NYSE:POR Portland General Electric Q1 2025 Earnings Report $41.80 +0.24 (+0.58%) Closing price 05/2/2025 03:59 PM EasternExtended Trading$41.76 -0.03 (-0.08%) As of 05:44 AM Eastern Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more. Earnings HistoryForecast Portland General Electric EPS ResultsActual EPS$0.91Consensus EPS $0.93Beat/MissMissed by -$0.02One Year Ago EPS$1.21Portland General Electric Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$928.00 millionExpected Revenue$977.02 millionBeat/MissMissed by -$49.02 millionYoY Revenue Growth-0.10%Portland General Electric Announcement DetailsQuarterQ1 2025Date4/25/2025TimeBefore Market OpensConference Call DateFriday, April 25, 2025Conference Call Time11:00AM ETConference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptSlide DeckPress Release (8-K)Quarterly Report (10-Q)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfileSlide DeckFull Screen Slide DeckPowered by Portland General Electric Q1 2025 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrApril 25, 2025 ShareLink copied to clipboard.PresentationSkip to Participants Operator00:00:00Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Portland General Electric Company's First Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Results Conference Call. Today is Friday, 04/25/2025. This call is being recorded and as such, Operator00:00:11all lines have been placed Operator00:00:12on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer period. For opening remarks, I will turn the conference call over to Portland General Electric's Manager of Investor Relations, Nick White. Please go ahead, sir. Nick WhiteManager of Investor Relations at Portland General Electric Company00:00:39Thank you, Shannon. Good morning, everyone. We're happy you could join us today. Before we begin this morning, I would like to remind you that we have prepared a presentation to supplement our discussion, which we will be referencing throughout the call. The slides are available on our website at investors.portlandgeneral.com. Nick WhiteManager of Investor Relations at Portland General Electric Company00:00:56Referring to Slide two, some of our remarks this morning will constitute forward looking statements. We caution you that such statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties and actual results may differ materially from our expectations. For a description of some of the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, please refer to our earnings press release and our most recent periodic reports on Forms 10 ks and 10 Q, which are available on our website. Turning to slide three, leading our discussion today are Maria Pope, President and CEO, and Joe Terpic, Senior Vice President of Finance and CFO. Following their prepared remarks, we will open the line for your questions. Nick WhiteManager of Investor Relations at Portland General Electric Company00:01:33Now it's my pleasure to turn the call over to Maria. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:01:36Good morning, and thank you all for joining us today. Portland General Electric announced advanced key priorities in the first quarter, laying the foundation for solid results, diligent cost management and strong execution in 2025 and beyond. Beginning with Slide four, I'll speak to our financial results and key drivers. For the first quarter, reported GAAP net income of $100,000,000 or $0.91 per diluted share. This compares with first quarter twenty twenty four GAAP net income of $109,000,000 or $1.8 per diluted share and non GAAP net income of $123,000,000 or $1.21 per share. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:02:19Our first quarter results reflect the continuation of strong load growth from high-tech and data center customers who drove 4.6% total load growth and industrial load growth of 16.4% compared to the same quarter last year. PGE serves five large semiconductor customers and over 10 significant data center providers that are spread across dozens of sites, making up nearly a quarter of our total deliveries. This growth is driving important capital improvements and upgrades across our transmission and distribution systems. These investments advance critical energy security and resource adequacy goals shared by customers and the communities we serve. And also address aging infrastructure needs and enable the economic engine of our service territory. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:03:17Many of these customers have aggressive clean energy goals that align with our municipal and residential customers who make our clean energy program number one in the country according to NREL. Our strategy drives our work to build the reliable, affordable, and increasingly clean grid of the future, including the ongoing 2023 and 2025 RFPs and the forthcoming 2025 IRP update. Customer prices are central to our strategy and we are paying close attention to the evolving federal policy landscape and advocating for the continuation of renewable investment and production tax credits. Credit transferability, and other provisions under the IRA and IIJA, as well as closely following the ongoing tariff situation. Our commitment to address system resilience, advance clean energy priorities, and provide safe, reliable, and affordable energy for every customer we serve is as important today as ever. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:04:28Turning to wildfire risk. We're actively engaged with key stakeholders, including legislators, the governor's office, the OPUC, the Oregon Department of Forestry, first responders, and other utilities, and customers as we work towards solutions that address the societal risk of wildfires and other extreme weather. Our mature year round wildfire mitigation work is advancing as we deploy lessons learned from recent wildfires and sharpen our practices ahead of summer. In 2025, we plan to spend over 120,000,000 on wildfire mitigation, including capital investments and O and M. We're working with elected officials and stakeholders on legislation to address the financial risk from wildfires. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:05:17A bill was introduced in February to create a standard of care for utility wildfire mitigation and establishes a safety certificate process to be managed by the OPUC and tied to our wildfire mitigation plan. Creating clear standards for the work utilities do to prevent wildfires and keep communities safe is essential. Our clear standards reduce the likelihood of wildfires being triggered by utility equipment, Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:05:46as Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:05:47well as enhanced services liability, lowers customer costs, and provides economic stability for Oregon's communities. We're pleased to see continued progress on this important policy. While proposed legislation to create a catastrophic wildfire fund has not moved forward, the ongoing dialogue with stakeholders represents productive progress. Pacific Northwest states are just beginning to grapple with the liability issues related to wildfire risk. And as I said on our last call, these policies may take more than one session to achieve. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:06:27The work we're doing to address and manage risk by executing on our wildfire mitigation plan and working to find societal solutions for the risk of wildfire and extreme weather helps with affordability and protects customers. When it comes to affordability, there are several areas that also come together to reduce upward customer bill pressure. Growth. Serving a growing customer base allows us to spread out operating costs and investments over larger volumes of business. Cost management. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:07:01Our company wide work to reduce o and m costs is well underway. We're evaluating every program and reducing costs to help keep customer prices as low as possible. Joe will cover this work in greater detail in his remarks. As discussed on our previous call, we're working towards updating PGE's corporate structure to enable a holding company. This is a common structure in the industry, in fact, most common structure, and will help enable increased flexibility in how we finance our business. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:07:35As we look ahead, Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:07:37the Portland General Electric team is focused on managing our business with discipline and foresight, diligently controlling costs and risk management, and seeking competitive returns to effectively attract investment, delivering value to customers, communities, and shareholders. With that, I'll turn it over to Joe. Joe? Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:07:58Thank you, Maria, and good morning, everyone. Turning to slide five in our Q1 results reflect strong energy demand from our industrial customers and ongoing system investments. Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:08:09Q1 twenty twenty five loads increased 4.6% overall or 4.4 weather adjusted as compared to Q1 twenty twenty four. Q1 '20 '20 '5 residential load decreased 0.8% quarter over quarter or 1% weather adjusted. Residential customer count increased by 1.6% which was offset by energy efficiency driving lower usage per customer. Commercial load remained relatively flat with a slight increase of point 8% or point 3% weather adjusted. We observed another quarter of choppy growth from the industrial class this quarter. Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:08:43Industrial load increased 16.4% on both a nominal and weather adjusted basis, as recent load growth trends from data centers and semiconductor customers continued. These results are aligned with our 2025 plan and as such, we are reaffirming our 2025 weather adjusted load growth guidance of 2.5% to 3.5% and our long term load growth guidance of 3% through 2029 based on our current expectations. I'll now cover our financial performance quarter over quarter. We experienced a $07 increase in total revenues driven by a $0.14 increase from the 4.6% low growth, 4.6 growth in deliveries partially offset by a 7¢ decrease in revenues due to delivery composition changes. A decrease from power cost of 8¢ driven by a 17¢ EPS decrease due to power cost performance in 2024 that reverses for this comparison and a $09 increase from favorable conditions which drove lower power costs than anticipated in the annual update tariff. Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:09:50Overall, we are slightly below the PCCAM baseline in Q1. An 18¢ EPS decrease from operating expenses made up of 4¢ of O and M net of improved recovery and deferral related items driven primarily by the timing of wages and benefits and professional service costs. 11¢ from higher depreciation and amortization and 3¢ from higher interest expenses driven by higher debt balances in support of the ongoing capital investments. And lastly, an 11¢ decrease from other items, including 8¢ from dilution from recent equity draws and 3¢ from other miscellaneous items. Turning to slide six for our five year capital forecast, remains consistent with our last disclosure. Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:10:37The incoming seaside battery remains on track to come in service at the June and will complement our existing battery portfolio during peak summer usage. We are advancing our regulatory strategy for Seaside in Q2 consistent with our expedited option introduced in the 2025 GRC order as we will seek recovery of this important asset that will soon serve customers. Beyond that, we're constructively engaging with parties as we evaluate our long term regulatory path. While the timing and scope remains fluid, we are focused on options that balance our commitment to affordability while recovering key capital investments serving customers. On the resource planning and procurement front, we are continuing through negotiations with the 2023 RFP bidders and still expect contract finalization in the second half of the year and projects in service by the end of twenty twenty seven under current conditions. Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:11:31Filing of the 2025 IRP update will be made later this quarter and will support the 2025 RFP process which has advanced through preliminary stages and will fully launch in the second half. As Maria mentioned, we are keeping an eye towards federal policy development, including tariffs, changes in the Inflation Reduction Act, tax policy, and other relevant legislation that may impact our base capital plans or renewable procurement. This is clearly a dynamic situation but we are engaged in all fronts with suppliers, customers, regulators, policymakers and other stakeholders as we evaluate collective impacts. On to slide seven for our liquidity and financing summary. Total liquidity at the March was $948,000,000 and our credit ratings and outlook remain unchanged from the last quarter. Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:12:23We executed $310,000,000 of first mortgage bonds at the March and anticipate up to $140,000,000 more of debt financing later this year to support our capital investment plan and general corporate purposes. We priced an additional $87,000,000 under the ATM program in Q1 as we deliberately execute our base financing plan, which remains at 300,000,000 per year for 2025 and 2026. The growing needs of customers, clean energy progress, and our commitment to affordability are pushing us towards new solutions that unlock value for our customers and stakeholders. Expanding our financing flexibility remains a priority and as Maria noted, we are pursuing updates to our structure including a holding company formation. After making solid headway in Q1, our teams remain focused on advancing key priorities for the balance of 2025. Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:13:16This includes deploying intentional cost management measures to realize lasting efficiencies and the right cost structure. This builds on the foundation we laid in 2024 to identify strategies that improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our work and support lasting strong performance. Implementing this plan is challenging, but important as we find ways to streamline our operations utilizing tools and technology to do high impact work at lower cost. This is critical to support our commitment to customer affordability and bolster our culture of to consistently deliver our expectations. Given our progress to date, we are confident in the path forward and our strategy that underpins our near term and long term outlook. Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:13:59As such, we are reaffirming our 2025 adjusted earnings guidance of 3.13 to $3.33 per diluted share and our long term earnings and dividend growth guidance of five to 7%. We look forward to continued execution for the remainder of the year as we focus on safely delivering reliable, increasingly clean and affordable energy to our customers and the communities we serve. And now operator, we're ready for questions. Operator00:14:27Thank you. Operator00:14:41Our first question comes from the Operator00:14:42line of Julien Dumoulin Smith with Jefferies. Your line is now open. Julien Dumoulin-SmithResearch Analyst at Jefferies Financial Group00:14:47Hey, morning, team. Hey, good morning. Appreciate the time guys. Hey. Just wanted to come back on the legislative and and just wildfire context. Julien Dumoulin-SmithResearch Analyst at Jefferies Financial Group00:14:55Obviously, know, you you heard the comments earlier. How are you thinking about the progress and and more importantly, where you're making progress where you are specifically in setting expectations whether this year or next year just to lay the groundwork? Because obviously I think that's kind of the linchpin of some of the other subsequent decisions, right, like a holdco it seems from a timing perspective. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:15:14So you're spot on with regards to the timing. With regards to progress that we're making, one of the things I think that has really been evident is there are a lot of legislators that really were not aware of the extensive wildfire mitigation plans that we put in place, the extensive increase in vegetation management, and the work that we've done in system hardening over the past number of years. And so there was a lot of discussion over really what it takes, the costs, and the significant increase in costs over the last couple of years for wildfire prevention and mitigation. One of the things I think is also interesting is that wildfire presents itself very differently in different parts of the state. So we've had a lot of discussions by experts as well as others. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:16:08Where we have really excelled is with regards to a certificate process. And that has been very important in terms of establishing a well known and well understood standard of care. Not unlike what you would see in the medical fields or in engineering fields or in many other fields. And then where we have much more work to do is with regards to a fund and then also limitations of liabilities associated with accessing that type of fund. The customers can get access to funds much faster than they would through other processes. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:16:43We have a lot more work to do there. And I think you'll see that the continuation of discussions even after the legislative session should be very productive. Julien Dumoulin-SmithResearch Analyst at Jefferies Financial Group00:16:58Excellent. Thank you. And then just on the if I can follow that up real quickly here with where you stand. I mean, you've got the five to seven CAGR out there and certainly that's dependent on seeing the financing come through with a certain level of dilution. When you think about the decision to follow through on CapEx as we see today, I just wanted to get your sense of confidence. Julien Dumoulin-SmithResearch Analyst at Jefferies Financial Group00:17:21We have public statements here from others saying we're gonna focus on affordability. The same time, we're not seeing the follow through on the wildfire legislation, whether in '25, maybe it happens in '26. But at what point do you say, look, we're we're gonna pull back on growth because the the broader construct is telling us to to reassess here. I mean, it's a difficult backdrop. I appreciate what you guys are doing, especially from a cost containment perspective, and I want to highlight that here. Julien Dumoulin-SmithResearch Analyst at Jefferies Financial Group00:17:47But at the same time, so many different pressure points here. There a certain moment where you say we're going to reassess? Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:17:54Yeah. I think it's a good question, Julie. And it's one that we ask ourselves continually. I well, just as a reminder, and we talked about this pretty extensively on the second quarter excuse me, on the first quarter call in February as well as previous. We always thought that the discussion with regards to addressing wildfire in Oregon would take two sessions. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:18:15And I'm very appreciative of representatives Marsh and Mannix for the tireless work that they have done with regards to both bills, but in particular with regards to safety certification. As we move forward, you're right. We're looking at our ability to be able to adequately recover costs and deliver competitive returns and competitive growth for investors. Julien Dumoulin-SmithResearch Analyst at Jefferies Financial Group00:18:46Excellent. Well, look, maybe just last quick one on timing on the RFPs and any updates there just as far as it goes? Because obviously, your outlook is pretty sensitive to that. Just if you could just clarify what you're seeing on that front and I'll leave it there. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:19:01So we couldn't be more pleased with the negotiations as they're progressing. Obviously, in the external and global as well as national environments, there's a lot of noise. But our customer base is growing. Our customer base continues to be focused on clean energy. And we look forward to concluding the negotiations as we go through the balance of the year and bringing on projects in the 2027 time period. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:19:28I would note that from the last projects we brought on, we're already seeing tremendous advantages of the battery storage. In fact, we've seen upwards of just under 10% in certain periods of time coming from our battery storage, enabling a lower cost energy to be delivered to customers and really taking advantage of the variability across the entire West. Julien Dumoulin-SmithResearch Analyst at Jefferies Financial Group00:19:56Awesome. Hey, thanks for the time guys. Hang in there. We'll speak soon, all right? All the best. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:20:00Thanks, Julian. Operator00:20:02Our next question comes from the Operator00:20:04line of Michael Lonigan with Evercore ISI. Your line is now open. Michael LoneganDirector - Equity Research at Evercore ISI00:20:09Good morning. Yes. Good morning. Thanks for taking the You have so obviously, you've seen strong industrial sales growth driven by semiconductors and data centers. You reiterated your 3% long term load growth forecast. Michael LoneganDirector - Equity Research at Evercore ISI00:20:23But given the tariffs and concerns about economic development, just wondering, are you prepared for a potential slowdown in this load growth and a slowdown in capital projects? Just wondering if you could talk about the options you have for capital potential reallocation and then also what you're expecting in terms of capital inflation. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:20:43Yes. So first of all, with regards to our industrial base, it's primarily three areas. The first is a quarter of it is really traditional industrial customers. A quarter in our fastest growing area is data centers. That's the fastest growing area by far. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:21:06And then about half is semiconductors. We are watching the global market for semiconductors very closely. And between all three of those sectors, we remain very confident in our growth as we move forward. In terms of overall inflation, we've actually seen a moderating of inflation in terms of costs that are impacting us. Would imagine that our customers are seeing somewhat of the same thing. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:21:34Obviously, that does not come and take into consideration all the discussions with regards to tariffs that are taking place nationally and globally. Michael LoneganDirector - Equity Research at Evercore ISI00:21:44Great, thanks. And then you've talked about monetizing tax credits to manage your financing plan. Just wondering how much monetization does your plan currently account for per year? And then in the event there was no longer any transferability, what would be your approach to plugging that gap? Potentially more equity? Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:22:06Joe, do you Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:22:07want to address So as it relates to our base plan, the only tax credits are really contemplated in our financing are the ones related to the seaside project that's about to come online. After that, base plan and investments in our base plan do not have any additional ITCs or PTCs. We do have, I say, a small monetization of our PTCs over time but they're not significant to our financing. As it relates to our growth when we consider the potential participation in the RFP we would anticipate that there are, there can be IPCs in there but we look at those first as a benefit to a cost reduction to our customers. And then they obviously do have the ability to take some pressure off of our financing. Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:22:52I should say with the ITCs and PTCs that we've had, that we've monetized to date and the ones that are coming, we continue strong interest in the ability to monetize those investments. So, mean, short baseline, other than CSAT does not rely on the ITCs and long term that really the ITCs are as much about affordability for our customers and effective pricing. Michael LoneganDirector - Equity Research at Evercore ISI00:23:16Great. Thanks for taking my question. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:23:19Thank you. Our Operator00:23:26next question comes from the line of Richard Sunderland with JPMorgan. Your line is now open. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:23:31Good morning. Richard SunderlandEquity Research - North American Utilities & Power at JP Morgan00:23:32Hey, good morning. Thanks for the time today. Picking up the RFP conversation, do you see any need or potential to pivot resources out of the 2023 RFP and into the 2025 RFP to update pricing for, let's say, tariff or supply chain impacts? Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:23:53Thanks. Good morning. You know, as it relates to pricing and, you know, this isn't very dissimilar from what we saw in 2021 that these type of changes are contemplated. So we don't, at this point, think there's a need to roll forward. We have a pretty adaptable process. Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:24:12The dialogue that we have with the RFP group right now continues to contemplate these uncertainties. So, least at this point in time, we believe there are enough vehicles within the actual standing RFP process to adjust as we move in 2021. If you recall, there were some pricing increases as well as some clarity in the IRA. There was a net increase that we were able to work through subsequent to the RFP process getting through into the selection. Richard SunderlandEquity Research - North American Utilities & Power at JP Morgan00:24:41Got it. Does that hold true for the batteries in the 2023 RFP? I mean, those being sourced from China? Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:24:49As it relates to the batteries, haven't disclosed where they're sourced from yet but obviously batteries overall have a majority coming from overseas. But in our dialogue with the parties, we are contemplating ways to address the way that tariffs could impact their batteries assuming they do have that exposure. And we continue with that dialogue to be on track here to be able to execute here in the second half of the year for these RFPs. Richard SunderlandEquity Research - North American Utilities & Power at JP Morgan00:25:22Okay. Got it. That's helpful. And then turning back to some of the comments in the opening script. Maria, I know you mentioned growth as one angle to address affordability. Richard SunderlandEquity Research - North American Utilities & Power at JP Morgan00:25:33I'm curious if you can speak a little bit more to, I guess, the relationship with that data center customers and how you're getting the right structure with them on minimum guarantees, costs overall, sort of avoiding that cross subsidization on to existing rate payers. What's the overall landscape look like in terms of sort of paying your fair share, if that makes sense? Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:25:57It's an excellent question. And it's something that we're spending a lot of time talking about both in the regulatory and in the legislative arenas. In fact, there is legislation to address this as we speak. Overall, the impact is in several areas. The first is just overall infrastructure. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:26:19And as you can see, we've broken out a separate transmission area in our capitalization table. And it's really these new large customers, particularly data centers that's driving a lot of the need for transmission build outs really in the first time and sometimes decades in our service territory. So there is a benefit overall for system reliability. With regards to distribution, some impact there certainly. But most overall, what you really see is a change in the market price of power as the increasing demand comes from data centers, whether we are serving them or other utilities in the Pacific Northwest. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:27:01And we need to be doing more direct procurement for those. And we do have some programs that allow for that already, and we're working directly with customers. I would also say that the data centers bring additional stability to the grid. We have some data centers that are bringing battery stores. We have some that have backup many have backup generation. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:27:24And that is something that we have been working on for years and has accelerated our virtual power plant process. Richard SunderlandEquity Research - North American Utilities & Power at JP Morgan00:27:32Great. Thank you so much. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:27:34Thank you. Operator00:27:36Our next question comes from the line of Nathan Richardson with Barclays. Your line is now open. Nathan RichardsonAVP - Equity Research at Barclays00:27:44Hey everybody, how are you? Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:27:46Good morning. Nathan RichardsonAVP - Equity Research at Barclays00:27:49Just a couple of quick questions here. So I just wanted to clarify. So I believe you said that you intend to do an expedited seaside case. I was wondering if there was any more details about that? Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:27:59Sure. Yes, we do plan. As you may recall in the 2025 GRC that was proposed to us. It's a bit unique as it's not something we've done before. We're in the process of finalizing the details with the party through constructive dialogue. Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:28:15So we would expect that to be filed here sometime in the coming months, days, here so shortly. And it's pretty simple as it relates to just clarifying the mechanism on when and how we recover the cost. But we think the dialogue has been productive today and so we look forward to being able to file this and work forward. Nathan RichardsonAVP - Equity Research at Barclays00:28:39Got it. That makes sense. And then last one. So sequentially, the equity layer seems to have gone down a little bit. I was curious where you think you'll be at the end of the year with the current equity issuance in the plan. Nathan RichardsonAVP - Equity Research at Barclays00:28:50And then part two of that is what do you think the trajectory is to get back to 50% and you have a rough timeline on that? Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:28:58As we mentioned before, we've drawn down as it relates to the, I shouldn't say drawn down. We've issued under the ATM up to 100,000,000 so far, right? Our capital plan to date needs 300. Current pricing as it relates to the market, although not where we would like it to be is somewhere that we believe we continue to make pretty investments that are not dilutive here. We think as we work forward here we continue to be committed and think even at these kind of prices, we can work towards our fiftyfifty cap structure going forward. Nathan RichardsonAVP - Equity Research at Barclays00:29:36Got it. Thank you very much. Operator00:29:39Thank you. Our Operator00:29:41next question comes from the Operator00:29:42line of Anthony Crowdell with Mizuho. Your line is now open. Anthony CrowdellManaging Director at Mizuho Financial Group00:29:47Hey, good morning team. My question is probably follow-up on the last one and Julien's on the holding company. I think Joe, you mentioned about targeting a fiftyfifty. Does it require the holding company to be established before you achieve the fiftyfifty? Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:30:03As it relates to that, our financing plan and our strategy to get to fiftyfifty, which would obviously be at the utility is exclusive of and does not rely upon a holding company strategy. That is just our straight up plan. Anthony CrowdellManaging Director at Mizuho Financial Group00:30:19And then when you think about the creation of the holding company, is there a targeted level of debt that you would look to maintain at the holding company? Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:30:30It's too early to get to specifics on that. Obviously, we want to use the holding company here to give us the flexibility to continue to be able to efficiently finance and manage our cost for the customer. But today, you know, there's nothing specific other than the focus that the holding company will drive flexibility, will continue to support a customer about. And we expect over this process which I think we've mentioned would take up to a year. We'll get further clarity there just and expect that we will stay within our reasonable norms for those type of structures. Anthony CrowdellManaging Director at Mizuho Financial Group00:31:07And just I'm not familiar with Oregon, if there's any issues in the state from a regulatory perspective on double leverage, if the equity and debt ratios at the holding company differ from that of the opco. Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:31:23Today, can't say that there's anything specific there. I do think that as we work through with the regulator here, we'll clarify through a set of agreements and stipulations on how the holding company will work. But if you ask specifically to provision as it relates to that, I do not believe there are. Anthony CrowdellManaging Director at Mizuho Financial Group00:31:40Great. Thanks so much for taking my questions. Operator00:31:44Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Greg O'Real with UBS. Your line is now open. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:31:51Good morning, Greg. Gregg OrrillAnalyst at UBS Group00:31:53Yeah, good morning. Thank you. Just maybe you hit this already, just the timing of pursuing the whole co proposal? Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:32:06We'll be filing something in the latter part of the second quarter. Gregg OrrillAnalyst at UBS Group00:32:12Okay. All right. That's the only question I had. Appreciate it. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:32:18Great. Thanks. Thanks, Greg. Operator00:32:20Thank you. And I'm currently showing no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the call back over to Maria Pope for closing remarks. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:32:28Thank you all for joining us today. We appreciate your interest in Portland General Electric, and we look forward to connecting with everyone soon. Thank you very much. Operator00:32:36This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.Read moreParticipantsExecutivesNick WhiteManager of Investor RelationsMaria PopePresident & CEOJoseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFOAnalystsJulien Dumoulin-SmithResearch Analyst at Jefferies Financial GroupMichael LoneganDirector - Equity Research at Evercore ISIRichard SunderlandEquity Research - North American Utilities & Power at JP MorganNathan RichardsonAVP - Equity Research at BarclaysAnthony CrowdellManaging Director at Mizuho Financial GroupGregg OrrillAnalyst at UBS GroupPowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallPortland General Electric Q1 202500:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2xTranscript SectionsPresentationParticipants Earnings DocumentsSlide DeckPress Release(8-K)Quarterly report(10-Q) Portland General Electric Earnings HeadlinesPortland General Electric's (NYSE:POR) Promising Earnings May Rest On Soft FoundationsMay 3 at 3:41 PM | finance.yahoo.comPortland General Electric (NYSE:POR) Reaches New 1-Year Low After Analyst DowngradeMay 2 at 2:27 AM | americanbankingnews.comThe Trump Dump is starting; Get out of stocks now?The first 365 days of the Trump presidency… Will be the best time to get rich in American history.May 5, 2025 | Paradigm Press (Ad)Is Portland ready for a catastrophic wildfire in Forest Park?May 1, 2025 | msn.comBarclays Adjusts Price Target for Portland General Electric (POR) | POR Stock NewsApril 30, 2025 | gurufocus.comWells Fargo & Company Lowers Portland General Electric (NYSE:POR) Price Target to $44.00April 30, 2025 | americanbankingnews.comSee More Portland General Electric Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like Portland General Electric? