This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.
spk17: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to this Northland Power Conference call to discuss the 2022 fourth quarter results. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a question and answer session. At that time, if you have a question, please press star 1-1 on your telephone. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded Friday, February 24, 2023 at 10 a.m. Conducting this call for Northland Power are Mike Crawley, President and Chief Executive Officer, Pauline Alamshindani, Chief Financial Officer, and Waseem Khalil, Senior Director of Investor Relations and Strategy. Before we begin, Northland Management has asked me to remind listeners that all figures presented are in Canadian dollars and to caution that certain information presented in responses to questions may contain forward-looking statements that include assumptions and are subject to various risks. Actual results may differ materially from management's expected or forecasted results. Please read the forward-looking statement section in yesterday's news release announcing Northland's power results and be guided by its contents in making investment decisions or recommendations. The release is available at www.northlandpower.com. I will now turn the call over to Mike Crawley. Please go ahead.
spk08: Thank you, Latonya, and good morning to everyone. Thanks for joining us today for our first earnings call of 2023. This morning, we're going to review our financial and operating results for the fourth quarter and full year 2022. Following our prepared remarks, we will take questions from analysts and look forward to addressing those questions. To kick things off, as we always do, I want to reiterate that the health and safety of our employees and our stakeholders always comes first. Our rigorous adherence to our health and safety protocols ensures the safety of our employees while allowing us to maintain a high level of availability at all of our facilities. We continued our strong performance in the fourth quarter and consequently for the full year, delivering solid operating results and financial results in 2022, leading us to exceed the upper end of our guidance ranges for both EBITDA and free cash flow per share. A key driver behind our financial results has been our strong operational performance. Our teams have worked hard this past year to ensure that our facilities are operating at high availability levels, allowing us to capture a strong wind and solar resource this past year and capitalize on high power prices in Europe. Looking at the headline numbers, we delivered a just a bit of $353 million in the fourth quarter compared to $364 million at the same time a year ago. On an annual basis, adjusted EBITDA in 2022 stands at just shy of $1.4 billion compared to $1.1 billion in 2021. This result represents a record for Northland, an accomplishment of which we are all very proud. For adjusted free cash flow per share and free cash flow per share, we achieved $0.16 and $0.06 respectively in the quarter compared to $0.80 and $0.69 in the same period a year ago. Well, on a full year basis, we had delivered adjusted free cash flow of $1.95 per share and free cash flow per share of $1.61. This compares to $1.77 per share and $1.40 per share, respectively, in 2021. Pauline will provide a more detailed look into the financial numbers later in the call. Reflecting on our accomplishments in 2022, I'm very proud of the efforts and results that our team delivered to continue to position Northland at the forefront of the global energy transition. The global emphasis on energy security and the need to accelerate the move from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources remains unchanged. A substantial build out of renewable energy will be needed over the next decade to facilitate these objectives. Over the course of the year, we made strong progress in advancing key development projects. source additional opportunities and position ourselves in some of the best markets to capitalize on this growth. Our growth pipeline now sits at nearly 20 gigawatts and is well diversified across technologies and markets. Having a robust development pipeline gives us optionality in terms of which projects we decide to invest our capital in. And to be clear, it doesn't mean that we will be building all of these projects. In fact, it allows us to be selective in where we deploy our capital. Our presence on the ground in key markets is an important success factor going forward. Energy security, decarbonization policies are driving increased targets for offshore wind and accelerating permitting timelines, particularly in Europe, where we have already established a healthy portfolio. For onshore renewables, we have consciously picked onshore markets where we forecast strong growth for renewables, see good policy support going forward, and where there is a favorable investment climate. Last year, we brought the focus back to our domestic market, Canada, by securing a 1.6 gigawatt solar portfolio and development teams in the province of Alberta. This is a big step forward in the Canadian market for us. Alberta is currently the most prolific market within Canada for renewable development with a robust corporate offtake market. The acquisition adds a development pipeline of solar and storage projects, of which the 220 megawatt Jurassic project would reach commercial operations as early as 2025. In Ontario, we acquired a majority interest in a 250-megawatt late-stage grid-connected battery storage project in the southern end of the province. The Oneida Energy Storage Project, one of the largest in North America and certainly the largest in Canada. With that, Northland will be the majority owner of the project and will take the lead role in its construction, financing, and operations. The project will benefit from a 20 year fixed price contract for revenue payments with the ISO, the system operator in Ontario for the majority of the capacity from the project. The remaining capacity will earn market revenues through sales into the wholesale market. Financial close for the project is expected in 2023 with full commercial operations targeted to commence in 2025. Turning to our development activities, At Heilong, the project has now executed all of its material contracts with suppliers and commenced early construction works, including starting the fabrication of key components. The financing of the project is progressing, albeit slower and more challenging than expected due to macro and market-specific factors. As part of our partnership strategy in December, we announced an agreement with Gentari International Renewables, whereby Gentari will acquire 49% of our stake in Heilong. This translates into an effective ownership of 29.4% for Gentari with Northland still retaining 30.6% ownership of the project. Northland will continue to take the lead in the construction and operation of the project. In addition, we also signed an exclusivity agreement for further potential partnerships with Gentari in Taiwan. Closing of the transaction on this is subject to certain conditions and regulatory approvals. At Baltic Power, we are very pleased how the Polish government responded to some of the market disruptions that have happened in the last year by making certain changes to the CFD, or the revenue contract. The project's 25-year CFD is now denominated in euros instead of the Polish zloty, and inflation indexation has been revised to a base year of 2022 from 2023, helping offset the inflationary price pressures in this past year. In South Korea... we've been awarded electricity business licenses, or EBLs, for nearly 1.3 gigawatts of offshore wind projects, including for Datto Ocean and Bobite. Northland is also pursuing additional early-stage development opportunities in the country for multiple projects with up to 1.8 gigawatts of capacity. Lastly, at our La Lucha solar project, we continue to work to achieve commercial operations for the project. In January, we received approval of the extension of the generation permit for La Lucha and we are now coordinating with appropriate regulatory authority to initiate testing of the project in order to achieve commercial operations which is expected later this year. All in all, a very active year for Northland and despite the global uncertainty and macroeconomic pressures, we continue to deliver strong operating and financial results and continue to execute on our strategic plan. With that, I will now turn the call over to Pauline for a more detailed review of our financial results.
