Pinnacle West Capital Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
February 27, 2023

Key Takeaways

  • Pinnacle West is navigating a period of financial reset after an unfavorable rate case decision, with a new rate case hearing set for August 2023 and a focus on rebuilding regulatory relationships under three newly appointed commissioners.
  • Operationally, APS achieved record‐low OSHA injuries, replaced over 800 storm‐damaged poles, maintained resource adequacy amid regional capacity shortages, recorded a 95% summertime availability factor for its non‐nuclear fleet, and hit a 100.2% capacity factor at Palo Verde.
  • APS made significant strides in customer satisfaction, ranking among the most improved utilities in the nation by J.D. Power and advancing into the 2nd quartile for residential and the 1st quartile for business customer satisfaction.
  • The company continues its clean‐energy push, having procured over 2,100 MW of carbon‐free resources since 2020 and issuing an all‐source RFP for an additional 1,000–1,500 MW to be in service between 2025 and 2027.
  • Financially, Q4 2022 EPS was a loss of $0.21 (full‐year EPS $4.26 vs. $5.47 in 2021), and 2023 guidance of $3.95–$4.15/share reflects strong customer growth, 3.5%–5.5% sales growth, higher O&M, benefit and interest expenses, and a $5.3 billion capital plan for 2023–2025.
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Earnings Conference Call
Pinnacle West Capital Q4 2022
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Operator

Good day, everyone, welcome to the Pinnacle West Capital Corporation 2022 fourth quarter earnings call. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode, and the floor will be open for questions and comments after the presentation. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Amanda Ho. Ma'am, the floor is yours.

Amanda Ho
Amanda Ho
Director of Investor Relations at Pinnacle West Capital

Thank you, Matt. I would like to thank everyone for participating in this conference call and webcast to review our fourth quarter and full year 2022 earnings, recent developments and operating performance. Our speakers today will be our Chairman and CEO, Jeff Guldner, and our CFO, Andrew Cooper. Ted Geisler, APS President, Jacob Tetlow, Executive Vice President of Operations, and Jose Esparza, Senior Vice President of Public Policy, are also here with us. First, I need to cover a few details with you. The slides that we are using are available on our investor relations website, along with our earnings release and related information. Today's comments and our slides contain forward-looking statements based on current expectations and actual results may differ materially from expectations. Our annual 2022 Form 10-K was filed this morning.

Amanda Ho
Amanda Ho
Director of Investor Relations at Pinnacle West Capital

Please refer to that document for forward-looking statements, cautionary language, as well as the risk factors and MD&A section, which identify risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in our disclosures. A replay of this call will be available shortly on our website for the next 30 days. It will also be available by telephone through March 6, 2023. Now I will turn the call over to Jeff.

Jeff Guldner
Jeff Guldner
Chairman and CEO at Pinnacle West Capital

Thanks, Amanda. Thank you all for joining us today. Good morning. In looking back on 2022, it was no doubt one of our most challenging years in recent memory as we faced major financial headwinds in a financial reset resulting from the outcome of our last rate case. I'm going to provide several updates today and share the successes we were able to achieve despite the challenges we faced. Coming out of the last rate case, we laid out a comprehensive plan and strategy, we met or exceeded nearly every target we set for ourselves, including delivering strong service reliability to our customers. We made significant progress in the last year, we're not done and we look forward to continuing to execute our plan. Turning now to regulatory.

Jeff Guldner
Jeff Guldner
Chairman and CEO at Pinnacle West Capital

We came out of the last rate case fully committed to improving our regulatory relationships, and we've seen progress as a result of our focus in that area. We received constructive decisions for all key items heard by the previous bench during 2022, including our financing application last December. We started 2023 with two new commissioners and a new chair. Commissioner Thompson and Commissioner Myers joined the bench in January, and Commissioner O'Connor was elected Chairman. We've already seen constructive actions and decisions by the new bench, including the creation of a docket to examine ways to reduce regulatory lag. We believe that these conversations are important and we look forward to working with the Commission on thoughtful solutions. For our pending rate case, the administrative law judge issued a procedural order in December outlining the schedule.

