Fortis Q1 2025 Earnings Report

Fortis EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.70
• Consensus EPS: $0.69
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.01
• One Year Ago EPS: $0.93

Fortis Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $2.31 billion
• Expected Revenue: $3.42 billion
• Beat/Miss: Missed by -$1.11 billion
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Fortis Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q1 2025
• Date: 5/7/2025
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Wednesday, May 7, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 8:30AM ET

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) operates as an electric and gas utility company in Canada, the United States, and the Caribbean countries. It generates, transmits, and distributes electricity to approximately 447,000 retail customers in southeastern Arizona; and 103,000 retail customers in Arizona's Mohave and Santa Cruz counties with an aggregate capacity of 3,408 megawatts (MW), including 68 MW of solar capacity and 250 MV of wind capacity. The company also sells wholesale electricity to other entities in the western United States; owns gas-fired and hydroelectric generating capacity totaling 65 MW; and distributes natural gas to approximately 1,087,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers in British Columbia, Canada. In addition, it owns and operates the electricity distribution system that serves approximately 592,000 customers in southern and central Alberta; owns four hydroelectric generating facilities with a combined capacity of 225 MW; and provides operation, maintenance, and management services to five hydroelectric generating facilities. Further, the company distributes electricity in the island portion of Newfoundland and Labrador with an installed generating capacity of 145 MW; and on Prince Edward Island with a generating capacity of 90 MW. Additionally, it provides integrated electric utility service to approximately 69,000 customers in Ontario; approximately 275,000 customers in Newfoundland and Labrador; approximately 34,000 customers on Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands; and approximately 17,000 customers on certain islands in Turks and Caicos. It also holds long-term contracted generation assets in Belize consisting of 3 hydroelectric generating facilities with a combined capacity of 51 MW; and the Aitken Creek natural gas storage facility. It also owns and operates approximately 90,500 circuit Kilometers (km) of distribution lines; and approximately 51,600 km of natural gas pipelines. Fortis Inc. was founded in 1885 and is headquartered in St. John's, Canada.

Fortis Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Presentation

[Operator]

I would now like to turn the conference over to Stephanie Amaimo, Vice President, Investor Relations.

[Operator]

Please go ahead, Ms. Amaimo.

[Stephanie Amaimo, Vice President, Investor Relations at Fortis]

Thank you, Michael, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Fortis' first quarter twenty twenty five results conference call. I'm joined by David Hutchins, President and CEO Jocelyn Perry, Executive VP and CFO other members of the senior management team as well as CEOs from certain subsidiaries. Before we begin today's call, I want to remind you that the discussion will include forward looking information, which is subject to the cautionary statement contained in the supporting slide show. Actual results can differ materially from the forecast projections included in the forward looking information presented today.

[Stephanie Amaimo, Vice President, Investor Relations at Fortis]

Non GAAP financial measures referenced in our prepared remarks are reconciled to the related U. S. GAAP financial measures in our first quarter twenty twenty five MD and A. Also, unless otherwise specified, all financial information referenced is in Canadian dollars. With that, I will turn the call over to David.

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. We are off to a strong start in 2025. During the quarter, we delivered safe and reliable service to our customers while successfully executing on our capital plan by investing $1,400,000,000 in our utility systems. Financially, we reported earnings per share of $1 representing a $07 increase over the same quarter last year. And on the regulatory front, we received a constructive outcome in British Columbia on FortisBC's multiyear rate framework.

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

Our 2025 capital plan remains on track with 27% invested in the first quarter. And with our twenty six billion dollars '5 year capital plan focused on transmission investments at ITC, the resource transition in Arizona and investments that strengthen our infrastructure and support customer growth across all of our utilities, we are positioned well to deliver on our growth strategy. We expect rate base to increase by approximately $14,000,000,000 to $53,000,000,000 by 2029, supporting average annual rate base growth of 6.5%. As we advance our five year capital plan, we are closely monitoring changes policies, including tariffs and their potential impacts on inflation, supply chain availability and general economic conditions. Based on our initial assessment, we don't expect significant near term impacts to our 2025 capital plan.

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

In the event tariffs result in higher costs, we would expect to recover the impacts through normal regulatory mechanisms. We will be mindful of the impacts on customer affordability should tariffs result in higher costs that persist over the long term. We continue to actively pursue incremental investment opportunities, particularly at ITC and Tucson Electric Power. At ITC, the team continues to work on the US3.7 billion to US4.2 billion of capital expenditures for MISO LRTP Tranche two point one projects located in Michigan and Minnesota where ROFRs are in effect and for system upgrades in Iowa. As a reminder, the majority of these investments for Tranche two point one are expected beyond 2029.