spk24: Thank you, Mike, and good morning, everyone. Last night, Northern Power released operating and financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2022. Our financial performance in the year was solid, where we generated results that exceeded our financial guidance, supported by strong performance across our operating portfolio. Our operating assets achieved a high level of availability, which provided a good backdrop to capitalize on the stronger wind and solar resource and the higher power prices in Europe that benefited our offshore wind facilities. Specific to the fourth quarter, the early completion of the bearing replacement campaign at North Sea One meant that the turbines were fully available to take advantage of the seasonal stronger winds in the quarter. This helped to deliver fourth quarter results that exceeded management's expectations. Adding all this up, we achieved results that were stronger than a revised guidance. Specifically, we achieved adjusted free cash flow per share that came in at the upper end of the guidance range, while free cash flow per share and adjusted EBITDA both exceeded the upper end of the respective guidance ranges. When comparing to the midpoint of our original financial guidance issued in February of last year, Our full year 2022 results were approximately 17%, 24%, and 11% higher than guidance for adjusted EBITDA, free cash flow, and adjusted free cash flow per share, respectively. In fact, we were able to achieve this result even after de-risking our business through approximately $150 million of debt repayments at Gemini in Spain that were announced with our third quarter results but were funded in the fourth quarter. Looking at the specific financial results, we achieved full year adjusted EBITDA of nearly $1.4 billion, representing an increase of 23% or $260 million compared to $1.1 billion in 2021. The key factors that contributed to the higher adjusted EBITDA year-over-year included higher contributions from our offshore wind portfolio, resulting from a combination of higher market prices and a stronger wind resource compared to 2021, higher contributions from our Spain portfolio due to a full year of contributions in 2022 compared to five months in 2021. The Spanish portfolio also benefited from higher regulated posted prices in 2022, helping contribute to the overall increase in contributions from the portfolio and a one-time management fee and other optimizations from the restructuring and upsizing of our Kirkland Lake credit facility. This strength was slightly tempered by a decrease in operating results due to loss and contributions in the expiry of the PPA and subsequent sale of the Iroquois Falls Natural Gas Facility in April of 2022. With respect to our adjusted free cash flow and free cash flow, Northland generated approximately $461 million and $380 million, respectively. This compares to $386 million and $307 million for 2021. The significant factors contributing to the $75 million or 19% increase in year-over-year adjusted free cash flow were an increase in overall contribution across all facilities, resulting from better operating results, an increase in the one-time management fee and other optimizations from Kirkland Lake, as previously discussed, and one-time proceeds from the sale of the Iroquois Falls and Kingston efficient natural gas facilities. These increases were partially offset by higher current taxes as a result of stronger financial results and a decrease in contribution from the Spanish portfolio, primarily due to the one-time principal payment upon the debt restructuring. On a per share basis, these figures translated into adjusted free cash flow of $1.95 and $1.61, respectively, compared to $1.77 and $1.40, respectively, for 2021. These results generated a rolling four-quarter adjusted free cash flow and free cash flow net payout ratios of 43% and 52%, respectively, calculated on the basis of cash dividends paid, compared to 45% and 56% for the same period ending December 31 of 2021. With respect to our balance sheet, Northline retains ample liquidity to fund our current projects. As of December 31st, we had access to approximately $1 billion of cash and liquidity, comprising $600 million of liquidity available on a revolving facility and $500 million of corporate cash on hand to help us pursue our growth initiative. We continue to prudently manage our balance sheet, taking proactive actions to further enhance our cash flow, bolster our corporate liquidity, and ensure Northland remains in a good position to fund its growth needs. Part of these actions include utilization of multiple sources of liquidity to fund growth and capital investments, including proceeds from our ATM program. We also continue to utilize project refinancing as a tool to optimize the debt profiles, enhance future cash flows, and generate additional liquidity to fund our growth. With higher cash flows in 2023 across our portfolio, we were able to proactively deleverage some of our assets to de-risk the long-term cash flow profile while also enhancing the economic return of the projects through favorable refinancing terms. In total, we refinanced over $3 billion Canadian dollars of project debt in 2022 and generated nearly $80 million of additional liquidity in the year. As outlined at our investor day on February 3rd, we have an estimated $2.2 billion of equity capital deployment towards projects targeted for financial close this year. Of the $2.2 billion requirement, is expected to fund Heilong, Wealthy Power, and our newly announced Oneida battery storage project in Ontario. Of this, approximately $1.7 billion has already been sourced and or announced through proceeds from the ATM program and the future expected proceeds from the Heilong partnership sale, which is not yet closed. The remaining $500 million is expected to be funded through additional possible sell-down proceeds hybrid bonds, liquidity on hand, potential ATM issuances, and asset refinancings. We believe there is ample redundancy in sources available to us to fund our remaining equity requirements for 2023. Turning to our 2023 financial guidance as previously disclosed, for adjusted EBITDA, we expect to generate between $1.2 and $1.3 billion this year. Guided for 2023 free cash flow per share, we expect the range to be $1.30 to $1.50, while for adjusted free cash flow, we expect to generate $1.70 to $1.90 per share. As a growth company with a significant pipeline of development projects, Northland is committed to unlocking value by deploying early-stage investment capital, or DEVX, to advance our projects. As such, in 2023, we expect to deploy development expenditures of approximately $100 million, around $0.40 per share, to fund expenditures to advance secured projects. This would include expenditures on our Scotland offshore wind project, North Sea 3 and Delta projects in Germany, the Korean projects, the recently acquired Alberta solar portfolio, and Oneida, in addition to other Canadian and U.S. opportunities. In conclusion, we delivered strong results in the quarter and for the year, which surpassed the upper end of the guidance ranges for adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow. We also achieved a record level of adjusted EBITDA. We are proud of the accomplishments we have achieved together as a team over the past year, and we are gearing up ourselves to continue to deliver on our stated objectives in 2023. I will now turn the call back over to Mike for his concluding remarks.
spk08: Thank you, Pauline. As Pauline mentioned, we had a very good quarter and a great year in 2022. We look forward to another strong year in 2023, and with projects nearing key milestones, we are very excited about the continued growth of Northland. This concludes our prepared remarks. We'd now be happy to take your questions. Letonia, please open the line for any questions.
spk17: Certainly. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to register for a question, please press star 1-1 on your telephone. If your question has been answered and you would like to withdraw yourself from the queue, please press star 1-1 again. If you are using a speakerphone, please lift your handset before answering your request. One moment for our first question. And our first question comes from Sean Stewart of TD Securities. Your line is open.
spk09: Thank you. Good morning.
spk10: Question for Pauline to start. You stayed active on the ATM in the fourth quarter. Can you speak to your comfort continuing to use that facility as the share prices come under even more pressure since the investor day? Is that still, from your perspective, a value accretive tool to use right now?
spk24: So we have sort of multiple sources of capital available to us. I would say that the ATM usage should be viewed as a long-term tool in the sense of opportunistically being used over the next couple of years to fund the projects that financial close. And that will mean we are active on it at points of times where it's opportunistic and not active on it when at points of time where it's not opportunistic and we have other sources of capital available to us. Right now our priorities at the start of the year is to enable ourselves to issue corporate hybrid bonds. And we are currently working on that as a source of capital in addition to looking at other refinancing opportunities and looking to soon close on another type of corporate financing that can help us sort of fund the remaining equity requirements this year. And in addition to that, as you know, we've also commenced a couple of sell-down proceeds as well. So, I mean, all of it in total, I think, is more than ample to fund what's left for this year. And, you know, I don't want to comment on sort of the near-term usage of the ATM program, but certainly over the long term, we intend to stay active on it.
spk10: Okay. And with respect to the hybrid, can you speak to the cost of that debt as you see it right now?
spk24: Not yet. I think it's still early. We're still sort of figuring out pricing and terms. But, yeah, I mean, as you know, we repaid the press at the end of the year. It's no longer a product that made sense to us from a cost perspective and an ongoing piece of our capital structure going forward. I think corporate hybrids are a more cost-effective tool for us. Also, the sort of rating agencies are sort of supportive of the product. So it will be the tool in our capital structure going forward, and we think it'll be better than press, but we're still working through the terms of the paper that we plan to issue.
spk08: Okay. The two key points, Sean, are that we're, number one, continuing to look to get ahead of our funding needs and stay well ahead of our funding needs, and second, create optionality and use the best tool, the best instrument, given what market conditions are at any given time.
spk10: Got it. Thanks, Mike. And one other question, Mike, just with respect to the delays at Heilong with respect to arranging project level debt there, how much of that is specific to Taiwan overall? And are you anticipating or seeing any friction for Baltic power on that front?
spk08: I think, no, I would say most of it is more focused on Taiwan, and it's specifically related to one other project. There's several offshore wind projects that have been project financed in Taiwan. There's one that has experienced some significant delays, and on that one project, there's some overlap in lenders, so we've had to spend more time with those lenders explaining our project schedule, our project plans, execution plan in more detail than we typically would have. So it's really more specific to that that's causing us to spend more time on Q&As than we probably would have expected to. On the Baltic Power project finance, it is moving forward well, and there's no delay in the project financing.
spk10: Okay. That's all I have for now. Thanks very much.
spk17: One moment for our next question. And our next question comes from David Quisada of Raymond James. Your line is open.
spk03: Yeah, thanks. Morning, everyone. Mike, just going back to your comments about, you know, being selective with your pipeline and, you know, you've obviously seen the pipeline grow quite significantly. Is there any color you can provide on just, you know, how your decision-making process might change, you know, just with respect to, I guess, having more options? Can you bid in some cases more conservatively And maybe just some commentary on how your organizational realignment might support that.
spk08: So, David, your first point is a good one. Having more options does allow you to bid into auctions for energy contracts or negotiate energy contracts bilaterally in a more... in a more prudent way, right? You don't have to win every auction, which I think is a position that you want to be in. Moreover, you also don't have to build every project. And in some cases, if you look at a project and that project has, for whatever reason, more value to another owner because of the circumstances that that owner at that given time finds himself in, that may be the better option for us. And so it really is all about looking at the capital that we have, which as Pauline mentioned, currently is ample, and we continue to make sure that we get ahead of our funding needs, but deploying that capital in the opportunities that offer the best returns.
spk03: Okay, great. Thanks for that. And maybe just one more for me. As you've got a fair amount of activity on the offshore wind construction front coming, I guess, towards the middle or latter part of the decade, I'm wondering if you could touch on vessel availability, specifically for offshore wind turbines. How do you see that evolving over time as, you know, activity in offshore wind ramps up? And do you have any kind of like longer-term solutions you could put in place to secure access to those vessels as needed?
