Black Hills Corp (BKH) 2024 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good day. And thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q3 2024 Black Hills Corporation earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions)

再會。感謝您的支持。歡迎參加 Black Hills Corporation 2024 年第三季財報電話會議。（操作員指令）

I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Sal Diaz, Director of Investor Relations.

現在，我想將會議交給今天的發言人、投資者關係總監薩爾·迪亞茲 (Sal Diaz)。

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to Black Hills Corporation's third quarter, 2024 earnings conference call. You can find our earnings release and materials for our call this morning on our website at www.blackhillscorp.com. Under the Investor Relations heading.

謝謝。早安，歡迎參加 Black Hills Corporation 2024 年第三季財報電話會議。您可以在我們的網站 www.blackhillscorp.com 上找到我們今天早上的收益報告和電話會議資料。在「投資人關係」標題下。

Before we begin today, we would like to note that Black Hills will be attending the Edison Electric Institute's Financial Conference on November 10, through November 12.

在今天開始之前，我們想指出，Black Hills 將於 11 月 10 日至 11 月 12 日參加愛迪生電氣協會的財務會議。

Our leadership team will be meeting with investors and analysts at the conference and the investor presentation will be posted on our website prior to the event, leading our quarterly earnings discussion today are Linn Evans, President and Chief Executive Officer; Kimberly Nooney, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; and Marne Jones, Senior Vice President Utilities.

我們的領導團隊將在會議上與投資者和分析師會面，投資者介紹將在活動前發佈在我們的網站上，今天主持我們季度收益討論的是總裁兼首席執行官 Linn Evans； Kimberly Nooney，資深副總裁兼財務長；以及公用事業高級副總裁 Marne Jones。

During our earnings discussion today, comments we make may contain forward-looking statements as defined by the securities and exchange commission. And there are a number of uncertainties inherent in such comments.

在我們今天的收益討論中，我們發表的評論可能包含美國證券交易委員會定義的前瞻性陳述。而此類評論本身就存在著許多不確定性。

Although we believe that our expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, actual results may differ materially.

儘管我們相信我們的預期是基於合理的假設，但實際結果可能存在重大差異。

We direct you to our earnings release Slide 2, of the investor presentation on our website and our most recent form 10-K and form 10-Q filed with the securities and exchange commission for a list of some of the factors that could cause future results to differ materially from our expectations.

請您參閱我們網站上投資者介紹中的收益報告投影片 2 以及我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的最新 10-K 表格和 10-Q 表格，其中列出了可能導致未來結果與我們的預期存在重大差異的一些因素。

I will now turn the call over to Linn Evans. Linn?

現在我將電話轉給林恩·埃文斯 (Linn Evans)。林恩？

Thank you Sal, good morning and thank you all for joining us today. I'll begin my comments with a brief overview of the quarter. Kimberly will provide our financial update and Marty will provide more detail on our team's operational performance and our strategic progress.

謝謝 Sal，早安，謝謝大家今天加入我們。我將從本季度的簡要概述開始我的評論。金伯利 (Kimberly) 將提供我們的財務更新，而馬蒂 (Marty) 將提供有關我們團隊的營運績效和策略進展的更多詳細資訊。

Starting on Slide 3, I'm pleased with our progress on our customer focused strategy which is reflected in new margins in the advancement of our growth projects. As a team, we delivered excellent service to our customers continue to execute on our financial targets and advance our regulatory and growth initiatives.

從投影片 3 開始，我對我們以客戶為中心的策略所取得的進展感到滿意，這反映在我們成長專案進度的新利潤上。作為一個團隊，我們為客戶提供優質服務，繼續實現我們的財務目標並推進我們的監管和成長計劃。

We continue to deliver on our commitment to provide our customers with safe and reliable service during the quarter including dependable energy delivery through near peak demand levels for our South Dakota electric system.

我們將繼續履行承諾，在本季為客戶提供安全可靠的服務，包括在南達科他州電力系統接近尖峰需求水準時提供可靠的能源傳輸。

Despite unplanned generation outages, total availability for our fleet remained above the industry standard with 98% availability for our natural gas units and 95% total availability across our generation facilities. We also took the opportunity to bring forward and complete some future major maintenance on units that experienced unplanned outages, the reliability we delivered to our utility customers. This quarter was excellent.

儘管出現了計劃外發電中斷，但我們機組的總可用性仍然高於行業標準，其中天然氣機組可用性為 98%，發電設施總可用性為 95%。我們也藉此機會提前並完成了對遭遇意外停電的設備的一些未來重大維護，以確保我們為公用事業客戶提供的可靠性。本季表現優異。

Our focus on reliability is delivering value for all of our customers and is a key value driver in attracting new customers to our service territories. During the third quarter, we announced our plans to serve Meta's first data center in Cheyenne, Wyoming starting in the 2026 time frame. As we look to the future, we are excited to serve demand for hyperscalers with our capital light model and continue to receive inbound requests to expand load beyond Cheyenne.

我們注重可靠性，為所有客戶提供價值，也是吸引新客戶到我們服務區域的關鍵價值驅動因素。在第三季度，我們宣布了從 2026 年開始為 Meta 位於懷俄明州夏延的第一個資料中心提供服務的計劃。展望未來，我們很高興能夠以輕資本模式滿足超大規模企業的需求，並繼續接收擴展夏延以外負載的入站請求。

We remain on track with our $800 million capital plan for the year. Our ongoing capital investment plan is critical to delivering upon the commitments we made to serve our customers and communities safely reliably and cost effectively.

我們今年 8 億美元的資本計畫仍按計劃進行。我們持續的資本投資計畫對於兌現我們安全、可靠且經濟高效地為客戶和社區服務的承諾至關重要。

This includes our ready Wyoming Electric transmission expansion project which strategically interconnects our Wyoming and South Dakota transmission systems, enhancing the resiliency and capacity of our regional energy infrastructure.