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

While the legislative session proceeds in Iowa, we also continue to advocate for ROFR legislation as part of the Governor's Energy Bill as there is still time to get it approved before the legislature adjourns. Beyond the MISO LRTP projects, ITC has sizable opportunities for load interconnections. This includes the Big Cedar load expansion project as well as the potential for over 5,000 megawatts of additional load as several proposed data center and economic development projects proceed. In Arizona, TEP continues to work through advanced negotiations for new retail load growth, including a customer with a 300 megawatt initial phase that would use existing and planned capacity and start to ramp in the 2027 timeframe. We expect updates to follow later this year if a final agreement is reached.

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

As a reminder, these large customer opportunities will be in addition to the US2.5 billion to US5 billion dollars of incremental investment opportunity associated with UNS Energy's integrated resource plans. Additional opportunities are also underway at our other utilities as we work to build the infrastructure needed to support load growth, improve grid resiliency and facilitate the interconnection of new energy resources. With a long track record of increasing dividends for the past fifty one consecutive years, coupled with our low risk growth strategy, we are committed to our annual dividend growth guidance of 4% to 6% through 2029. Now I will turn the call over to Jocelyn for an update on our first quarter financial results.

[Jocelyn Perry, Executive VP & CFO at Fortis]

Thank you, David, and good morning, everyone. For the quarter, we reported net earnings of $499,000,000 or $1 per common share,

[Jocelyn Perry, Executive VP & CFO at Fortis]

dollars

[Jocelyn Perry, Executive VP & CFO at Fortis]

$0.07 higher than the first quarter of twenty twenty four. Slide nine highlights EPS drivers for the quarter by segment. Our U. S. Electric and gas utilities provided a zero two dollars increase in EPS.

[Jocelyn Perry, Executive VP & CFO at Fortis]

Central Hudson contributed $05 of the increase reflecting rate base growth and conclusion of the 2024 general rate application, which included rebasing of cost, a higher allowed ROE and a shift in quarterly revenue effective July 1. At UNS Energy, EPS decreased $03 The decrease was driven by the $02 impact of lower margins on wholesale sales due to market conditions as well as higher costs associated with rate base growth not yet reflected in customer rates. ITC contributed a CAD0.01 increase reflecting rate base growth partially offset by higher stock based compensation and higher finance costs. For our Western Canadian Utilities, EPS increased CAD0.01 largely driven by rate based growth. Timing of operating cost, a lower allowed ROE of 8.97 effective 01/01/2025 and the expiration of a PBR efficiency carryover mechanism at Fortis, Alberta tempered growth quarter over quarter.

[Jocelyn Perry, Executive VP & CFO at Fortis]

At our other electric segment, EPS increased $01 due to rate base growth and higher electricity sales as well as the timing of quarterly earnings at Newfoundland Power related to the approval of cost recovery regulatory mechanisms. And while not shown on the slide, financial results for the Corporate and Other segment were largely consistent with 2024 as higher stock based compensation and finance costs were offset by unrealized gains on derivative contracts. A higher average U. Dollars Canadian dollar foreign exchange rate of 1.43 compared to $1.35 in the first quarter of twenty twenty four contributed a $03 EPS increase for the quarter. And finally, higher weighted average shares lowered EPS by $01 driven by shares issued under our dividend reinvestment plan.

[Jocelyn Perry, Executive VP & CFO at Fortis]

We issued over $1,000,000,000 of debt in the first quarter to repay borrowings and to fund our capital program. With our five year funding plan intact, the corporation's $500,000,000 ATM program has not been utilized to date and remains available for funding flexibility as required. During the quarter, Moody's confirmed the corporation's BAA3 credit ratings and stable outlook. And just last week, DBRS also confirmed our A low credit rating and stable outlook. With S and P, we continue dialogue around physical and climate risk.

[Jocelyn Perry, Executive VP & CFO at Fortis]

In March, S and P reaffirmed FortisAlberta's A minus credit ratings and revised its outlook from negative to stable given strengthening credit metrics and progress on wildfire mitigation strategies, including the implementation of a public safety power shutoff or PSPS plan. In April, UNS Energy also introduced a PSPS plan for high risk areas within its service territory and we anticipate that Fortis BC will implement a PSPS plan in the coming months. In Arizona, we are happy to report progress was made with wildfire legislation which just passed yesterday and now awaits the Governor's signature. This bill should limit liability associated with wildfires in Arizona. Overall Fortis continues to benefit from a strong business risk profile as well as stable and predictable cash flows from our regulated utilities.