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on Portland General Electric and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About Portland General ElectricPortland General Electric (NYSE:POR) Company, an integrated electric utility company, engages in the generation, wholesale purchase, transmission, distribution, and retail sale of electricity in the state of Oregon. It operates six thermal plants, three wind farms, and seven hydroelectric facilities. As of December 31, 2023, the company owned an electric transmission system consisting of 1,254 circuit miles, including 287 circuit miles of 500 kilovolt line, 413 circuit miles of 230 kilovolt line, and 554 miles of 115 kilovolt line; and served 934 thousand retail customers in 51 cities. It also has 28,868 circuit miles of distribution lines. 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PresentationSkip to Participants Operator00:00:00Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Portland General Electric Company's First Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Results Conference Call. Today is Friday, 04/25/2025. This call is being recorded and as such, Operator00:00:11all lines have been placed Operator00:00:12on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer period. For opening remarks, I will turn the conference call over to Portland General Electric's Manager of Investor Relations, Nick White. Please go ahead, sir. Nick WhiteManager of Investor Relations at Portland General Electric Company00:00:39Thank you, Shannon. Good morning, everyone. We're happy you could join us today. Before we begin this morning, I would like to remind you that we have prepared a presentation to supplement our discussion, which we will be referencing throughout the call. The slides are available on our website at investors.portlandgeneral.com. Nick WhiteManager of Investor Relations at Portland General Electric Company00:00:56Referring to Slide two, some of our remarks this morning will constitute forward looking statements. We caution you that such statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties and actual results may differ materially from our expectations. For a description of some of the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, please refer to our earnings press release and our most recent periodic reports on Forms 10 ks and 10 Q, which are available on our website. Turning to slide three, leading our discussion today are Maria Pope, President and CEO, and Joe Terpic, Senior Vice President of Finance and CFO. Following their prepared remarks, we will open the line for your questions. Nick WhiteManager of Investor Relations at Portland General Electric Company00:01:33Now it's my pleasure to turn the call over to Maria. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:01:36Good morning, and thank you all for joining us today. Portland General Electric announced advanced key priorities in the first quarter, laying the foundation for solid results, diligent cost management and strong execution in 2025 and beyond. Beginning with Slide four, I'll speak to our financial results and key drivers. For the first quarter, reported GAAP net income of $100,000,000 or $0.91 per diluted share. This compares with first quarter twenty twenty four GAAP net income of $109,000,000 or $1.8 per diluted share and non GAAP net income of $123,000,000 or $1.21 per share. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:02:19Our first quarter results reflect the continuation of strong load growth from high-tech and data center customers who drove 4.6% total load growth and industrial load growth of 16.4% compared to the same quarter last year. PGE serves five large semiconductor customers and over 10 significant data center providers that are spread across dozens of sites, making up nearly a quarter of our total deliveries. This growth is driving important capital improvements and upgrades across our transmission and distribution systems. These investments advance critical energy security and resource adequacy goals shared by customers and the communities we serve. And also address aging infrastructure needs and enable the economic engine of our service territory. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:03:17Many of these customers have aggressive clean energy goals that align with our municipal and residential customers who make our clean energy program number one in the country according to NREL. Our strategy drives our work to build the reliable, affordable, and increasingly clean grid of the future, including the ongoing 2023 and 2025 RFPs and the forthcoming 2025 IRP update. Customer prices are central to our strategy and we are paying close attention to the evolving federal policy landscape and advocating for the continuation of renewable investment and production tax credits. Credit transferability, and other provisions under the IRA and IIJA, as well as closely following the ongoing tariff situation. Our commitment to address system resilience, advance clean energy priorities, and provide safe, reliable, and affordable energy for every customer we serve is as important today as ever. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:04:28Turning to wildfire risk. We're actively engaged with key stakeholders, including legislators, the governor's office, the OPUC, the Oregon Department of Forestry, first responders, and other utilities, and customers as we work towards solutions that address the societal risk of wildfires and other extreme weather. Our mature year round wildfire mitigation work is advancing as we deploy lessons learned from recent wildfires and sharpen our practices ahead of summer. In 2025, we plan to spend over 120,000,000 on wildfire mitigation, including capital investments and O and M. We're working with elected officials and stakeholders on legislation to address the financial risk from wildfires. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:05:17A bill was introduced in February to create a standard of care for utility wildfire mitigation and establishes a safety certificate process to be managed by the OPUC and tied to our wildfire mitigation plan. Creating clear standards for the work utilities do to prevent wildfires and keep communities safe is essential. Our clear standards reduce the likelihood of wildfires being triggered by utility equipment, Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:05:46as Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:05:47well as enhanced services liability, lowers customer costs, and provides economic stability for Oregon's communities. We're pleased to see continued progress on this important policy. While proposed legislation to create a catastrophic wildfire fund has not moved forward, the ongoing dialogue with stakeholders represents productive progress. Pacific Northwest states are just beginning to grapple with the liability issues related to wildfire risk. And as I said on our last call, these policies may take more than one session to achieve. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:06:27The work we're doing to address and manage risk by executing on our wildfire mitigation plan and working to find societal solutions for the risk of wildfire and extreme weather helps with affordability and protects customers. When it comes to affordability, there are several areas that also come together to reduce upward customer bill pressure. Growth. Serving a growing customer base allows us to spread out operating costs and investments over larger volumes of business. Cost management. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:07:01Our company wide work to reduce o and m costs is well underway. We're evaluating every program and reducing costs to help keep customer prices as low as possible. Joe will cover this work in greater detail in his remarks. As discussed on our previous call, we're working towards updating PGE's corporate structure to enable a holding company. This is a common structure in the industry, in fact, most common structure, and will help enable increased flexibility in how we finance our business. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:07:35As we look ahead, Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:07:37the Portland General Electric team is focused on managing our business with discipline and foresight, diligently controlling costs and risk management, and seeking competitive returns to effectively attract investment, delivering value to customers, communities, and shareholders. With that, I'll turn it over to Joe. Joe? Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:07:58Thank you, Maria, and good morning, everyone. Turning to slide five in our Q1 results reflect strong energy demand from our industrial customers and ongoing system investments. Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:08:09Q1 twenty twenty five loads increased 4.6% overall or 4.4 weather adjusted as compared to Q1 twenty twenty four. Q1 '20 '20 '5 residential load decreased 0.8% quarter over quarter or 1% weather adjusted. Residential customer count increased by 1.6% which was offset by energy efficiency driving lower usage per customer. Commercial load remained relatively flat with a slight increase of point 8% or point 3% weather adjusted. We observed another quarter of choppy growth from the industrial class this quarter. Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:08:43Industrial load increased 16.4% on both a nominal and weather adjusted basis, as recent load growth trends from data centers and semiconductor customers continued. These results are aligned with our 2025 plan and as such, we are reaffirming our 2025 weather adjusted load growth guidance of 2.5% to 3.5% and our long term load growth guidance of 3% through 2029 based on our current expectations. I'll now cover our financial performance quarter over quarter. We experienced a $07 increase in total revenues driven by a $0.14 increase from the 4.6% low growth, 4.6 growth in deliveries partially offset by a 7¢ decrease in revenues due to delivery composition changes. A decrease from power cost of 8¢ driven by a 17¢ EPS decrease due to power cost performance in 2024 that reverses for this comparison and a $09 increase from favorable conditions which drove lower power costs than anticipated in the annual update tariff. Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:09:50Overall, we are slightly below the PCCAM baseline in Q1. An 18¢ EPS decrease from operating expenses made up of 4¢ of O and M net of improved recovery and deferral related items driven primarily by the timing of wages and benefits and professional service costs. 11¢ from higher depreciation and amortization and 3¢ from higher interest expenses driven by higher debt balances in support of the ongoing capital investments. And lastly, an 11¢ decrease from other items, including 8¢ from dilution from recent equity draws and 3¢ from other miscellaneous items. Turning to slide six for our five year capital forecast, remains consistent with our last disclosure. Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:10:37The incoming seaside battery remains on track to come in service at the June and will complement our existing battery portfolio during peak summer usage. We are advancing our regulatory strategy for Seaside in Q2 consistent with our expedited option introduced in the 2025 GRC order as we will seek recovery of this important asset that will soon serve customers. Beyond that, we're constructively engaging with parties as we evaluate our long term regulatory path. While the timing and scope remains fluid, we are focused on options that balance our commitment to affordability while recovering key capital investments serving customers. On the resource planning and procurement front, we are continuing through negotiations with the 2023 RFP bidders and still expect contract finalization in the second half of the year and projects in service by the end of twenty twenty seven under current conditions. Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:11:31Filing of the 2025 IRP update will be made later this quarter and will support the 2025 RFP process which has advanced through preliminary stages and will fully launch in the second half. As Maria mentioned, we are keeping an eye towards federal policy development, including tariffs, changes in the Inflation Reduction Act, tax policy, and other relevant legislation that may impact our base capital plans or renewable procurement. This is clearly a dynamic situation but we are engaged in all fronts with suppliers, customers, regulators, policymakers and other stakeholders as we evaluate collective impacts. On to slide seven for our liquidity and financing summary. Total liquidity at the March was $948,000,000 and our credit ratings and outlook remain unchanged from the last quarter. Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:12:23We executed $310,000,000 of first mortgage bonds at the March and anticipate up to $140,000,000 more of debt financing later this year to support our capital investment plan and general corporate purposes. We priced an additional $87,000,000 under the ATM program in Q1 as we deliberately execute our base financing plan, which remains at 300,000,000 per year for 2025 and 2026. The growing needs of customers, clean energy progress, and our commitment to affordability are pushing us towards new solutions that unlock value for our customers and stakeholders. Expanding our financing flexibility remains a priority and as Maria noted, we are pursuing updates to our structure including a holding company formation. After making solid headway in Q1, our teams remain focused on advancing key priorities for the balance of 2025. Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:13:16This includes deploying intentional cost management measures to realize lasting efficiencies and the right cost structure. This builds on the foundation we laid in 2024 to identify strategies that improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our work and support lasting strong performance. Implementing this plan is challenging, but important as we find ways to streamline our operations utilizing tools and technology to do high impact work at lower cost. This is critical to support our commitment to customer affordability and bolster our culture of to consistently deliver our expectations. Given our progress to date, we are confident in the path forward and our strategy that underpins our near term and long term outlook. Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:13:59As such, we are reaffirming our 2025 adjusted earnings guidance of 3.13 to $3.33 per diluted share and our long term earnings and dividend growth guidance of five to 7%. We look forward to continued execution for the remainder of the year as we focus on safely delivering reliable, increasingly clean and affordable energy to our customers and the communities we serve. And now operator, we're ready for questions. Operator00:14:27Thank you. Operator00:14:41Our first question comes from the Operator00:14:42line of Julien Dumoulin Smith with Jefferies. Your line is now open. Julien Dumoulin-SmithResearch Analyst at Jefferies Financial Group00:14:47Hey, morning, team. Hey, good morning. Appreciate the time guys. Hey. Just wanted to come back on the legislative and and just wildfire context. Julien Dumoulin-SmithResearch Analyst at Jefferies Financial Group00:14:55Obviously, know, you you heard the comments earlier. How are you thinking about the progress and and more importantly, where you're making progress where you are specifically in setting expectations whether this year or next year just to lay the groundwork? Because obviously I think that's kind of the linchpin of some of the other subsequent decisions, right, like a holdco it seems from a timing perspective. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:15:14So you're spot on with regards to the timing. With regards to progress that we're making, one of the things I think that has really been evident is there are a lot of legislators that really were not aware of the extensive wildfire mitigation plans that we put in place, the extensive increase in vegetation management, and the work that we've done in system hardening over the past number of years. And so there was a lot of discussion over really what it takes, the costs, and the significant increase in costs over the last couple of years for wildfire prevention and mitigation. One of the things I think is also interesting is that wildfire presents itself very differently in different parts of the state. So we've had a lot of discussions by experts as well as others. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:16:08Where we have really excelled is with regards to a certificate process. And that has been very important in terms of establishing a well known and well understood standard of care. Not unlike what you would see in the medical fields or in engineering fields or in many other fields. And then where we have much more work to do is with regards to a fund and then also limitations of liabilities associated with accessing that type of fund. The customers can get access to funds much faster than they would through other processes. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:16:43We have a lot more work to do there. And I think you'll see that the continuation of discussions even after the legislative session should be very productive. Julien Dumoulin-SmithResearch Analyst at Jefferies Financial Group00:16:58Excellent. Thank you. And then just on the if I can follow that up real quickly here with where you stand. I mean, you've got the five to seven CAGR out there and certainly that's dependent on seeing the financing come through with a certain level of dilution. When you think about the decision to follow through on CapEx as we see today, I just wanted to get your sense of confidence. Julien Dumoulin-SmithResearch Analyst at Jefferies Financial Group00:17:21We have public statements here from others saying we're gonna focus on affordability. The same time, we're not seeing the follow through on the wildfire legislation, whether in '25, maybe it happens in '26. But at what point do you say, look, we're we're gonna pull back on growth because the the broader construct is telling us to to reassess here. I mean, it's a difficult backdrop. I appreciate what you guys are doing, especially from a cost containment perspective, and I want to highlight that here. Julien Dumoulin-SmithResearch Analyst at Jefferies Financial Group00:17:47But at the same time, so many different pressure points here. There a certain moment where you say we're going to reassess? Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:17:54Yeah. I think it's a good question, Julie. And it's one that we ask ourselves continually. I well, just as a reminder, and we talked about this pretty extensively on the second quarter excuse me, on the first quarter call in February as well as previous. We always thought that the discussion with regards to addressing wildfire in Oregon would take two sessions. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:18:15And I'm very appreciative of representatives Marsh and Mannix for the tireless work that they have done with regards to both bills, but in particular with regards to safety certification. As we move forward, you're right. We're looking at our ability to be able to adequately recover costs and deliver competitive returns and competitive growth for investors. Julien Dumoulin-SmithResearch Analyst at Jefferies Financial Group00:18:46Excellent. Well, look, maybe just last quick one on timing on the RFPs and any updates there just as far as it goes? Because obviously, your outlook is pretty sensitive to that. Just if you could just clarify what you're seeing on that front and I'll leave it there. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:19:01So we couldn't be more pleased with the negotiations as they're progressing. Obviously, in the external and global as well as national environments, there's a lot of noise. But our customer base is growing. Our customer base continues to be focused on clean energy. And we look forward to concluding the negotiations as we go through the balance of the year and bringing on projects in the 2027 time period. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:19:28I would note that from the last projects we brought on, we're already seeing tremendous advantages of the battery storage. In fact, we've seen upwards of just under 10% in certain periods of time coming from our battery storage, enabling a lower cost energy to be delivered to customers and really taking advantage of the variability across the entire West. Julien Dumoulin-SmithResearch Analyst at Jefferies Financial Group00:19:56Awesome. Hey, thanks for the time guys. Hang in there. We'll speak soon, all right? All the best. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:20:00Thanks, Julian. Operator00:20:02Our next question comes from the Operator00:20:04line of Michael Lonigan with Evercore ISI. Your line is now open. Michael LoneganDirector - Equity Research at Evercore ISI00:20:09Good morning. Yes. Good morning. Thanks for taking the You have so obviously, you've seen strong industrial sales growth driven by semiconductors and data centers. You reiterated your 3% long term load growth forecast. Michael LoneganDirector - Equity Research at Evercore ISI00:20:23But given the tariffs and concerns about economic development, just wondering, are you prepared for a potential slowdown in this load growth and a slowdown in capital projects? Just wondering if you could talk about the options you have for capital potential reallocation and then also what you're expecting in terms of capital inflation. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:20:43Yes. So first of all, with regards to our industrial base, it's primarily three areas. The first is a quarter of it is really traditional industrial customers. A quarter in our fastest growing area is data centers. That's the fastest growing area by far. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:21:06And then about half is semiconductors. We are watching the global market for semiconductors very closely. And between all three of those sectors, we remain very confident in our growth as we move forward. In terms of overall inflation, we've actually seen a moderating of inflation in terms of costs that are impacting us. Would imagine that our customers are seeing somewhat of the same thing. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:21:34Obviously, that does not come and take into consideration all the discussions with regards to tariffs that are taking place nationally and globally. Michael LoneganDirector - Equity Research at Evercore ISI00:21:44Great, thanks. And then you've talked about monetizing tax credits to manage your financing plan. Just wondering how much monetization does your plan currently account for per year? And then in the event there was no longer any transferability, what would be your approach to plugging that gap? Potentially more equity? Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:22:06Joe, do you Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:22:07want to address So as it relates to our base plan, the only tax credits are really contemplated in our financing are the ones related to the seaside project that's about to come online. After that, base plan and investments in our base plan do not have any additional ITCs or PTCs. We do have, I say, a small monetization of our PTCs over time but they're not significant to our financing. As it relates to our growth when we consider the potential participation in the RFP we would anticipate that there are, there can be IPCs in there but we look at those first as a benefit to a cost reduction to our customers. And then they obviously do have the ability to take some pressure off of our financing. Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:22:52I should say with the ITCs and PTCs that we've had, that we've monetized to date and the ones that are coming, we continue strong interest in the ability to monetize those investments. So, mean, short baseline, other than CSAT does not rely on the ITCs and long term that really the ITCs are as much about affordability for our customers and effective pricing. Michael LoneganDirector - Equity Research at Evercore ISI00:23:16Great. Thanks for taking my question. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:23:19Thank you. Our Operator00:23:26next question comes from the line of Richard Sunderland with JPMorgan. Your line is now open. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:23:31Good morning. Richard SunderlandEquity Research - North American Utilities & Power at JP Morgan00:23:32Hey, good morning. Thanks for the time today. Picking up the RFP conversation, do you see any need or potential to pivot resources out of the 2023 RFP and into the 2025 RFP to update pricing for, let's say, tariff or supply chain impacts? Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:23:53Thanks. Good morning. You know, as it relates to pricing and, you know, this isn't very dissimilar from what we saw in 2021 that these type of changes are contemplated. So we don't, at this point, think there's a need to roll forward. We have a pretty adaptable process. Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:24:12The dialogue that we have with the RFP group right now continues to contemplate these uncertainties. So, least at this point in time, we believe there are enough vehicles within the actual standing RFP process to adjust as we move in 2021. If you recall, there were some pricing increases as well as some clarity in the IRA. There was a net increase that we were able to work through subsequent to the RFP process getting through into the selection. Richard SunderlandEquity Research - North American Utilities & Power at JP Morgan00:24:41Got it. Does that hold true for the batteries in the 2023 RFP? I mean, those being sourced from China? Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:24:49As it relates to the batteries, haven't disclosed where they're sourced from yet but obviously batteries overall have a majority coming from overseas. But in our dialogue with the parties, we are contemplating ways to address the way that tariffs could impact their batteries assuming they do have that exposure. And we continue with that dialogue to be on track here to be able to execute here in the second half of the year for these RFPs. Richard SunderlandEquity Research - North American Utilities & Power at JP Morgan00:25:22Okay. Got it. That's helpful. And then turning back to some of the comments in the opening script. Maria, I know you mentioned growth as one angle to address affordability. Richard SunderlandEquity Research - North American Utilities & Power at JP Morgan00:25:33I'm curious if you can speak a little bit more to, I guess, the relationship with that data center customers and how you're getting the right structure with them on minimum guarantees, costs overall, sort of avoiding that cross subsidization on to existing rate payers. What's the overall landscape look like in terms of sort of paying your fair share, if that makes sense? Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:25:57It's an excellent question. And it's something that we're spending a lot of time talking about both in the regulatory and in the legislative arenas. In fact, there is legislation to address this as we speak. Overall, the impact is in several areas. The first is just overall infrastructure. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:26:19And as you can see, we've broken out a separate transmission area in our capitalization table. And it's really these new large customers, particularly data centers that's driving a lot of the need for transmission build outs really in the first time and sometimes decades in our service territory. So there is a benefit overall for system reliability. With regards to distribution, some impact there certainly. But most overall, what you really see is a change in the market price of power as the increasing demand comes from data centers, whether we are serving them or other utilities in the Pacific Northwest. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:27:01And we need to be doing more direct procurement for those. And we do have some programs that allow for that already, and we're working directly with customers. I would also say that the data centers bring additional stability to the grid. We have some data centers that are bringing battery stores. We have some that have backup many have backup generation. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:27:24And that is something that we have been working on for years and has accelerated our virtual power plant process. Richard SunderlandEquity Research - North American Utilities & Power at JP Morgan00:27:32Great. Thank you so much. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:27:34Thank you. Operator00:27:36Our next question comes from the line of Nathan Richardson with Barclays. Your line is now open. Nathan RichardsonAVP - Equity Research at Barclays00:27:44Hey everybody, how are you? Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:27:46Good morning. Nathan RichardsonAVP - Equity Research at Barclays00:27:49Just a couple of quick questions here. So I just wanted to clarify. So I believe you said that you intend to do an expedited seaside case. I was wondering if there was any more details about that? Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:27:59Sure. Yes, we do plan. As you may recall in the 2025 GRC that was proposed to us. It's a bit unique as it's not something we've done before. We're in the process of finalizing the details with the party through constructive dialogue. Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:28:15So we would expect that to be filed here sometime in the coming months, days, here so shortly. And it's pretty simple as it relates to just clarifying the mechanism on when and how we recover the cost. But we think the dialogue has been productive today and so we look forward to being able to file this and work forward. Nathan RichardsonAVP - Equity Research at Barclays00:28:39Got it. That makes sense. And then last one. So sequentially, the equity layer seems to have gone down a little bit. I was curious where you think you'll be at the end of the year with the current equity issuance in the plan. Nathan RichardsonAVP - Equity Research at Barclays00:28:50And then part two of that is what do you think the trajectory is to get back to 50% and you have a rough timeline on that? Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:28:58As we mentioned before, we've drawn down as it relates to the, I shouldn't say drawn down. We've issued under the ATM up to 100,000,000 so far, right? Our capital plan to date needs 300. Current pricing as it relates to the market, although not where we would like it to be is somewhere that we believe we continue to make pretty investments that are not dilutive here. We think as we work forward here we continue to be committed and think even at these kind of prices, we can work towards our fiftyfifty cap structure going forward. Nathan RichardsonAVP - Equity Research at Barclays00:29:36Got it. Thank you very much. Operator00:29:39Thank you. Our Operator00:29:41next question comes from the Operator00:29:42line of Anthony Crowdell with Mizuho. Your line is now open. Anthony CrowdellManaging Director at Mizuho Financial Group00:29:47Hey, good morning team. My question is probably follow-up on the last one and Julien's on the holding company. I think Joe, you mentioned about targeting a fiftyfifty. Does it require the holding company to be established before you achieve the fiftyfifty? Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:30:03As it relates to that, our financing plan and our strategy to get to fiftyfifty, which would obviously be at the utility is exclusive of and does not rely upon a holding company strategy. That is just our straight up plan. Anthony CrowdellManaging Director at Mizuho Financial Group00:30:19And then when you think about the creation of the holding company, is there a targeted level of debt that you would look to maintain at the holding company? Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:30:30It's too early to get to specifics on that. Obviously, we want to use the holding company here to give us the flexibility to continue to be able to efficiently finance and manage our cost for the customer. But today, you know, there's nothing specific other than the focus that the holding company will drive flexibility, will continue to support a customer about. And we expect over this process which I think we've mentioned would take up to a year. We'll get further clarity there just and expect that we will stay within our reasonable norms for those type of structures. Anthony CrowdellManaging Director at Mizuho Financial Group00:31:07And just I'm not familiar with Oregon, if there's any issues in the state from a regulatory perspective on double leverage, if the equity and debt ratios at the holding company differ from that of the opco. Joseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFO at Portland General Electric Company00:31:23Today, can't say that there's anything specific there. I do think that as we work through with the regulator here, we'll clarify through a set of agreements and stipulations on how the holding company will work. But if you ask specifically to provision as it relates to that, I do not believe there are. Anthony CrowdellManaging Director at Mizuho Financial Group00:31:40Great. Thanks so much for taking my questions. Operator00:31:44Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Greg O'Real with UBS. Your line is now open. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:31:51Good morning, Greg. Gregg OrrillAnalyst at UBS Group00:31:53Yeah, good morning. Thank you. Just maybe you hit this already, just the timing of pursuing the whole co proposal? Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:32:06We'll be filing something in the latter part of the second quarter. Gregg OrrillAnalyst at UBS Group00:32:12Okay. All right. That's the only question I had. Appreciate it. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:32:18Great. Thanks. Thanks, Greg. Operator00:32:20Thank you. And I'm currently showing no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the call back over to Maria Pope for closing remarks. Maria PopePresident & CEO at Portland General Electric Company00:32:28Thank you all for joining us today. We appreciate your interest in Portland General Electric, and we look forward to connecting with everyone soon. Thank you very much. Operator00:32:36This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.Read moreParticipantsExecutivesNick WhiteManager of Investor RelationsMaria PopePresident & CEOJoseph TrpikSenior VP of Finance & CFOAnalystsJulien Dumoulin-SmithResearch Analyst at Jefferies Financial GroupMichael LoneganDirector - Equity Research at Evercore ISIRichard SunderlandEquity Research - North American Utilities & Power at JP MorganNathan RichardsonAVP - Equity Research at BarclaysAnthony CrowdellManaging Director at Mizuho Financial GroupGregg OrrillAnalyst at UBS GroupPowered by