這包括我們已準備好的懷俄明電力輸電擴建項目，該項目策略性地連接了我們的懷俄明州和南達科他州的輸電系統，增強了我們區域能源基礎設施的彈性和容量。

Notably, this will benefit our customers with cost stability and expanded energy market access, maintaining our solid financial position remains a focus. We reached key milestones in our financial plan as we achieved our debt to capitalization target to maintain our triple B plus or equivalent credit rating.

值得注意的是，這將使我們的客戶受益於成本穩定和擴大能源市場准入，而保持我們穩固的財務狀況仍然是我們的重點。我們實現了債務資本化目標，維持了三B以上或同等信用評級，達到了財務計畫的關鍵里程碑。

Our team completed our major financing needs for the year as we execute our strategy in funding our customer focused growth. During the third quarter, we advanced our regulatory initiatives. We received approval of new customer rates for Arkansas Gas which were implemented in October.

我們團隊在執行以客戶為中心的成長融資策略的過程中完成了今年的主要融資需求。第三季度，我們推進了監管措施。我們獲得了阿肯色州天然氣公司新客戶費率的批准，該費率於十月實施。

We achieved a settlement for our rate review request at Iowa Gas which is pending commission approval and we continued through the regulatory process for new rates at Colorado Electric. We're currently targeting a cadence of 3 to 4 rate reviews annually driven by our investments to serve our customers growing energy needs.

我們與愛荷華州天然氣公司就費率審查請求達成了和解，該請求正在等待委員會的批准，我們將繼續完成科羅拉多電力公司新費率的監管程序。我們目前的目標是每年進行 3 到 4 次費率審查，並透過投資滿足客戶日益增長的能源需求。

We remain confident in our financial outlook provided on Slide 4, we're on track to deliver on our earnings guidance range of $3.80 to $4 per share as originally issued in February. Our financial performance for the quarter and year-to-date were in line with our expectations as we successfully mitigated the impacts of mild weather, unplanned generation outages and increased insurance expense. We entered the peak heating season with new rates or interim rates in place at four of our six gas utilities this year.

我們對幻燈片 4 中提供的財務前景仍然充滿信心，我們預計將實現 2 月份最初發布的每股 3.80 美元至 4 美元的盈利預期範圍。由於我們成功減輕了溫和天氣、計劃外發電中斷和保險費用增加的影響，本季和年初至今的財務表現符合我們的預期。今年，我們進入了供暖高峰期，我們六家天然氣公用事業公司中的四家已經實施了新的費率或臨時費率。

Looking ahead our strong growth opportunities and continued execution of our initiatives gives us confidence in achieving our long term 4% to 6% EPS growth target Slide 5, displays our current five year capital investment plan over our five year plan period, we expect to invest $4.3 billion in 2026. Our $1.3 billion forecast includes generation investments resulting from our recent electric resource plans.

展望未來，我們強勁的成長機會和持續執行的計劃使我們有信心實現長期 4% 至 6% 的每股收益增長目標。我們的 13 億美元預測包括我們最近的電力資源計劃所產生的發電投資。

As contracts are negotiated, timing of these investments will be updated. Marne will cover the status of our resource plans and her business update in 2027 and 2028 we anticipate incremental opportunities to be added to our plan as we gain more clarity around timing costs and the energy needs of our customers. As indicated by the green arrows above the chart.

隨著合約的談判，這些投資的時間將會更新。Marne 將介紹我們的資源規劃狀況以及 2027 年和 2028 年的業務更新，隨著我們對時間成本和客戶能源需求的了解越來越清晰，我們預計我們的計畫中將增加增量機會。如圖表上方的綠色箭頭所示。

As a reminder at our fourth quarter earnings call in February, we will provide our 2025 earnings guidance and an updated capital forecast through 2029. Slide 6, provides a summary of our hyper scale data center and Blockchain growth opportunities for more than a decade. We have successfully served Microsoft's data center energy needs through a capital light market energy procurement model.

提醒一下，在我們二月的第四季財報電話會議上，我們將提供 2025 年的收益指引和到 2029 年的最新資本預測。投影片 6 總結了我們十多年來的超大規模資料中心和區塊鏈成長機會。我們透過資本輕型市場能源採購模式成功滿足了微軟資料中心的能源需求。

Our innovative tariff is instrumental in enabling a win win of efficiently procuring market energy while providing a return in lieu of new generation investment. We continue to expect earnings from this type of customer to grow EPS contribution from 5% in 2023 to more than 10% of total EPS by 2028.

我們的創新關稅有助於實現高效採購市場能源與提供新一代投資回報的雙贏。我們繼續預期來自此類客戶的收益貢獻將從 2023 年的 EPS 5% 成長到 2028 年總 EPS 的 10% 以上。

In summary, before I turn the call over to Kimberly I'm pleased with our strategic progress. Our service territories are stable and growing with strong electric and gas investment opportunities. Our financial position is solid and we are executing on regulatory recovery as we pursue our growth initiatives.

總而言之，在將電話轉給金伯利之前，我對我們的策略進展感到滿意。我們的服務區域穩定且不斷成長，擁有強大的電力和天然氣投資機會。我們的財務狀況穩健，我們在實施成長計畫的同時，也正在實施監管復甦。

With that, I'll turn the call over to Kimberly for our financial update, Kimberly.

說完這些，我將把電話轉給金伯利，聽聽我們的財務更新情況，金伯利。

Thank you Linn and good morning everyone. As Linn mentioned, third quarter, results were in line with our expectations and we are on track to deliver on our earnings guidance and financial targets. For the year. We completed our key financing activities and achieved our net debt to capitalization target of 55%.

謝謝 Linn，大家早安。正如林恩所提到的，第三季的業績符合我們的預期，我們有望實現獲利預期和財務目標。今年。我們完成了關鍵融資活動，實現了淨債務與資本化率55%的目標。

We are executing on our strategy to deliver on the financial commitment. We made to grow our compounded annual EPS growth rate by 4% to 6% despite mild weather and other unexpected cost pressures. This year, we are delivering new margins and managing our costs to achieve our financial objectives.