[Jocelyn Perry, Executive VP & CFO at Fortis]

These key credit strengths along with our funding plan support our investment grade credit ratings. Turning now to recent regulatory activity. As David noted in March Fortis BC received a BCUC decision on its 2025 to 2027 multi year rate framework application. This constructive decision builds on the previously approved multi year rate plan and includes a prescribed approach for operating expenses and capital investment. In Arizona, TEP plans to file a rate case this summer that will include a proposal for use of an annual formula rate adjustment mechanism consistent with the ACC's formula rate policy statement issued in 2024.

[Jocelyn Perry, Executive VP & CFO at Fortis]

A formula rate mechanism if approved by the ACC would adjust rates annually based on a predetermined formula. Formula rate plans are expected to improve rate stability for our customers while also reducing regulatory lag for the company. And in New York settlement negotiations are progressing well in Central Hudson's general rate application. Once an agreement is reached, Central Hudson will file a joint proposal outlining the settlement subject to PSC approval. And with that, I'll now turn the call back to David.

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

Thank you, Jocelyn. We are pleased with the progress our teams are making so far this year to deliver on our operational and financial objectives. For the remainder of 2025, we are focused on executing our capital plan, pursuing incremental regulated growth opportunities and navigating the volatile macro environment so that we can continue to provide reliable and affordable service to our customers and compelling long term returns to our shareholders. That concludes my remarks. I will now turn the call back over to Stephanie.

[Stephanie Amaimo, Vice President, Investor Relations at Fortis]

Thank you, David. This concludes the presentation. At this time, we'd like to open the call to address questions from the investment community.

[Operator]

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. And the first question comes from Rob Hope with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

[Robert Hope, MD - Equity Research at Scotiabank]

Good morning, everyone. Appreciate the commentary on potentially tariffs having a little impact on the 2025 capital plan. Can you maybe just outline that a little bit more? Is that because of inventory or is that domestic supply chain? Then that could that look different in 2026?

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

So it's a combination of both those things, Rob. Obviously, the shorter term capital plans that we are executing, we typically have a lot of that material on the ground and ready to go. I still don't think even if you look further out from a longer term basis that, that necessarily will have much impact on our capital plan, anything at all from an execution standpoint, because this is remember, this is not necessarily a supply chain issue yet. And I personally don't think it will get to supply chain constraints. This is more of a cost issue, which of course we are laser focused on to make sure that the cost of implementing those capital plans and what we put in rate base is cost effective and as affordable as it can possibly be for our customers.

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

So it's more from that kind of perspective than it is necessarily the ability to get, say, the parts and execute the plan.

[Robert Hope, MD - Equity Research at Scotiabank]

All right. Good to hear. And then

[Robert Hope, MD - Equity Research at Scotiabank]

maybe just moving over to Arizona. Just regarding the kind of large customers there and the potential data centers in that geography, Can you add some additional color of how conversations have progressed as it does feel like some have fallen away, but some have progressed across the continent. Are you seeing increasing certainty that these are you're achieving kind of meaningful milestones on these conversations?

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

So I would say they are progressing well and in a meaningful direction and fashion. We can't really say much more than that because we're in the process of finishing up those negotiations. We do feel like we're in a good spot. We are working with, as I mentioned, one large customer now. We have plenty behind that customer as well.

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

So we don't feel like there's necessarily kind of do or die on this on the first customer because there is such a long queue behind it. But we are making very good progress and happy to see the efforts that the team in Arizona is putting towards us. Obviously, I think things are a little bit slower moving generally industry wide on data centers just because there's a lot of macro issues and topics that are coming up that I think are putting people a little bit in a little slower pace on some of these negotiations.

[Robert Hope, MD - Equity Research at Scotiabank]

Great. Appreciate that. Thank you.

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

You bet, Rob.

[Operator]

And your next question comes from Maurice Choi with RBC. Please go ahead.

[Maurice Choy, Research Analyst - Energy Infrastructure at RBC Capital Markets]

Thanks and good morning everyone. Just following up on that earlier comment about the potential higher cost from government policy on foreign trade. Is it fair to say that the formula rate plans at ITC and possibly even at TEP in the future will help offset some of these costs for shareholders? And so if anything, possibly Central Hudson in The U. S.

[Maurice Choy, Research Analyst - Energy Infrastructure at RBC Capital Markets]

Is probably where the area you might see more frequent rate filings?

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

Maurice, thanks for that question. I think it's so the main thing about the increase in tariff cost is not necessarily the shareholder impact, but more the customer affordability impact. So that's what we're very focused on. When you look at the regulatory mechanisms that we have and say at ITC that we have, and hopefully we'll be getting at both Eunice Gas and Tucson Electric Power through the formula rates that they're going to be filing for or have filed for. That the normal regulatory mechanisms and that goes for the same for almost all of our utilities.