Jeff Guldner
Jeff Guldner
Chairman and CEO at Pinnacle West Capital

The first round of staff and intervener testimony is due in May, with the hearing set to commence in early August. We look forward to working with the parties and the Commission through the rate case process in gaining additional regulatory clarity. Our number one goal continues to be doing what's right for the people and prosperity of Arizona, which includes working collaboratively with the Commission and building a more constructive relationship. Turning to the operations side, I want to start by recognizing our field team's exceptional execution in 2022. I'm especially proud of our employees for prioritizing safety and ending the year with significantly lower employee injuries. Three low energy SIFs and our lowest number of OSHA recordable injuries on record.

Jeff Guldner
Jeff Guldner
Chairman and CEO at Pinnacle West Capital

We had one of the most hazardous and damaging summer storm seasons in recent history, where we saw a record number of poles damaged. For context, we replaced over 800 poles, which is about 500 more than an average summer. In addition, while parts of the Southwest region experienced capacity shortages again in 2022, our careful long-term planning and resource adequacy allowed us to serve our customers reliably. Additionally, we remain engaged in the western wholesale market, which allowed us to make off-system sales and to create savings for APS customers. Importantly, those off-system sales directly benefit APS customers by lowering our overall costs while helping maintain regional grid stability.

Jeff Guldner
Jeff Guldner
Chairman and CEO at Pinnacle West Capital

Finally, our generation units performed extremely well with our non-nuclear fleet recording a summertime equivalent availability factor, EAF, of 95%, and we achieved a capacity factor of 100.2% at the Palo Verde Generating Station. We recognize the importance of creating customer value and remain focused on improving our customer experience. Our employees are committed to putting customers first and working towards our goal of achieving an industry-leading, best-in-class customer experience. As a result of this commitment, we made extraordinary progress on that front in 2022, with APS earning ratings from its customers, making it among the most improved utilities in the nation for both residential and business customer satisfaction measured by J.D. Power.

Jeff Guldner
Jeff Guldner
Chairman and CEO at Pinnacle West Capital

Compared to 2021, APS achieved quartile gains in every single driver of residential and business customer satisfaction, firmly lifting the company into the second quartile nationally for residential customers and the first quartile nationally for business customers. Consequently, overall satisfaction is now well above industry benchmarks when compared to the company's large investor-owned peers. We also continue to make progress on our resource procurement and clean energy commitment. Since announcing our goal to reach a 100% clean carbon-free energy by 2053 years ago, we've procured over 2,100 MW of clean and affordable energy resources. Additionally, as previously discussed, we issued an all source RFP last year for another 1,000-1,500 MW of new resources to be in service from 2025-2027. We continue to work through finalizing procurement decisions from that RFP.

Jeff Guldner
Jeff Guldner
Chairman and CEO at Pinnacle West Capital

These substantial investments are essential resources designed to help us keep pace with Arizona's tremendous growth. At the same time, electricity capacity markets are tightening across the entire West. Looking forward, our goals for 2023 include continuously improving our customer communication and engagement, achieving a constructive outcome in our pending rate case, and reliably serving customers through the tremendous growth in our service territory. I wanna, once again, recognize the near-term headwinds that are created by the unfavorable outcome of our previous rate case and how it will continue to make 2023 challenging. However, we believe in our ability to provide long-term value to both customers and shareholders, and we look forward to executing our plan and continuing our proven cost management efforts, all against the backdrop of Arizona's extraordinary economic expansion.

Jeff Guldner
Jeff Guldner
Chairman and CEO at Pinnacle West Capital

I want to thank you for your time today, and I am going to turn the call over to Andrew, who will talk about our fourth quarter and full year 2022 earnings and our forward-looking financial expectations. Andrew?