我們正在執行我們的策略以履行財務承諾。儘管天氣溫和且面臨其他意外成本壓力，我們仍努力實現 4% 至 6% 的複合年每股收益成長率。今年，我們正在實現新的利潤並管理成本以實現我們的財務目標。

Slide 8, shows third quarter EPS drivers compared to the same period. Last year, we reported $0.35 per share compared to $0.67 per share in Q3, 2023 new margins were offset by higher operating expenses. Unplanned generation outages lower off system sales. And prior year one time benefits, we delivered $0.16 of new margins including new rates and rider recovery of $0.10 per share from our electric utilities, $0.05 from our gas utilities and $0.01 per share of customer growth and usage these positive margin. Drivers offset unplanned generation outages, lower off system sales and a prior year benefit from insurance proceeds.

投影片 8 顯示了與同期相比第三季的 EPS 驅動因素。去年，我們報告的每股利潤為 0.35 美元，而 2023 年第三季的每股利潤為 0.67 美元，新的利潤率被更高的營運費用所抵消。非計劃發電中斷導致系統外銷售下降。和去年同期的一次性收益相比，我們實現了 0.16 美元的新利潤，其中包括來自電力公用事業的每股 0.10 美元的新費率和附加恢復、來自天然氣公用事業的每股 0.05 美元以及來自客戶增長和使用每股 0.01 美元的正利潤。駕駛員可以透過購買保險來抵消非計劃發電中斷、系統外銷售下降以及去年的保險收益。

O&M increased $0.23 comprised of $0.15 from higher insurance premiums, employee costs and outside services. $0.03 of expenses associated with unplanned generation outages and $0.05 due to a prior year gain on sale of land to a data center customer. Interest expense increased $0.05 per share driven primarily by higher interest rates while new shares lowered EPS by $0.02.

O&M 增加了 0.23 美元，其中包括由於保險費、員工成本和外部服務增加而產生的 0.15 美元。 0.03 美元的費用與計劃外發電中斷有關，0.05 美元的費用是由於前一年向資料中心客戶出售土地而產生的收益。利息支出每股增加 0.05 美元，主要由於利率上升，而新股導致每股收益降低 0.02 美元。

Depreciation expense increased $0.05 per share due to new assets placed in service. Side 9, displays the earnings drivers year-to-date through Q3 2024 through three quarters. We delivered a total of $0.57 per share of new margins driven by the successful execution of our strategy. These new margins include $0.35 per share of new rates and rider recovery from our gas utilities and $0.17 from our electric utilities which includes data center demand.

由於新資產投入使用，折舊費用每股增加 0.05 美元。第 9 頁，展示今年迄今至 2024 年第三季的三個季度的獲利驅動因素。由於我們策略的成功實施，我們每股新利潤總計達到 0.57 美元。這些新的利潤包括每股 0.35 美元的新費率和來自我們的天然氣公用事業的額外回收以及來自我們的電力公用事業（包括資料中心需求）的 0.17 美元。

Additionally, we continued to experience customer growth and increased usage which contributed $0.05 per share of margin. This margin growth was partially offset by lower off system sales, unplanned generation outages and a prior year benefit from insurance proceeds.

此外，我們的客戶數量持續成長，使用量不斷增加，每股利潤貢獻了 0.05 美元。利潤率的成長被系統外銷售額的下降、非計畫發電中斷和上一年度的保險收益部分抵銷。

We experienced mild weather in our jurisdictions with $0.14 of unfavorable EPS year-to-date compared to the same period last year compared to normal weather was $0.11 unfavorable as natural gas commodity prices moderated and became more stable in 2024. We recognized a mark to market benefit of $0.03 per share. Year-to-date year over year, moving to O&M, I'm extremely pleased with our team's success in managing our expenses below our projected 3.5% year over year increase to mitigate mild weather, unplanned, generation outages and rising insurance costs.

我們管轄範圍內的天氣較為溫和，今年迄今的每股收益與去年同期相比不利，為 0.14 美元，而正常天氣下的每股收益為 0.11 美元，因為天然氣商品價格在 2024 年有所緩和並變得更加穩定。我們確認每股 0.03 美元的市值收益。與去年同期相比，轉向營運和維護，我對我們的團隊成功管理我們的費用感到非常高興，因為我們預計的同比增長率為 3.5%，以緩解溫和天氣、計劃外發電中斷和不斷上漲的保險成本的影響。

O&M increased $0.10 or 1.8% year-to-date compared to the same period. Last year O&M expense benefited EPS by $0.09 per share which was offset by $0.05 from unplanned generation outage expenses and $0.14 of prior year benefits related to gains on the sales of assets and land. Throughout the year, we have prudently managed expenses and expect our annual O&M cost increase in 2024 to be no more than 2.5%. Over 2023.

與去年同期相比，今年迄今為止，O&M 增加了 0.10 美元，即 1.8%。去年，營運和維護費用使每股收益增加 0.09 美元，但非計劃發電停運費用帶來的 0.05 美元和去年資產及土地出售收益帶來的 0.14 美元收益抵消了這一影響。全年我們審慎管理費用，預計 2024 年年度運維成本增幅不超過 2.5%。超過 2023 年。

Financing costs included a $0.10 impact from new shares issued and $0.07 of interest expense driven by higher interest rates, depreciation and amortization expense drove $0.12 of increase due to new assets placed in service.

融資成本包括發行新股帶來的 0.10 美元的影響和因利率上升而產生的 0.07 美元的利息支出，而新資產投入使用帶來的折舊和攤銷費用則帶來了 0.12 美元的增加。

Income tax was higher due to a prior year benefit from a Nebraska state income tax rate decrease in summary, excluding prior year one time events, our strong margin growth and prudent O&M expense management more than offset mild weather lower off system sales, unplanned generation outages and financing and depreciation costs incurred for the growth investments to serve our customers energy needs.

