Pat Migliaccio
Analyst · Hilliard Lyons. Please go ahead
Thanks, Larry and good morning everyone. I’d like to begin on Slide 7. This morning, we reported second quarter NFE of $104.1 million, or $0.21 per share compared with $77.9 million or $0.91 per share last year. For the six months ended March 31, we reported NFE of $144.5 million or $1.68 per share versus $129.2 million or $1.51 per share last year. As expected, NJNG was the main driver of our improved performance for both periods. That said, all other segments with the exception of NJR Energy Services performed better than the prior year. Turning to Slide 8, you can see the impact of new base rates and customer growth of NJNG, which accounted for the largest changes in both periods. This was consistent with our expectations for the quarter. We also recognized additional SREC revenues and tax credits at CEV, which was a result of more SRECs, higher prices from our operating solar assets, investment tax credits from the expected solar assets positioned this year and additional production tax credits from our Alexander and Ringer Hill wind farms. We saw a lot of performance in NJR Energy Services, but as Larry said earlier, we are maintaining our NFE guidance range for fiscal 2017 of 5% to 15%. During the second quarter, the PennEast project, of which NJR Midstream is a 20% owner, recognized allowance for funds used during construction or AFUDC of about $2.4 million or $0.03 per share in the quarter. This reflected a cumulative adjustment based on our total capital spending to-date on the project. We also closed on the sale of the building owned by CR&R and recognized a net gain of approximately $1.1 or about a penny of NFEPS. This sale which was underway last year had moved back into our early guidance for fiscal 2017. Additionally, we sold some available for sale securities, which resulted in a net gain of approximately $1.6 million or about $0.02 per share. Slide 9 shows the bridge, in fiscal 2016 actual NFE for the midpoint of our fiscal 2017 NFE guidance range. As you can see, the largest increase will come from NJNG. Utility gross margin is expected to be up by about $0.25 per share mainly due to the effects of the base rate case and customer growth. And after offsetting a utility gross margin, higher expenses and lower BGSS margins, we expect NJNG to provide a 10% to 15% increase in its NFE year-over-year. Part of the contribution should come from CEV anchored mainly by an increase in SREC revenue. NJR Energy Services contribution while performing within the guidance range will be about $0.13 per share lower. This winter although colder than the prior year, but still longer than initially predicted and impacted the value such as storage and transportation efforts and our portfolio resulting in lower results year-over-year. These lower results were partially offset by the aforementioned sales of available-for-sale securities. NJR Midstream, with the addition of the AFUDC I previously discussed is being estimated a $0.05 increase year-over-year. Let me emphasize though, I think AFUDC contributions beyond fiscal 2017 will be included in NJR’s guidance for future years will be taken into account in our overall assumptions and estimates, when we give that guidance. Therefore that should not be viewed as incremental to our average annual growth rate of 5% to 9%. Slide 10, shows our capital spending update for NJNG for the second quarter and for six months of fiscal 2017. There are two items I want to highlight. Our SAFE II program is well underway as we have invested $15.3 million in the first six months of fiscal 2017 to replace 31 miles of unprotected steel pipe. As part of this program, NJNG will earn AFUDC on its invested capital during construction and will cut rate increases for $157.5 million of safety spending and annual filings. As a condition of approval, NJNG required to file a base rate case no later than November 2019. The other item is our NJ Rise program. To-date, NJNG has resolved nearly 7900 excess flow valves in storm prone areas and less service areas. These valves restrict the flow of natural gas when there is a change in pressure on the service line. The secondary feed in the secondary feed into Sea Bright in Monmouth County was completed in April and the redesign of Ship Bottom Regulator Station on Long Beach Island is underway and is expected to be operational in June of 2017. The remaining four projects are in the design and as permitting phases the whole project is scheduled for completion by fiscal 2019. Turning to Slide 11, our customer growth remains strong. For the six months ended March 31, we had 4130 new customers, a 13% increase over last year. We believe we will add about 9,000 new and conversion customers in fiscal 2017, which is up from the 8300 previously estimated with an anticipated utility gross margin contribution of 5.28 annually. The increase is due to the inclusion of Superstorm Sandy-affected customers, who are expected to have service reconnected within this fiscal year as new customers. In total, we expect to spend between $100 million and $110 million between fiscal 2017 and 2019 to add 26,000 to 28,000 new customers representing a growth rate of 1.7%, up slightly from our previous estimate of 1.6%. About 55% of that growth will come from new constructions and 35% from conversion to the natural gas from other fuel sources. Turning to our Clean Energy segment. You can see our capital spending and project status on Slide 12. Although we did not faced any commercial projects into service during the quarter, CEV has more projects under construction in New Jersey representing a total investment of $56 million with an aggregate installed capacity of 24.1 megawatts. By the end of fiscal 2017, our commercial solar portfolio is expected to total approximately 130 megawatts. As Larry alluded to, the warm weather allowed us to add residential customers at a greater pace than planned. As a result, we expect to invest about $2 million of additional capital above our original plan from the Sunlight Advantage program for a total nearly $38 million. We added 688 residential customers during the first six months of fiscal 2017 totaling 6.3 megawatts of capacity, more than double the 291 customers and 2.5 megawatts of capacity added during the comparable period in fiscal 2016. We now have nearly 5800 home owners who have taken advantage of our program. From the wind project perspective, the completion of our Ringer Hill wind farms in December improved our capital spending for the fiscal year. As we’ve discussed in the past, and at length during our November 17 Analyst Day, there is a direct relationship between SREC pricing and the timing of the BGS auction. This relationship is expressed in the chart on the left of Slide 13. Ahead of February’s BGS auction, SREC price is for all energy years increased. In particular, energy year 2019 increased by 42% compared with the market prices we shared with you on November 17. As such, and consistent with our strategy, we use these market conditions as an opportunity to actively hedge our SRECs during that timeframe. As a result, you can see on the chart on the right, that nearly all of our SREC sales from facilities that are currently operational and under construction ahead for energy years 2017 and 2018. And more than three quarters of our SREC sales are now hedged for energy year 2019 which is significantly up from last call. Slide 14 brings together our capital plans for NJR for the next three years. As you can see, our investment in NJNG approximates $703 million over the next three years which equates to rate based book or about 6% annually. We have no material changes to the plan at this time, other than the estimated $2 million increase in residential solar spending this year. We will continue to update you on our plans as the year progresses. Moving to Slide 15, you can see that our capital plan is anchored by strong cash flow from operations as well as equity from our dividend reinvestment program. We plan to issue approximately $162 million of equity over our fiscal 2017 to 2019 planning period. This is down from the $200 million that we had previously discussed primarily to the timing of capital expenditures associated with our projects. We believe our cash flows and financing plans will continue to support our strong financial profile now and in the future. I’ll now turn the call back to Larry for some final thoughts.