密歇根天然氣 (DTE) 2023 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the DTE Energy First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) And finally, I would like to advise all participants that this call is being recorded.

感謝您的支持，歡迎來到 DTE Energy 2023 年第一季度收益電話會議。 （接線員說明）最後，我想通知所有參與者，此通話正在錄音中。

I'd now like to welcome Barbara Tuckfield, Director of Investor Relations, to begin the conference. Barbara, over to you.

現在，我要歡迎投資者關係總監芭芭拉·塔克菲爾德 (Barbara Tuckfield) 開始會議。芭芭拉，交給你了。

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Before we get started, I would like to remind you to read the safe harbor statement on Page 2 of the presentation, including the reference to forward-looking statements. Our presentation also includes references to operating earnings, which is a non-GAAP financial measure. Please refer to the reconciliation of GAAP earnings to operating earnings provided in the appendix.

謝謝大家，早上好。在我們開始之前，我想提醒您閱讀演示文稿第 2 頁上的安全港聲明，包括對前瞻性聲明的引用。我們的介紹還包括對營業收入的參考，這是一項非公認會計原則的財務指標。請參閱附錄中提供的 GAAP 收益與營業收益的調節。

With us this morning are Jerry Norcia, Chairman, President and CEO; and Dave Ruud, Senior Vice President and CFO. And now I'll turn it over to Jerry to start the call this morning.

今天上午和我們在一起的有董事長、總裁兼首席執行官 Jerry Norcia；高級副總裁兼首席財務官 Dave Ruud。現在我會把它交給 Jerry，讓他今天早上開始通話。

Thanks, Barbara, and good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us. This morning, I'll discuss the achievements we have made so far this year, provide an update on our plans to achieve our 2023 targets and give an overview on the robust opportunities in our long-term plan. Dave will provide a financial update and wrap things up before we take your questions.

謝謝，芭芭拉，大家早上好，感謝您加入我們。今天上午，我將討論我們今年迄今取得的成就，提供我們實現 2023 年目標的最新計劃，並概述我們長期計劃中的重要機遇。在我們回答您的問題之前，Dave 將提供最新的財務信息並進行總結。

Let me start on Slide 4 to discuss the storms we experienced in the first quarter, starting with the worst ice storm in nearly 50 years, which was immediately followed by a major snowstorm. We understand the impact to customers during power outages, and our team worked around the clock to get the power back on safely. I want to express my appreciation to all of our DTE employees for their tireless efforts, along with our labor and community partners, and the many others who supported our restoration efforts. It was all hands on deck at DTE for these 2 large storms. We had our front line working through dangerous ice and snowstorm conditions, restoring power and conducting damage assessments. We also had our office staff in the field ensuring public safety from downed wires.

讓我從幻燈片 4 開始討論我們在第一季度經歷的風暴，首先是近 50 年來最嚴重的冰風暴，緊接著是一場大暴風雪。我們了解停電期間對客戶的影響，我們的團隊夜以繼日地工作以安全恢復供電。我要感謝我們所有 DTE 員工的不懈努力，以及我們的勞工和社區合作夥伴，以及許多其他支持我們恢復工作的人。這 2 場大風暴都在 DTE 上全力以赴。我們的前線人員在危險的冰雪天氣條件下工作，恢復供電並進行損失評估。我們也有辦公室工作人員在現場確保公共安全免受電線倒塌的影響。

Our Gas team was going door-to-door checking on thousands of seniors and vulnerable customers to make sure they were okay. Our call center agents worked tirelessly to provide customers the latest information and escalate emergency matters. I am really proud and grateful for how our team showed up for our customers by keeping each other and our communities safe. Our foundation also showed up in a big way by contributing $3 million to replenish food pantries and reaching out through United Way to provide low-income customers with food vouchers at local grocery stores.

我們的燃氣團隊正在挨家挨戶檢查成千上萬的老年人和弱勢客戶，以確保他們沒事。我們的呼叫中心代理不知疲倦地為客戶提供最新信息並上報緊急事件。我真的很自豪也很感激我們的團隊如何通過維護彼此和社區的安全來為我們的客戶服務。我們的基金會也大顯身手，捐款 300 萬美元用於補充食品儲藏室，並通過聯合勸募協會向低收入客戶提供當地雜貨店的食品券。

We remain committed to supporting and delivering for all of our stakeholders, including employees, customers, communities and shareholders. I always say that employee engagement drives our success and is the secret sauce of DTE, and our team continues to operate a top decile engagement levels as measured by the Gallup organization. I'm excited to say we were recently recognized for this top engagement by earning the Gallup Great Workplace Award for the 11th consecutive year.

我們仍然致力於支持和交付我們所有的利益相關者，包括員工、客戶、社區和股東。我總是說，員工敬業度是我們成功的動力，也是 DTE 的秘訣，我們的團隊繼續保持著蓋洛普組織衡量的頂級敬業度水平。我很高興地說，我們最近連續第 11 年獲得蓋洛普優秀工作場所獎，從而獲得了最高敬業度的認可。

In our effort to continue supporting our communities, we partnered with one of the country's largest African-American and women-owned energy efficiency companies to launch the Energy Efficiency Academy. The academy provides training and placement for good paying jobs, building a pipeline of talent that will help make our customers' homes more energy efficient.

為了繼續支持我們的社區，我們與該國最大的非裔美國人和女性擁有的能源效率公司之一合作，成立了能源效率學院。該學院為高薪工作提供培訓和安置，建立人才管道，幫助我們客戶的家庭更加節能。

And on the investor front, we are executing on our plan to achieve our 2023 guidance and our long-term financial growth. As you know, we are facing additional headwinds with the warm weather and the severe storms that I mentioned. The team has made excellent progress on the cost management work, and we continue to find savings with our continuous improvement efforts and onetime initiatives across our portfolio of businesses.

在投資者方面，我們正在執行我們的計劃，以實現我們的 2023 年指導和長期財務增長。如您所知，我提到的溫暖天氣和強風暴使我們面臨額外的不利因素。該團隊在成本管理工作方面取得了長足的進步，我們通過不斷改進業務和一次性舉措，繼續節省開支。

We are well positioned to continue to deliver the strong performance and premium growth that DTE is known for, with long-term operating EPS growth of 6% to 8%.

我們有能力繼續提供 DTE 眾所周知的強勁業績和保費增長，長期經營每股收益增長 6% 至 8%。

Let's turn to Slide 5 and discuss the extreme weather events that continue to increase in frequency. As you are aware, Michigan's weather has dramatically changed in recent years, with storms that were once considered historic seemingly becoming the new normal. Earlier this year, we experienced the most challenging 2-week storm period we have ever faced as a company. The first storm that rolled through was the largest ice storm in our area in 50 years, was followed by a heavy wet snow event the following week. As I mentioned, the ice storm was a very significant event. And having 80% to 90% or the vast majority of our system hold up extremely well through the storm is really a tribute to the investments we have made in the grid so far.

讓我們轉到幻燈片 5，討論頻率持續增加的極端天氣事件。如您所知，密歇根州的天氣近年來發生了巨大變化，曾經被認為具有歷史意義的風暴似乎已成為新常態。今年早些時候，我們經歷了公司有史以來最具挑戰性的 2 周風暴期。席捲而來的第一場風暴是我們地區 50 年來最大的冰風暴，緊接著是下一周的大濕雪事件。正如我提到的，冰暴是一個非常重要的事件。讓 80% 到 90% 或我們系統的絕大多數在風暴中保持非常好，這確實是對我們迄今為止在電網上所做投資的貢獻。

We've invested $5.5 billion over the last 5 years to rebuild poles, wires, transformers and substations. We have also invested over $800 million in tree trimming over the last 5 years, and we see great results from these investments. It is important that we continue to implement our learnings from these storms, and we are implementing a plan that will be bolder in our approach to reducing the impact of these more intense weather events. We need to provide safe, reliable, affordable energy. Our customers expect this from us, and we have the same expectation. And this can only be achieved through infrastructure investments.