spk08: Good question, David. I mean, I think when you look at the constraints in renewables and particularly in offshore wind, but one of the biggest concerns constraints or concerns for us is vessel availability. So all of our project teams certainly are working hard to make sure we get ahead of that and secure vessels earlier than we would have otherwise. We don't have anything to say on more creative or longer-term solutions than that, but that certainly is something that our project teams are very, very focused on getting ahead of.
spk06: And David, I do think over time
spk08: The market signals will lead to more vessels being constructed and more options in the market, but there's a lag, right?
spk04: That's great, Collin. Thanks, Mike. I'll turn it over.
spk17: Certainly. One moment for our next question. And our next question comes from Nelson Ng of RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open.
spk14: Great. Thanks, and good morning, everyone. So quick one for Pauline. You've mentioned that you redeemed the, or at least one tranche of the prefs, and I think you have two tranches left. Can you just give a bit more color as to why you're redeeming those prefs? Is it mainly for tax reasons?
spk24: No, I think that, you know, crafts are really no longer sort of a widely used sort of tool. And I think it was probably a couple years ago the investor day we discussed sort of corporate hybrids for the first time as sort of the long-term product to have in our capital structure. And, you know, when we looked at the rate reset and then the cost of that product as well against, you know, what we can now do, I think, going forward with the balance sheet and opportunities and, you know, what's available to us now, I think we can do better.
spk14: Okay, great. Thanks. And you would expect to get some equity credit on the hybrid debt, right?
spk22: That's correct, yes. That's correct.
spk14: Okay, got it. And then just moving to my next question, in terms of the high bridge wind development in New York, can you guys give a bit more color on why you sold that project? I understand that the project wasn't very economic to start off with, but any more color would be great.
spk08: So the project was one year behind the two other wind projects that we have in New York, so it would have been – impacted by some of the cost inflation uh which the two other projects got ahead of so so that that that was one factor but the other factor also was that the there's a another buyer that had an additional revenue stream uh that uh that was not available to us and so that made for in my view a good transaction for both of us okay that's great and i just one last question um
spk14: I think the MD&A indicated that you guys used $38 million of cash for the Oneida battery storage project and the Alberta solar portfolio. Is this just the first milestone payment, and then the rest will probably take place when those projects eventually hit financial close? Is that how the payment's structured?
spk08: A bit different with each, but on the former... On the Alberta, there are future milestone payments. And on, I don't believe there are. Yeah, so we don't usually get into the details of the payment terms. Okay.
spk24: But then on the battery storage project, it would just be the financial close, you know, funding construction.
spk17: Right, right. Okay, thanks. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Rupert Murr of the National Bank. Your line's open.
spk25: Hi, good morning, everyone. Coming back to Highbridge, was this one of the two sell-downs that you talked about doing this year, or are there a couple more to come?
spk24: No, this is a full divestiture. So sell-downs relate to when we speak at speak to the nomenclature, it really is partial sell-down interest versus this is an outright divestiture.
spk25: Okay, great. And, you know, the asset or the location doesn't seem to be non-core. Should we be reading anything into this? Is this an indication that maybe your other projects in New York could be candidates for sell-downs or sell-offs?
spk08: No, you shouldn't read anything more into this than the fact that the As I said, the project was a year later, and it always was scheduled to be built a year later, so it did get impacted by higher capital costs, as we've seen inflation in equipment prices in the supply chain for renewables over the last years across the board. So that impacted the project, but as importantly, There was a couple of other buyers that had access to certain transmission rights that gave them access to an additional revenue stream that we didn't have access to. So it's basically putting the development asset in the hands of the owner that can extract the most value from it, and then both parties share, the vendor and the purchaser, share in that benefit. That really is all it is.
spk25: Great, thank you. And then secondly, La Lucha. So you have some testing left to do there. Is that scheduled yet? Do you have an idea of when you might be able to turn it on?
spk08: So all of the scheduling and the work is going on right now with the regulator and the transmission operator in Mexico. It is moving at pace or even a bit quicker than we had anticipated. The generation license was, the extension was issued about two weeks ago, I think. So it's moved very quickly since meetings that we had in Mexico City in the second week of January. So it's moving quite quickly and we're getting very good cooperation from all of the Mexican authorities. So I can't give you an exact date on when it will be connected, but things are moving well.
spk25: As the finish line approaches here, I imagine you're keeping an eye on the market for pricing or contracting. Can you give us an update on that? How does the market look today? What would be your strategy on pricing?
spk08: Well, what's interesting in Mexico is that there hasn't been a lot of additional renewable energy capacity built out over the last couple of years beyond a couple of large projects that the CFE did, but there hasn't been any IPP is building out a lot of capacity simply because of the uncertainty in the market the last two years in Mexico. At the same time, industrial investment in manufacturing capacity in Mexico has continued moving forward, so there's a lot of multinationals still in Mexico and that are continuing to invest in Mexico that are looking for renewable energy capacity to meet their net zero in their ESG targets. So, yeah, we think the La Lucha assets in a fairly good position as far as there's not a lot of non-contracted renewable energy facilities in Mexico that are available to industrial off-takers and the And energy prices are reasonably robust as well in Mexico relative to where they would have been a couple of years ago. So all of that we're just working through to see what the revised economics are going to be on that asset, but that's kind of where we're at.
spk25: Okay, thanks for that. I'll leave it there.
spk18: One moment for our next question.
spk17: Our next question comes from Mark Jari of CIBC. Your line's open.
spk26: Thanks. Good morning, everyone. First question is just on High Long. Last year, you signed the corporate PPA. You struck the deal with Gentari to help support economics of that project and offset some higher capex. Are there any other levers you can pull to improve the return profile? Could you actually increase the size of the cell then to Gentari or some other partner? I'm just curious if there's other ways to
spk08: enhanced returns? We wouldn't do that and for a number of reasons including regulatory so we wouldn't be increasing the sell down further than what we've done already and we're now down to just slightly over 30% in the overall project so it's a substantial reduction from our original 60% position in that project. We continue to look at ways to optimize the project and we'll continue to do so up until financial close I'm going to be out there in two weeks' time as well with our head of development looking in a series of meetings. So we continue to look to ways to optimize that project further. Yeah.
spk26: Is it in terms of just the layout of the project? Is it still in terms of cost inputs? I don't know if you can share anything, Mike, in terms of how you can further optimize the project at this stage.
spk08: I wouldn't give any details at this point, and we'll share them if we're able to secure more optimizations.
spk26: Okay. And then at the Investor Day a few weeks ago, you indicated that Baltic Power is not something you consider selling down. You really like the attractive returns and cash flows. But if the share price languished and the ATM is less attractive over the course of this year or next year, would you reconsider doing a process, maybe even on the other side of financial close?
spk24: So I think our views on Baltic Power today are still the same as at Investor Day, but I think we are looking at any or all opportunities in our portfolio for sell-downs of development assets and or, yes, opportunities where we see ability to recycle. Just Baltic Power is not one of them, but there are others.
spk26: And just Pauline to pick up on that comment. In terms of timing of sell-downs, is there any change? Is it still like the optimal time is around financial close? Are you seeing opportunities to do it sooner on certain projects?
spk24: I think we're looking at opportunities that are sooner than that.
spk26: Okay.
spk24: Earlier on, yes.
spk16: One moment for our next question.
spk17: Our next question comes from Andrew Kuska of Credit Squeeze. Your line's open.
spk27: Thanks. Good morning. I guess it's a broad question for Mike. And there's a bunch of initiatives across Europe, and it varies a little bit by country by country, to really accelerate permitting for renewables. If you could maybe just give us a context of what you think is improving and that can actually maybe accelerate growth for you and maybe some of the challenges that you see ahead.
spk08: I think certainly in the medium to long term, there's a lot of opportunities in Europe as they put in place policies that are going to drive a long-term conversion away from Russian gas and also accelerate overall their decarbonization climate objectives. So I think all of that... is good, and it's getting much more serious and much more deliberate now than it would have been a year, year and a half ago. On the efforts to accelerate permitting, in some cases, I think it will help us. We'll see. I mean, we've got an early stage of looking at hybridization or adding some solar to our wind assets in Spain, for example, where some permitting would be required. So that we'd look forward to, and that's a market where it you know, had generally been seen as a slower market to permit in, so that would be welcome and would help on that initiative. On offshore wind and other large-scale projects, the biggest constraint now is not necessarily permitting, and this is, I think it was David's question, I'm not sure whose question it was earlier in the call, it's supply chain. So, I mean, I'd like to kind of talk very optimistically about all of the great things that are going in Europe, and there are. But the most important thing now is to see more investments in the supply chain, particularly in offshore wind, and that's what's going to unleash and accelerate more offshore wind investments and make those investments also going forward more attractive on new projects as well.