所得稅增加的原因是去年受益於內布拉斯加州所得稅率下降，總而言之，除去上年的一次性事件，我們強勁的利潤增長和審慎的運營和維護費用管理，足以抵消溫和天氣導致的系統銷售下降、計劃外的發電中斷以及為滿足客戶能源需求而進行增長投資而產生的融資和折舊成本。

Our strategic execution is delivering reoccurring earnings growth excluding prior one time benefits of $0.32 per share. Year-to-date, EPS grew 4% compared to the same period last year. Further details on year, over year changes can be found in our earnings release and 10-Q to be filed with the SEC later today.

我們的策略執行正在實現經常性獲利成長（不包括先前每股 0.32 美元的一次性收益）。年初至今，每股盈餘較去年同期成長了 4%。關於同比變化的更多詳細信息，請參閱我們今天晚些時候向美國證券交易委員會 (SEC) 提交的收益報告和 10-Q 表。

Turning to Slide 10, which depicts our solid financial position through the lens of credit quality, capital structure, and liquidity. We continued to reduce our net debt to total capitalization ratio and improve other key credit metrics in our commitment to maintain our triple B plus credit quality target.

轉到投影片 10，它透過信用品質、資本結構和流動性的角度描述了我們穩固的財務狀況。我們持續降低淨債務與總資本化比率，並改善其他關鍵信用指標，致力於維持我們的 3B 以上信用品質目標。

During the quarter, we issued $109 million of new equity under our at the market equity program which included a block equity trade. As a result, we have issued a total of $182 million year-to-date which is within our planned equity issuance range of $170 million to $190 million for 2024.

在本季度，我們根據市場股權計劃發行了 1.09 億美元的新股權，其中包括大宗股權交易。因此，我們今年迄今已發行了總計 1.82 億美元的股票，這符合我們計劃的 2024 年 1.7 億至 1.9 億美元的股票發行範圍。

Our liquidity remains strong at quarter end with $729 million of availability under our revolving credit facility. We repaid our $600 million notes that matured in August and we are evaluating timing and options for refinancing our next maturity of $300 million in early 2026.

截至季末，我們的流動性依然強勁，循環信貸額度下可用資金為 7.29 億美元。我們償還了 8 月到期的 6 億美元票據，並且正在評估 2026 年初到期的 3 億美元票據的再融資時機和選擇。

Slide 11, illustrates our industry leading dividend track record of 54 consecutive years. We anticipate growing our dividend at a rate comparable to earnings growth. A dependable and increasing dividend is an important component of our strategy for delivering long term value for our shareholders.

幻燈片 11 展示了我們連續 54 年的行業領先股息記錄。我們預期股息的成長速度與獲利的成長速度相當。可靠且不斷增加的股利是我們為股東實現長期價值的策略的重要組成部分。

I will now turn the call over to Marne for our business update.

現在我將把電話轉給馬恩，詢問我們的業務更新。

Thank you, Kimberly and good morning everyone. I'll start my comments on Slide 13. As Linn mentioned, we continue to demonstrate our strong culture of operational excellence. During the third quarter, we upheld our reputation for industry leading electric liability as reflected recently by EEI with all three of our electric utilities in the top quartile of reliability for the three year average through 2023.

謝謝你，金伯利，大家早安。我將從幻燈片 13 開始發表評論。正如林恩所提到的，我們繼續展示我們強大的卓越營運文化。在第三季度，我們保持了行業領先電力責任的聲譽，正如 EEI 最近反映的那樣，到 2023 年，我們的三家電力公司在三年平均可靠性方面均名列前茅。

And while reliability is critically important to our customers, it also supports our growing data center demand during the quarter. We also advanced our plans for new generation resources to serve growth and meet our Colorado Clean Energy Plan, requirements all while maintaining strong reliability and enhancing our resiliency.

雖然可靠性對我們的客戶至關重要，但它也支持了我們本季不斷增長的資料中心需求。我們還推進了新一代資源計劃，以服務成長並滿足科羅拉多清潔能源計劃的要求，同時保持強大的可靠性並增強我們的彈性。

I'm also proud to share that last week. The US Department of Labor awarded Black Hills with the Higher Vets Medallion Award for the fifth consecutive year. This award recognizes organizations with exemplary efforts in recruiting, employing and retaining our nation's veterans. We value our veteran colleagues and the dedication and leadership they bring to our team and culture. On Slide 14, I'll provide a status update on our rate reviews. We continue to reach constructive results during the quarter. In Arkansas, we received approval for new rates effective in October.

我上週也非常榮幸地分享了這一點。美國勞工部連續第五年向黑山公司頒發高級退伍軍人獎章。該獎項旨在表彰在招募、僱用和留住我國退伍軍人方面做出卓越努力的組織。我們重視我們的資深同事以及他們為我們的團隊和文化帶來的奉獻和領導。在第 14 張投影片上，我將提供有關我們的費率審查的狀態更新。本季我們持續取得建設性成果。在阿肯色州，我們獲得了10月生效的新稅率的批准。

The approved settlement allowed $25.4 million of new annual revenue which includes a return on equity of 9.85% based on 46% equity in Iowa. We reached the settlement for a rate review request pending approval by the Iowa Utility Commission. The confidential settlement allows $15 million of new annual revenue based on a 7.21% weighted average cost of capital. The settlement provides for implementation of final rates in the first quarter of 2025 which will replace the interim rates.

批准的和解協議帶來了 2,540 萬美元的新年收入，其中包括基於愛荷華州 46% 股權的 9.85% 的股本回報率。我們就費率審查請求達成了協議，等待愛荷華州公用事業委員會的批准。該保密協議以 7.21% 的加權平均資本成本為基礎，每年可帶來 1,500 萬美元的新收入。該協議規定於 2025 年第一季實施最終費率，以取代臨時費率。

Our other active rate review is for Colorado Electric. We received answer testimony from the interveners in October and we will respond with rebuttal testimony due later this week. Our hearing on the stock. It is scheduled for December. Slide 15, outlines our wildfire management and risk mitigation plans. We have been successful in reducing risk with our multilayered approach to asset programs, integrity programs and operational response which is detailed in our Wildfire Mitigation Plan available on our website.