在過去的 5 年裡，我們投資了 55 億美元來重建電線桿、電線、變壓器和變電站。在過去的 5 年裡，我們還在樹木修剪方面投資了超過 8 億美元，我們從這些投資中看到了巨大的成果。重要的是，我們要繼續從這些風暴中吸取教訓，我們正在實施一項計劃，該計劃將更加大膽地減少這些更強烈的天氣事件的影響。我們需要提供安全、可靠、負擔得起的能源。我們的客戶對我們有這樣的期望，我們也有同樣的期望。而這只能通過基礎設施投資來實現。

We agree with all of our stakeholders that we must work together to do more, and we must do it faster. Having a resilient grid is critical to providing safe and reliable electricity as well as enabling transportation electrification and achieving statewide decarbonization as well as promoting economic development. We have been ramping up our strategic investments to prepare the system for the challenges and opportunities ahead. We know that the investments are having a positive impact, and we are looking at ways to accelerate our efforts while maintaining customer affordability.

我們同意所有利益相關者的意見，即我們必須共同努力做更多的事情，而且我們必須做得更快。擁有彈性電網對於提供安全可靠的電力以及實現交通電氣化和實現全州脫碳以及促進經濟發展至關重要。我們一直在加大戰略投資，讓系統為未來的挑戰和機遇做好準備。我們知道這些投資正在產生積極影響，我們正在尋找方法來加快我們的努力，同時保持客戶的承受能力。

In communities where DTE completed some of our most focused work on the grid's more challenged infrastructure, customers experienced up to a 70% improvement in reliability. Significant long-term investment is needed to prepare our infrastructure for extreme weather and for increased demand from electrification and economic development. Our focus is to continue to make strategic investments in our grid.

在 DTE 完成了我們對電網更具挑戰性的基礎設施的一些最重點工作的社區中，客戶的可靠性提高了 70%。需要大量的長期投資來為我們的基礎設施做好應對極端天氣以及電氣化和經濟發展需求增加的準備。我們的重點是繼續對我們的電網進行戰略投資。

Let's turn to Slide 6 to discuss some of these opportunities. We have invested heavily in our electric grid over the years. focusing on hardening infrastructure, replacing aging equipment and completely rebuilding parts of the grid that originated back in the early 1900s. You can see from the data that in areas where we make these investments, we see reliability improvements. But to see the type of dramatic improvement we all want across our entire system, we must do more.

讓我們轉到幻燈片 6 來討論其中的一些機會。多年來，我們在電網方面投入了大量資金。專注於加固基礎設施、更換老化設備以及完全重建 1900 年代初產生的部分電網。從數據中可以看出，在我們進行這些投資的領域，我們看到了可靠性的提高。但要看到我們都希望在整個系統中實現什麼樣的顯著改進，我們必須做更多的事情。

We will invest $9 billion in the grid over the next 5 years to further harden the system through a focused strategy. First, we'll continue to invest and enhance tree trimming. We know that the majority of customer outages are due to trees contacting wires. We also know that areas where trees are trimmed perform significantly better than those not trimmed.

我們將在未來 5 年內向電網投資 90 億美元，以通過集中戰略進一步強化系統。首先，我們將繼續投資和加強樹木修剪。我們知道，大多數客戶停電是由於樹木接觸電線造成的。我們還知道，修剪樹木的區域比未修剪的區域表現得更好。

Second, we will continue preventive maintenance and hardening on the existing infrastructure and continue updating the electric grid, specifically poles, wires and other equipment that makes the system more reliable and more resilient. Third, we will accelerate the complete rebuild of the older sections of our infrastructure. In some instances, it will make sense to pursue the undergrounding of our distribution system.

其次，我們將繼續對現有基礎設施進行預防性維護和加固，並繼續更新電網，特別是電線桿、電線和其他設備，使系統更可靠、更具彈性。三是加快老舊基礎設施全面改造。在某些情況下，追求我們的分配系統的地下化是有意義的。

In our most recent rate case, we requested 2 undergrounding pilots. Since the early 1970s, new construction has been developed with underground wires, with 1/3 of our system now underground. There is a significant opportunity to continue this important work on our electrical system and drive down the cost of undergrounding.

在我們最近的費率案例中，我們要求 2 名地下飛行員。自 20 世紀 70 年代初以來，新建築的開發使用了地下電線，現在我們系統的 1/3 都在地下。這是一個重要的機會，可以在我們的電氣系統上繼續這項重要的工作，並降低地下工程的成本。

Lastly, we will accelerate our work to achieve the full automation of the electric grid, which will fundamentally reduce the duration of outages. Our distribution plan filed with the MPSC in 2021 envisioned this happening on the same time line as the grid rebuild, but the automation work must be accelerated to improve the performance of the grid for our customers in the near term.

最後，我們將加快實現電網全自動化，從根本上縮短停電時間。我們在 2021 年向 MPSC 提交的分配計劃設想這將與電網重建同時發生，但必須加快自動化工作以在短期內為我們的客戶提高電網性能。

With our recent investments in the advanced distribution management system, and our new system operations center being complete, we can now bring smart grid technologies into the field, which will enable us to more quickly and efficiently isolate outages on a circuit so the impact of an outage can be minimized. Our goal is to fully automate the grid within 5 to 6 years.

隨著我們最近對高級配電管理系統的投資，以及我們新系統運營中心的完成，我們現在可以將智能電網技術引入現場，這將使我們能夠更快、更有效地隔離電路上的斷電，從而避免中斷可以被最小化。我們的目標是在 5 到 6 年內使電網完全自動化。

Increasing investment in our system is something we have done consistently over the years. We know how important these investments are to provide clean and reliable power to our customers. And we will continue to evaluate opportunities to accelerate investments while maintaining affordability.

增加對我們系統的投資是我們多年來一直在做的事情。我們知道這些投資對於為我們的客戶提供清潔可靠的電力是多麼重要。我們將繼續評估加速投資的機會，同時保持可負擔性。

Now let's turn to Slide 7. We are making great progress at each of our business units this year. At DTE Electric, the IRP and rate case proceedings continue to progress. We began settlement discussions on the IRP, which are very constructive, and we continue with the audit and discovery process in the rate case. We recently announced that Meridian Wind Park is now operational. This is Michigan's largest wind park spanning 3 townships. The 225-megawatt wind park has 77 wind turbines and generates enough clean energy to power more than 70,000 homes. DTE Electric continued its progress on the highly successful voluntary renewables program with the recent addition of a 20-year contract with Toyota. We are seeing some promising ongoing economic development in the state, which will continue to drive growth in our service territory.

現在讓我們轉到幻燈片 7。今年我們在每個業務部門都取得了長足的進步。在 DTE Electric，IRP 和費率案件的訴訟程序繼續取得進展。我們開始了關於 IRP 的和解討論，這是非常有建設性的，我們繼續在費率案例中進行審計和發現過程。我們最近宣布 Meridian Wind Park 現已投入運營。這是密歇根州最大的風電場，橫跨 3 個鄉鎮。這座 225 兆瓦的風力發電場擁有 77 颱風力渦輪機，產生的清潔能源足以為 70,000 多戶家庭供電。 DTE Electric 最近與豐田簽訂了一份為期 20 年的合同，繼續推進非常成功的自願可再生能源計劃。我們看到該州正在進行一些有前途的經濟發展，這將繼續推動我們服務領域的增長。

Henry Ford Health System is planning a $2.5 billion investment in Detroit for a hospital expansion, research facility and neighborhood redevelopment in Detroit's New Center area. The University of Michigan and the Ilitch organization announced a commitment for a $1.5 billion investment for an innovation campus that will bring research and innovation firms together. These developments will take place across downtown Detroit, including a development adjacent to our headquarters. We also expect to see a meaningful pickup in the potential domestic manufacturing within critical supply chain areas, including solar manufacturing and battery storage in order to comply with and benefit from domestic content requirements under the IRA.