spk27: Okay, I appreciate that, Keller. And then I guess maybe just indirectly on supply chains, But it's a key part of the puzzle is just on the shipping side, some of the South Korean shipyards. I guess, what are your thoughts about South Korea? You've obviously been exposed to the market on a very preliminary basis. BP entered the market, I guess, a week or two ago with the JV. If you could just maybe give us some insights and thoughts on how you see that market developing, what timeframe, are things going to move faster now? And does that indirectly help with the supply chain, just given the shipbuilding yards there?
spk08: It's a good question. So South Korea is a really interesting offshore wind market for a number of reasons, including those that you just gave. So there's a lot more attention being paid to South Korea, including that announcement from BP. We're seeing a bit of a shift from Japan to South Korea from a lot of developers and from the supply chain as well. So we've been active there for several years. We've got a very strong team on the ground, a development team, that's been securing these electricity business licenses, site exclusivity, on projects around Korea. So it's a market that we're very interested in. There's three different avenues to offtake currently in South Korea, three different, I guess, processes. which I won't go into now. So that's good to have optionality in terms of how you source your revenue contract. The piece around South Korea is it is still a relatively new market for offshore wind. These are large projects that we have, that others have. There's a lot of demand for energy and renewable energy in South Korea, for sure. But these projects are complex, too. So our next stage is really to get under the hood from a design and an early stage feed standpoint on these projects and also really drill down on the offtake and really prove out the viability of these projects. But we're in a good position with this many sites secured, particularly when others are now just trying to get into the market.
spk23: Okay, that's great. Thank you.
spk08: One moment. And in terms of – sorry, one last thing, though, Andrew. In terms of supply chain, it – As I said, it is a constraint globally, but one of the advantages of South Korea is a lot of the shipyards and fabrication yards that they have. For example, we're sourcing our jackets and cables for part of our Taiwan project from South Korea. It's one of those markets where when you look at localization, it actually is an advantage, whereas mostly when you hear localization for projects, you think, oh, this is going to add cost. In South Korea, it actually, in my view, is an advantage for that market.
spk16: One moment for our next question.
spk17: Our next question comes from Najee Badown of IA Capital Markets. Your line is open.
spk02: Hi, good morning. I just wanted to start off in Japan. I think there's an auction slated for, you know, early this year or mid 2023. Just given sort of where your projects are in that market, is it too soon for you to participate? And how do you see sort of the changes of the auction guidelines versus maybe what happened last time around playing out?
spk08: We're glad that the Japanese authorities are revising the auction rules. We didn't like how the last auction played out and had concerns. I think we're still reviewing the rules around future rounds in Japan and coming to a decision whether or not we will be participating in them.
spk02: Okay, so a bit too early, but there is a chance that you end up deciding to participate in the auctions this year?
spk08: We haven't decided one way or another.
spk02: Okay, got it. And just on North Sea, on the North Sea cluster, if you could just give us any updates on contracting there, how advanced are the negotiations today for the cluster A? And then with that, is there a view to maybe including North Sea 1 as a re-contracting with either clusters when you're looking to contract those?
spk08: Yeah, so I don't know much to add from Investor Day on the North Sea cluster or North Sea A, the first half of the cluster. As I said then, the procurement process is coming towards a conclusion, so we're moving towards selecting preferred suppliers across the supply chain for North Sea A, the first half. The costs are coming in above what our original investment case were, for sure, given the cost inflation over the last year. So for us, the intent was always to enter into a corporate offtake or utility offtake for those projects. And the point we're working through now is just to see whether the increase in energy prices, which there also has been in clearing price for corporate offtake, gets us back to the same economics with the higher capital costs. So that's what we'd be working through right now on it. On North Sea 1, the timing does overlap with North Sea clusters, so there may be an opportunity to blend the two together, but we're not yet at that stage.
spk30: Okay, thank you for the updates.
spk18: One moment for our next question.
spk17: Our next question comes from Brett Castelli of Morningstar. Your line is open, Brett.
spk13: Yeah, hi. Thank you. Just a question on future offshore wind offtake. Curious, Mike, if you see the potential for, let's just call it like a re-opener at all in terms of future offtake there and maybe some sharing between the offtake side and the development side, you know, given the trends we've seen here recently?
spk08: So, I mean, I guess in a way it's kind of two offtake markets for offshore wind. There's sovereign-backed PPAs or CFDs that are run through centralized auctions, and that's something like Scott Wind we'd be expecting to bid into that kind of a process. And then there's corporate offtake, which is what we're looking at for the North Sea cluster, one of the options for our South Korean projects down the road. So the... I think on centralized kind of sovereign options for offshore wind, those options I think will see prices reflect, bids reflect what current capital costs are, which may moderate over time as more capacity comes available within the offshore wind supply chain. On corporate offtake, certainly there's more liquidity in the market than there was two years ago, more buyers looking to contract and buyers looking to contract for longer tenor than there was a year and a half or two years ago. Uh, and we're seeing those, uh, corporate offtake clearing at higher prices. Um, but as I said, I mean, it just, uh, uh, it is a bit of a supply demand situation and, uh, And we'll see if kind of at what point the things normalize where the corporate offtake offsets for the higher capital costs, which we're just in a kind of period of discovery right now in Europe on.
spk13: Got it. And then just curious on sort of public versus private market valuations. We've obviously seen the public markets valuations come off a little bit. Curious what you're seeing on the private side. Would you say that there's maybe a widening gap in terms of private market valuations for renewable assets that's holding up a bit better?
spk08: So all I know is what we've seen in the processes that we've ran and that we're involved in, and we've seen valuations generally hold steady so far. So that's all I can give you a comment on. So yeah, I'll leave it at that. Okay.
spk16: Thanks, Mike.
spk18: One moment for our next question.
spk17: And our next question comes from Nicholas Boyashuk of Cormark Securities. Your line is open.
spk07: Thanks. Good morning. Coming back to the potential for us at cell bounds, I'm curious with the efficient natural gas facilities continuing to perform really well at nearly 900 gigawatt hours of production this quarter, Are you guys getting any inbound interest to buy these at attractive terms? Would you maybe look to dispose of these a little bit earlier than initially anticipated?
spk08: I don't think there's any change in our position on those assets. There's no change in our position on those assets. So as you point out, they generate important cash flow for Northland, but they're also an important part of the electricity mix in Ontario and Saskatchewan, two markets that are rely on those assets and other gas-fired assets for capacity right now. So what you're seeing in Ontario is a big push to get additional capacity going forward, given the growth in the economy and the electrification that's forecast to happen going forward. So that's in part how the contract and how the United Battery Project has moved forward. But it also means that the province still is very reliant on the capacity that they get from gas-fired assets as well. So the value of those assets to the system is as great as ever, if not greater right now. And whether we, in the long run, are the owners of those assets could be determined. But in the near term, certainly, I think the system operators are relying on us, looking to us to maintain those assets at a high degree of availability. And in some cases, maybe looking to us to see if we can optimize the contribution of those assets to the system as well.
spk07: Got it. Makes sense. And then in Colombia, I'm just curious if the operating environment there has changed at all. Is anything related to sort of valuations, cost of capital, if it's maybe more attractive for you to potentially to acquire other assets that could feed into EBSA, any color about the Colombian market?
spk08: Yeah. Columbia market, so there is a fair degree of solar and wind power development going on by junior developers there. There's interest in multinationals and contracting directly for renewables. There's not a lot of volume available to contract, so there may be opportunities there going forward. The utilities in Columbia have a certain obligation to contract for renewables as well. So that all is, I think, creates an interesting market going forward. Yeah, there's a – and just leave it at that.
spk05: Okay, that's fair. Thanks, Mike.
spk17: Thank you. Mr. Crawley, there are no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the call back to you.
spk08: Okay, thanks to everybody for joining us today. We're going to hold our next call following the release of our first quarter 2023 results in May. So in the meantime, we want to thank you for your continued confidence and support. Take care.
spk17: Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude the conference call for today.
spk16: Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.
spk01: The conference will begin shortly. To raise and lower your hand during Q&A, you can dial star 1 1. The conference will begin shortly. To raise and lower your hand during Q&A, you can dial star 1 1. you Thank you.