Andrew Cooper
Andrew Cooper
CFO at Pinnacle West Capital

Thank you, Jeff. Thanks again to everyone for joining us today. This morning, we reported our fourth quarter and full year financial results for 2022 and introduced guidance for 2023. I will cover our results and provide additional details around the financial outlook for 2023 and beyond. As Jeff discussed, we remain in our period of financial reset during the near term. Right up front, I wanna be clear that while we are navigating through challenges brought on by the negative outcome of the last rate case, we have been executing well on our plan, and we remain confident in our ability to create renewed growth and deliver strong shareholder returns. For the fourth quarter of 2022, we lost $0.21 per share, down $0.45 compared to fourth quarter 2021.

Andrew Cooper
Andrew Cooper
CFO at Pinnacle West Capital

The unfavorable rate case decision and reduction in net income from no longer deferring the costs related to the Four Corners SCR and Ocotillo modernization project have been the primary driver of lower results all year. That remained the case for the fourth quarter. The quarter also included a $17.1 million impairment charge relating to a Bright Canyon Energy equity investment. This was a legacy investment by Bright Canyon for a minority stake in a wind farm. In the fourth quarter, we determined that impairment of the investment was appropriate due to ongoing disputes on transmission cost allocation and a lack of a probable favorable outcome. Other negative impacts included lower LFCR revenues, higher O&M, and higher interest expense. Favorable weather and customer and sales growth were partial offsets to the negative drivers in the fourth quarter.

Andrew Cooper
Andrew Cooper
CFO at Pinnacle West Capital

For our full year results for 2022, we earned $4.26 per share, down from $5.47 per share in 2021. We ended the year in line with our updated full year guidance. As noted earlier, the negative rate case outcome drove a financial reset and is the primary driver for the lower year-over-year results. The Bright Canyon impairment charge, higher O&M, and higher interest expense were other negative drivers for lower year-over-year results. For the year, we saw beneficial weather as well as customer and sales growth that partially offset the negative drivers. Turning to customer growth, the fourth quarter remained in line with our guidance at 2.1%, which was also the customer growth rate for the full year.

Andrew Cooper
Andrew Cooper
CFO at Pinnacle West Capital

Arizona continues to be a popular destination for relocation and had the fifth highest population growth in 2022, according to recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Arizona has continued to show strong employment growth, including in emerging areas of economic diversification, with manufacturing employment, for example, growing at 6.2% in 2022 as compared to a U.S. rate of 3.8%. We also continued to experience strong weather-normalized sales growth. Sales increased 1.2% in the fourth quarter relative to the prior year. For the full year 2022, our weather-normalized sales growth was 2.4%, in line with our upwardly revised guidance range. This was anchored by strong C&I growth of 4.6% over 2021 as the benefits of Arizona's increasingly diversified economy are realized.

Andrew Cooper
Andrew Cooper
CFO at Pinnacle West Capital

In fact, Phoenix Metro was recently named a top three industrial market to watch in 2023 according to a JLL Tenant Demand Study that evaluated 60 U.S. markets. Moving on to our financial outlook. Our 2023 earnings guidance range is $3.95-$4.15 per share. Although this is a decline from 2022 actual results, the range is comparable to our weather normalized 2022 guidance range of $3.90-$4.10 per share. We forecast steady customer growth and robust sales growth ahead in 2023. Headwinds for 2023 include higher benefit expense, interest expense, and plant D&A. We continue to target declining O&M per kilowatt hour and believe our proven track record of cost management and lean initiatives will help us successfully navigate through this inflationary period.

Andrew Cooper
Andrew Cooper
CFO at Pinnacle West Capital

We continue to have a strong focus on O&M and look for opportunities to create efficiencies, reduce risk, and keep our costs low to maintain affordable rates for our customers. Looking at our forecasted customer growth, we expect it to remain strong and are maintaining the 1.5%-2.5% guidance range for 2023. Sales growth, we expect continued strength, particularly in the C&I segment, as economic diversification takes hold in areas such as semiconductor hubs, other large manufacturing and distribution. TSMC recently announced plans to build a second fab at the North Phoenix location, increasing its original $12 billion investment to $40 billion. TSMC estimates the site will employ 4,500 permanent jobs, an increase from the earlier projection of 2,000.

