Good morning, and thank you for joining us to discuss Unitil Corporation's Third 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 is Bob Hevert, President and Chief Administrative Officer. I'm Todd Diggins, Chief Accounting Officer. We will discuss financial and other information on this call. As we mentioned in the press release announcing today's 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 our 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, I'd like to start by acknowledging the tragic events that recently took place in Lewiston, Maine. Lewiston is an area that we serve, and we are absolutely heartbroken for those lost and injured as well as their friends and family and for the larger Lewiston community. We're going to support the community in any way we can, and we recently made $100,000 donation to the Lewiston-Auburn Area Response Fund that will directly help those effective. The company will also match any employee contributions to this fund. We recognize that our assistance is only a small step toward helping Lewiston begin to recover from this senseless tragedy. Once again, our hearts go out to those affected by this terrible incident. We continue to look to help the community rebuild in any way we can. With that, let's move on to Slide 4, where I'll begin today's discussion. We continued our strong year-to-date performance, and, today, announced net income of $1.4 million or $0.09 per share for the third quarter of 2023. Through the first 9 months of the year, net income was $29.7 million or $1.85 per share, representing an increase of $0.17 per share or approximately 10% over the same period in 2022. Earnings growth was achieved through successful execution of our regulatory agenda and a steady focus on cost control. Decoupled rate structures, which now apply to the majority of our customers, provided expected revenue stability through the first 9 months of the year. Our disciplined approach to cost management has resulted in operation and maintenance expenses that have increased less than 1% compared to the same 9 months of 2022, a noteworthy accomplishment considering the current inflationary environment. As we will discuss in…

Thank you, Tom. Good morning, everyone. I'll begin on Slide 6. As Tom mentioned, we announced third quarter earnings per share of $0.09. For the first 9 months of the year, net income increased $2.8 million, or $0.17 per share, compared to the same period in 2022. This growth is the result of higher sales margins, partially offset by higher operating expenses and higher interest expense. Through the first 9 months of 2023, our decoupled rate structures in Massachusetts and New Hampshire have provided expected revenue stability and supported earnings by approximately $0.34 per share. We anticipate full year 2023 earnings will exceed the high end of our guidance range of 7% relative to earnings per share of $2.59 in 2022, due in part to the recent Maine rate case settlement. Turning to Slide 7. I will discuss our electric and gas adjusted gross margins. Starting with electric operations, electric adjusted gross margin was $80.1 million for the 9 months ended September 30, 2023, an increase of $3.5 million compared to the corresponding period in 2022. This increase in electric margin primarily reflects higher distribution rates and customer growth. Electric unit sales were down for both residential and commercial and industrial classes as a result of warmer-than-normal winter weather and lower average usage, partially offset by customer growth. The company's electric distribution revenues are substantially decoupled, which eliminates the dependency of distribution revenue on the volume of electricity sales. Through the first 9 months of 2023, we estimate revenue decoupling supported electric margin by $0.14. As we mentioned during the last call, year-over-year electric meter growth was slightly lower due to a mass meter conversion that effectively replaced approximately 200 residential meters with a few commercial meters. This conversion was included in the Unitil Energy Systems rate case settlement and…

Great. Thank you, Dan. I will be ending on Slide 13. Through the first 9 months of this year, we have, once again, highlighted how Unitil delivers -- continues to deliver on its commitments. We maintain our status as a premium utility. We continue to provide long-term earnings growth in line with peers, while paired with a lower-risk profile. We are a fully-regulated company that is well diversified as a combination utility operating in 4 regulatory jurisdictions and with decoupled rate structures for a majority of our customers. Our service areas not only offer strong economic growth, but lower risk as the areas we serve have fewer severe weather events than most areas of the country. Our distinct growth prospects are stronger than ever, and we believe we will continue to deliver solid and sustainable value for all stakeholders for many years to come. We welcome the challenges and opportunities ahead as we play a key role in the clean energy transition. We look forward to providing additional updates on our progress and strategies during our year-end earnings call. With that, I'll turn it back over to Todd.

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

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Shar Pourreza of Guggenheim Partners.

I guess the first thing is, how should we sort of think about the right base to use going forward for the 5% to 7% to go off of, right? So should we be growing 5% to 7% off the higher '23 base, which is now north of 7%? I guess, how do we sort of think about it in light of the strong results this quarter -- this year?

Shar, it's a good question. When we look at the 5% to 7% growth rate, the way that we think about the base year is 2022.

Got it. Okay. That answers that. And then just on the 5% to 7%, which you just obviously reiterated, could we just get a sense around what you're assuming in plan as we're thinking about earned returns? So are you assuming lag is diminished through the trajectory as well as what are you currently assuming around equity needs as we think about the profile and shape of that 5% to 7%?

Sure. So I guess, Shar, I'll start with the second question first. On equity needs, we have the financing wheel that's presented in the presentation that looks out over the 5-year plan. And so as we think about funding the capital investment plan over that time, that's the percentage of equity that we would need. And we'll do that as we can over that 5-year period. And I forgot the first part of the question.

Just around regulatory lag and so the 5% to 7%, I'm just trying to figure out what the shape of that 5% to 7% is? So you answered the financing side, but just around should we assume midpoint? Is it linear? What's built into that 5% to 7%? Should we assume higher end because of regulatory lag is diminishing through time, just getting a sense around that profile?

Yes, I think that's a good question. I think a midpoint assumption out in the further years is probably fair for right now. And then as we mentioned today, for 2023, we do expect to be above the higher end of that 5% to 7% range.

This does conclude today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.