Henry Ford Health System 計劃在底特律投資 25 億美元，用於底特律新中心地區的醫院擴建、研究設施和社區重建。密歇根大學和 Ilitch 組織宣布承諾投資 15 億美元建設創新園區，將研究和創新公司聚集在一起。這些開發項目將在底特律市中心進行，包括與我們總部相鄰的開發項目。我們還預計關鍵供應鏈領域的潛在國內製造業將出現有意義的回升，包括太陽能製造和電池存儲，以遵守 IRA 的國內含量要求並從中受益。

Such energy-intensive manufacturing businesses should translate into higher load growth in our service territory. A recent example of this is our next energy EV battery maker that is located in our service territory. And GM is investing $4 billion to convert its Orion Township assembly plant to produce full-size electric pickup trucks. These developments will directly support our ability to deploy more capital while mitigating customer rate impacts by bringing a potential increase of 50 megawatts of new demand on our system. More broadly, this is also a positive for our Vantage business, which has expertise in providing customized energy solutions for commercial and industrial customers. We are seeing increased activity and potential in this business line.

這種能源密集型製造企業應該轉化為我們服務領域更高的負荷增長。最近的一個例子是我們的下一個能源 EV 電池製造商，它位於我們的服務範圍內。通用汽車正在投資 40 億美元，將其 Orion Township 裝配廠改造為生產全尺寸電動皮卡車。這些發展將直接支持我們部署更多資本的能力，同時通過為我們的系統帶來 50 兆瓦的新需求潛在增加來減輕客戶費率的影響。更廣泛地說，這對我們的 Vantage 業務也是有利的，該業務在為商業和工業客戶提供定制能源解決方案方面擁有專業知識。我們看到該業務線的活動和潛力都在增加。

Moving to DTE Gas, we completed over 70 miles of main renewal, with a target of completing over 200 miles by the end of the year, in continuing progress on accelerating the modernization of the gas transmission system. Another major accomplishment for our gas company is the completion of the final phase of a major transmission renewal project in Northern Michigan. This project included the installation of new pipe and facilities, modification work to provide supply redundancy for a growing market. DTE Vantage will have a new RNG project and a custom energy solutions project in service, and we continue to progress on our growth plan, driven by a strong development pipeline in both RNG conversions and large custom energy solutions projects.

轉向 DTE Gas，我們完成了 70 多英里的主要更新，目標是到今年年底完成 200 多英里，繼續推進輸氣系統現代化改造。我們的天然氣公司的另一項重大成就是完成了北密歇根州一個主要傳輸更新項目的最後階段。該項目包括安裝新管道和設施，以及為不斷增長的市場提供供應冗餘的改造工作。 DTE Vantage 將有一個新的 RNG 項目和一個定制能源解決方案項目投入使用，在 RNG 轉換和大型定制能源解決方案項目強大的開發管道的推動下，我們繼續推進我們的增長計劃。

With that, I'll turn it over to Dave to give you a financial update. Dave, over to you.

有了這個，我會把它交給戴夫給你一個財務更新。戴夫，交給你了。

Thanks, Jerry, and good morning, everyone. Let me start on Slide 8 to review our first quarter financial results. Operating earnings for the quarter were $274 million. This translates into $1.33 per share. You can find a detailed breakdown of EPS by segment, including our reconciliation to GAAP reported earnings in the appendix.

謝謝，傑里，大家早上好。讓我從幻燈片 8 開始回顧我們第一季度的財務業績。本季度營業收入為 2.74 億美元。這相當於每股 1.33 美元。您可以在附錄中找到按部門劃分的每股收益的詳細分類，包括我們與 GAAP 報告收益的對賬。

I'll start the review at the top of the page with our utilities. DTE Electric earnings were $101 million for the quarter. This is $100 million lower than the first quarter of 2022. The main driver of the earnings variance is the storm restoration expense that we experienced from the significant events that Jerry described. We're also impacted by warmer weather, and we experienced lower sales relative to 2022 with the continuation of people returning to work. The sales were consistent with our forecast. We also had higher rate base costs in the quarter and accelerated deferred tax amortization in 2022. This was all partially offset by the implementation of the onetime O&M cost reductions that we discussed on our year-end call.

我將使用我們的實用程序在頁面頂部開始審查。 DTE Electric 本季度的收益為 1.01 億美元。這比 2022 年第一季度低 1 億美元。收入差異的主要驅動因素是我們從傑里描述的重大事件中經歷的風暴恢復費用。我們也受到天氣變暖的影響，隨著人們繼續重返工作崗位，我們的銷售額相對於 2022 年有所下降。銷售額與我們的預測一致。我們在本季度的利率基礎成本也更高，並在 2022 年加速了遞延稅款攤銷。這全部被我們在年終電話會議上討論的一次性 O&M 成本削減的實施所部分抵消。

Moving on to DTE Gas, operating earnings were $171 million, $25 million lower than the first quarter of 2022. Warm weather also had a significant impact on earnings at the gas company, resulting in a variance of over $40 million quarter-over-quarter due to weather. The earnings decrease was also driven by higher rate base costs and was partially offset by lower O&M expenses.

DTE Gas 的營業收入為 1.71 億美元，比 2022 年第一季度低 2500 萬美元。溫暖的天氣也對這家天然氣公司的收入產生了重大影響，導致應收賬款的季度環比差異超過 4000 萬美元天氣。收益下降也是由更高的利率基礎成本推動的，並被較低的 O&M 費用部分抵消。

Let's move to DTE Vantage on the third row. Operating earnings were $27 million in the first quarter of 2023. This is a $13 million increase from the first quarter last year, primarily due to higher earnings from our renewables plants. On the next row, you can see Energy Trading finished the quarter with a $26 million loss.

讓我們轉到第三排的 DTE Vantage。 2023 年第一季度的營業收入為 2700 萬美元。這比去年第一季度增加了 1300 萬美元，這主要是由於我們的可再生能源工廠的收入增加。在下一行，您可以看到 Energy Trading 在本季度結束時虧損 2600 萬美元。

The first quarter result is consistent with the estimate we provided on the year-end call. As I mentioned then, this is primarily due to the contracts in our power physical business that included revenue based on fixed prices over the term of the transaction, and then these transactions are hedged upon execution. The recognition of the fixed price revenue we received for energy in these contracts does not vary month-to-month, while the recognized cost of energy is based on the energy curve, which is higher in January and February. This timing variance will unwind through the remainder of the year. We continue to feel confident about the performance in this segment this year.

第一季度的結果與我們在年終電話會議上提供的估計一致。正如我當時提到的，這主要是由於我們電力實體業務的合同包括在交易期限內基於固定價格的收入，然後這些交易在執行時被對沖。我們在這些合同中收到的能源固定價格收入的確認不會逐月變化，而確認的能源成本是基於能源曲線，該曲線在 1 月和 2 月較高。這一時間差異將在今年餘下時間消除。我們繼續對今年該領域的表現充滿信心。

Finally, Corporate and Other was favorable $9 million quarter-over-quarter, primarily due to the timing of taxes, offset by higher interest expense. Overall, DTE earned $1.33 per share in the first quarter.

最後，公司和其他業務環比增長 900 萬美元，這主要是由於稅收的時間安排，被較高的利息支出所抵消。總體而言，DTE 第一季度每股收益為 1.33 美元。

Let's turn to Slide 9 to discuss our 2023 guidance. As you can see from the slide, we added a red arrow to show that DTE Electric is experiencing headwinds this year and green arrows to show that we are seeing incremental opportunity in the other business units. Given our strong portfolio of businesses, we have plans in place to achieve our total operating EPS guidance midpoint of $6.25 per share, which provides 7% growth from the 2022 original guidance midpoint.