Andrew Cooper
Andrew Cooper
CFO at Pinnacle West Capital

Procter & Gamble also announced plans for a $500 million investment in a manufacturing facility, creating 500 new jobs. Anchored by examples like these, we're expecting our weather normalized sales growth range to be 3.5%-5.5% for 2023. Turning to pension. As a reminder, our pension is 106% funded with no expectation for contributions needed in the near term. We remain committed to the long-term benefits of our liability-driven investment strategy and the reduced volatility of a fixed income-weighted portfolio. We are expecting a headwind in 2023, primarily resulting from the net effect of higher discount rates. Higher benefit expense in 2023 is also impacted by negative 2022 investment returns and is partially offset by the impact of higher expense and returns on assets in 2023.

Andrew Cooper
Andrew Cooper
CFO at Pinnacle West Capital

All in, we expect benefit expense to be $0.33 headwind for 2023 as compared to 2022. However, we continue to evaluate options for regulatory recovery of higher benefit expense. Turning to interest expense. As the Federal Reserve continues to raise interest rates to try to combat inflation, we are closely monitoring our financing needs. I would highlight that we do not have any maturities until mid-2024, but we do expect higher interest expense year-over-year. We have also updated our capital plan to $5.3 billion from 2023 to 2025, with rate-based growth at an average annual growth rate of 5%-7%. Importantly, the increase in CapEx is independent of any rate case outcome and is directly related to load growth and the needed investments we're making in more resilient infrastructure.

Andrew Cooper
Andrew Cooper
CFO at Pinnacle West Capital

This update is needed simply to keep up with that growth and reliably serve customers. We have also updated our financing plan to meet the demands of our updated capital plan. We are continuing to defer any equity issuance until resolution of the current rate case and remain focused on achieving a constructive regulatory outcome. The rest of our financial outlook remains consistent. Our outlook includes long-term earnings growth of 5%-7% off the midpoint of our weather-normalized 2022 guidance range. We have a track record of dividend growth, the board recently raised our quarterly dividend to $0.865 per share.

Andrew Cooper
Andrew Cooper
CFO at Pinnacle West Capital

While our current payout ratio is higher than our target, we believe our plan will allow us to achieve our long-term dividend payout ratio of 65%-75% in the future, recognizing that all future dividends are subject to approval by our board. We have a path forward that is centered around our long-term track record of constructive rate case outcomes and robust service territory growth, continued balance sheet strength and cost discipline, and a focused management team that is taking action. We look forward to building on the great work we were able to accomplish in 2022 and executing on this plan in 2023. This concludes our prepared remarks. I'll now turn the call back over to the operator for questions.

Operator

Certainly. At this time, we'll be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you have any questions or comments, please press star one on your phone at this time. We do ask that while posing your question, please pick up your handset if you're listening on speakerphone to provide optimum sound quality. Once again, if you have any questions or comments, please press star one on your phone. Your first question is coming from Julien Dumoulin-Smith from Bank of America. Your line is live.

Dariusz Lozny
Dariusz Lozny
Equity Research Analyst at Bank of America

Hi. Good morning. This is Dariusz for Julien. Just starting off, I wanted to touch on the financing plan a little bit, recognizing that you won't need equity or won't be issuing equity until after the current rate case. Can you just maybe help us think about, how you're looking at future equity needs beyond, dependency of the rate case in 2024 and 2025, in particular in the context of this higher capital plan?

Andrew Cooper
Andrew Cooper
CFO at Pinnacle West Capital

Sure, Dariusz. It's Andrew. As you noted, we do have an equity need in the plan there of that $400 billion-$500 billion of equity in 2024. That's really set up to make sure that the APS equity layer is appropriately capitalized, you know, coming out of the rate case, given some of the debt that we're incurring at APS in the near term. Any future equity needs will really be dependent on the capital plan that we develop after the rate case concludes. As I mentioned earlier, the capital that we've added to the plan here is really dependent on load growth and serving the service territory as it expands.