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

Those regulatory mechanisms will pass these higher costs through because they're obviously prudently incurred costs. There are things that are well beyond our control. We'll try to mitigate as much as we can by looking at alternative supply chains and things like that. And hopefully look at alternatives, not just the supply chains, but alternative products that we can provide. But all of that goes into the regulatory construct that we have.

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

So we don't see any of that breaking down. But at the end, I got to say this at least one more time. We have to focus on the impacts that this will have on affordability for our customers. Because remember, these bills that could go up because of these tariffs or other economic macroeconomic impacts that we might see are on top of what our customers are seeing in the rest of their expenses and bills in their daily lives.

[Maurice Choy, Research Analyst - Energy Infrastructure at RBC Capital Markets]

That makes sense. Maybe in a related way, just to finish off, I wanted to see if you had any thoughts about the bill related to the Inflation Reduction Act that was introduced by Representative Fortichak. The bill obviously not only phases out some of the PTCs and ITCs over in solar, but also eliminates the transferability of credits to third party buyers. So what if any impact do you see that may have on your companies?

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

Yes. So I think that we're still seeing very strong bipartisan support, as recognized by many letters that have been sent to the administration from a broad array of Republicans and Democrats supporting the Inflation Reduction Act for all the right reasons. I mean, these are investments that we're making in The U. S. In specifically in a lot of the red states.

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

There are tax credits that get the benefit goes back to our customers. So again, in that affordability lane that I was just talking about, this is another thing that could help or hurt the affordability story for our customers. So I don't I think the view right now is the IRA going to get completely repealed versus will it have maybe some more scalpel type cuts on different parts. That latter, I think, is to be determined. But in the end, I think the spot that we're at and when you look across our portfolio and the investment tax credits and or production tax credits that we have or expect to get are mostly in the safe harbor zone are already been received.

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

So I don't see any of that getting pulled back. And we happen to be in a pretty good spot across our company too, where the development that we're doing on renewables, etcetera, is once we get past a couple of battery projects here in Arizona, we end up actually in a bit of a low period. So anything that's associated with ITCs or PTCs, related to tax credits and what their future might be will be determined when we actually design and plan and do RFPs associated with those projects. So we don't see much of any of an impact here on the front end.

[Maurice Choy, Research Analyst - Energy Infrastructure at RBC Capital Markets]

Perfect. Thank you very much.

[Operator]

And your next question comes from Ben Pham with BMO. Please go ahead.

[Ben Pham, Managing Director at BMO Capital Markets]

Hey, good morning. Maybe a first question on the Canadian election. Can you tell any potential impact on forwarders? And I'm thinking potential on the transmission side integration and maybe anything in BC in terms of accelerating any of your projects down there?

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

On the first one on the transmission it's hard to say. I don't think I've really thought through that much from a Canadian policy whether or not it drives additional transmission investment, integration between The U. S. And Canada and or across Canada inter province type investments. I think that there's an opportunity and an argument for a little bit more of that, but haven't really seen or been in any of those conversations as of yet.

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

I think overall, the new administration, the Prime Minister Carney is really coming out with a great positive message about growing the Canadian economy, developing natural resources and energy infrastructure. I mean, the stuff that we like to hear from a new administration being in energy industry and looking to build that infrastructure. So I think that will have some definite positive trickle down impacts across Canada and maybe hopefully specifically in British Columbia as well. We've a lot of natural resources in BC and we're trying to help develop them over there.

[Ben Pham, Managing Director at BMO Capital Markets]

Okay. Got it. And maybe on the second question on the funding plan and I know you're happy that dividend reinvestment program balance sheet is in good shape. But when you think about your growth outlook, it looks like CapEx is rising. You have quite healthy currency right now, valuation.

[Ben Pham, Managing Director at BMO Capital Markets]

Like what's the thought around just relatively attractiveness between the status quo versus opportunistic equity offerings?

[Jocelyn Perry, Executive VP & CFO at Fortis]

Ben, yes, you're right. We're always looking at this. And as we go through looking out beyond the next five years, we'll be taking a hard look at our funding plan. I mean the one thing that we're keen to do and I've said this repeatedly a number of times is we want to keep our balance sheet where it is and we certainly don't want to go backwards. So as we look to potential future growth opportunities that we'll be looking to keep the balance sheet healthy.

