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. We issued a news release last night announcing Alliant Energy's first quarter financial results. This release as well as the earnings presentation will be referenced during today's call and are available on the Investor page of our website at www.alliantenergy.com. Before we begin, I need to remind you 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 news release issued last night and in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We disclaim any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. References to adjusted earnings exclude temperature impacts and any non-GAAP adjustments. At this point, I will turn the call over to John.

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. Our company's purpose serving customers and building stronger communities remains at the center of everything we do. I will highlight a few of our key 2024 achievements and then turn the call over to Lisa and Robert to provide more updates as well as additional details relating to our operations financial performance and key regulatory matters. I'll start by highlighting the successful execution of our strategic solar investments. These investments play an important role in our balanced generation portfolio, a portfolio that delivers safe, resilient and reliable energy to our customers. Our final solar project in Wisconsin is near completion, which signifies the culmination of our planned 1.1 gigawatts of solar investment in the state and providing long-term value to our customers. The completion of this investment solidifies our position as the largest owner-operator of solar generation in Wisconsin. When constructing our renewable generation, we follow the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure framework called Envision. Using this framework, we design projects to enhance environmental, social and economic impacts. I'm pleased to report that so far, we've received platinum Envision certification for 4 of our Wisconsin solar projects. We also made progress on our solar investments in Iowa, our 50-megawatt solar project in Linn County just outside of Cedar Rapids is now operational, and we remain on track for completing the remaining 350 megawatts in the state by the end of 2024. These strategic investments in solar energy are enhancing customer value by providing…

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. It is early in the year, and we have focused our efforts to drive efficiencies in the business and have already made progress implementing cost controls and executing on our customer investments in accordance with our plan. As John mentioned, we have a long track record of consistent operational and financial execution, a principal reason for your confidence in Alliant Energy. Delivering on the expectations of our customers, communities, regulators and investors is foundational for Alliant Energy, and we are committed to continuing to evolve and adapt to meet those expectations on a year-over-year basis. Executing on our investment strategy is key to our ongoing success. Building on John's comments about our notable solar progress, we are on track to surpass the 3 gigawatt mark of clean, 0 fuel cost energy resources for our customers. In addition to our utility-scale solar investments, we remain committed to partnering with local businesses interested in hosting solar projects. For example, in Iowa, we recently broke ground on 4 customer-hosted solar projects in Grinell. Alliance Energy operates in business-friendly states that are well positioned for growth and economic development. Recently passed legislation in both states will establish Iowa and Wisconsin for accelerated economic growth opportunities. In Wisconsin, the sales and use tax exemption for data centers supports a traction of these types of customers. The IRA conformance bill aligns federal and state tax policies, enabling a smooth transfer of renewable credits to Wisconsin companies and the electric vehicle bill is intended to advance fleet electrification efforts across the…

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. However, the quarter-over-quarter variances were also impacted by historically mild temperatures. Our service territory experienced the warmest first quarter on record for both Cedar Rapids and Madison since 2012. Temperature impacts decreased Alliant Energy's earnings by approximately $0.08 per share in the first quarter of 2024. In comparison, temperature impacts decreased Alliant Energy's earnings in the first quarter of 2023 by $0.04 per share. Temperature normalized electric sales to Wisconsin retail customers were relatively flat in the first quarter of 2024. In Iowa, residential sales were higher in the first quarter of 2024 when compared to last year. We continued to experience solid growth in the number of residential customers in both states. However, these positive drivers were offset by decreased electric sales to commercial and industrial customers in Iowa largely due to lower sales to lower-margin cogeneration customers. We continue to make progress with lowering operating expenses to achieve our financial objectives and support customer affordability. In fact, first quarter 2024 other operation and maintenance expenses were almost $15 million less than the first quarter of 2023. Through our diverse generation portfolio, and execution of our robust fuel risk management programs, we are also keeping natural gas and electric energy costs in check. Our natural gas customers benefited from this trend as average retail builds in the first quarter of 2024 were approximately 25% lower than the first quarter of 2023. Turning…

[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. I guess qualitatively, what types of customers are you looking to attract? Is it exclusively data centers or other types? And I'm assuming these would be customers with large capacity needs. How do you think about the need for additional generation to service those? And then in timing, any thoughts on how soon we might see announcements?

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. One of the things that I think is a real strategic advantage for customers locating in both Iowa and Wisconsin is the fact that we do not have a litigated IRP process. That means we can be very nimble in adapting to the needs of our customers that choose to locate in our service territory. Because we use the clean energy blueprint, it's our open and transparent process of providing discussions with respect to generation, it's not through any kind of formal process or review that other states have.

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. We have completed the sales of all of the 2023 generating tax credits. I think of that as roughly $120-some million. And then as you think about 2024, 2025 and going forward, it's going to continue to increase. What we've indicated is roughly somewhere north of $200 million for 2024 tax credits. Growing to somewhere between $300 million to $400 million in 2025. As we continue to build out the solar projects that was mentioned by Lisa as well as continue to implement battery projects that have ITCs associated with them, those will continue to grow. And so we feel very well positioned. The team has done an excellent job of working with different counterparties and negotiating very what I would say fair rates that will be, like I said, cost-effective for our customers. We're also monitoring different guidance that comes from the treasury the IRS periodically. And just more recently, there's some more flexibility with normalization rules on ITC. So the team is currently evaluating might that provide some additional opportunities for us when it relates to PTCs versus ITCs for some projects.

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. The advanced ratemaking that you were referencing, that was last year, the determination as to whether we're at the 10.25% or the $10.75 million that we had in the last settlement would likely be a part of any settlement that we would have.

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.