Andrew Cooper
Andrew Cooper
CFO at Pinnacle West Capital

Once we get through the rate case and think about, for example, our clean capital spend, that'll be an area where as we, with a constructive outcome, consider a different ratio of self-build versus PPA assets. We would look at the financing plan at that point to make a determination. We'll also be looking for feedback from the rating agencies on our credit metrics at the conclusion of the rate case to figure out the right capital plan for the years beyond 2024. As of now, the need for 2024, that $400 million-$500 million post the rate case, is intact.

Dariusz Lozny
Dariusz Lozny
Equity Research Analyst at Bank of America

Excellent. Thank you. Maybe if I could touch on the robust load growth forecast that you guys have out there and that you updated this morning. Can you maybe just discuss a little bit about what your level of visibility is on the contribution to that load growth other than TSMC? I know you mentioned a couple of other large customers coming online over this period. Within the context of your 5%-7% EPS CAGR, can you maybe discuss how much if any delays could be absorbed to the large TSMC project that would still allow you to maintain that 5%-7% within this forecast period?

Andrew Cooper
Andrew Cooper
CFO at Pinnacle West Capital

Sure, Dariusz. The, you know, the forecast is driven by a diversified group of manufacturing data center customers, and some of the overall C&I growth that we're seeing in the service territory. It's a pretty different economic story than it's been in the past as far as the factors contributing to growth here. We're not really depending on the broader macroeconomic story as much as specifically identified customers, which include TSMC, and it's a considerable part of that. The 2%-4% of the 3.5%-5.5% that is from the large customers. TSMC is a considerable part of that, there's data center customers and other manufacturers as well. It's pretty diversified on that front.

Andrew Cooper
Andrew Cooper
CFO at Pinnacle West Capital

The 5%-7% earnings growth rate is through 2026, and that's pretty much coterminous. You know, the sales growth rate, the long-term sales growth rate that we have here is through 2025, but, you know, roughly, you know, similar trends through that forecast period. As you've seen even in 2022, that sales growth is certainly helping us to mitigate the inflation and some of the O&M pressure that we're seeing. We'll continue to work both those cost levers and keep a close eye on the macroeconomic environment and these specific customers as well as we go through the forecast period.

Dariusz Lozny
Dariusz Lozny
Equity Research Analyst at Bank of America

Okay, great. Thank you for that detail. I'm looking forward to catching up later in the week.

Andrew Cooper
Andrew Cooper
CFO at Pinnacle West Capital

Thanks, Dariusz.

Operator

Thank you. Your next question is coming from Shar Pourreza from Guggenheim. Your line is live.

Shar Pourreza
Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Guggenheim Partners

Hey, guys.

Jeff Guldner
Jeff Guldner
Chairman and CEO at Pinnacle West Capital

Hey, Shar.

Shar Pourreza
Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Guggenheim Partners

Good morning, Jeff. let me ask you. Jeff, you historically have said that, you know, you're underinvesting in APS by maybe roughly $200 million-$300 million per year. Is that still the case? I mean, obviously from your prepared remarks, it sounds like the $600 million you guys just bumped up in CapEx is sort of agnostic to APS and base level spending. I'm just kind of curious, if you take this increase layered in with what you said you've underinvested in the system, how do we sort of think about the two together?

Jeff Guldner
Jeff Guldner
Chairman and CEO at Pinnacle West Capital

Yeah. Shar, I wouldn't say we've underinvested in the system. I mean, as you know, we've been keeping up with what we need to invest in for load growth. Where the opportunity is around the generation side and where there are opportunities, particularly now with the tax credit framework that the IRA has set up, that there are opportunities for us to do more optimized mix that's self-billed. Obviously, it wouldn't be 100% utility-owned, but we're doing probably what, you know, in the 25% range of utility-owned, where a more rational, I think if we could do it, would be in the 50% range, so that we're actually being able to maximize the benefit of those tax credits for customers.