我們進行的另一項主動費率審查是針對科羅拉多電力公司。我們在十月收到了介入者的答覆證詞，並將在本週稍後提供反駁證詞。我們對股票的聽證會。預計十二月舉行。幻燈片 15 概述了我們的野火管理和風險緩解計劃。我們透過對資產計劃、完整性計劃和營運回應採取多層次的方法成功降低了風險，這在我們網站上的野火緩解計劃中有詳細說明。

We continue to engage stakeholders including community and local agencies, regulators, legislative bodies and our industry peers to define review in advance our Wildfire Management and Mitigation Plans including our public safety power shutoff program or PSPs, which we expect to formalize in the first half of 2025.

我們將繼續與社區和地方機構、監管機構、立法機構和行業同行等利益相關者合作，提前審查我們的野火管理和緩解計劃，包括我們的公共安全斷電計劃或 PSP，我們預計該計劃將於 2025 年上半年正式實施。

Moving on to Slide 16. Our largest active capital project is our Ready Wyoming transmission project. The 260 mile line is being constructed on schedule and we are tracking to place and service our first segments later this year, the project is expected to be completed by year end 2025. The investment for this project will be recovered through our Wyoming transmission writer as segments are placed in service.

轉到投影片 16。我們最大的活躍資本項目是 Ready Wyoming 輸電項目。這條 260 英里的線路正在按計劃建設中，我們將在今年稍後安裝和維護第一批線路路段，預計該項目將於 2025 年底完工。隨著各部分投入使用，該項目的投資將透過我們的懷俄明州輸電寫入器收回。

Slide 17 provides an update on our Colorado Clean Energy plan. Yesterday. The Colorado Commission deliberated and verbally authorized 100 megawatts of utility owned solar, 50 megawatts of utility owned battery storage and a 200 megawatt solar PPI. With the recent deliberations, we expect a final written commission decision before year end and we expect to initiate contract negotiations with the selected counterparties following the written decision.

幻燈片 17 提供了我們科羅拉多州清潔能源計劃的最新情況。昨天。科羅拉多州委員會審議並口頭批准了 100 兆瓦公用事業自有太陽能、50 兆瓦公用事業自有電池儲存和 200 兆瓦太陽能 PPI。經過最近的審議，我們預計將在年底前做出最終的書面佣金決定，並預計將根據書面決定與選定的交易對手啟動合約談判。

Slide 18, outlines our South Dakota Electric resource plan. We continue to pursue 100 megawatts of utility owned generation that will cost effectively and reliably serve our customers. We are targeting an in service date in the second half of 2026 for 100 megawatts of dispatchable natural gas fire generation. We filed a pre-application notice with the South Dakota Puc during the third quarter and plan to request a certificate of public convenience and necessity from the Wyoming PSC and a permit to construct from the South Dakota PUC in early 2025.

幻燈片 18 概述了我們的南達科他州電力資源計劃。我們將繼續追求 100 兆瓦的公用事業自有發電，以經濟高效且可靠地為我們的客戶提供服務。我們的目標是在 2026 年下半年投入使用 100 兆瓦可調度天然氣發電專案。我們在第三季向南達科他州公共事業委員會提交了一份預申請通知，並計劃在 2025 年初向懷俄明州公共服務委員會申請一份公共便利及必要性證書，並向南達科他州公共事業委員會申請一份建設許可證。

With that, I will turn the call back over to Linn.

說完這些，我會把電話轉回給林恩。

Thank you, Marne. Once again, our team made strong progress on our strategic initiatives as we invest in safe, reliable and resilient energy delivery for our customers. We continue to execute our regulatory plan and aggressively pursue our strategic growth opportunities including serving data center and Blockchain load growth. Finally, I want to express my sincere appreciation to the Black Hills team for effectively and efficiently serving our customers while managing through unexpected challenges of the year.

謝謝你，馬恩。在我們為客戶投資安全、可靠和有彈性的能源輸送的過程中，我們的團隊再次在戰略計劃上取得了長足的進展。我們將繼續執行我們的監管計劃，並積極尋求我們的策略成長機會，包括服務資料中心和區塊鏈負載成長。最後，我要向 Black Hills 團隊表達最誠摯的感謝，感謝他們在應對今年意想不到的挑戰的同時，有效、有效率地為客戶提供服務。

And with that, we'll be happy to take your questions.

我們很樂意回答您的問題。

Thank you. (Operator Instructions)

謝謝。（操作員指令）

Andrew Weisel, Scotiabank.

加拿大豐業銀行的安德魯‧韋塞爾 (Andrew Weisel)。

Hi, good morning, everyone. My first question is you mentioned the unplanned outages a couple times there. Can you give a little more detail on what exactly were the issues and what was the O&M impact to earnings?

大家早安。我的第一個問題是您幾次提到了計劃外停電。您能否詳細說明一下問題到底是什麼以及 O&M 對收益有何影響？

Good morning, Andrew. This is Marne and thanks for the question. I'll get us kicked off and I'll let Kimberly jump in on the financial side of it. So this quarter we had a roll over, you know, last quarter, we announced that we had a couple of outages driven by some components that failed and one of one of those outages just rolled over into the early part of Q3. And so that was the impact. There was no additional outages this quarter and I'll turn it over to Kimberly from the financial impact side of it.

早安，安德魯。我是馬恩，感謝您的提問。我會讓我們開始行動，並讓金伯莉參與財務方面的事情。所以本季度我們有一個延續，你知道，上個季度，我們宣布我們發生了幾次由一些組件故障導致的停電，其中一次停電剛剛延續到第三季度初。這就是影響。本季沒有發生額外的停電事件，我將把財務影響方面的事宜移交給金伯莉。

Yeah. Are you asking for the quarter or for the year? Andrew?

是的。你問的是季度數據還是年度數據？安德魯？

Both if you can share that.

