Patricia K. Vincent-Collawn
Analyst · Paul Fremont with Jefferies
Thank you, Jimmie. Good morning, everyone. It's great to be with you all on this beautiful, sunny New Mexico morning. Today, I'll offer a quick snapshot of the company's second quarter performance, a scan of the economic and regulatory outlook in New Mexico and Texas, the latest update on San Juan Generating Station and BART, and a brief look ahead. I always like to share good news with you, and I believe our second quarter results qualify. I'm pleased to report that the company continued its strong performance and delivered solid earnings results. As we look at the numbers on Slide 4, I'll discuss what is behind them. First, the company continues to realize benefits from the focus on our core business as a regulated utility. We are effectively managing costs, while maintaining reliability and good customer service. We have also worked hard to build and maintain relationships with regulatory stakeholders, and we continue to see progress in obtaining constructive regulatory outcomes. The analysts at Moody's specifically mentioned that fact in June when they upgraded the credit outlook for PNM Resources, PNM and TNMP's to positive. This followed Standard & Poor's April upgrade of all of our entities, which included moving PNM Resources credit rating to investment grade. Today, we affirmed our financial outlook for the year. We expect that 2013 consolidated ongoing earnings to be solidly in the middle of the guidance range of $1.32 to $1.42 per diluted share. Now let's go to Slide 5 and take a closer look at PNM and TNMP and the economic forces at work in both states. Starting with PNM. In the second quarter, we saw a small decrease in weather-normalized load, with total retail energy sales down 0.6 from the same period of last year. Just as in Q1, some of the decrease in load can be attributed to the company's energy efficiency programs. I want to point out that the decrease in Q2 was less than the decline in the first quarter. And on a positive note, sales were up 2% in our commercial customer class. Year-to-date, PNM is averaging 0.5% customer growth. The economy here continues to be a bit soft, as New Mexico lags behind the rest of the nation in postrecession recovery, especially in the Albuquerque metro area. However, numbers reported this week show year-to-date public and private sector job growth in the metro, and statewide, unemployment remains below the national average. Gross receipts tax collections in the city of Albuquerque, which is considered a credible indicator of economic activity, were up in May, now for the third consecutive month. And the director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research was quoted this week saying that, "An overall recovery is finally happening in Albuquerque." While we're not yet seeing that in our load numbers, we have experienced periods of increased peak demand. And in fact, on June 27, we set an all-time record peak. Turning to TNMP. Energy sales were basically flat for the quarter. While we did see some load decline, the trend for TNMP is still positive. In fact, the rolling 12-month average for TNMP shows an overall retail sales increase of over 2%. We know the Texas economy is still strong and growing. The state unemployment numbers are well under the national average and job growth has been consistent. There's every indication that, that will continue in Texas. Now let's move to Slide 6 for a regulatory update. As I mentioned at the top of the call, we are pleased with several recent constructive regulatory outcomes that have provided rate relief and allowed the company to move forward with important projects. On June 26, the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission unanimously approved PNM's purchase of the Delta-Person Generating Station. This plant is 132-megawatt, gas-fired peaking facility in southwest Albuquerque, and it has provided power to PNM under a purchase power agreement since 2000. The plant will add $40 million to rate base, and on an annualized basis, is expected to contribute $0.02 per share to earnings. We expect to close in early fourth quarter. On May 17, PNM filed with the New Mexico commission for approval to build and operate the new 40-megawatt, La Luz gas-fired peaking plant south of Albuquerque. Construction will cost an estimated $63 million. We anticipate the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission to act on the filing some time in mid to late 2014 and expect the facility will go online in the first quarter of 2016. We also filed our renewables plan with the New Mexico commission on July 1. This 2014 plan calls for the construction of an additional 23 megawatts of utility-owned solar capacity. The estimated cost of this is $47 million, and our plan also lays out how PNM expects to meet the state's renewable portfolio standards. We look at TNMP, we filed our latest TCOS increase yesterday, which will add $2.8 million in revenue. Barring an unforeseen challenge, we should begin collecting the new rate at the end of September. The consolidated tax-saving adjustment bill was signed into law by Texas Governor Rick Perry in June. This eliminates the provision that previously allowed the PUC to artificially lower a utilities rate request by applying tax losses of the utilities affiliates. We move to the FERC filings. In June, FERC approved an amended agreement creating a 1-year contract extension for PNM to continue providing power to the city of Gallup. That agreement went into effect July 1 and contains rate relief that will increase revenue by $3.1 million during the contract extension period. There are a few developments with the FERC transmission formula rate case that PNM filed December 31 of last year. The company is currently engaged in settlement talks with FERC and the parties to the case, with the next settlement conference scheduled for October. We have updated our filing to reflect FERC's directed ROE of 8.67%. The $1.3 million rate increase, which is subject to refund, went into effect today. Now let's go to Slide 7 to review developments with the San Juan Generating Station and BART. We are making progress with the revised state plan to put SNCRs on units 1 and 4 and shut down units 2 and 3. The revised plan is now under consideration by the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Board. They're scheduled to hold hearings on September 5 and 6, and we anticipate that the board will vote on the plan in September. The State, through the New Mexico Environment Department, proposed the revised plan and the governor has publicly supported it. In addition, a broad range of key stakeholders, including the Navajo Nation and a number of legislative and business leaders, support the plan. Gina McCarthy, the new EPA administrator, has called the plan a model for how the EPA, states and utilities should work together. We are optimistic that the agreement will be approved. After the EIB approval, the governor has 30 days to submit the revised plan to the EPA. The EPA approval process is expected to take about 1 year. We will be making the appropriate filings with the New Mexico commission at the end of the year for the retirements of units 2 and 3 at San Juan and for the identified replacement power. We are still on track to begin installation of the SNCRs on units 1 and 4 in the first quarter of 2015. The process will take about 1 year to complete. According to the revised plan, units 2 and 3 will then be shut down by December 31, 2017. We would be working with our stakeholders over the coming months to identify the appropriate replacement power. As we have previously discussed, we have been asked to consider adding our interest in Palo Verde Unit 3 as part of our replacement power, and that continues to be a potential option for us. It's important to note that with this agreement, the company would be in a position to meet or exceed the goal for greenhouse gas reductions outlined by President Obama, 17% below 2005 levels by 2020. With that, I'll turn it over to Chuck, who will go into the details of our second quarter financial performance.