讓我們轉到幻燈片 9 來討論我們的 2023 年指南。正如您從幻燈片中看到的那樣，我們添加了一個紅色箭頭來表明 DTE Electric 今年正面臨逆風，而綠色箭頭則表明我們在其他業務部門看到了增量機會。鑑於我們強大的業務組合，我們計劃實現每股 6.25 美元的總運營 EPS 指導中點，比 2022 年的原始指導中點增長 7%。

I'll discuss the drivers for each business unit, starting with DTE Electric. The weather and storms from the first quarter are a headwind to our outlook at DTE Electric. We did have contingency for 1 standard deviation of weather, and we do budget for a certain level of storm activity. Earnings are also supported by the onetime O&M reductions I described during our year-end call. As I mentioned, we budget for storm restoration costs and weather variance for the year. The catastrophic storms we've experienced, combined with the warmer-than-normal weather, have consumed the budgeted levels at the electric company for storm restoration and unfavorable weather. For the remainder of the year, we're assuming historical averages for weather and storms.

我將從 DTE Electric 開始討論每個業務部門的驅動因素。第一季度的天氣和風暴對我們對 DTE Electric 的前景不利。我們確實有 1 個標準偏差的天氣應急計劃，我們為一定程度的風暴活動做預算。我在年終電話會議上描述的一次性 O&M 削減也支持了收益。正如我所提到的，我們為當年的風暴恢復成本和天氣變化製定了預算。我們經歷的災難性風暴，加上比正常情況更溫暖的天氣，已經消耗了電力公司用於恢復風暴和不利天氣的預算水平。對於今年剩餘時間，我們假設天氣和風暴的歷史平均值。

Offsetting the headwinds to DTE Electric, the stronger performance at DTE Gas, Vantage and Energy Trading. DTE Gas was impacted by the warm weather as well, but we anticipate stronger earnings at this segment for the year given focused onetime initiatives, weather contingency, and we're also seeing higher customer sales. For DTE Vantage, we mentioned on the year-end call we'll likely see slightly stronger earnings in the back half of the year as new, already-secured projects come online. Additionally, the projected favorability of our projects is supporting stronger performance for this business unit.

DTE Electric 的逆風抵消了 DTE Gas、Vantage 和 Energy Trading 的強勁表現。 DTE Gas 也受到溫暖天氣的影響，但我們預計這一部門今年的收益會有所提高，因為有針對性的一次性計劃、天氣意外事件，而且我們也看到了更高的客戶銷售額。對於 DTE Vantage，我們在年終電話會議上提到，隨著新的、已經獲得擔保的項目上線，我們可能會在今年下半年看到略微強勁的收益。此外，我們項目的預期受歡迎程度正在支持該業務部門實現更強勁的業績。

In Energy Trading, the timing variance experienced in the first quarter will unwind through the remainder of the year as we see favorability in our contracted, highly hedged power portfolio that provides additional upside to this business. Overall, we have plans in place to achieve our 2023 guidance as we find opportunities across our portfolio to overcome the weather and storm impacts that we experienced in the first quarter, and we remain well positioned to achieve our long-term growth.

在能源交易中，第一季度經歷的時間差異將在今年剩餘時間裡得到緩解，因為我們看到我們的合同、高度對沖的電力投資組合受到青睞，這為該業務提供了額外的優勢。總體而言，我們制定了實現 2023 年指導目標的計劃，因為我們在整個投資組合中尋找機會來克服第一季度遇到的天氣和風暴影響，並且我們仍處於實現長期增長的有利位置。

Let me wrap up on Slide 10, and then we'll open the line for questions.

讓我結束幻燈片 10，然後我們將打開問題熱線。

In summary, through the remainder of the year, DTE will continue to focus on our team, customers, communities, investors. Although we experienced warmer-than-normal weather and severe storms in the first quarter, we are executing on our plan to achieve full year guidance without jeopardizing safety and reliability. Our robust capital plan supports our strong long-term operating EPS growth as we execute on the critical investment that we need to make for our customers to deliver cleaner generation, and increase reliability while focusing on customer affordability. Our near- and long-term plan supports our 6% to 8% operating EPS growth rate through 2027 and provides a dividend growing in line with operating EPS.

總之，在今年餘下的時間裡，DTE 將繼續關注我們的團隊、客戶、社區和投資者。儘管我們在第一季度經歷了比正常情況更溫暖的天氣和強風暴，但我們正在執行我們的計劃，以在不危及安全性和可靠性的情況下實現全年指導。我們穩健的資本計劃支持我們強勁的長期運營每股收益增長，因為我們執行我們需要為客戶提供更清潔發電的關鍵投資，並在關注客戶負擔能力的同時提高可靠性。我們的近期和長期計劃支持到 2027 年 6% 至 8% 的營業每股收益增長率，並提供與營業每股收益一致的股息增長。

With that, I thank you for joining us today, and we can open the line for questions.

有了這個，我感謝你今天加入我們，我們可以打開問題熱線。

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Durgesh Chopra from Evercore ISI.

（操作員說明）您的第一個問題來自 Evercore ISI 的 Durgesh Chopra 系列。

Dave, the weather EPS impact is very clearly broken out on the slides. Maybe just can you give us a sense of how much of a headwind storm expenses were this year in the first quarter?

戴夫，幻燈片上非常清楚地分解了天氣 EPS 的影響。也許您能告訴我們今年第一季度的逆風風暴費用有多少？

Sure. Like we said, we did see headwinds in our electric business from -- in the first quarter from both weather and storm, and the storm is in there at -- it was $20 million. We also -- this storm was kind of a heavy one where it hit a lot of our wire so it was a little heavier O&M. So after tax is around $70 million. But again, we see great opportunity in our other businesses through the year to kind of overcome those headwinds. And again, all the cost reduction work that we've been doing and kind of focused reductions has really been coming through, too. So we've had these headwinds in the beginning of the year. We see great opportunities still to work through this. And with normal weather and storms through the end of the year, be able to reach our guidance.

當然。就像我們說的那樣，我們確實看到了我們的電力業務的逆風——在第一季度來自天氣和風暴，而風暴就在那裡——是 2000 萬美元。我們也 - 這場風暴有點重，它擊中了我們的很多電線，所以 O&M 有點重。所以稅後約為 7000 萬美元。但同樣，我們在今年的其他業務中看到了克服這些不利因素的巨大機會。再一次，我們一直在做的所有成本削減工作和有針對性的削減工作也確實取得了進展。所以我們在今年年初遇到了這些不利因素。我們看到仍有很大的機會來解決這個問題。在正常天氣和年底風暴的情況下，能夠達到我們的指導。

Got it. And then maybe just can you comment on -- I mean, you guys are pretty good at building up contingency and protecting your plan before the year begins. Can you comment on how much contingency you may have used up, and sort of how much room you may have to flex as the year kind of progresses?

知道了。然後也許你可以評論 - 我的意思是，你們非常擅長在年初之前建立應急計劃並保護你的計劃。您能否評論一下您可能已經用完了多少意外事件，以及隨著時間的推移您可能需要靈活調整多少空間？

Yes. The first quarter, the weather and storm we just talked about were pretty impactful. We came into the year with some challenges. So through the end of the year, we need normal weather and storm along with some management actions to offset some of that. But we'll need normal weather and storm developed to hit our guidance.

是的。第一季度，我們剛才談到的天氣和風暴影響很大。我們帶著一些挑戰進入了這一年。因此，到今年年底，我們需要正常的天氣和風暴以及一些管理措施來抵消其中的一些影響。但我們需要正常的天氣和風暴來達到我們的指導。

Perfect. That's very helpful. And maybe just one last one. Can you sort of compare and contrast the weather-normalized residential sales trends that you're showing on Slide 13? How does that compare in contrast to your rate case filing? I mean, that's a pretty steep 4.5% decline quarter over last quarter on the residential sales front. And I know this was an issue in the last rate case.

