Alliant Energy Corporation — 2024 Q1
Transcript
Each turn shows the speaker, their inferred role, the section, and that turn's net sentiment (×1000).
Welcome to Alliant Energy's First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. Today's conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to your host, Susan Gille, Investor Relations Manager at Alliant Energy. Please go ahead.
Good morning. I would like to thank all of you on the call and the webcast for joining us today. We appreciate your participation. With me here today are John Larsen, Executive Chairman; Lisa Barton, President and CEO and Robert Durian, Executive Vice President and CFO. Following prepared remarks by John, Lisa and Robert, we will have time to take questions from the investment community.
Thank you, Sue. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. We are excited to share some key milestones and provide updates on several areas of the business today. 2024 is off to a solid start, and we remain committed to achieving our strategic objectives while continuing our long track record of solid operational and financial execution.
Thank you, John, and good morning, everyone. As John stated, we had a solid start to the year, and we are well positioned to achieve our 2024 earnings and growth objectives. Warmer-than-normal temperatures impacted our first quarter earnings, reflecting similar temperatures experienced in the broader region.
Thanks, Lisa. Good morning, everyone. Yesterday, we announced first quarter 2024 earnings of $0.62 per share compared to first quarter 2023 earnings of $0.65 per share. The quarter-over-quarter variances were mainly driven by the successful execution of WPL's customer-focused capital investment program, which supported new electric and gas rates that took effect on January 1, and the higher financing and depreciation expenses associated with such capital investments.
[Operator Instructions]. We will take our first question from Andrew Weisel with Scotiabank.
Good morning. First, a question on economic development efforts. A lot of good details there. Thank you for the info. I know you have 16 big sites and the new legislation in Wisconsin weighs sales and use tax for data centers and all the other attractive features.
Great question, and thank you for it. We are open for all types of economic development opportunities in our territory. We have had a fair amount of success with respect to biofuels, great biofuel companies have located in our service territory, particularly in Iowa as well as manufacturing. Data centers are also potential customers for us as we look towards the future.
Okay. Great. And timing?
So we're in the process this year in both Wisconsin and in Iowa of reviewing our Clean Energy Blueprint. So that's something that we are currently in the process of and we'll have any updates with respect to our capital forecast at the end of the third quarter.
Okay. Great. Next, I want to ask about the agreement you've entered to sell the tax credit. Can you quantify that? You mentioned you'll generate around $400 million this year. Are you fully committed for about $400 million this year and next?
Yes. Great question. This is Robert. So yes, just to give you a sense of where we've been with tax credit transfers, we really see this as a great opportunity to both lower customer costs because we'll be reducing the carrying cost for our tax credit carryforwards. It also provides a lot of cash flows, as you indicated, which helps reduce some of the external financing requirements as well as improve our FFO to debt metrics.
Very good. One more, if I can squeeze it in. Any update on the timing for approvals for your proposed energy dome? I think you're waiting to hear about a DOE grant, but with Columbia slated to retire in mid-2026, how does that timing look?
Yes, I would expect that sometime later this year. We do have to file for regulatory approval in the State of Wisconsin for that through the PSCW. And so Normally, that will take up to a year to get completed. And so expect the filings to be made later this year and then hopefully, we'll learn by early 2025, the completion of that.
Great. A lot of good things to look forward to in the coming months. Thank you very much.
[Operator Instructions]. We will take our next question from Paul Fremont with Ladenburg.
Thank you very much. In the -- in the advanced ratemaking proceeding, I think you reached a partial settlement in Iowa. If you were to settle, would you expect a settlement to be a partial settlement or unanimous settlement?
Good morning, Paul. Good to have you here today. So with respect to -- if we were to have a settlement on the rate review in Iowa, we would expect that to be a total settlement rather than a partial settlement. But currently, the time to watch is mid-May to mid-June. That's the settlement window opportunity.
Great. And then my other question is you mentioned that there's no required IRP in Iowa. Was there testimony at some point earlier this year before the commission, where I think parties may have recommended that Iowa implement an IRP process? And maybe if you could tell us where that stands.
Good memory, Paul. Yes, it was actually part of some legislation that was circulated and that did not go forward. Iowa recognizes the need for the utilities in Iowa to be flexible with respect to the generation. And in fact, we saw the advanced ratemaking and expansion to batteries and to nuclear investments on a going-forward basis.
Miss Gille, there are no further questions at this time.
With no more questions, this concludes our call. A replay will be available on our investor website. We thank you for your continued support of Alliant Energy and feel free to contact me with any follow-up questions.
This does conclude today's program. Thank you for your participation.