如果您可以分享的話，兩者都可以。

Yeah, they're on the slides that you can look at, I believe it's $0.03 and $0.05 respectively. But when you look at it in total, you include the impact from the margin side as well. And so if you look at the slides, you can see the collective both from the margin impact and the O&M impact from the implant outages. Hopefully that will get you what you need.

是的，它們在幻燈片上，您可以看看，我相信分別是 0.03 美元和 0.05 美元。但當你從整體來看時，你還會包括利潤方面的影響。因此，如果你看幻燈片，你可以看到利潤影響和植入中斷對 O&M 的影響。希望這能滿足您的需求。

Perfect. Yeah, great. I appreciate that. And then along those lines, I believe you're reiterating the guidance for the year, you, you mentioned those negatives and you're mitigating that with some better than expected. O&M trends. Are you able to comment where within the range? You might be trending high, middle or low end?

完美的。是的，很棒。我很感激。然後沿著這個思路，我相信你會重申今年的指導方針，你提到了那些負面因素，並且你正在用一些比預期更好的表現來緩解這些因素。維運趨勢。您能評論一下這個範圍嗎？您可能趨向於高端、中端還是低端？

Great question, Andrew. No, we don't comment on where we're at in the range. Just the fact that we have reaffirmed the range and we expect to achieve the financial objectives that we've laid out for the year.

很好的問題，安德魯。不，我們不評論我們所處的範圍。事實上，我們已經重申了範圍，並期望實現我們為今年設定的財務目標。

Okay. Fair enough. Next is a high level question. And I realize it's only been a little more than 24 hours since we've known the election results, but you guys are very well positioned in terms of Crypto and Bitcoin and Blockchain and all that. And obviously President elect Trump has made it clear that he supports those industries and we've seen a huge spike in the price of crypto any early level thoughts on what the incoming administration might mean for that industry and how you and your service territory might be uniquely positioned to benefit.

好的。很公平。接下來是一個高層次的問題。我知道我們知道選舉結果才剛剛 24 個多小時，但你們在加密貨幣、比特幣、區塊鏈等方面都處於非常有利的地位。顯然，當選總統川普已經明確表示他支持這些行業，而且我們已經看到加密貨幣價格的大幅上漲，對於新政府可能對該行業意味著什麼，以及您和您的服務地區如何獲得獨特的利益，我們都有早期的思考。

Andrew. This is Linn. Thank you for that question. We appreciate it. I'd like to, I guess, I like our strategy because it's really focused on our customers and what's best for our customers with respect to how we help them grow, the serve their energy needs. And so we're, I would say we're fairly agnostic to what federal policy might be in that regard.

安德魯。這是林恩。感謝您的提問。我們對此表示感謝。我想，我喜歡我們的策略，因為它真正專注於我們的客戶，以及如何在幫助客戶成長、滿足他們的能源需求方面為客戶提供最好的服務。所以我想說，我們對於聯邦在這方面的政策相當不清楚。

However, you know, our states certainly have a lot of say in our policy and how we serve our customers. That's where we tend to focus the most. But I think your sentiment is indeed right and correct. We've been serving data centers for more than a decade. We're particularly good at it and we think that yes, it could have been a for us going forward or we know it will for having going forward.

然而，您知道，我們的各州對我們的政策以及我們如何為客戶提供服務當然有很大的發言權。這正是我們最關注的領域。但我認為你的觀點確實是正確的。我們為資料中心提供服務已有十多年。我們在這方面特別擅長，而且我們認為，是的，這可能對我們未來的發展有幫助，或者我們知道這對我們未來的發展有幫助。

Okay. You said data centers, I think you meant these other customers though. Right?

好的。您說的是資料中心，但我認為您的意思是其他客戶。正確的？

I did. Yeah, it's just in general, we treat them all, you know, largely the same. We have different tariffs for each one. But we understand that reliability is critical to them, the service quality we provide them is critical, etcetera. So we kind of serve them all kind of the same way if you will, but obviously different, different forms of tariffs and things of that nature.

是的。是的，一般來說，我們對待他們所有人，大致上都是一樣的。我們對每種產品都有不同的收費標準。但我們知道可靠性對他們來說至關重要，我們為他們提供的服務品質至關重要，等等。因此，如果你願意的話，我們會以同樣的方式為他們提供服務，但顯然他們會採用不同形式的關稅和諸如此類的政策。

Chris Ellinghaus, SWS.

克里斯·埃林豪斯（Chris Ellinghaus），SWS。

Linn, you've sort of persistently talked about the upside from the large load customers. Is there any kind of cadence to what you're expecting? You know, are there particular years you're expecting new loads? Can you give us any sort of insights on that?

林恩，你一直在談論大負荷客戶帶來的好處。對於您所期望的事情，有什麼節奏嗎？您知道嗎，在特定年份您會期待新的負載？您能給我們一些關於此的見解嗎？

Yeah, thank you, Chris for that question. The beauty of having served one of our, what I'll call our anchor tenants for over a decade is we understand their cadence. They, we're, they inform us where they're headed and they meet those measurements just kind of lock step. So that goes very well for us. So it's actually kind of relatively smooth with the data center we're serving currently, we announced Meta last quarter.

是的，謝謝克里斯提出這個問題。我們為我們的一位主力租戶提供服務已經超過十年，其中的美妙之處在於，我們了解他們的節奏。他們，我們，他們告訴我們他們要去哪裡，並且他們會按照這些測量標準步調一致。這對我們來說非常順利。因此，我們目前服務的資料中心實際上運作相對順利，我們在上個季度宣布了 Meta。

They come on the end of 2026 and so that will be they'll come on kind of gradually as well. So I think that's the beauty frankly of these call set of data centers that we're serving is that they come on and then they have a cadence as they grow and as they expand, and I can tell you that they have bought land around Cheyenne, etcetera. So we see expansion, you know, going on for some time.