完美的。這很有幫助。也許只是最後一個。您能否比較和對比您在幻燈片 13 上顯示的天氣標準化住宅銷售趨勢？這與您的費率案例歸檔相比如何？我的意思是，住宅銷售方面比上一季度下降了 4.5%。我知道這是最後一個費率案例中的一個問題。

Yes. Our sales that we're forecasting that have just come in, they're in line with what we had in our budget, and they're really close to what we had in the current rate case as well. We did see people returning to work a little quicker in the first quarter than we had expected, but that will -- we think that will balance off through the end of the year. So it's very consistent with what we saw, what is filed in this rate case and a little below what we had in our previous rate case even.

是的。我們預測的銷售額剛剛出現，它們符合我們的預算，而且它們也非常接近我們在當前費率情況下的銷售額。我們確實看到人們在第一季度重返工作崗位的速度比我們預期的要快一些，但我們認為這將在今年年底之前達到平衡。所以它與我們所看到的非常一致，在這個費率案例中提交的內容甚至略低於我們之前的費率案例中的內容。

Your next question comes from the line of Jeremy Tonet from JPMorgan.

你的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Jeremy Tonet。

I just want to bring maybe a little bit of a finer point to question on contingencies here. As you see the balance of the year, you talked about the midpoint the target for the year for EPS. Does that assume kind of you've exhausted contingencies across segments? Or are there still contingencies in place should something go adverse to plan?

我只是想就這裡的突發事件提出一個更好的觀點。當你看到今年的餘額時，你談到了今年 EPS 目標的中點。這是否假設你已經用盡了跨部門的意外事件？或者如果某些事情對計劃不利，是否仍然有應急措施？

Well, at our electric business, we've worked through the contingency for that we have for weather and storm combined. So -- but within our other businesses, we are still seeing favorability that can continue to make up for that as we go through the year.

好吧，在我們的電力業務中，我們已經解決了天氣和風暴相結合的突發事件。所以 - 但在我們的其他業務中，我們仍然看到可以在我們度過這一年時繼續彌補這一點的好感。

The other thing we're seeing Jeremy as well as, as we initiated our continuous improvement efforts and cost reduction efforts, we are seeing some favorability there as well, which will also be helpful.

我們看到傑里米的另一件事是，當我們開始持續改進和降低成本的努力時，我們也看到了一些有利因素，這也會有所幫助。

And just to be clear for everybody on the line, as we embarked on these cost reduction efforts, which most of them are onetime efforts to move through this year, we are investing at record levels in our distribution grid. This year, we'll invest about $1.5 billion in our grid. And also, we have not touched our tree trimming budgets, which both of those 2 combined are the most impactful things that we will do to make our grid more resilient and more reliable.

並且讓每個在線的人都清楚，當我們開始這些降低成本的努力時，其中大部分是今年要完成的一次性努力，我們正在對我們的配電網進行創紀錄的投資。今年，我們將在我們的電網上投資約 15 億美元。而且，我們還沒有觸及我們的樹木修剪預算，這兩項結合在一起是我們將做的最有影響力的事情，以使我們的電網更具彈性和更可靠。

Got it. That's helpful. So just to be clear there, outside of Electric in the other segments, there are still contingencies that could -- that are not in plan yet that could be used, should something move adverse to plan at this point?

知道了。這很有幫助。所以要明確一點，在其他部門的 Electric 之外，仍然有可能 - 尚未在計劃中但可以使用的意外事件，如果此時有什麼事情對計劃不利？

Yes. So yes, that's what we've signaled is that there's favorability within those businesses that they can offset other things.

是的。所以是的，這就是我們發出的信號，即這些企業中存在可以抵消其他因素的優勢。

Got it. That's very helpful there. And then just kind of pivoting away, I guess, to the RNG business within Vantage. Just wondering if you could talk a bit about how you see the opportunity set there kind of if you see higher competition. Just wondering how you think about returns and opportunity set at this point?

知道了。這在那裡非常有幫助。然後我猜，只是有點轉向 Vantage 內的 RNG 業務。只是想知道如果您看到更高的競爭，您是否可以談談您如何看待那裡的機會。只是想知道您如何看待此時的回報和機會？

Yes. Primarily, our investment opportunities in RNG are driven by assets that are already under our control, where we're converting existing landfills to produce RNG. And so that's where we're seeing opportunities. And those are still really nice returns, IRRs that are in sort of the north of 10% and into the teens in some instances, unlevered after tax. So those feel real good to us.

是的。首先，我們對 RNG 的投資機會是由我們已經控制的資產驅動的，我們正在將現有的垃圾填埋場轉化為生產 RNG。這就是我們看到機會的地方。這些仍然是非常好的回報，內部收益率在 10% 左右，在某些情況下達到十幾歲，稅後沒有槓桿。所以那些對我們來說真的很好。

We're also seeing a resurgence in our Energy Solutions area where we're -- a lot of the sort of repatriation of industrial activity in the United States has given us opportunity to look at incremental investments with some of our large industrial partners. So we're also excited about that line of business.

我們也看到了我們所在的能源解決方案領域的複蘇——美國工業活動的大量回流讓我們有機會與一些大型工業合作夥伴一起考慮增加投資。因此，我們也對該業務線感到興奮。

Your next question comes from the line of David Arcaro from Morgan Stanley.

你的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 David Arcaro。

I wanted to see just if there's any appetite from your end or just within the state to pursue decoupling going forward, either through a rate case or just overall, is that a strategy or a regulatory structure that would be appealing?

我想看看你們或州內是否有興趣通過利率案例或總體上尋求脫鉤，這是一種有吸引力的戰略或監管結構嗎？

Traditionally, in our area, even in the Midwest, that's not been a practice that's been widely adopted or endorsed. So we don't see that as a high probability outcome. We have not asked for it because it's not something that there seems to be appetite for at this point in time.

傳統上，在我們地區，甚至在中西部，這種做法並未得到廣泛採用或認可。所以我們不認為這是一個高概率的結果。我們沒有要求它，因為目前似乎沒有人對此感興趣。

Got it, understood. And thinking -- I was curious to your view on as you pursue onetime savings initiatives this year, the onetime being, you obviously get them reversing going forward, are you thinking about 2024? Is there a certain kind of level of headwind or natural offset into 2024 such that there's any risk going forward if you dig too deep on the onetime cuts this year?

明白了，明白了。並且思考 - 我很好奇你對你今年追求一次性儲蓄計劃的看法，一次性，你顯然讓他們逆轉前進，你在考慮 2024 年嗎？到 2024 年是否存在某種程度的逆風或自然抵消，以至於如果你對今年的一次性削減挖得太深，未來會有任何風險嗎？

Well, certainly, the onetime reductions will be reversed. And just to be clear again, these onetime reductions are not areas that would have significant impact on reliability and certainly not safety. And we will look through our continuous improvement initiatives to see how much of that can stick. Obviously, that's something that we're always looking for to make our operations more efficient through our continuous improvement initiatives. And as you know, any time you embark on one of these initiatives, you do find opportunity. So we'll look to try and make some of those continuous improvement initiatives stick, but many of them will be -- if at all, will be reversed.

好吧，當然，一次性減少將被逆轉。再次明確，這些一次性減少不會對可靠性產生重大影響，當然也不會對安全性產生重大影響。我們將審視我們的持續改進計劃，看看其中有多少可以堅持下去。顯然，這是我們一直在尋找的東西，通過我們的持續改進計劃來提高我們的運營效率。如您所知，只要您著手其中一項舉措，您就會發現機會。因此，我們將嘗試讓其中一些持續改進計劃堅持下去，但其中許多將——如果有的話，將被逆轉。

Yes. Got it, understood. I was wondering how are you thinking kind of strategically about how to manage the more extreme weather that you've been facing in Michigan. I'm wondering if -- you've obviously laid out a number of CapEx pursuits in O&M targeting. Is this something that you could bring as kind of a separate initiative to the commission, whether it's some kind of undergrounding plan or just whether resiliency type of a plan? Or would you expect it to go through the more traditional rate case process over time?