[Jocelyn Perry, Executive VP & CFO at Fortis]

And whether we go for a discrete equity offering or ATM or DRIP programs, all that depends on how we see the growth coming into play, right? So I think what I can say right now is stay tuned. But the ultimate goal when we think about funding is just to keep our balance sheet in a healthy spot, keep our credit ratings and look at the most efficient way to actually fund the plan going forward.

[Ben Pham, Managing Director at BMO Capital Markets]

Okay. Very good. Thank you.

[Operator]

And your next question comes from Mark Jarvi with CIBC. Please go ahead.

[Mark Jarvi, Equity Research Analyst at CIBC Capital Markets]

Thanks. Good morning. Just coming back to the tariff comments and Dave, comments about being mindful of the impacts on customers. When you think about the businesses, maybe specifically ITC and UNS, is there more likelihood that rate base growth goes higher at ITC? And then at UNS, if costs go higher, you just change the scope of work to manage the rate base growth and affordability for customers?

[Mark Jarvi, Equity Research Analyst at CIBC Capital Markets]

Just kind of viewing how it played out across the different operating subsidiaries?

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

Yes. It plays out based on their specific capital plans. Mean, there's a lot of investments that we're planning on doing that in Arizona as an example, as we look to exit coal, some of our coal generation and we're investing in capital plans. That doesn't necessarily have a negative impact from a customer rate perspective because we're reducing the OpEx and replacing it with capital and can keep our customers' bills pretty much even. And then of course, when you look at the additional growth opportunities, when we think of things like data centers and large manufacturing and the mining customers that we have in Arizona, a lot of that growth does and should pay for itself and maybe even a little bit more of the rest of the customers' rate base because of the large energy usage and high capacity utilization that they have.

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

So some of this growth and I know people generally think growth because we've been in this decade plus of sort of stagnant energy and sales growth that as we add capital, it seems to drop to the bottom line rate increases when in fact when you have the rest of the formula changing at the same time with increased sales, we're not necessarily seeing that. So it is really good to focus on obviously that point because not all growth adds to customer rates and some of it actually helps reduce and increase the affordability for our customers. ITC from a transmission perspective, they're only one piece of a broader bill. So as their rates go up, show up on their downstream utility customers' bills. But the whole point of all these transmission investments that ITC is making is to create a more affordable grid that uses energy more efficiently, gets a better overall dispatch of energy.

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

And in the end, I mean, you look at these MISO LRTP projects, they have to pass a benefit cost test. And so when they do that, you know that when you build it, customers will save money based on those estimates.

[Mark Jarvi, Equity Research Analyst at CIBC Capital Markets]

So if you had to stand

[Mark Jarvi, Equity Research Analyst at CIBC Capital Markets]

here today, do you have a sense of what transmission cost increase inflation would be? And then does that force MISO to reevaluate scope and timings on the projects?

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

Yes. No. In general, I mean, we're a pretty small ITC is a pretty small percentage of the overall utility bills and in utility jurisdictions that we serve. It varies from utility to utility. But yes, we don't have a I don't have a number for that.

[Mark Jarvi, Equity Research Analyst at CIBC Capital Markets]

And then just coming back to the Iowa ROFR comments you made, any perspectives in terms of the letter from the DOJ and just where it stands with the Governor's bill right now and trying to pass that through in the current session?

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

Yes, think we had actually I'll turn that over to Linda to give a little bit more response to it. But yes, we got that letter in Iowa and I think the governor had very good and strong response supporting the ROFR that's in her energy bill. So Linda, you want to opine on that as well?

[Linda Apsey, Chief Executive Officer, ITC Holdings at Fortis]

Yes, absolutely. Good morning. Yes, we obviously, the Iowa ROFR, which is part of the Governor's Energy Bill, as Dave had mentioned, that is still active in the current legislative session. The current legislative session has been extended. They do not yet have an approved budget.

[Linda Apsey, Chief Executive Officer, ITC Holdings at Fortis]

And so as we work with our broad utility coalition to put a strong final push to continue to advocate and hopefully secure passage of the Governor's Energy Bill, We continue to be very actively engaged and we still remain hopeful that we will see ROFR provisions passed in the coming weeks.

[Mark Jarvi, Equity Research Analyst at CIBC Capital Markets]

And then if it did not get passed, that doesn't mean that's the end of the road like potentially try again next year or whatever legislative session comes up. Is that the perspective from your view?

[Linda Apsey, Chief Executive Officer, ITC Holdings at Fortis]

Yes, absolutely. I mean, we would continue to assess all options available, which may and could include another attempt to pass ROFR language yet again next year. But that's too soon to obviously make that call. We've got all eyes on the ball to get the ROFR provisions passed in this legislative session.

