Welcome to the Alliant Energy's calendar year 2013 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the call over to your host, Susan Gille, Manager of Investor Relations at Alliant Energy.

Good morning. I would like to thank all of you on the call and on the webcast for joining us today. We appreciate your participation. With me here today are Pat Kampling, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer; Tom Hanson, Senior Vice President and CFO; and Robert Durian, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer, as well as other members of the senior management team. Following prepared remarks by Pat and Tom, we will have time to take questions from the investment community. We issued a news release this morning announcing Alliant Energy's fourth quarter and calendar year 2013 earnings, affirming 2014 earnings guidance and updating 2014 through 2017 capital expenditure guidance. This release, as well as supplemental slides that will be referenced during today's call, are available on the Investor page of our website at www.alliantenergy.com. Before we begin, I need to remind you that the remarks we make on this call and our answers to your questions include forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks that could cause actual results to be materially different. Those risks include, among others, matters discussed in Alliant Energy's press release issued this morning and in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We disclaim any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. In addition, this presentation contains non-GAAP financial measures. The reconciliation between the non-GAAP and GAAP measures are provided in the supplemental slides which are available on our website at www.alliantenergy.com. At this point, I'll turn the call over to Pat.

Thanks Sue. Good morning and thank you for joining us today. I am pleased to report that for 2013, we were successful in managing our company in accordance with our operating plan. Our large construction projects continue to be on time and at or below budget. We remain focused on our mission to deliver energy safely and reliably, while maintaining constructive regulatory frameworks and competitive rates for customers. I am extremely grateful to the men and women that made sure our operations met customer needs during the hot summer and unusually cold winter, and most importantly they worked safely and looked out for one another. From 2010 to 2013 we delivered approximately 6% annualized earning growth based on our non-GAAP weather normalized earnings. Our 2014 earnings guidance continues to meet our five-year annualized growth objective of 5% to 7%, starting from 2013's non-GAAP weather-normalized earnings of $3.14. Please keep in mind that the projected increase in this year's guidance included no change in customer's base rates, since the expiring fixed capacity payments at both utilities will offset rate impacts from rate base additions. Slide 2 provides the comparison to our historic non-GAAP weather-normalized earnings and the 2014 earnings guidance midpoint. This year WPL is in the last year of its base rate freeze. As we review our forecast, we expect minimal impact to customer base rates for the 2015, 2016 test year case, as we believe we may be able to offset the modest revenue requirement increase by utilizing the remaining balance in the energy conservation regulatory liability. We have already begun conversations with commission staff and will engage other parties, just as we did in the 2013, 2014 test year. If an agreement can be reached, WPL will expect to file an abbreviated request for commission approval in the…

Thank you, Pat. Good morning, everyone. We announced 2013 yearend earnings this morning, with our GAAP earnings from continuing operations of $3.29 per share. Our two non-GAAP earnings adjustments in 2013 related to the preferred stock redemptions at IPL and WPL in early 2013, and the December 2013 Minnesota Public Utility Commission order allowing for the recovery of IPL's Whispering Willow - East wind project, which was higher than we initially estimated in 2011. Comparisons between 2012 and 2013 earnings per share are detailed on Slides 3, 4 and 5. 2013 earnings were higher than 2012, primarily due to lower Riverside Energy Center purchased power capacity costs, higher tax benefits related to IPL's revenue requirement adjustment, increased weather-normalized electric and gas sales, and lower energy conservation expenses. These positive EPS drivers were partially offset by higher depreciation and transmission expense, and higher generation and distribution O&M expenses. Higher than expected weather-normalized retail sales, and the IPL tax benefits, enabled us to increase generation and distribution O&M expenses in 2013 to further enhance the reliability of our system. We experienced weather-normalized sales growth in 2013. Retail sales trends between 2012 and 2013 are illustrated on Slide 6. For the first time in three years, weather-normalized residential retail sales grew. In addition, several industrial customers expanded their operations, which increased weather-normalized sales at both IPL and WPL. The agriculture and food processing-related segment provided the most growth in Wisconsin due to the excellent condition for crops, and the wet, but high-yielding, harvest last fall. Other industrial segments experiencing electric sales growth in our territory included health services and chemicals. The walk from the 2012 to the 2013 effective tax rates for IPL, WP&L and AEC is provided on Slide 7. More renewable energy was produced and as a result we earned higher…

(Operator Instructions) We'll take our first question from Mike Bates with Wunderlich Securities.

Can you talk us through some of the puts and takes in your rate base assumptions down at IP&L, given the removal of transmission for Marshalltown?

