Roderick West
Analyst · CIBC Capital Markets
Thanks, Brian, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. Our second quarter 2026 has been another step forward for Algonquin on our path to premier. As I stated consistently since I've arrived, a premier, pure-play, regulated utility earns its standing through consistent execution, a constructive regulatory compact and disciplined financial and operational management. These attributes aim to position the company to deliver long-term sustainable value to shareholders, customers and communities we serve and our employees. As we will discuss in a moment, this quarter's results reflect all of those, build on the measurable progress we've made since last year and keep us on track to meet our adjusted net earnings per share forecast for 2026 and 2027. In short, we are once again advancing toward our goal of becoming a premier pure-play regulated utility. Taking measure of our strategic priorities for the year, I'm pleased with the progress we've made in the second quarter. On the regulatory side, we are pleased to achieve progress on or conclusions to several of our rate cases. The Missouri Public Service Commission determined on July 15 that we had satisfied customer service and billing performance metrics required for implementation of the previously approved Empire Electric Missouri settlement. I want to recognize the extensive and professional effort that commission staff and our employees displayed to reach this outcome and for the tremendous patience exhibited by our customers and shareholders as we underwent this process. Additionally, we received a proposed decision for our California WEMA proceeding, an order approving a settlement for Empire Electric Kansas, a final order for our California water utilities and new rate case filings at New York Water, Empire Electric Arkansas, EnergyNorth Gas and 2 water utilities in Arizona. We continue to await an order on our Arizona Litchfield Park Water & Sewer rate case and continue to work towards completing new filings at Granite State Electric, Empire Electric Oklahoma and the Missouri large load tariff before year's end. Moreover, we filed a case with FERC requesting conversion for our electric transmission projects to a projected test year versus a historic test year, including CWIP into rate base under a transmission formula rate. This rate request, though small, could set the foundation for regulatory treatment of our SPP transmission line project over the next few years. And one additional update. In the second quarter, we captured approval from the Department of Energy for the reimbursement of $5 million of expenses related to an AMI grant in California that was reinstated earlier this year. In summary, I'm pleased to see in the second quarter that we've made continued progress on this year's priority list. I do want to take a moment on Slide 6 to address our announcement regarding the intended redomicile of Algonquin to the United States. At a high level, we see this as an important strategic step for the company and one that we expect will create meaningful benefits for shareholders over time. Today, over 80% of our operations are located in the United States with less than 5% in Canada. Redomiciling to the U.S. would better align our corporate structure with our assets and where we expect to grow. As we've discussed before, it would also support our efforts to reduce cross-border tax inefficiencies. We've described them as tax friction. And over time, we believe it would strengthen our financial profile, broaden our access to capital and create a path to inclusion in certain U.S. equity indices and funds. From a structural standpoint, we expect to complete the redomicile to Delaware through a court-approved plan of arrangement under the Canada Business Corporations Act. We expect to establish our headquarters in Chicago, where our senior executive leadership team would be based while maintaining our significant presence in Oakville, Ontario. I want to emphasize that this does not change how we operate our utilities, serve our customers or satisfy our regulatory obligations. In terms of timing, we expect to seek shareholder approval in the first half of 2027 and to complete the redomicile following the receipt of the required shareholder and regulatory approvals and satisfaction of customary conditions. Overall, we believe this positions us to more effectively execute on our strategic priorities and enhance long-term shareholder value. Turning to Slide 7 and 8, focusing a bit more on our regulatory strategy. We continue to prioritize earlier dialogue with stakeholders to identify areas of common ground as well as advancing more pragmatic filings. We expect this to deliver fair regulatory outcomes that allow us the opportunity to capture both recovery of reasonable costs and returns on our investments for the benefit of our customers. I'm pleased to note that in aggregate, this is playing out in a balanced manner. In Missouri, the commission's July 15 order approved implementation of $97 million in annualized revenue adjustments effective on August 3. We continue to make regulatory progress in Kansas, where the Corporation Commission approved our settlement agreement for an $8.8 million revenue adjustment and a provision for 50% of wind revenues for year 1. The settlement included a black box stipulation for authorized equity ratios and ROE. Out west in California, the Public Utilities Commission issued a constructive proposed decision in our WEMA proceeding, which authorizes a $58.1 million recovery in wildfire costs or approximately 75% of our requested recovery. Consistent with standard practices of how other California utility peers have accounted for WEMA and similar proceeding outcomes, we excluded the impact of the final outcome from our adjusted net earnings per share results. Also, in California, we received an order approving an alternate proposed decision for our Apple Valley and Park Water utility cases. For those utilities, the commission approved a combined revenue reduction of $2.7 million and a retroactive true-up to July 2025, totaling $3.1 million for that revenue reduction. In Arizona, our settlement agreement and a final decision regarding formula rate plans remains pending at Litchfield Park Water & Sewer. The ALJ issued a recommended opinion and order, and we've asked the commission for a final decision this month. For new rate cases, New York Water filed its rate case requesting a $38.1 million revenue adjustment based on a 10% return on equity and a 48% equity ratio for a proposed rate year starting May of next year. Empire Electric Arkansas filed its rate case requesting $8.4 million based on a 10% ROE and a 53.4% cap structure with the proposed implementation date of spring of next year. EnergyNorth also recently filed its rate case with a $35.8 million rate request based on a 10.25% ROE with a 52% cap structure, and we expect to have permanent rates implemented in the summer of next year. Turning ahead to Slide 9. I'll add a few comments regarding our evolving regulatory and legislative landscape. On the operations front, on June 17, we received our Certificate of Convenience and Necessity, or the CCN, from the Missouri Public Service Commission. This milestone achievement is for one of our most significant capital projects where we're deploying 250 megawatts of new gas-fired generation to meet customer demand and Southwest Power Pool requirements. This will be the first gas-fired generation project for us under Missouri Senate Bill 4, where we will take advantage of the construction work in progress, or CWIP, regulatory recovery mechanism. In aggregate, the point of these updates, and I recognize that there are many, we continue to make overall progress on rate cases across multiple jurisdictions in a more deliberate and intentional manner. With that, I'll turn it over to Rob to walk through our financial update for the quarter.