[Mark Jarvi, Equity Research Analyst at CIBC Capital Markets]

Understood. Okay. Thanks for time this morning.

[Linda Apsey, Chief Executive Officer, ITC Holdings at Fortis]

Yes.

[Operator]

And your next question comes from Jameson Ward with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

[James Ward, Vice President at Jefferies]

Hi, good morning.

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

Good morning.

[James Ward, Vice President at Jefferies]

Hey, if I could just expand a little bit on the Arizona question earlier and then I have one follow-up on the ATM and its use and so on. First, so regarding that 300 megawatts of new high load factor customers that you're still negotiating with in Arizona, and of course, the 600 for 02/1930 and beyond, could you just give us a bit more color on the types of industries driving this demand and their expected load profiles and kind of what infrastructure investments might be required beyond what's currently contemplated in your capital plans? So obviously, for the 300,000,000 and I mentioned the 600 just because you might have long lead time for transmission or even different types of generation ahead of 02/1930 to have it online by then. Is it mostly data centers? Anything you can kind of point us to for margin, etcetera, would be fantastic.

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

Yes. So out of that, I know the last quarter we talked about this huge queue that we have of 10,000 megawatts. The vast majority of that is data centers. There is some manufacturing and some mining and some other customer large customers in there as well. They are large customers, and I'll say they're probably heavily loaded towards the data centers.

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

Obviously, there's a lot of these different conversations that are happening at the same time and we're probably not quite ready to talk about what type of load that is yet unless Susan will correct me if it's already been public. But I think we'll just kind of keep it at the large high capacity factor customer.

[James Ward, Vice President at Jefferies]

Got it. And then what was the really helpful. Thank you.

[James Ward, Vice President at Jefferies]

Yes, the second was, so your current funding plan has obviously the DRIP participation level consistent around 38%. You pointed in the past to CapEx increases as being the likely driving force around additional needing to tap additional equity. Just given the current macro backdrop and make it as broad as possible, but any potential changes to dividend tax treatment, etcetera, What sort of contingency plans do you have if participation rates were to decline? And maybe just generally at what threshold would you consider activating the $500,000,000 ATM program if it's not just for CapEx increases? Just to give us a sense

[James Ward, Vice President at Jefferies]

of the resiliency of

[James Ward, Vice President at Jefferies]

the funding program. And that's all I had. Thanks, Jocelyn.

[Jocelyn Perry, Executive VP & CFO at Fortis]

Yes, James, our DRIP program is still quite healthy. We do have around 38% participation. And so ultimately, we look at over the five year, I mean, it was over $2,700,000,000 of equity that was required. The DRIP actually gives us that and should the participation change and we're not aware of any dividend tax changes as of today that we believe is going to change that participation. But should participation change, I think that's what the ATM is there to do as well, right?

[Jocelyn Perry, Executive VP & CFO at Fortis]

That we can tap it pretty easily if participation were to decrease. If we were to see participation like vastly decline then we could expand our ATM program or look at other options. But we're not seeing any slowdown in our participation for our DRIP program.

[James Ward, Vice President at Jefferies]

Terrific. Thank you. It seems like you guys are continuing to be really well positioned. Appreciate you answering the questions.

[Linda Apsey, Chief Executive Officer, ITC Holdings at Fortis]

Thank you.

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

Thank you.

[Operator]

And your next question comes from Patrick Kenny with National Bank Financial. Please go ahead.

[Pat Kenny, Managing Director at National Bank Financial]

Thank you. Good morning. Just back to BC, it looks like BC Hydro is looking to add some firm base load generation in the province and perhaps has opened the door to looking at more reliable and I guess more affordable natural gas fired capacity. Just wondering if this might present any new build opportunities for your electric utility franchise in the province, either on an integrated basis or perhaps through partnership. And then I guess for the gas utility as well depending on where these plants might end up being located, if you might see any upside to your rate base as these new plants come online?

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

Yes, that's a great question. I'm going to go all the way over a few time zones west and get Roger Del Antonio, our CEO to answer that one because this is a lot of real good conversation and opportunities that we're seeing in BC. Roger?

[Roger Dall’Antonia, President and CEO at FortisBC]

Thanks, David. Good morning, Patrick.

[Roger Dall’Antonia, President and CEO at FortisBC]

Yes, so on Monday the government announced a new call for power and in that call for power they noted the population growth energy requirements and included capacity unlike the previous call which was energy only. I would say it doesn't have an immediate impact on our electric opportunities. We launched an RFBIO last year for power in our service territory. We are looking to turn that into a more formal RFP in the near term for energy in our service territory. We are going to be looking longer term at additional infrastructure for our service territory that could include capacity.

