Caroline D. Dorsa
Analyst · Michael Lapides with Goldman Sachs
Sure Michael. So 2 things. First relative to the financing, right, for the PSE&G programs. So I think you may recall, we've talked about before that because Power's capital needs are relatively modest, right, as we talked about the environmental spending being essentially behind Power. That enables us to have PSE&G, which is now a relatively significant generator of operating cash flow. Not as much as Power but more significant than it's been in the past. That allows PSE&G to essentially keep its cash from operations, raise debt consistent with its capital structure, while Power can be the cash flow generator, that dividends up to the parent to support the shareholder dividend. So given the nice cash generation coming from PSE&G, keep in mind, things like the renewables with contemporaneous return, the transmission program with formula rates and flip in rate base for some of our major programs start to generate cash relatively quickly, that supports our ability to have the Utility, to be able to keep its cash and have adequate financing. So everything we're doing, at the bottom line, as we said before, there's no need for any equity issuance because the balance sheet and cash flow generation of the 2 companies is strong. From the perspective of incremental programs, you're right. We've mentioned that gas disk [ph] program a number of times before, and we still have the opportunity for the gas disk program as well as some energy efficiency, we've not announced any filings of those programs but cast iron gas main replacement, something that we are obviously interested in, and we understand the status as well. It's something that you could see via program in this picture, that's why we continue to put it in our materials and remember we talked about that program as multi-year as well and of like a 5-year program like Solar 4 All could be, with spending in the range of about $250 million per year that we could logistically do well. That is the kind of thing that our balance sheet still provides room to do even on top of the 800 -- up to $883 million that I just mentioned, because of the strength of the credit metrics that I mentioned on earlier with Power's debt to cap in the low 30s and the overall company in the low 40s. Again, without any equity, we can do the programs we just mentioned. We can do $3.5 billion transmission that you know we have in front of us, as well as consider more programs. So we kind of like the position we are relative to the ability to do more for the Utility.