它們將在 2026 年底到來，因此它們也將以漸進的方式到來。所以我認為坦白說，我們所服務的這些資料中心的美妙之處在於，它們出現後，隨著它們的成長和擴張，它們有一個節奏，我可以告訴你，他們已經在夏延等地周圍購買了土地。所以我們看到擴張已經持續了一段時間。

Are you seeing any sort of acceleration given the investment in AI computing at this point?

考慮到目前對人工智慧運算的投資，您是否看到了任何形式的加速？

I don't know if we've seen acceleration, we've seen stronger interest in terms of the inbound calls that we take. And you know, historically for us, Cheyenne has been such a great place for data center still is because of the fiber optic network that is very rich in the Cheyenne region.

我不知道我們是否看到了加速，我們看到了人們對我們接聽的來電的更濃厚的興趣。您知道，從歷史上看，夏延一直是建立資料中心的絕佳地點，這是因為夏延地區擁有非常豐富的光纖網路。

And my understanding is with the AI that's less fiber dependent. And so we're actually encouraged by the possibility of having data centers and particularly AI centers in other parts of our service territory and then bringing our skill set that we've gained over the last decade, we think that can give us an advantage.

我的理解是，人工智慧對光纖的依賴性較小。因此，我們實際上對在我們服務區域的其他部分擁有資料中心，特別是人工智慧中心的可能性感到鼓舞，然後帶來我們在過去十年中獲得的技能，我們認為這可以為我們帶來優勢。

Does the new intertie also factor into that?

新的聯絡線也考慮到這一點了嗎？

Didn't quite understand that the new, the ACDC tie, I'm sorry.

不太明白新的 ACDC 領帶，抱歉。

Yeah. For reliability thinking.

是的。為了可靠性思考。

It certainly impacts our reliability thinking. It always does for any kind of a customer. Yes, it gives us some flexibility to take energy back and forth across the two separate grids. You know, the grid boundary is right here in rapid city. So we're accustomed to that to know how to deal with that.

它確實影響我們的可靠性思維。對於任何類型的客戶來說，它總是如此。是的，它為我們在兩個獨立電網之間來回傳輸能源提供了一定的靈活性。您知道，電網邊界就在拉皮德城這裡。所以我們已經習慣了這種情況，知道如何處理。

Okay. The upsides to the the CapEx slide, have you got any color that you want to add to that in terms of, you know, the types of investments that you're thinking about.

好的。關於資本支出投影片的優勢，您是否有任何想要添加的內容，例如您正在考慮的投資類型。

The types of investments tend to be right down the center of the fairway for us. We use the golf analogy transmission on both electric and gas side, we have perhaps some gas storage opportunities. We've got frankly more capital projects. Then maybe you could argue that our customers could afford. So it's always a balance of what's best for customer, what allows us to serve them effectively and cost effectively and then make sure we generate that return for the shareholder.

對我們來說，投資類型往往位於正中央。我們在電力和天然氣方面都使用高爾夫類比傳輸，我們也許有一些天然氣儲存機會。坦白說，我們有更多的資本項目。那麼你也許會說我們的客戶能夠負擔得起。因此，我們始終需要在以下三點之間尋找平衡：什麼最有利於客戶，什麼使我們能夠以有效且經濟的方式為客戶提供服務，然後確保為股東創造回報。

Okay. And Kimberly, can I ask the, the, the guidance question a little differently? Given third quarter results and where the range is sort of suggest a pretty strong fourth quarter. Can you address any of the sort of bigger issues that you are expecting to drive the fourth quarter? And is that O&M number for the year, you know, part of that factor?

好的。金伯利，我可以用稍微不同的方式問這個指導問題嗎？從第三季的業績和範圍來看，第四季的業績將相當強勁。您能否談談您預計會影響第四季業績的一些更大問題？您知道，當年的 O&M 數字是這個因素的一部分嗎？

Yeah, so when you think about our full year, you know, you look back at Q1 and Q2, our O&M was actually favorable comparative to the prior year quarters. And so we've been managing O&M, you know, our year started out with pretty mild weather and you know that's continued. And so that's really how we're focused on managing O&M to cover unplanned out is address some of the insurance expense increases that we've experienced. And so as you look forward, we're really trying to manage that. O&M as we started the year, it was about a 3.5% year over year increase that we planned for.

是的，所以當你考慮我們的全年時，你知道，回顧第一季和第二季度，我們的營運和維護實際上與去年同期相比是有利的。因此，我們一直在管理 O&M，你知道，今年年初的天氣相當溫和，而且你知道這種情況一直持續下去。因此，我們實際上專注於管理 O&M 以彌補計劃外問題，解決我們遇到的一些保險費用增加問題。所以當你展望未來時，我們確實在努力實現這一點。我們年初時的營運和維護費用預計將年增約 3.5%。

But with some of these, what I call unexpected challenges with weather insurance, et cetera, that's really how we're focused on managing it right now as well and making sure we're really diligent on how we think about our capital investments. I'm sorry, capital investments on behalf of our customers. So, I think the guidance that we've given you here should help you achieve, how we're thinking about that 4% to 6% growth and how we're thinking about earnings guidance for the year.

但對於其中一些我稱之為天氣保險等方面的意外挑戰，我們現在實際上也專注於管理它，並確保我們真正認真考慮我們的資本投資。對不起，我們代表客戶進行資本投資。因此，我認為我們在這裡給您的指導應該可以幫助您實現我們對 4% 到 6% 的成長的看法，以及我們如何考慮今年的獲利指導。

And Chris. This is Linn. I could not be more proud of how our team has stepped up in an incredible way. Very laser focused on how we control costs on behalf of customers and then provide the shareholders that return as well. So I just want to take a moment to say a big shout out to our team and how focused they've been and how helpful they've been this past year and going into the fourth quarter.

還有克里斯。這是林恩。我對我們團隊以令人難以置信的方式取得進步感到無比自豪。我們非常關注如何代表客戶控製成本，然後為股東提供回報。因此，我只想花點時間向我們的團隊大聲致謝，感謝他們在過去的一年以及進入第四季度以來的專注和幫助。

I don't recall who I was. Probably Marne. I'm not sure Somebody mentioned that, you know, you took advantage of the outages to do some longer term maintenance. Does that have an effect on say 2025 or what period was some of that maintenance? O&M you know, drawn forward from.