The rate base that we have issued out there, Mike, really remains in basically the same estimates with one assumption, the Marshalltown transmission project we assumed would go in service in 2016. So assume that approximately $100 million would come out of that rate base forecast in 2016. Again, that's assuming that ITC is going to fund the Marshalltown transmission project. So that's the only adjustment we would expect because of that.

And why is it that the CapEx assumption is $190 million lower, but the rate base assumption is only $100 million lower. What's the delta there?

Well, what we're showing in 2013 is the 13-month average. And then also keep in mind, a portion of the $190 million that we're taking out is relating to Bent Tree as well. The largest portion is related to Marshalltown, but a portion of that relates to Wisconsin here with the Bent Tree project.

And also if you could offer us some additional color around your demand expectations for 2014, you mentioned a couple of significant industrial customers expanded in 2013. Are you able to disclose who those customers are and where do you see the greatest likelihood of potential upside from your current demand forecast?

First with respect to identification of the customers, I think in fairness, it's inappropriate that we would mention specific names. But as we've stated, we are seeing increase in actual customer count. We are also seeing additional residential usage, unlike the historical pattern. And as we mentioned, we do have a number of industrial customers in both the IPL and WP&L service territory that either have completed their expansions or provided us indication that those expansions are occurring and that's what's really giving them rise to the sales increases that we portrayed on Slide 9.

And my last question is can you walk us through some of your assumptions in terms of O&M as we look into 2014? Do you have some significant plans, outages or anything like that that is assumed in your guidance at this point?

Well, the biggest change would be with respect to the energy conservation expense here in Wisconsin. And keep in mind that tends to be one of the items that we've seen some adjustments occurring in light of the rate freeze that we have in 2013 and 2014. So that's the single largest item. But also we're seeing lower pension expense as we have talked about on our third quarter call because of the change in discount rate that we experienced at yearend. Other than that I would say there is nothing extraordinary in terms of the change from 2013 to 2014.

We'll take our next question from Brian Russo with Ladenburg Thalmann.

Just a clarification. The proceeds of $128 million from the Minnesota asset sale, is that net or is that gross proceeds minus some sort of tax?

That's a gross, Brian.

It's a gross number?

Yes.

Do you have any idea what the net number would be?

Well, given the fact, we're not going to be a federal taxpayer for several years. For planning purposes, I guess you could use a statutory rate of 40%.

And if I heard you correctly, your equity needs have been revised to $150 million from $250 million?

That is correct. And that reflects the removal of the transmission CapEx of $190 million.

And then, I apologize, Pat, but I missed your commentary earlier on the Wisconsin regulatory strategy. Could you just reiterate real quickly what you said earlier, what the plan is there?

Sure. No problem, Brian. This is our year to file the two-year rate case, so that would be years '15 and '16. We still have our additional funds left in the escrow account that we have been utilizing over the last couple of years. So we're hoping we can reach a settlement because the customer rate impacts won't be large, if we use the account. So we are hoping to reach a settlement, and we'll know that over the next couple of months. And if we don't reach a settlement, it would be like the settlement like we had last time, very simplified settlement that we will ask the Commission to approve and then file a fuel case later in the year. If we don't reach a settlement, we'll be filing the full two-year rate case at the end of March.

We'll take our next question from Steve Fleishman with Wolfe Research.

My question has been answered. Thank you very much.

We'll take our next question from Ashar Khan with Visium.

If I heard correctly, you said by the end of March, we will know whether we have to -- either we will be filing a case or there will be a settlement. Is there a date specific or by which this outcome has to be known?

Are you talking about in Iowa?

Yes, correct.

No. There is no date specific. That's just the plan that we've been talking about. And we're continuing discussions ongoing with all the parties to see if we can still reach a settlement, but if we can't reach a settlement, we'll have to file a case.

And any kind of color you can provide on those talks to present?

What I can honestly tell you is that the discussions have been very good and very constructive. Right now there is just not full alignment on what the settlement would look like. So we'll still have to continue with discussions with all the parties, but if there is not full alignment on what a settlement should look like then we'll be filing the case.

We'll take our next question from Andy Bischof with Morningstar Equity Research.

For the WPL generation investment, I know it's just a placed cover, but is that $300 million for the '16, '17, the total expectation for the 300 megawatt plant or are there expected costs in 2018 as well?

Yes, there will be some costs that spillover into '18 as well.

And Ms. Gille, there are no further questions at this time.

With no more questions, this concludes our call. A replay will be available through March 4, 2014, at 888-203-1112 for U.S. and Canada, or 719-457-0820 for international. Callers should reference conference ID 8244179. In addition, an archive of the conference call and a script of the prepared remarks made on the call will be available on the Investor's section of the company's website later today. Thank you for your continued support of Alliant Energy and feel free to contact me with any follow-up question.

And that does conclude today's conference. Thank you for your participation.