是的。明白了，明白了。我想知道您如何從戰略角度考慮如何應對您在密歇根麵臨的更極端的天氣。我想知道是否 - 你顯然已經在 O&M 目標中提出了許多資本支出追求。這是否可以作為一項單獨的倡議提交給委員會，無論是某種地下計劃還是彈性計劃？還是您希望它隨著時間的推移經歷更傳統的費率案例流程？

Well, we have 2 processes, and that's a great question. One is, we do have to update our distribution grid plan for the commission this year, and we're in the process of doing that. And as you said, we really have several realities facing our grid investments. One is, what used to be historic storms that happened every 50 years or every 100 years have now become more frequent, seem to be happening every 3 to 5 years, so that's one reality. The second reality is that we've got significant demand growth opportunity that we're facing with the electrification of the transportation fleet. And we're also seeing, what I would call, high levels of economic development in our state, especially as the auto industry starts to retool and rebuild to build electric vehicles.

嗯，我們有 2 個流程，這是一個很好的問題。一是，我們今年確實必須更新委員會的配電網計劃，我們正在這樣做。正如您所說，我們的電網投資確實面臨著幾個現實。一是，過去每 50 年或每 100 年發生一次的歷史性風暴現在變得更加頻繁，似乎每 3 到 5 年發生一次，所以這是一個現實。第二個現實是，隨著運輸車隊的電氣化，我們面臨著巨大的需求增長機會。我們還看到，我稱之為，我們州的高水平經濟發展，特別是隨著汽車行業開始重組和重建以製造電動汽車。

So when we think about all of that, and we think about our 5-year plan and 10- and 15-year plans going forward, several things really come out. One is our 5-year plan right now is projecting approximately $9 billion of investment going into the grid. And there's really 3 fundamental areas. One is continued grid hardening. Also the full rebuild of our lower voltage system, our 4.8 kV system. We have approximately 16,000 miles of 4.8 kV system in our grid and that will need to be rebuilt. It is the oldest part of our grid and the need for rebuild is driven by several things. One is age and the need to modernize, but secondly, also the ability to accommodate incremental demand through electrification of the transportation sector as well as the economic development activity that we're seeing. So those are -- so that's number two.

因此，當我們考慮所有這些，並考慮我們未來的 5 年計劃以及 10 年和 15 年計劃時，確實會出現幾件事。其中之一是我們目前的 5 年計劃預計將有大約 90 億美元的投資進入電網。實際上有 3 個基本領域。一是持續強化電網。還全面重建了我們的低壓系統，我們的 4.8 kV 系統。我們的電網中有大約 16,000 英里的 4.8 kV 系統，需要重建。它是我們電網中最古老的部分，重建的需求是由多種因素驅動的。一是年齡和現代化的需要，二是通過運輸部門的電氣化以及我們所看到的經濟發展活動來滿足增量需求的能力。所以那些是 - 所以這是第二位。

Number three, we were pursuing full automation over this period of rebuild 15 to 20 years. But with the reality of the new storm activity that we're seeing on a more frequent basis, we want to accelerate that to 5 to 6 years, which is the full automation of our grid.

第三，我們在 15 到 20 年的重建期間追求完全自動化。但隨著我們更頻繁地看到新的風暴活動的現實，我們希望將其加速到 5 到 6 年，這是我們電網的完全自動化。

What that will do is it will fundamentally move the duration of outages and that's where we need to make the most improvement in our grid in the near term. And of course, the level of investment that we're making in tree trim we're 5 years through a 7-year very aggressive tree-trimming program, where, over the last 5 years, we've invested $800 million in tree trim. And we'll continue at that pace for 2 more years, and then we'll return to a more normal pace of aggressive tree trimming once we've sort of removed the backlog, if you will. So those are the fundamental things that you'll see in our distribution grid plan.

這樣做的目的是從根本上縮短停電的持續時間，而這正是我們需要在短期內對電網進行最大改進的地方。當然，我們在樹木修剪方面的投資水平是 5 年，通過一個為期 7 年的非常積極的樹木修剪計劃，在過去的 5 年裡，我們在樹木修剪上投資了 8 億美元.我們將繼續以這種速度進行 2 年，然後一旦我們消除了積壓，我們將恢復到更正常的積極修剪樹木的速度，如果你願意的話。所以這些是您將在我們的配電網計劃中看到的基本內容。

And then obviously, as we get support and endorsement for that, that will formulate the basis of our rate cases going forward. So it's a very good process here in Michigan. We're -- we attempt to get alignment around our distribution grid plan, and then we -- each year, we take out a piece of that plan, if you will, in our rate cases.

然後很明顯，當我們得到支持和認可時，這將為我們未來的費率案例奠定基礎。所以在密歇根州這是一個非常好的過程。我們 - 我們試圖圍繞我們的配電網計劃進行調整，然後我們 - 每年，如果你願意的話，我們會在我們的費率案例中拿出一部分計劃。

(Operator Instructions) And your next question comes from the line of Michael Sullivan from Wolfe Research.

（操作員說明）您的下一個問題來自 Wolfe Research 的 Michael Sullivan。

Jerry, so maybe just picking up on that last one. Is there any way some of the things you're thinking about on reliability spend can be factored into the currently pending electric rate case? Or do you kind of have to wait till this distribution grid plan gets filed and then fold it into future cases?

傑里，所以也許只是拿起最後一個。有什麼方法可以將您正在考慮的有關可靠性支出的某些事情考慮到當前未決的電費案例中嗎？或者您是否必須等到此配電網計劃被歸檔，然後將其納入未來的案例中？

Well, some of the -- certainly, the grid hardening is already in our plan in this current rate case. The tree trimming is in our current rate case that's in front of the commission. The beginning of a 4.8 kV rebuild is in our rate case. And actually, as part of the infrastructure renewal mechanism or the tracker that we're proposing that we feel there's strong support for is to start tracking capital investments for this rebuild. And the full automation, the acceleration of that is not in our current rate case, but we're going to start anyway. We think this is still fundamental that we're happy to start this investment and pull forward this investment. And there may be some regulatory lag with that, but it won't be significant.

好吧，在當前的費率案例中，其中一些 - 當然，網格強化已經在我們的計劃中。樹木修剪是在我們目前的費率案例中，在佣金面前。 4.8 kV 重建的開始是在我們的費率案例中。實際上，作為我們提議的基礎設施更新機製或跟踪器的一部分，我們認為得到了強有力的支持，即開始跟踪此次重建的資本投資。完全自動化，加速它不在我們目前的費率案例中，但無論如何我們都會開始。我們認為這仍然是我們很高興開始這項投資並推動這項投資的根本。可能會有一些監管滯後，但不會很嚴重。

And the other thing that I wanted to mention, Michael, this 4.8 kV rebuild, we're going to get really aggressive on trying to understand how much of this we can put underground. We've got -- the way I look at it is we're going to rebuild 16,000 miles of grid, the older portions of our grid, and we should attempt to put as much of that underground as possible, as economically feasible. And that's something we're going to start experimenting with. We have several pilots that are in this current rate case that we're hopeful that the commission will approve, and that will start to get our feet wet. And I've actually met with the mayor of Detroit, Mike Duggan. Him and I have talked about how we start that in Detroit and really start to experiment with that as he replace water main and we replace gas pipe, and we try to attempt to create some synergies here with infrastructure renewable in the city of Detroit.