[Roger Dall’Antonia, President and CEO at FortisBC]

It could be transmission interconnected to BC Hydro who may be providing capacity. Still early to tell. I think what we take out of it is that given the population growth in the province, given the load growth what we've been saying for quite a while is that an integrated approach to dealing with capacity is critical while renewable energy on an energy basis may be relatively cheap capacity isn't and that's where we've seen challenges especially with winter peaking system. So I do think we're going to see some opportunity within our own plans. So those are a bit early to tell.

[Roger Dall’Antonia, President and CEO at FortisBC]

Your other question Patrick I think you mentioned thermal generation, gas generation in the province. Those are plans have not yet been pursued by the provincial government. They're still looking at clean power. But I do think given where the province is thermal generation might be something that they're going to start looking at though nothing has been noted.

[Pat Kenny, Managing Director at National Bank Financial]

Okay. That's great color. Thanks for that. And then maybe staying out west on Fortis, Alberta, just with the lower ROE coming into effect this year. I know you're pursuing an appeal there on some of the parameters, PPR three point zero.

[Pat Kenny, Managing Director at National Bank Financial]

But just wondering if there might be any other offsets that are being pursued in the medium term here and might be sustained under the existing construct regardless of the decision to come next year?

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

Yes. So are you asking about like offsets from a like a cost savings perspective?

[Pat Kenny, Managing Director at National Bank Financial]

Yes. Or on the capital front, just either or just to kind of offset the earnings impact that we've seen year to date?

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

Yes. I mean, at this point, we don't. I mean, we're not changing our capital plan based on that outcome. It's a formulaic ROE now in Alberta. And as that changes, obviously, we will adjust as much as we can.

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

We're always looking at ways of reducing our costs. We have sharing mechanisms there as well. So that's it's sort of, I would say, more nothing that triggers us to take any heroic actions. It was about 30 bps or so of a ROE decrease and that's well manageable within their plan. Obviously, it does impact earnings a little bit, but overall, it's small.

[Pat Kenny, Managing Director at National Bank Financial]

Okay. That's great. I'll leave it there. Thank you.

[James Ward, Vice President at Jefferies]

Okay. Thank you.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Ross Fowler with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

[Ross Fowler, Head - North America Power & Utilities Equity Research at Bank of America]

Good morning, Dave. Morning, Jonathan. How are you?

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

Good, Ross.

[Ross Fowler, Head - North America Power & Utilities Equity Research at Bank of America]

Yes. So I might have missed it in your prepared comments, David, the call, so I apologize. But the 300 megawatts of large load, you said that starts in 2027 and then ramps. Is 300 megawatts where we start or is 300 megawatts where we go? So is it starting at 300 and ramping or is it ramping to 300 as it starts up in 2027?

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

So it's see if I get this exactly right. It's starting to ramp in 2027 to a 300 megawatt size. So that's a it's sort of it's the phase the first phase is 300 megawatts. They have additional phases that they would look at down the road, which is the additional transmission and generation investments that we need to do that. That's sort of there's sort of two different paths going on here.

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

One is getting the first phase up and operating. The second phase is then also in parallel negotiating what Phase two, three and whatever would look like and the time and future investments that we would have to do and the level of commitments and contractual relationship that we would have to have with this customer.

[Ross Fowler, Head - North America Power & Utilities Equity Research at Bank of America]

Okay, perfect. And then, Jocelyn, maybe one for you. You put your credit metrics slide out in the last quarterly deck and it's not in the current quarterly deck. So can you remind us where you are on current credit metrics, where the thresholds are?

[Jocelyn Perry, Executive VP & CFO at Fortis]

Yes. So nothing has really changed, Ross. I mean, as we look forward, we still have the same forecast. So it's just early in the year and there was no reason why we excluded it from the deck other than we're only three months into the year and we have no new information. But yes, so we're still on track with the average FFO to debt of just over 12% for the five years.

[Jocelyn Perry, Executive VP & CFO at Fortis]

Nothing's changing Perfect.

[Ross Fowler, Head - North America Power & Utilities Equity Research at Bank of America]

Thanks, Jocelyn. And then I guess the other thing I noticed in the deck is you're still sort of assuming a 1.3 exchange rate. Obviously, it's been I guess a lot of volatility is probably an understatement in FX lately. Do you anticipate waiting to update that until your normal September sort of look forward enroll?

[Jocelyn Perry, Executive VP & CFO at Fortis]

Yes. We've struggled on this one because there's been so much volatility that we thought we were going to update and then we chose just to do it at the same time that we look forward with our new five year capital plan which is usually in the fall. And just because there's so much volatility we felt that if we change it now we probably would end up changing it again in the fall. So what we've done is provided the sensitivity to give you a sense for how our capital program would change. So look forward to the update in fall.