Jeff Guldner
Jeff Guldner
Chairman and CEO at Pinnacle West Capital

A lot of this opportunity is really gonna depend on how the rate case outcome goes. We've got the clean tracker proposal that would take our Renewable Energy Adjustment Charge and allow us to again flow through some of those clean investments. If we can do that, then we get to a more optimized mix of utility-owned versus PPA solar and storage primarily is what I think you would expect to see. A lot of what you're seeing is just the investment that we have to make for load growth.

Shar Pourreza
Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Guggenheim Partners

Mm-hmm.

Jeff Guldner
Jeff Guldner
Chairman and CEO at Pinnacle West Capital

I think what you're getting at is that there's an ability to further optimize that after the rate case and looking at that mix of generation. We're gonna invest what we need to invest in the poles and wires and the infrastructure to serve customers.

Shar Pourreza
Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Guggenheim Partners

Got it. Yeah, I was just more curious on that $200 million-$300 million you've quoted before in the past and how that correlates with the CapEx increase today. Just on the CapEx increase, what does that sort of put you around that 5%-7% rate base growth range that you have out there now? The $600 million.

Andrew Cooper
Andrew Cooper
CFO at Pinnacle West Capital

Yeah. That, I think is the, You saw the upper end of that rate base growth number come up with the update, and that's really the result. We, you know, there's a much narrower range of rate base growth with the prior forecast, Shar. You know, you could think about it as, you know, more expanded range. I don't think there's a broader range of uncertainty just, you know, with the CapEx we have in there, more of an opportunity. You know, you've seen some of the timing move around in our capital. Jeff was just talking about our clean spend.

Shar Pourreza
Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Guggenheim Partners

Mm-hmm.

Andrew Cooper
Andrew Cooper
CFO at Pinnacle West Capital

You've seen some of those buckets move from 2024 into 2025 with the addition of the 2025 forecast. There's some timing around some of our capital investments and some of the decisions we need to make. That's really been, you know, the main thing is the increase in the range driven by the higher CapEx forecast.

Shar Pourreza
Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Guggenheim Partners

Got it. Okay. Then just lastly, if the Court of Appeals were to rule in favor regarding the Four Corners SCRs and the Ocotillo projects, what would that look like, I guess, from an EPS standpoint in 2023? Would it be retroactive? What would the incremental EPS be going forward since you only obviously report GAAP results? Thanks.

Andrew Cooper
Andrew Cooper
CFO at Pinnacle West Capital

Sure. You know, any decision at the Court of Appeals, if it were a positive decision, would be remanded to the commission for further action. There wouldn't be really anything done retroactively. All I could really give you sort of the, you know, the rule of thumb, you're talking about roughly a $200 million disallowance and, you know, capital structure that's in the 50/50 range. Apply an ROE to that, and that kind of gives you the rough EPS impact of beginning to recover on that. The timing of that would be dependent on future action of the ACC if there were a positive outcome.

Jeff Guldner
Jeff Guldner
Chairman and CEO at Pinnacle West Capital

Yeah. Shar, remember too that there may be a further appeal. The Court of Appeals, if they issue a ruling, it's if it goes in our favor, I can see the Sierra Club taking that up and seeking Supreme Court review. That could add some additional timeline. Ultimately, as Andrew said, it's gonna end up back at the Commission.

Shar Pourreza
Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Guggenheim Partners

Okay. Perfect. That's fantastic. I'll see you guys soon. Appreciate it.

Jeff Guldner
Jeff Guldner
Chairman and CEO at Pinnacle West Capital

Yeah. Thanks, Shar.

Andrew Cooper
Andrew Cooper
CFO at Pinnacle West Capital

Thanks, Shar.

Operator

Thank you. Your next question is coming from Anthony Crowdell from Mizuho. Your line is live.