邁克爾，我想提的另一件事是，這次 4.8 kV 重建，我們將非常積極地嘗試了解我們可以將其中的多少放入地下。我們已經 - 我看待它的方式是我們將重建 16,000 英里的電網，我們電網的較舊部分，我們應該嘗試盡可能多地將其置於地下，在經濟上可行。這就是我們要開始試驗的東西。我們有幾個試點處於當前的利率情況下，我們希望委員會能夠批准，這將開始讓我們開始涉足。我實際上會見了底特律市長 Mike Duggan。他和我討論了我們如何在底特律開始這項工作，並真正開始試驗，因為他更換了水管，我們更換了煤氣管，我們試圖在這裡與底特律市的可再生基礎設施創造一些協同效應。

Okay. That's really helpful. And maybe just like with all this incremental spend, how we should just be thinking about the CapEx budget and customer rate impacts? Are there other things that get shifted out, or do you see incremental headroom to absorb some of this additional spend on the grid?

好的。這真的很有幫助。也許就像所有這些增量支出一樣，我們應該如何考慮資本支出預算和客戶率的影響？是否有其他東西被移出，或者您是否看到增加的淨空來吸收電網上的一些額外支出？

Well, we've got $9 billion in our 5-year plan. And this year, we'll invest $1.5 billion in the grid. And we feel that to accelerate -- the piece that will get accelerated here fundamentally is automation. We're going to try to find that opportunity inside the $9 billion by becoming more efficient with our capital deployment. But we'll update -- we may also have to increase it modestly over the next 5 years, but we'll update that in likely in November at EEI.

好吧，我們的 5 年計劃中有 90 億美元。今年，我們將在電網上投資 15 億美元。我們認為要加速——從根本上說，這裡要加速的部分是自動化。我們將通過提高我們的資本部署效率來嘗試在 90 億美元中找到這個機會。但我們會更新——我們可能還必須在未來 5 年內適度增加它，但我們可能會在 11 月的 EEI 上更新它。

Okay. Great. And then last thing, I just wanted to circle back to the quarter results and the guide. So I guess just to confirm, if we do get more storms or mild weather at the electric business over the summer, how much more can be absorbed there? Or should we think about that as it starts to become too much to offset?

好的。偉大的。最後一件事，我只想回到季度結果和指南。所以我想只是為了確認，如果我們在夏季確實在電力業務中遇到更多的風暴或溫和的天氣，那麼那裡可以吸收多少？還是我們應該考慮一下，因為它開始變得太多而無法抵消？

Well, we have storm budget left, obviously, as we try to move forward in our plan here for the summer. We have assumed normal weather. If we get cooler-than-normal weather, it will put pressure on the plan, and we'll have to look for other opportunities. But Dave, do you want to add any color to that?

好吧，顯然，我們還剩下風暴預算，因為我們正在努力推進我們的夏季計劃。我們假設天氣正常。如果我們的天氣比正常情況更涼爽，這會給計劃帶來壓力，我們將不得不尋找其他機會。但是戴夫，你想給它添加任何顏色嗎？

I think that's right. We are looking -- if we have normal storm and normal weather, we're in a good place to hit our guidance. But again, we'd have to find some more offsets if things are outside of the normal.

我認為這是對的。我們正在尋找——如果我們有正常的風暴和正常的天氣，我們就可以達到我們的指導。但同樣，如果事情超出正常範圍，我們將不得不找到更多的補償。

Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Weisel from Scotiabank.

你的下一個問題來自豐業銀行的 Andrew Weisel。

First question on the reliability spending and automation, in particular, should we expect structural day-to-day O&M savings from these investments? I think the primary goal is to reduce outages, but would these come with mitigant customer vol pressure?

關於可靠性支出和自動化的第一個問題，我們是否應該期望從這些投資中節省結構性的日常 O&M 費用？我認為主要目標是減少停電，但這些會減輕客戶的波動壓力嗎？

Yes. It's a great question. As you think about automation, just to describe it quickly, you have interruption caused by a tree falling on a wire and taking wires out between 2 poles, for example. And what automation gives you the opportunity to do is to isolate that outage and restore customers on both sides of that outage. So instead of having 1,000 customers waiting 24 or 48 for restoration, you can reduce that impact to perhaps 100 or 150 customers waiting so that damage is repaired. So that, one, makes the restoration faster, so it starts to kill duration, if you will, of outages, which is where we need to make the most improvement to be best-in-class, if you will, in the industry. And then, secondly, Andrew, in terms of efficiencies, it points you to the location of the outage so that you can properly go there more quickly. Like right now, we have to patrol the circuit and look for the outage, and that could be in the middle of the night, which consumes hours. And that just means it's more hours that people are patrolling, more costs of restoration. So it will make the restoration efforts more efficient and lower cost.

是的。這是一個很好的問題。當您考慮自動化時，為了快速描述它，例如，由於一棵樹倒在電線上並從 2 根電線桿之間取出電線而導致中斷。自動化讓您有機會做的是隔離中斷並恢復中斷雙方的客戶。因此，與其讓 1,000 名客戶等待 24 或 48 天等待恢復，不如將影響減少到大約 100 或 150 名客戶等待修復損壞。因此，第一，使恢復速度更快，因此它開始縮短中斷的持續時間，如果你願意的話，這是我們需要做出最大改進以成為業內最佳的地方，如果你願意的話。然後，其次，安德魯，就效率而言，它會指出中斷的位置，以便您可以更快地正確到達那裡。就像現在一樣，我們必須巡邏電路並尋找停電，這可能會在半夜進行，這會耗費數小時。這僅僅意味著人們巡邏的時間更長，恢復成本更高。因此，這將使恢復工作更有效率，成本更低。

Okay. Great. Then the follow-up to that 1 is you mentioned a few different buckets of reliability spending. In terms of dollars and potential impacts, where do you see the most opportunity or the most value?

好的。偉大的。那麼 1 的後續行動是你提到了幾個不同的可靠性支出桶。就金錢和潛在影響而言，您認為哪裡機會最多或價值最大？

The most significant investment will really be in 2 areas. And I believe the first, the top one would be the 4.8 kV rebuild. I mean 16,000 miles of rebuild over the next 15 to 20 years, will be the most significant investment we've ever made in our grid. And this is a portion of the grid that was built anywhere from the '40s to the early '60s, if you will. And secondly is the grid hardening. We've got 46,000 miles of total circuit miles and 16,000 is the 4.8 kV and approximately another 15,000 to 16,000 is the 13.2 kV system, which is a newer system and newer meaning it was built in the early '70s.

最重要的投資實際上是在兩個領域。我相信第一個，最重要的是 4.8 kV 重建。我的意思是在未來 15 到 20 年內進行 16,000 英里的重建，這將是我們對電網所做的最重大投資。如果你願意的話，這是從 40 年代到 60 年代初在任何地方建造的網格的一部分。其次是網格硬化。我們有 46,000 英里的總電路里程，其中 16,000 英里是 4.8 kV，另外大約 15,000 到 16,000 英里是 13.2 kV 系統，這是一個更新的系統，更新意味著它是在 70 年代初期建造的。

And into the modern times here, we need to make sure that, that's hardened because some of that equipment is getting old as well. So we need to replace poles, we need to replace pole-top equipment, wires, transformers and so on and so forth. So -- and automate that. Those are going to be the 2 major buckets of investment in the grid. But the automation will also be a significant investment, but it won't be as big as the rebuild and hardening that we need to do.

進入現代，我們需要確保這一點得到加強，因為其中一些設備也變老了。所以我們需要更換桿子，我們需要更換桿頂設備、電線、變壓器等等。所以 - 並將其自動化。這些將成為電網投資的兩大領域。但自動化也將是一項重大投資，但不會像我們需要做的重建和加固那麼大。

Okay. That's really helpful. And just one last one, if I may. Deferred fuel balances, can you talk about where that stands versus year-end levels?

好的。這真的很有幫助。如果可以的話，就最後一個。遞延的燃料平衡，你能談談與年底水平相比的情況嗎？

Yes. On our PSCR, we are collecting some this year. We were down -- we were about $400 million cash last year that we're going to be collecting this year and over next year. And then our GCR has come way down. Our gas balances has come way down in price. So that was at around $5 last year, and it's now come down into like $3 without a balance there.