我不記得我是誰。可能是馬恩省。我不確定是否有人提到，您知道，您利用停電來進行一些長期維護。這會對 2025 年或某些維護發生在哪個時期產生影響嗎？您知道，O&M 是從這裡向前推進的。

Yeah, this is Marne. So, you know, when we do have these larger outages where we're open, where we're opening up more of the machine, it's an opportunity to pull forward some of that maintenance. Typically you're looking out, you know, 1 to 2 years of pulling that forward.

是的，這是馬恩。所以，你知道，當我們確實遇到更大規模的停產時，我們會開放更多的機器，這是一個提前進行部分維護的機會。通常你需要展望未來 1 到 2 年的時間。

Okay, I do.

好的，我明白。

You know it's really dependent on what we find when we open that up.

你知道，這實際上取決於我們打開它時發現了什麼。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員指令）

Julien Dumoulin-Smith, Jefferies.

朱利安‧杜穆蘭‧史密斯 (Julien Dumoulin-Smith)，傑富瑞 (Jefferies)。

Hi, it's Brian Russo on for Julien. Is there any opportunity given your commentary around these data center growth, the 5% of the current EPS contribution growing to 10% by 2028. Is that really just the anchor tenant? And also the the meta project announced a month or two ago or is there more projects that are driving that now?

大家好，我是 Brian Russo，為 Julien 主持節目。鑑於您對這些資料中心成長的評論，到 2028 年，目前 EPS 貢獻的 5% 是否會成長到 10%？這真的只是主力租戶嗎？還有一個月或兩個月前宣布的元項目，或者現在有更多的項目正在推動它？

Yeah, Brian, this is Kimberly a couple comments there. I would generally say it's an anchor tenant. It includes Microsoft and Meta. But as you know, Marie mentioned those and Linn mentioned those data center loads continue to evolve over time there. You know, Linn mentioned the land that they're purchasing. So there are future opportunities but at this point, we're focused on that 5%, 10% growth.

是的，布萊恩，這是金伯利的幾則評論。我一般會說它是一個主力租戶。其中包括微軟和 Meta。但正如您所知，瑪麗提到了這些，林恩提到這些資料中心負載會隨著時間的推移而不斷發展。您知道，林恩提到了他們正在購買的土地。因此，未來還有機會，但目前，我們專注於 5% 或 10% 的成長。

We you know, obviously work with both Meta and Microsoft to you know, evaluate what their forecasts are and we will be updating that as we go in to Q4 and announce that all of our, you know, capital and earnings guidance in February. The one other thing I'd note is we are getting additional inbounds, not just in Wyoming, including, you know, conversations that we're having both in Colorado and South Dakota. So that will also inform you know, our future EPS growth as we continue to partner with, you know, potential other data centers in our territory.

我們顯然與 Meta 和微軟合作，評估他們的預測，我們將在進入第四季度時更新預測，並在 2 月宣布我們所有的資本和獲利預測。我要指出的另一件事是，我們正在獲得更多的入站信息，不僅僅是在懷俄明州，還包括我們在科羅拉多州和南達科他州進行的對話。因此，隨著我們繼續與我們領土內其他潛在的數據中心合作，這也將為我們未來的每股收益成長提供資訊。

Yeah, that was actually going to be my next question outside of Wyoming, a lot of these customers you mentioned are very active in the Dakotas and Colorado as well. Will you look to set up some sort of a similar kind of LPCS or BCIS tariff structure that you know, that these customers are receptive to that in Wyoming in these other states.

是的，這實際上是我在懷俄明州以外的下一個問題，您提到的許多客戶在達科他州和科羅拉多州也非常活躍。您是否會考慮建立某種類似的 LPCS 或 BCIS 關稅結構，並且您知道這些客戶對懷俄明州和其他州的關稅結構都持接受態度。

Brian, this is Linn. Thanks for that question. I think the answer is maybe we pride ourselves in doing what we think is really good for customers and shareholders. So we'll be flexible. We have lots of different, we have a multiple tiers that we could use multiple avenues that we can serve them and for us because of our size and our ability to be, we can modify and do what we think is well, does well for the customer but making sure we also protect the shareholder. So that's in my approach to that.

布萊恩，這是林恩。謝謝你的提問。我想答案也許是我們為自己所做的事情感到自豪，因為我們認為這些事情對客戶和股東真正有益。因此我們會靈活處理。我們有很多不同的服務，我們有多個層級，我們可以透過多種途徑為他們提供服務，而且由於我們的規模和能力，我們可以修改和做我們認為好的事情，為客戶做好事，但確保我們也保護股東。這就是我對此的態度。

Thank you. I would not like to turn the call back over to Linn Evans for any closing remarks.

謝謝。我不想將電話轉回給林恩·埃文斯 (Linn Evans) 來做任何結束語。

Well, good morning again and thank you for joining us today and especially thank you for your interest in Black Hills. We'll be seeing a number of you starting this weekend at EEI so please travel safe. We'll look forward to engaging with you there. And once again, I would say sincere thank you to the Black Hills team. Just really appreciate how all of us have stepped up this year to make sure we serve our customers and our shareholders excellently and you've done that. So thank you so much, encourage everybody to have a Black Hills Energy Safe day and take care.

好吧，再次祝大家早安，感謝您今天的到來，特別感謝您對黑山的關注。從本週末開始，我們將在 EEI 見到你們，所以請大家注意出行安全。我們期待與您合作。我再次向黑山團隊表達誠摯的感謝。真的很感謝我們所有人今年的努力，確保為我們的客戶和股東提供優質的服務，而你們做到了。非常感謝，鼓勵大家度過黑山能源安全日並注意保重。

Thank you. This concludes the conference. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

謝謝。會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線。