Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q1 2023 Unitil Earnings Conference Call. At this time all participant are in a listen-only mode. After the speakers presentation there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Todd Diggins, Chief Accounting Officer and Controller. Please go ahead.

Good morning and thank you for joining us to discuss Unitil Corporation's first quarter 2023 financial results. Speaking on the call today will be Tom Meissner, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Dan Hurstak, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. Also with us today are Bob Hevert, President and Chief Administrative Officer; and Chris Goulding, Vice President, Finance and Regulatory Services. We will discuss financial and other information on this call. As we mentioned in the press release announcing this call, we have posted information including a presentation to the Investors section of our website at unitil.com. We will refer to that information during this call. Moving to Slide 2, the comments made today about future operating results or events are forward-looking statements under the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements inherently involve risks and uncertainties that can cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted. Statements made on this call should be considered together with cautionary statements and other information contained in the most recent annual report on Form 10-K and other documents we have filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements speak only as of today, and we assume no obligation to update them. This presentation contains non-GAAP financial measures. The accompanying supplemental information more fully describes these non-GAAP financial measures and includes a reconciliation to the nearest GAAP financial measures. The company believes these non-GAAP financial measures are useful in evaluating its performance. With that, I will now turn the call over to Chairman and CEO, Tom Meissner.

Great. Thanks, Todd, and good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us today. Before I begin the presentation, I did want to highlight some recent organizational changes that you probably took note of during Todd's introduction. First, I'm pleased to announce that Bob Hevert has taken on expanded responsibilities within the company and will assume the role of President and Chief Administrative Officer. Stepping into Bob's former role as Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer is Dan Hurstak who joins us on the call today. Todd Diggins has been appointed Chief Accounting Officer and Controller, the position formerly held by Dan. These changes are all part of the company's long-term succession planning and will ensure management continuity well into the future. I'm pleased that we have this well-seasoned management team who will be guiding the company in the years ahead. Moving on to the presentation. I'm going to begin on Slide 4. Today, we announced strong results for the first quarter of 2023 with net income of $24.1 million or $1.51 per share, which represents an increase of $0.16 per share or 12% over 2022. These results were achieved with higher adjusted gross margins led by customer growth, execution of our regulatory agenda and focused cost control. As a reminder, with the completion of our New Hampshire rate cases last year, the majority of our customers are now under decoupled rates which stabilizes our revenues and helps offset the effects of weather and changing usage patterns. Operation and maintenance expenses decreased year-over-year, a notable achievement considering the current inflationary environment. We anticipate that for the balance of the year, O&M will remain relatively flat to 2022 levels. Our regulatory agenda continues to be active. As we'll discuss later in the presentation, yesterday, the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission found…

Thank you, Tom. Good morning, everyone. I'll begin on Slide 9. As Tom mentioned, today we announced first quarter earnings per share of $1.51. Net income increased $2.6 million or $0.16 per share compared to the same period in 2022, representing year-over-year earnings growth of 12%. Earnings growth was supported by higher electric and gas adjusted gross margins, partially offset by higher total operating expenses. Operations and maintenance expenses decreased year-over-year, and we expect full year 2023 operations and maintenance expenses to be consistent with 2022. Turning to Slide 10. I will discuss our electric and gas sales volumes and margin. Electric adjusted gross margin was $26.7 million, an increase of $2.1 million or 8.5% compared to the same period in 2022. The increase in electric margin reflects higher distribution rates compared to the first quarter of 2022. Although unit sales were down for both the residential and the commercial and industrial classes, the income statement effects were offset as the electric divisions are now substantially decoupled. We estimate decoupling supported electric margin by $0.06. Year-over-year meter growth was slightly lower due to a mass meter conversion that effectively replaced approximately 200 residential meters with a few commercial meters. This mass meter conversion was included in the UES rate case settlement and had no effect on electric distribution revenue. Absent this meter conversion, electric customer growth was largely in line with the historical growth rate. Moving to gas operations. Gas adjusted gross margin was $54.9 million for the quarter, an increase of $2.9 million or 5.6% compared to the same period of 2022. The increase in gas margin reflects higher distribution rates and customer growth, partially offset by warmer winter weather in 2023. Based on weather data collected in the company's gas service areas, on average, there were approximately 11%…

Great. Thanks, Dan. Ending now on Slide 15. With the first quarter of 2023 behind us, we continue to deliver results through operational and financial excellence. The company's prospects are strong, and we believe the continued execution of our strategic plan will lead to strong results for many years to come. With that, I'll turn it back over to Todd.

Thanks, Tom. That wraps up the material in this call. Thank you for attending. I will now turn the call over to the operator who will coordinate questions.

[Operator Instructions] I'm showing no questions at this time. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect. End of Q&A: