like to introduce your host for today's conference, Mr. Omar Javid, Vice President and Best Relations at Hydro One. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us in Hydro One's quarterly earnings call. Joining us today are our President and CEO, David Leviter, and our Chief Financial and Regulatory Officer, Harry Taylor. On the call today, we'll provide an overview of our quarterly results, and then we will take some time answering questions as time permits. Today's discussions will likely touch on estimates and other forward-looking information. You should review the cautionary language in today's earnings release and our MD&A, which we filed this morning regarding the various factors, assumptions, and risks that could cause our actual results to differ as they all apply to this call. With that, I'll turn the call over to our President and CEO, David Levener.

Thank you, Omar. Good morning, and thank you for joining us for our second quarter 2024 earnings call. I am pleased to welcome and be joined by our new Executive Vice President and Chief Financial and Regulatory Officer, Harry Taylor. Harry joined Hydro One in early June following an extensive external and internal search. Harry is a highly regarded strategic executive with demonstrated achievements across multiple customer-focused industries. Guided by our refresh strategy, Harry's expertise in providing stability and delivering financial results during times of growth and expansion will help us meet the needs of customers, partners, stakeholders, investors, and all Ontarians. At Hydro One, safety always comes first, and a focus on safety is firmly ingrained within our culture. This focus was evident in our 2023 results, where we improved our annual recordable injury rate, achieving a rate of 0.56 for 200,000 hours worked, which remains well below the industry benchmark of 1.0. We are very proud of this achievement, but also understand that we must remain vigilant and focused on our goal of achieving a workplace free of life-altering injuries and fatalities. Nothing is more important than ensuring our colleagues return home safely. Moving on to our update, we continue to deliver on our strategy of making investments in our transmission and distribution systems to modernize, strengthen, and expand the grid in support of economic development and increased electrification across the province. On May 28, we filed a Leave to Construct application, also known as a Section 92, with the Ontario Energy Board for the construction of our St. Clair Transmission Line. This line will be a new double circuit 230 kilovolt transmission line between the Lampton Transmission Station in St. Clair Township and the Chatham Switching Station in the municipality of Chatham-Kent in southwest Ontario. Subject to the Ontario Energy Board's final ruling, we expect the line to be completed in 2028 at a cost of $472 million. Once built, the project will provide an additional 450 megawatts of power to the region, supporting economic and community growth for years to come. The St. Clair Transmission Line is part of a network of electricity infrastructure projects that will support economic growth and improve the reliability and resiliency of the electricity grid in southwestern Ontario. As we develop and build these projects, we remain mindful of our commitment to our relationship with Indigenous communities. We understand that their ongoing participation and collaboration throughout the life of our project is important. We are proud that the transmission line component of the St. Clair project will be co-owned with five approximate First Nations, advancing the project in true partnership. I'm also pleased to report that our Chatham to Lakeshore transmission line, which commenced construction activities in the spring of 2023, remains on track to be in service by the end of 2024. As previously disclosed, this timeline reflects the completion of the line one year ahead of schedule. In addition to accelerated timeline, we expect to realize an additional $16 million in cost savings from optimization of our construction activities. The total project cost is now expected to be $237 million, down from the original estimate of $268 million, a savings of $31 million. Superior project execution is a critical aspect of why Hydro One continues to be the transmitter of choice for the development, construction, and operation of priority projects in Ontario. Hydro One continues to play a critical role in supporting long-term, sustainable economic growth in Ontario. Through our investments in transmission and distribution systems, we are enabling the electrification of Ontario, delivering power to drive growth and prosperity across the province. Moving on to LDC consolidation, following the OAB approval for the acquisition of Shaplow Hydro in early May, Our teams work diligently to ensure that all the necessary procedures and filings required to achieve closing the transaction were completed. I'm happy to report that we have successfully closed the transaction and will now start integration and officially join the Township of Chappelot as their local electricity provider. We look forward to energizing the lives of our new customers, employees, and the community. Our commitment to invest in this community is already underway. In May, we announced the Chapel of Crete First Nations, one of 35 recipients that received $25,000 in funding from Hydro One's Energizing Life Community Fund. Hydro One's commitment to energizing life in Ontario with reliable, sustainable solutions ensures a brighter future for all. For us, sustainability means that we are conducting our business in a way that benefits the environment, community, and society. Our sustainable business strategy is focused on a wide array of environmental, economic, and social factors so that our business decisions and activities leave a lasting, positive impact. This includes developing resilient infrastructure and intelligent operation, optimizing our supply chain to ensure we can meet our customers' needs, working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and actively invest in the communities where we live and work. Furthermore, we are committed to building and strengthening Indigenous community partnerships and fostering our diversity initiatives. We understand that for our long-term performance and viability, we need to embed sustainability in all aspects of our business. Earlier today, we released our 2023 Sustainability Report. The report provides a balanced account of our performance across a range of sustainability measures and highlights our progress towards enabling the energy transition in Ontario, leading to a better and brighter future for all. The 2023 report highlights accomplishments relating to key initiatives, including reducing our Scope 1 greenhouse gas, or GHG emissions by approximately 24% compared to our 2018 baseline. Investing approximately $2.5 billion of capital to expand and renew Ontario's grid. Connecting the 10th remote community to the grid, providing them with a reliable and clean source of energy. Converting 34% of our sedans and SUVs to electric vehicles and hybrids. Issuing approximately $2.4 billion in sustainable and green bonds under our sustainable financing framework. spending 5.7% of our total sourceable spend on materials and supplies from Indigenous businesses, promoting a culture of diversity and inclusion with female representation of 45% at the board level and 36% at the BP level and above. These achievements are a testament to our strong sustainability foundations and our employees who are filled with purpose and are empowered to act to contribute to a better world for all. This purpose is reflected in our actions and I am pleased that our actions are being recognized. We are proud to once again be included in the Corporate Night's annual list of 50 Best Corporate Citizens in Canada. This award recognizes those entities that are committed to doing business differently and are committed to sustainability and environmental stewardship. With that, I will turn the call over to Harry to discuss our financial results. Harry, over to you.