spk00: Thank you. music music you
spk17: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to this Northland Power Conference call to discuss the 2022 fourth quarter results. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a question and answer session. At that time, if you have a question, please press star 11 on your telephone. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded Friday, February 24th, 2023 at 10 a.m. Conducting this call for Northland Power are Mike Crawley, President and Chief Executive Officer, Pauline Alamshindani, Chief Financial Officer, and Waseem Khalil, Senior Director of Investor Relations and Strategy. Before we begin, Northland's management has asked me to remind listeners that all figures presented are in Canadian dollars and to caution that certain information presented and responses to questions may contain forward-looking statements that include assumptions and are subject to various risks. Actual results may differ materially from management's expected or forecasted results. Please read the forward-looking statement section in yesterday's news release announcing Northland's power results and be guided by its contents in making investment decisions or recommendations. The release is available at www.northlandpower.com. I will now turn the call over to Mike Crawley. Please go ahead.
spk08: Thank you, Latonya, and good morning to everyone. Thanks for joining us today for our first earnings call of 2023. This morning, we're going to review our financial and operating results for the fourth quarter and full year 2022. Following our prepared remarks, we will take questions from analysts and look forward to addressing those questions. To kick things off, as we always do, I want to reiterate that the health and safety of our employees and our stakeholders always comes first. Our rigorous adherence to our health and safety protocols ensures the safety of our employees while allowing us to maintain a high level of availability at all of our facilities. We continued our strong performance in the fourth quarter and consequently for the full year, delivering solid operating results and financial results in 2022, leading us to exceed the upper end of our guidance ranges for both EBITDA and free cash flow per share. A key driver behind our financial results has been our strong operational performance. Our teams have worked hard this past year to ensure that our facilities are operating at high availability levels, allowing us to capture a strong wind and solar resource, this past year and capitalized on high power prices in Europe. Looking at the headline numbers, we delivered adjusted EBITDA of $353 million in the fourth quarter compared to $364 million at the same time a year ago. On an annual basis, adjusted EBITDA in 2022 stands at just shy of $1.4 billion compared to $1.1 billion in 2021. This result represents a record for Northland, an accomplishment of which we are all very proud. For adjusted free cash flow per share and free cash flow per share, we achieved $0.16 and $0.06 respectively in the quarter, compared to $0.80 and $0.69 in the same period a year ago. While on a full year basis, we had delivered adjusted free cash flow of $1.95 per share and free cash flow per share of $1.61 per share, This compares to $1.77 per share and $1.40 per share respectively in 2021. Pauline will provide a more detailed look into the financial numbers later in the call. Reflecting on our accomplishments in 2022, I'm very proud of the efforts and results that our team delivered to continue to position Northland at the forefront of the global energy transition. The global emphasis on energy security and the need to accelerate the move from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources remains unchanged. A substantial build-out of renewable energy will be needed over the next decade to facilitate these objectives. Over the course of the year, we made strong progress in advancing key development projects. We sourced additional opportunities and positioned ourselves in some of the best markets to capitalize on this growth. Our growth pipeline now sits at nearly 20 gigawatts. and is well diversified across technologies and markets. Having a robust development pipeline gives us optionality in terms of which projects we decide to invest our capital in. And to be clear, it doesn't mean that we will be building all of these projects. In fact, it allows us to be selective in where we deploy our capital. Our presence on the ground in key markets is an important success factor going forward. Energy security, decarbonization policies are driving increased targets for offshore wind and accelerating permitting timelines, particularly in Europe, where we have already established a healthy portfolio. For onshore renewables, we've consciously picked onshore markets where we forecast strong growth for renewables, see good policy support going forward, and where there is a favorable investment climate. Last year, we brought the focus back to our domestic market, Canada, by securing a 1.6 gigawatt solar portfolio and development teams in the province of Alberta. This is a big step forward in the Canadian market for us. Alberta is currently the most prolific market within Canada for renewable development with a robust corporate offtake market. The acquisition as a development pipeline of solar and storage projects of which 220, the 220 megawatt Jurassic project would reach commercial operations as early as 2025. In Ontario, we acquired a majority interest in a 250 megawatt late-stage grid-connected battery storage project in the southern end of the province. The Oneida Energy Storage Project, one of the largest in North America and certainly the largest in Canada. Northland will be the majority owner of the project and will take the lead role in its construction, financing, and operation. The project will benefit from a 20-year fixed-price contract for revenue payments with the ISO, the system operator in Ontario for the majority of the capacity from the project. The remaining capacity will earn market revenues through sales into the wholesale market. Financial close for the project is expected in 2023 with full commercial operations targeted to commence in 2025. Turning to our development activities at Heilong, the project has now executed all of its material contracts with suppliers and commenced early construction works, including starting the fabrication of key components. The financing of the project is progressing, albeit slower and more challenging than expected due to macro and market specific factors. As part of our partnership strategy in December, we announced an agreement with Gentari International Renewables whereby Gentari will acquire 49% of our stake in Heilong. This translates into an effective ownership of 29.4% for Gentari with Northland still retaining 30.6% ownership of the project. Northland will continue to take the lead in the construction and operation of the project in addition We also signed an exclusivity agreement for further potential partnerships with Gentari in Taiwan. Closing of the transaction on this is subject to certain conditions and regulatory approvals. At Baltic Power, we are very pleased how the Polish government responded to some of the market disruptions that have happened in the last year by making certain changes to the CFD, or the revenue contract. The project's 25-year CFD is now denominated in euros instead of the Polish zloty, And inflation indexation has been revised to a base year of 2022 from 2023, helping offset the inflationary price pressures in this past year. In South Korea, we've been awarded electricity business licenses, or EBLs, for nearly 1.3 gigawatts of offshore wind projects, including for Datto Ocean and Bobite. Northland is also pursuing additional early stage development opportunities in the country for multiple projects with up to 1.8 gigawatts of capacity. Lastly, at our La Lucha solar project, we continue to work to achieve commercial operations for the project. In January, we received approval of the extension of the generation permit for La Lucha, and we are now coordinating with appropriate regulatory authorities to initiate testing of the project in order to achieve commercial operations which is expected later this year. All in all, a very active year for Northland, and despite the global uncertainty and macroeconomic pressures, we continue to deliver strong operating and financial results and continue to execute on our strategic plan. With that, I will now turn the call over to Pauline for a more detailed review of our financial results.