Anthony Crowdell
Anthony Crowdell
Managing Director and Senior Analyst at Mizuho

Hey, good morning. Thanks so much for taking my questions. just a couple of them. First off, anything management could do to help mitigate the volatility in the pension expense?

Andrew Cooper
Andrew Cooper
CFO at Pinnacle West Capital

Sure, Anthony. It's Andrew. You know, as I mentioned, we're going to look at all the options, including around regulatory recovery. You know, our priority in the rate case is a constructive outcome, and we'll look at pension when we go into a remodel strategy. You know, one of the various levers that we need to think about in what a constructive outcome looks like. It's not the only lever, and it's not the only cost that we've got to deal with. You know, there's certainly precedent where there's a split test year to look at pension expense from a, you know, what is now a historical period. That's something that we'll consider as one of our options. In the last rate case, we averaged the two years surrounding the split test year.

Andrew Cooper
Andrew Cooper
CFO at Pinnacle West Capital

Regulatory recovery remains one path that we continue to look at. Of course, any of the levers we have around our other costs, O&M, you know, interest expense, all the things that we can do there to make sure that we, you know, meet our forecasts. That's, that's really the focus. As I said earlier, we're committed to the pension strategy. You know, in 2022, all asset classes for the most part, face losses and discount rates went up precipitously. You know, we're living with the reality of that and mitigating as best we can.

Anthony Crowdell
Anthony Crowdell
Managing Director and Senior Analyst at Mizuho

Great. If I could jump on Shar's. I believe it was a question Shar asked about I think you're looking for more clarity from the rate case where you potentially may see more clean generation spending. If it just comes down to the clean tracker proposal needs approval, is that what investors should be focused on to see if we do get more clean generation spend?

Jeff Guldner
Jeff Guldner
Chairman and CEO at Pinnacle West Capital

No, Anthony. I think it's a little more than that. I mean, it really is looking certainly a clean tracker, particularly as a potential vehicle to give the tax credit, the tax credit attributes back to customers in a more contemporary manner. I mean, that makes a lot of sense to us as a way to optimize the getting a little bit more utility-owned generation in the mix. It's gonna be the overall framework that really drives what we do, right? Like we'll look at the results of the case and figure out how we optimize the mix of both the PPA and then the utility-owned generation and storage resources.

Jeff Guldner
Jeff Guldner
Chairman and CEO at Pinnacle West Capital

You know, can't really flag what that looks like here, but we have opportunity, I think, to get a more optimized mix for customers, than, you know, we're seeing now when just because of the last rate case, we are not able to do utility-owned assets at the level that we think is probably optimal.

Anthony Crowdell
Anthony Crowdell
Managing Director and Senior Analyst at Mizuho

Great. Just lastly, from the disallowances on the coal CapEx, and it's currently in appeal. Does the company get recovery of the operating expenses associated with what the capital that was disallowed? I'm sure there's additional capital of running these SCRs. Do you recover the expenses associated with that? Whereas if you do prevail in the appeal court, that also could be a potential tailwind in earnings.

Andrew Cooper
Andrew Cooper
CFO at Pinnacle West Capital

Anthony, we do get recovery on the cost. actually saw the results year-over-year impacted by those costs kind of coming into our income statement without offsetting revenue. you know, what you'd really see, if there were a positive outcome, would be the recovery on the investments of, you know, in there alongside the cost.

Anthony Crowdell
Anthony Crowdell
Managing Director and Senior Analyst at Mizuho

Great. Thanks for taking my questions. I appreciate it.

Jeff Guldner
Jeff Guldner
Chairman and CEO at Pinnacle West Capital

Yep. Thanks, Anthony.

Operator

Thank you. Once again, everyone, if you have any remaining questions or comments, please press star then one on your phone. Your next question is coming from Nicholas Campanella from Credit Suisse. Your line is live.

Nicholas Campanella
Nicholas Campanella
VP at Credit Suisse

Hey, good morning, everyone.

Jeff Guldner
Jeff Guldner
Chairman and CEO at Pinnacle West Capital

Hey, Nick.