[Ross Fowler, Head - North America Power & Utilities Equity Research at Bank of America]

Makes complete sense. Let's change it 10 times between now here and there we go And hopefully the volatility comes down. Thank you. Thank you very much.

[Jocelyn Perry, Executive VP & CFO at Fortis]

Thanks.

[Operator]

And your next question comes from Richard Sunderland with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

[Richard Sunderland, Equity Research - North American Utilities & Power at JP Morgan]

Hey, good morning and thanks for the time today. Just have one quick follow-up on the Iowa ROFR legislation. Just kind of procedurally, what's to watch for here? Is it the state needs to pass a budget first, then the governor's energy bill may get considered? And how to think about that dynamic versus the session kind of being in overtime right now?

[Richard Sunderland, Equity Research - North American Utilities & Power at JP Morgan]

Like does the session need to keep getting extended after the budget is passed? Thank you.

[David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer at Fortis]

Thanks for the question, Richard. Linda?

[Linda Apsey, Chief Executive Officer, ITC Holdings at Fortis]

Yes, absolutely. Thank you, Richard. Obviously, we don't really have any visibility or insight as to how the session will specifically proceed in terms of whether the energy bill may be in front of the budget bill or budget bill and other legislative priorities. So unfortunately, I wouldn't say that there is a specific sort of protocol for how this unfolds. Obviously, as mentioned before, we are actively engaged with all of the supporters, our utility coalition and other supporters.

[Linda Apsey, Chief Executive Officer, ITC Holdings at Fortis]

We're actively engaged in the legislative arena to push for obviously passage of the bill, but how it unfolds unfortunately, I really can't provide any further insight on.

[Richard Sunderland, Equity Research - North American Utilities & Power at JP Morgan]

No, no. Got it. That's helpful. Maybe I'll just ask one more here then. Just I think earlier there were comments about several weeks as the opportunity here.

[Richard Sunderland, Equity Research - North American Utilities & Power at JP Morgan]

So is that the expectation that the session will continue for a few more weeks?

[Linda Apsey, Chief Executive Officer, ITC Holdings at Fortis]

Again, it's difficult to say or no. I think it is somewhat contingent upon whether they have an agreement on a budget and how long that process might take to obviously any budget bill would need to get through the various committees in both the House and Senate, obviously full floor votes. And so what that specifically means in terms of timeline, again, don't really have visibility or clarity. Based on prior legislative sessions, There have been budget bills that have taken kind of weeks, if you will, to work their way through the process based on amendments and compromises. And there have been other budgets that have passed fairly quickly, which could be in a matter of a week or days.

[Linda Apsey, Chief Executive Officer, ITC Holdings at Fortis]

So again, it's difficult for us to say or know where exactly the mindset is on the budget and exactly how long that's going to take and then where the Governor's Energy Bill sits or fits within the remaining kind of agenda and sort of priorities. So again, we're somewhat at the whims of the legislative leadership and how they might choose to progress in terms of both budget and any other remaining priorities.

[Richard Sunderland, Equity Research - North American Utilities & Power at JP Morgan]

Got it. Very helpful context. Thank you.

[Linda Apsey, Chief Executive Officer, ITC Holdings at Fortis]

You're welcome.

[Operator]

This concludes the question and answer session. I would like to turn the call back over to Ms. Amaimo for any closing remarks.

[Stephanie Amaimo, Vice President, Investor Relations at Fortis]

Thank you, Michael. We have nothing further at this time. Thank you everyone for participating in our first quarter conference call. Please contact IR should you need anything further and have a great day.

[Operator]

This brings to a close today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.

Participants

Executives

• Stephanie Amaimo, Vice President, Investor Relations
• David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer
• Jocelyn Perry, Executive VP & CFO
• Linda Apsey, Chief Executive Officer, ITC Holdings
• Roger Dall’Antonia, President and CEO

Analysts

• Robert Hope, MD - Equity Research at Scotiabank
• Maurice Choy, Research Analyst - Energy Infrastructure at RBC Capital Markets
• Ben Pham, Managing Director at BMO Capital Markets
• Mark Jarvi, Equity Research Analyst at CIBC Capital Markets
• James Ward, Vice President at Jefferies
• Pat Kenny, Managing Director at National Bank Financial
• Ross Fowler, Head - North America Power & Utilities Equity Research at Bank of America
• Richard Sunderland, Equity Research - North American Utilities & Power at JP Morgan