spk24: Thank you, Mike, and good morning, everyone. last night northern power released operating and financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2022. our financial performance in the year was solid where we generated results that exceeded our financial guidance supported by strong performance across our operating portfolio our operating assets achieved a high level of availability which provided a good backdrop to capitalize on the stronger wind and solar resource and the higher power prices in europe that benefited our offshore wind facilities. Specific to the fourth quarter, the early completion of the bearing replacement campaign at North Sea One meant that the turbines were fully available to take advantage of the seasonal, stronger winds in the quarter. This helped to deliver fourth quarter results that exceeded management's expectations. Adding all this up, we achieved results that were stronger than a revised guidance. Specifically, we achieved adjusted free cash flow per share that came in at the upper end of the guidance range, while free cash flow per share and adjusted EBITDA both exceeded the upper end of the respective guidance ranges. When comparing to the midpoint of our original financial guidance issued in February of last year, our full year 2022 results were approximately 17%, 24% and 11% higher than guidance for adjusted EBITDA free cash flow and adjusted free cash flow per share, respectively. In fact, we were able to achieve this result even after de-risking our business through approximately $150 million of debt repayments at Gemini in Spain that were announced with our third quarter results but were funded in the fourth quarter. Looking at the specific financial results, we achieved full-year adjusted EBITDA of nearly $1.4 billion, representing an increase of 23% or $260 million compared to $1.1 billion in 2021. The key factors that contributed to the higher adjusted EBITDA year-over-year included higher contributions from our offshore wind portfolio resulting from a combination of higher market prices and a stronger wind resource compared to 2021, higher contributions from our Spain portfolio due to a full year of contributions in 2022 compared to five months in 2021. The Spanish portfolio also benefited from higher regulated posted prices in 2022, helping contribute to the overall increase in contributions from the portfolio and a one-time management fee and other optimizations from the restructuring and upsizing of our Kirkland Lake credit facility. This strength was slightly tempered by a decrease in operating results due to loss and contributions in the expiry of the PPA and subsequent sale of the Iroquois Falls natural gas facility in April of 2022. With respect to our adjusted free cash flow and free cash flow, Northland generated approximately $461 million and $380 million, respectively. This compares to $386 million and $307 million for 2021. The significant factors contributing to the $75 million or 19% increase in year-over-year adjusted free cash flow were an increase in overall contribution across all facilities, resulting from better operating results, an increase in the one-time management fee and other optimizations from Kirkland Lake, as previously discussed, and one-time proceeds from the sale of the Iroquois Falls and Kingston efficient natural gas facilities. These increases were partially offset by higher current taxes as a result of stronger financial results and a decrease in contribution from the Spanish portfolio, primarily due to the one-time principal payment upon the debt restructuring. On a per share basis, these figures translated into adjusted free cash flow of $1.95 and $1.61, respectively, compared to $1.77 and $1.40 respectively for 2021. These results generated a rolling four-quarter adjusted free cash flow and free cash flow net payout ratios of 43% and 52% respectively, calculated on the basis of cash dividends paid, compared to 45% and 56% for the same period ending December 31 of 2021. With respect to our balance sheet, Northline retains ample liquidity to fund our current projects. As of December 31st, we had access to approximately $1 billion of cash and liquidity, comprising $600 million of liquidity available on a revolving facility and $500 million of corporate cash on hand to help us pursue our growth initiative. We continue to prudently manage our balance sheet, taking proactive actions to further enhance our cash flow, bolster our corporate liquidity, and ensure Northland remains in a good position to fund its growth needs. Part of these actions include utilization of multiple sources of liquidity to fund growth and capital investments, including proceeds from our ATM program. We also continue to utilize project refinancing as a tool to optimize the debt profiles, enhance future cash flows, and generate additional liquidity to fund our growth. With higher cash flows in 2023 across our portfolio, we were able to proactively deleverage some of our assets to de-risk the long-term cash flow profile while also enhancing the economic return of the projects through favorable refinancing terms. In total, we refinanced over $3 billion Canadian dollars of project debt in 2022 and generated nearly $80 million of additional liquidity in the year. As outlined at our investor day on February 3rd, we have an estimated $2.2 billion of equity capital deployment towards projects targeted for financial close this year. Of the $2.2 billion requirement, is expected to fund Heilong, Baltic Power, and our newly announced Oneida battery storage project in Ontario. Of this, approximately $1.7 billion has already been sourced and or announced through proceeds from the ATM program and the future expected proceeds from the Heilong partnership sale, which is not yet closed. The remaining $500 million is expected to be funded through additional possible sell-down proceeds hybrid bonds, liquidity on hand, potential ATM issuances, and asset refinancings. We believe there is ample redundancy in sources available to us to fund our remaining equity requirements for 2023. Turning to our 2023 financial guidance as previously disclosed, for adjusted EBITDA, we expect to generate between $1.2 and $1.3 billion this year. Guided for 2023 free cash flow per share, we expect the range to be $1.30 to $1.50, while for adjusted free cash flow, we expect to generate $1.70 to $1.90 per share. As a growth company with a significant pipeline of development projects, Northland is committed to unlocking value by deploying early-stage investment capital, or DEVX, to advance our projects. As such, in 2023, we expect to deploy development expenditures of approximately $100 million, around 40 cents per share, to fund expenditures to advance secured projects. This would include expenditures on our Scotland offshore wind project, North Sea 3 and Delta projects in Germany, the Korean projects, the recently acquired Alberta solar portfolio, and Oneida, in addition to other Canadian and U.S. opportunities. In conclusion, we delivered strong results in the quarter and for the year, which surpassed the upper end of the guidance ranges for adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow. We also achieved a record level of adjusted EBITDA. We are proud of the accomplishments we have achieved together as a team over the past year, and we are gearing up ourselves to continue to deliver on our stated objectives in 2023. I will now turn the call back over to Mike for his concluding remarks.
spk08: Thank you, Pauline. As Pauline mentioned, we had a very good quarter and a great year in 2022. We look forward to another strong year in 2023, and with projects nearing key milestones, we are very excited about the continued growth of Northland. This concludes our prepared remarks. We'd now be happy to take your questions. Letonia, please open the line for any questions.
spk17: Certainly. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to register for a question, please press star 1-1 on your telephone. If your question has been answered and you would like to withdraw yourself from the queue, please press star 1-1 again. If you are using a speakerphone, please lift your handset before answering your request. One moment for our first question. And our first question comes from Sean Stewart of TD Securities. Your line is open.
spk09: Thank you. Good morning.
spk10: Question for Pauline to start. You stayed active on the ATM in the fourth quarter. Can you speak to your comfort continuing to use that facility as the share prices come under even more pressure since the investor day? Is that still, from your perspective, a value accretive tool to use right now?
spk24: So we have sort of multiple sources of capital available to us. I would say that the ATM usage should be viewed as a long-term tool in the sense of opportunistically being used over the next couple of years to fund the projects that financial close. And that will mean we are active on it at points of times where it's opportunistic and not active on it when at points of time where it's not opportunistic and we have other sources of capital available to us. Right now our priorities at the start of the year is to enable ourselves to issue corporate hybrid bonds and we are currently working on that as a source of capital in addition to looking at other refinancing opportunities and looking to soon close on another type of corporate financing that can help us sort of fund the remaining equity requirements this year. And in addition to that, as you know, we've also commenced a couple of sell-down proceeds as well. So, I mean, all of it in total, I think, is more than ample to fund what's left for this year. And, you know, I don't want to comment on sort of the near-term usage of the ATM program, but certainly over the long term, we intend to stay active on it.
spk10: Okay. And with respect to the hybrid, can you speak to the cost of that debt as you see it right now?
spk24: Not yet. I think it's still early. We're still sort of figuring out pricing and terms. But, yeah, I mean, as you know, we repaid the preps at the end of the year. It's no longer a product that I think made sense to us from a cost perspective and an ongoing piece of our capital structure going forward. I think corporate hybrids are a more cost-effective tool for us. Also, the sort of rating agencies are sort of supportive of the product. So it will be the tool in our capital structure going forward, and we think it'll be better than press, but we're still working through the terms of the paper that we plan to issue.
spk08: Okay. The two key points, Sean, are that we're, number one, continuing to look to get ahead of our funding needs and stay well ahead of our funding needs, and second, create optionality and use the best tool, the best instrument, given what market conditions are at any given time.
spk10: Got it. Thanks, Mike. And one other question, Mike, just with respect to the delays at Heilong with respect to arranging project level debt there, how much of that is specific to Taiwan overall? And are you anticipating or seeing any friction for Baltic power on that front?
spk08: I think, no, I would say most of it is more focused on Taiwan, and it's specifically related to one other project. There's several offshore wind projects that have been project financed in Taiwan. There's one that has experienced some significant delays, and on that one project, there's some overlap in lenders, so we've had to spend more time with those lenders explaining our project schedule, our project plans, execution plan in more detail than we typically would have. So it's really more specific to that that's causing us to spend more time on Q&As than we probably would have expected to. On the Baltic Power project finance, it is moving forward well, and there's no delay in the project financing.
spk10: Okay. That's all I have for now. Thanks very much.
spk17: One moment for our next question. And our next question comes from David Quasada of Raymond James. Your line is open.
spk03: Yeah, thanks. Morning, everyone. Mike, just going back to your comments about, you know, being selective with your pipeline and, you know, you've obviously seen the pipeline grow quite significantly. Is there any color you can provide on just, you know, how your decision-making process might change, you know, just with respect to, I guess, having more options? Can you bid in some cases more conservatively And maybe just some commentary on how your organizational realignment might support that.
spk08: So, David, your first point is a good one. Having more options does allow you to bid into auctions for energy contracts or negotiate energy contracts bilaterally in a more... more prudent way, right? You don't have to win every auction, which I think is a position that you want to be in. Moreover, you also don't have to build every project. And in some cases, if you look at a project and that project has, for whatever reason, more value to another owner because of the circumstances that that owner at that given time finds himself in, that may be the better option for us. And so it really is all about looking at the capital that we have, which is Pauline's mentioned currently is ample, and we continue to make sure that we get ahead of our funding needs, but deploying that capital in the opportunities that offer the best returns.
spk03: Okay, great. Thanks for that. And maybe just one more for me. As you've got a fair amount of activity on the offshore wind construction front coming, I guess, towards the middle or latter part of the decade, I'm wondering if you could touch on vessel availability, specifically for offshore wind turbines. How do you see that evolving over time as, you know, activity in offshore wind ramps up? And do you have any kind of like longer-term solutions you could put in place to secure access to those vessels as needed?