Nicholas Campanella
Nicholas Campanella
VP at Credit Suisse

Hey. I guess just, starting on 2023 drivers. What was just the driver of the lower tax rate? I think it's 10% versus last year's closer to 14%. Can you just update us on that?

Jeff Guldner
Jeff Guldner
Chairman and CEO at Pinnacle West Capital

I think the lower effective tax rate. There's a combination of factors, you know, in the lower overall tax rate. You know, there's a variety of participation there around, you know, tax credits and the like.

Nicholas Campanella
Nicholas Campanella
VP at Credit Suisse

Okay. Possibly just tax credit driven. On your just credit outlook, I think you kind of mentioned in the deck 16%-18% range. Where did you end the year? What's the feedback from the agencies been in terms of what are they looking for, you know, moving on the negative outlook? Is it GRC related? Is it numbers related? You know, what's your willingness to defend the Baa rating here if you have to?

Andrew Cooper
Andrew Cooper
CFO at Pinnacle West Capital

Nick, the agencies will calculate. I don't think they've all put out, you know, how they view the FFO to debt number at year-end. The 16%-18% is sized around, you know, where the agencies would like us to be today. You saw both Moody's and Fitch this month reaffirm their current outlook, their current ratings as well as the negative outlook. You know, you take a look at their positions, but ultimately, absent some exogenous factor, they're really looking to see the rate case outcomes make a determination about the ratings and any future changes they'd make to the downgrade thresholds. We're committed to that 16%-18%.

Andrew Cooper
Andrew Cooper
CFO at Pinnacle West Capital

That's what keeps us to the last part of your question, that's what keeps us in our current category. You've got Moody's with an 18% threshold right now. S&P with a 17% to keep us at our current rating and return to stable 13% for a downgrade, though they are one notch lower right now. We use that 16%-18% target to keep to the current ratings. We'll have to see, as I said, after the rate case, if the rating agencies readjust at all, what the targets are for downgrade.

Nicholas Campanella
Nicholas Campanella
VP at Credit Suisse

Okay. Just one last one for me. In your prepared remarks up front, you kind of mentioned this regulatory lag docket. You know, what's the outcome that stakeholders are trying to solve for here, and what are some of the mechanisms you're exploring, if you can maybe update us on that?

Jeff Guldner
Jeff Guldner
Chairman and CEO at Pinnacle West Capital

Nick, I think it was just more of an indication of the new commissioners coming in. I think both of which had indicated that they don't like being one of the lowest, if not the lowest rated commission in the U.S. from like RRA. This was an effort to begin to talk about, you know, the things like four test years and other things that you typically see discussed in other jurisdictions. It's a little early to see exactly what will come from it. I think again, the tone is good because it's an indication of there is benefit to customers from having a good performing utility. I think we saw that come out loud and clear after the last rate case outcome.

Jeff Guldner
Jeff Guldner
Chairman and CEO at Pinnacle West Capital

I think that's a recognition of let's talk about in a public, stakeholder driven way, what some of those mechanisms are. I think that's a positive sign, but it's pretty early in the process right now.

Nicholas Campanella
Nicholas Campanella
VP at Credit Suisse

All right. Well, thanks so much for answering my questions.

Jeff Guldner
Jeff Guldner
Chairman and CEO at Pinnacle West Capital

Yeah. You bet, Nick.

Operator

Thank you. That concludes our Q&A session. Everyone, this concludes today's event. You may disconnect at this time and have a wonderful day. Thank you for your participation.

Executives
    • Amanda Ho
      Amanda Ho
      Director of Investor Relations
    • Andrew Cooper
      Andrew Cooper
      CFO
    • Jeff Guldner
      Jeff Guldner
      Chairman and CEO
Analysts
    • Anthony Crowdell
      Managing Director and Senior Analyst at Mizuho
    • Dariusz Lozny
      Equity Research Analyst at Bank of America
    • Nicholas Campanella
      VP at Credit Suisse
    • Shar Pourreza
      Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Guggenheim Partners
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