spk08: Good question, David. I mean, I think when you look at the constraints in renewables and particularly in offshore wind, but one of the biggest concerns constraints or concerns for us is vessel availability. So all of our project teams certainly are working hard to make sure we get ahead of that and secure vessels earlier than we would have otherwise. We don't have anything to say on more creative or longer-term solutions than that, but that certainly is something that our project teams are very, very focused on getting ahead of.
spk06: And David, I do think over time,
spk08: The market signals will lead to more vessels being constructed and more options in the market, but there's a lag, right?
spk04: That's great, caller. Thanks, Mike. I'll turn it over.
spk17: Certainly. One moment for our next question. And our next question comes from Nelson Ng of RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open.
spk14: Great. Thanks. Good morning, everyone. So quick one for Pauline. You've mentioned that you redeemed the or at least one tranche of the prefs, and I think you have two tranches left. Can you just give a bit more color as to why you're redeeming those prefs? Is it mainly for tax reasons?
spk24: No, I think that, you know, crafts are really no longer sort of a widely used sort of tool. And I think it was probably a couple years ago, the investor day, we discussed sort of corporate hybrids for the first time as sort of the long-term product to have in our capital structure. And, you know, when we looked at the rate reset and then the cost of that product as well against, you know, what we can now do, I think, going forward with the balance sheet and opportunities and, you know, what's available to us now, I think we can do better.
spk14: Okay, great. Thanks. And you would expect to get some equity credit on the hybrid debt, right?
spk22: That's correct, yes. That's correct.
spk14: Okay, got it. And then just moving to my next question, in terms of the high-bridge wind development in New York, can you guys give a bit more color on why you sold that project? I understand that the project wasn't very economic to start off with, but any more color would be great.
spk08: So the project was one year behind the two other wind projects that we have in New York, so it would have been – impacted by some of the cost inflation uh which the two other projects got ahead of so so that that that was one factor but the other factor also was that the there's a another buyer that had an additional revenue stream uh that uh that was not available to us and so that made for in my view a good transaction for both of us okay that's great and then just one last question um
spk14: I think the MD&A indicated that you guys used $38 million of cash for the Oneida battery storage project and the Alberta solar portfolio. Is this just the first milestone payment, and then the rest will probably take place when those projects eventually hit financial close? Is that how the payment's structured?
spk08: A bit different with each, but on the former... On the Alberta, there are future milestone payments. And on, I don't believe there are. Yeah, so we don't usually get into the details of the payment terms. Okay.
spk24: But then on the battery storage project, it would just be the financial close, you know, funding construction.
spk17: Right, right. Okay, thanks. One moment for our next questions. Our next question comes from Rupert Murr of National Bank. Your line's open.
spk25: Hi, good morning, everyone. Coming back to Highbridge, was this one of the two sell-downs that you talked about doing this year, or are there a couple more to come?
spk24: No, this is a full divestiture, so sell-downs relate to when we speak at speak to the nomenclature, it really is partial sell-down interest versus this is an outright divestiture.
spk25: Okay, great. And, you know, the asset or the location doesn't seem to be non-core. Should we be reading anything into this? Is this an indication that maybe your other projects in New York could be candidates for sell-downs or sell-offs?
spk08: No, you shouldn't read anything more into this than the fact that the As I said, the project was a year later, and it always was scheduled to be built a year later, so it did get impacted by higher capital costs, as we've seen inflation in equipment prices in the supply chain for renewables over the last year, as you know, across the board. So that impacted the project. But as importantly... There was a couple of other buyers that had access to certain transmission rights that gave them access to an additional revenue stream that we didn't have access to. So it's basically putting the development asset in the hands of the owner that can extract the most value from it, and then both parties share, the vendor and the purchaser, share in that benefit. That really is all it is.
spk25: Great, thank you. And then secondly, La Lucha. So you have some testing left to do there. Is that scheduled yet? Do you have an idea of when you might be able to turn it on?
spk08: So all of the scheduling and the work is going on right now with the regulator and the transmission operator in Mexico. It is moving at pace or even a bit quicker than we had anticipated. The generation license, the extension, was issued about two weeks ago, I think. So it's moved very quickly since meetings that we had in Mexico City in the second week of January. So it's moving quite quickly, and we're getting very good cooperation from all of the Mexican authorities. So I can't give you an exact date on when it will be connected, but things are moving well.
spk25: As the finish line approaches here, I imagine you're keeping an eye on the market for pricing or contracting. Can you give us an update on that? How does the market look today? What would be your strategy on pricing?
spk08: Well, what's interesting in Mexico is that there hasn't been a lot of additional renewable energy capacity built out over the last couple of years beyond a couple of large projects that the CFE did, but there hasn't been any IPP is building out a lot of capacity simply because of the uncertainty in the market the last two years in Mexico. At the same time, industrial investment in manufacturing capacity in Mexico has continued moving forward, so there's a lot of multinationals still in Mexico and that are continuing to invest in Mexico that are looking for renewable energy capacity to meet their net zero in their ESG targets. So, yeah, we think the La Lucha asset's in a fairly good position as far as there's not a lot of non-contracted renewable energy facilities in Mexico that are available to industrial off-takers in the And energy prices are reasonably robust as well in Mexico relative to where they would have been a couple of years ago. So all of that we're just working through to see what the revised economics are going to be on that asset, but that's kind of where we're at.
spk25: Okay, thanks for that. I'll leave it there.
spk17: One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Mark Jari of CIVC. Your line's open.
spk26: Thanks. Good morning, everyone. First question is just on High Long. Last year, you signed the corporate BPA. You struck the deal with Gentari to help support economics of that project and offset some higher capex. Are there any other levers you can pull to improve the return profile? Could you actually increase the size of the cell then to Gentari or some other partner? I'm just curious if there's other ways to
spk08: We wouldn't do that for a number of reasons, including regulatory, so we wouldn't be increasing the sell-down further than what we've done already. We're now down to just slightly over 30% in the overall project, so it's a substantial reduction from our original 60% position in that project. We continue to look at ways to optimize the project and we'll continue to do so up until financial close. I'm going to be out there in two weeks' time as well with our head of development looking at a series of meetings. So we continue to look to ways to optimize that project further.
spk26: Is it in terms of just the layout of the project? Is it still in terms of cost inputs? I don't know if you can share anything, Mike, in terms of how you can further optimize the project at this stage.
spk08: I wouldn't give any details at this point, and we'll share them if we're able to secure more optimizations.
spk26: Okay. And then at the Investor Day a few weeks ago, you indicated that Baltic Power is not something you consider selling down. You really like the attractive returns and cash flows. But if the share price languished and the ATM is less attractive over the course of this year or next year, would you reconsider doing a process maybe even on the other side of financial close?
spk24: So I think our views on Baltic Power today are still the same as at Investor Day, but I think we are looking at any or all opportunities in our portfolio for sell-downs of development assets and or, yeah, opportunities where we see ability to recycle. Just Baltic Power is not one of them, but there are others.
spk26: And just Pauline, to pick up on that comment In terms of timing of sell-downs, is there any change? Is it still like the optimal time is around financial close? Are you seeing opportunities to do it sooner on certain projects?
spk24: I think we're looking at opportunities that are sooner than that.
spk26: Okay.
spk24: Earlier on, yes.
spk16: One moment for our next question.
spk17: Our next question comes from Andrew Kuska of Credit Squeeze. Credit Squeeze, your line's open.
spk27: Thanks. Good morning. I guess it's a broad question for Mike. And there's a bunch of initiatives across Europe, and it varies a little bit by country by country, to really accelerate permitting for renewables. If you could maybe just give us a context of what you think is improving and that can actually maybe accelerate growth for you and maybe some of the challenges that you see ahead.
spk08: I think in the certainly in the medium to long term there's a lot of opportunities in Europe as they put in place policies that are going to drive a long-term conversion away from Russian gas and also accelerate overall their decarbonization climate objectives right so I think all of that is good, and it's getting much more serious and much more deliberate now than it would have been a year, year and a half ago. On the efforts to accelerate permitting, in some cases, I think it will help us. We'll see. I mean, we're at an early stage of looking at hybridization or adding some solar to our wind assets in Spain, for example, where some permitting would be required. So that we'd look forward to, and that's a market where it you know, had generally been seen as a slower market to permit in, so that would be welcome and would help on that initiative. On offshore wind and other large-scale projects, the biggest constraint now is not necessarily permitting, and this is, I think it was David's question, I'm not sure whose question it was earlier in the call, it's supply chain. So, I mean, I'd like to kind of talk very optimistically about all of the great things that are going in Europe, and there are. But the most important thing now is to see more investments in the supply chain, particularly in offshore wind, and that's what's going to unleash and accelerate more offshore wind investments and make those investments also going forward more attractive on new projects as well.
spk27: Okay, I appreciate that, Keller. And then I guess maybe just indirectly on supply chains, But it's a key part of the puzzle is just on the shipping side, some of the South Korean shipyards. I guess, what are your thoughts about South Korea? You've obviously been exposed to the market on a very preliminary basis. BP entered the market, I guess, a week or two ago with the JV. If you could just maybe give us some insights and thoughts on how you see that market developing, what timeframe, are things going to move faster now? And does that indirectly help with the supply chain, just given the shipbuilding yards there?
spk08: It's a good question. So South Korea is a really interesting offshore wind market for a number of reasons, including those that you just gave. So there's a lot more attention being paid to South Korea, including that announcement from BP. We're seeing a bit of a shift from Japan to South Korea from a lot of developers and from the supply chain as well. So we've been active there for several years. We've got a very strong team on the ground, a development team, that's been securing these electricity business licenses, site exclusivity, on projects around Korea. So it's a market that we're very interested in. There's three different avenues to offtake currently in South Korea. There's three different, I guess, processes. which I won't go into now. So that's good to have optionality in terms of how you source your revenue contract. The piece around South Korea is it is still a relatively new market for offshore wind. These are large projects that we have, that others have. There's a lot of demand for energy and renewable energy in South Korea, for sure. But these projects are complex, too. So our next stage is really to get under the hood from a design and an early stage feed standpoint on these projects and also really drill down on the offtake and really prove out the viability of these projects. But we're in a good position with this many sites secured, particularly when others are now just trying to get into the market.
spk23: Okay. That's great. Thank you.
spk08: One moment. And in terms of – sorry, one last thing, though, Andrew. In terms of supply chain, it – As I said, it is a constraint globally, but one of the advantages of South Korea is a lot of the shipyards and fabrication yards that they have. For example, we're sourcing our jackets and cables for part of our Taiwan project from South Korea. It's one of those markets where when you look at localization, it actually is an advantage, whereas mostly when you hear localization for projects, you think, oh, this is going to add costs. In South Korea, it actually, in my view, is an advantage for that market.
spk16: One moment for our next question.
spk17: Our next question comes from Najee Badown of IA Capital Markets. Your line is open.
spk02: Hi, good morning. I just wanted to start off in Japan. I think there's an auction slated for, you know, early this year or mid 2023. Just given sort of where your projects are in that market, is it too soon for you to participate? And how do you see sort of the changes of the auction guidelines versus maybe what happened last time around playing out?
spk08: We're glad that the Japanese authorities are revising the auction rules. We didn't like how the last auction played out and had concerns. I think we're still reviewing the rules around future rounds in Japan and coming to a decision whether or not we will be participating in them.
spk02: Okay, so a bit too early, but there is a chance that you end up deciding to participate in the auctions this year?
spk08: We haven't decided one way or another.
spk02: Okay, got it. And just on North Sea, on the North Sea cluster, if you could just give us any updates on contracting there, how advanced are the negotiations today for the cluster A? And then with that, is there a view to maybe including North Sea 1 as a re-contracting with either clusters when you're looking to contract those?
spk08: Yeah, so I don't know much to add from Investor Day on the North Sea cluster or North Sea A, the first half of the cluster. As I said then, the procurement process is coming towards a conclusion, so we're moving towards selecting preferred suppliers across the supply chain from North Sea A, the first half. The costs are coming in above what our original investment case were, for sure, given the cost inflation over the last year. So for us, the intent was always to enter into a corporate offtake or utility offtake for those projects. And the point we're working through now is just to see whether the increase in energy prices, which there also has been in clearing price for corporate offtake, gets us back to the same economics with the higher capital costs. So that's what we'd be working through right now on it. On North Sea 1, the timing does overlap with North Sea clusters, so there may be an opportunity to blend the two together, but we're not yet at that stage.
spk30: Okay, thank you for the updates.
spk18: One moment for our next question.
spk17: Our next question comes from Brett Castelli of Morningstar. Your line is open, Brett.
spk13: Yeah, hi. Thank you. Just a question on future offshore wind offtake. Curious, Mike, if you see the potential for, let's just call it like a re-opener at all in terms of future offtake there and maybe some sharing between the offtake side and the development side, you know, given the trends we've seen here recently?
spk08: So, I mean, I guess in a way there's kind of two offtake markets for offshore wind. There's sovereign-backed PPAs or CFDs that are run through centralized auctions, and that's something like Scott Wind we'd be expecting to bid into that kind of a process. And then there's corporate offtake, which is what we're looking at for the North Sea cluster, one of the options for our South Korean projects down the road. So the... I think on centralized kind of sovereign options for offshore wind, those options I think will see prices reflect, bids reflect what current capital costs are, which may moderate over time as more capacity comes available within the offshore wind supply chain. On corporate offtake, certainly there's more liquidity in the market than there was two years ago, more buyers looking to contract and buyers looking to contract for longer tenor than there was a year and a half or two years ago. Uh, and we're seeing those, uh, corporate offtake clearing at higher prices. Um, but as I said, I mean, it just, uh, uh, it is a bit of a supply demand situation and, uh, And we'll see if kind of at what point the things normalize where the corporate offtake offsets for the higher capital costs, which we're just in a kind of period of discovery right now in Europe on.
spk13: Got it. And then just curious on sort of public versus private market valuations. We've obviously seen the public markets valuations come off a little bit. Curious what you're seeing on the private side. Would you say that there's maybe a widening gap in terms of private market valuations for renewable assets holding up a bit better?
spk08: So all I know is what we've seen in the processes that we've ran and that we're involved in, and we've seen valuations generally hold steady so far. So that's all I can give you a comment on. So yeah, I'll leave it at that. Okay.
spk16: Thanks, Mike.
spk18: One moment for our next question.
spk17: And our next question comes from Nicholas Boyashuk of Cormark Securities. Your line is open.
spk07: Thanks. Good morning. Coming back to the potential for us at cell bounds, I'm curious with the efficient natural gas facilities continuing to perform really well at nearly 900 gigawatt hours of production this quarter, Are you guys getting any inbound interest to buy these at attractive terms? Would you maybe like to dispose of these a little bit earlier than initially anticipated?
spk08: I don't think there's any change in our position on those assets. There's no change in our position on those assets. So as you point out, they generate important cash flow for Northland, but they're also an important part of the electricity mix in Ontario and Saskatchewan, two markets that are rely on those assets and other gas-fired assets for capacity right now. So what you're seeing in Ontario is a big push to get additional capacity going forward, given the growth in the economy and the electrification that's forecast to happen going forward. So that's in part how the contract and how the United Battery Project has moved forward. But it also means that the province still is very reliant on the capacity that they get from gas-fired assets as well. So the value of those assets to the system is as great as ever, if not greater right now. And whether we, in the long run, are the owners of those assets to be determined, but in the near term, certainly, I think that the system operators are relying on us, looking to us to maintain those assets at a high degree of availability. And in some cases, maybe looking to us to see if we can optimize the contribution of those assets to the system as well.
spk07: Got it. Makes sense. And then in Colombia, I'm just curious if the operating environment there has changed at all. Is anything related to sort of valuations, cost of capital, if it's maybe more attractive for you to potentially to acquire other assets that could feed into EBSA, any color about the Colombian market?
spk08: Yeah. Columbia market, so there is a fair degree of solar and wind power development going on by junior developers there. There's interest in multinationals and contracting directly for renewables. There's not a lot of volume available to contract, so there may be opportunities there going forward. The utilities in Columbia have a certain obligation to contract for renewables as well. So that all is, I think, creates an interesting market going forward. Yeah, there's a – and just leave it at that.
spk05: Okay, that's fair. Thanks, Mike.
spk17: Thank you. Mr. Crawley, there are no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the call back to you.
spk08: Okay, thanks everybody for joining us today. We're going to hold our next call following the release of our first quarter 2023 results in May. So in the meantime, we want to thank you for your continued confidence and support. Take care.
spk17: Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude the conference call for today. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.
Disclaimer