是的。在我們的 PSCR 上，我們今年正在收集一些。我們很沮喪——去年我們將在今年和明年收集大約 4 億美元的現金。然後我們的 GCR 已經下降了。我們的天然氣天平價格大幅下降。所以去年大約是 5 美元，現在已經下降到 3 美元左右，而且沒有餘額。

Your next question comes from the line of Alex Mortimer from Mizuho.

你的下一個問題來自 Mizuho 的 Alex Mortimer。

I was hoping you could provide some color on kind of how the O&M cuts -- the onetime O&M cuts are going thus far. I believe you said on the 4Q call that you had about $120 million of cuts. So any clarity on where you stand within that number as things stand today, given the challenging weather and storm activity from Q1?

我希望你能提供一些關於 O&M 削減方式的顏色——一次性 O&M 削減到目前為止。我相信你在第四季度的電話會議上說過你削減了大約 1.2 億美元。那麼，考慮到第一季度充滿挑戰的天氣和風暴活動，你是否清楚你在今天的數字中所處的位置？

Yes, that's a good question. We came into the year with that challenge and went through our normal process of how we would go about that and setting some good targets and budgets for our teams, and we're well on our way to achieving that. In fact, we're overachieving a little bit as we've started the year. And again, these are -- we've taking advantage of attrition, reduced some of our contractor workforce limit over time and then shifted some of our less time-critical work. So it's really going very well for us. We're hitting our numbers. Again, we're not doing anything that impacts our customers, impacts reliability. In fact, we're continuing to invest a lot in everything we need to do to improve and help reliability. But across our business, we're seeing these reductions like really take hold.

是的，這是個好問題。我們帶著這一挑戰進入了這一年，並經歷了我們將如何應對並為我們的團隊設定一些好的目標和預算的正常流程，我們正在朝著實現這一目標的方向努力。事實上，我們今年年初的表現有點超額完成。再一次，這些是——我們利用了自然減員的優勢，隨著時間的推移減少了我們的一些承包商勞動力限制，然後轉移了一些時間緊迫性較低的工作。所以我們真的很順利。我們正在達到我們的目標。同樣，我們不會做任何影響我們的客戶、影響可靠性的事情。事實上，我們正在繼續對我們需要做的一切進行大量投資，以提高和幫助提高可靠性。但在我們的整個業務中，我們看到這些削減真的很有效。

Okay. Understood. And then that $120 million is to hit the midpoint of guidance, correct?

好的。明白了。然後這 1.2 億美元將達到指導的中點，對嗎？

Yes, that was putting us on target to hit the midpoint.

是的，這讓我們有機會達到中點。

Okay. And then just kind of quickly flipping to the rate case side. It seems like the 2 big issues in the last electric rate case were kind of a lack of precedent for your forecasting methodology and then a lack of extensive back testing. It looks like you revised your forecasting methodology slightly in this new case in a direction that seems more aligned with what you've traditionally used in the past. But if you could provide any color on how you believe you've addressed commission intervenor concerns sort of as we work through this current case, it would be appreciated.

好的。然後只是快速轉向費率案例方面。上一個電價案例中的兩個大問題似乎是您的預測方法缺乏先例，然後是缺乏廣泛的回溯測試。看起來您在這個新案例中稍微修改了您的預測方法，方向似乎更符合您過去傳統上使用的方法。但是，如果您能提供任何顏色，說明您認為您在我們處理當前案例時如何解決佣金干預者的問題，我們將不勝感激。

Particularly on sales forecasting. And what we had in the last rate case, we are actually seeing the sales come in kind of similarly to what we had forecasted, in fact, a little below that. The methodology change you're talking about is we're using some Google mobility data that would help us determine the percentage of people coming back to work. That's not available anymore. So we use what's this badge-like data, which is from Kastle. And it's really just as accurate or more accurate. But I would say about our forecasting, we're doing a good job. We're right on with what we submitted in the rate case, but there's also a lot less variability in how the forecasting will be done now because we are kind of working through this return to work. And so we don't really expect there to be the big variations in forecast across groups as we go through this next rate case.

特別是在銷售預測方面。在上一個利率案例中，我們實際上看到銷售額與我們的預測有點相似，實際上略低於預期。你所說的方法變化是我們正在使用一些谷歌移動數據，這將幫助我們確定重返工作崗位的人的百分比。那已經不可用了。所以我們使用來自 Kastle 的類似徽章的數據。而且它真的一樣準確或更準確。但我要說的是我們的預測，我們做得很好。我們在利率案例中提交的內容是正確的，但現在進行預測的方式也有少得多的可變性，因為我們正在努力完成這種重返工作的工作。因此，在我們處理下一個利率案例時，我們真的不希望各組的預測存在很大差異。

Understood. Yes, definitely coming out of a challenging time makes it more simpler, more straightforward, I'd imagine.

明白了。是的，從充滿挑戰的時期中走出來肯定會讓事情變得更簡單、更直接，我想。

And then just finally on the rate case front. With Commissioner Phillips leaving the MPUC in the coming months, can you give any clarity on what the process looks like if one of the commissioners leaves sort of halfway through your case, does his replacement get to rule on this current case? Or sort of how we should think about this development playing out?

然後終於在費率案例方面。隨著菲利普斯專員在未來幾個月離開 MPUC，如果其中一位專員在您的案件中途離開，您能否清楚地說明流程是什麼樣的，他的繼任者是否可以對當前案件作出裁決？或者我們應該如何看待這種發展？

Yes. What will happen is that the governor and her staff will appoint a new commissioner to replace Commissioner Phillips, and of course, we wish Commissioner Phillips all the best in his future endeavors. So that's what will happen. If one is not appointed, 2 can rule on the rate case and the IRP that's in front of the commission for our company. And I guess the last question you had, yes, the new commissioner would have the opportunity to weigh in, depending on timing, of course. If it's late in the process of one or both proceedings, then typically, they may not choose to participate. But if they have enough time to spend with the case, then they typically do rule on it.

是的。將會發生的是，州長和她的工作人員將任命一位新專員來取代菲利普斯專員，當然，我們希望菲利普斯專員在未來的工作中一切順利。這就是將會發生的事情。如果未指定其中一位，則 2 位可以就我們公司佣金前的費率案例和 IRP 作出裁決。我想你的最後一個問題是，是的，當然，新專員將有機會參與，具體取決於時間。如果在一個或兩個程序的過程中已經晚了，那麼通常他們可能不會選擇參與。但是，如果他們有足夠的時間處理此案，那麼他們通常會對此作出裁決。

Your next question comes from the line of Ross Fowler from UBS.

你的下一個問題來自瑞銀的 Ross Fowler。

So, Dave, you've talked about sort of this -- these onetime O&M cuts this year to get back in the range and mitigate some of the storms. Obviously, Jerry, you talked about reviewing that as you move forward to what's permanent and what sticks and what's sort of onetime as you look through all of it. I imagine you're going to have to have that conversation with the commission as well. Just maybe give us some color and context as we look forward into that conversation of how that conversation has gone in the past, right?

所以，戴夫，你已經談到了這一點——今年這些一次性的 O&M 削減是為了回到範圍內並減輕一些風暴。很明顯，傑里，你談到過在你瀏覽所有內容時回顧什麼是永久性的，什麼是持久的，什麼是一次性的。我想你也將不得不與委員會進行對話。當我們期待著過去的對話進行時，也許可以給我們一些顏色和背景，對嗎？

There's going to be a debate about what's onetime and what's more permanent?

關於什麼是一次性的，什麼是更永久的，將會有一場辯論？

Absolutely. And those conversations are happening and also are continuing to happen with the staff at the commission to create understanding as to what's onetime and what's permanent. So I think it's a work in progress, Ross, with the commission staff. And ultimately, there will be a decision, hopefully, a settlement here that addresses, not only O&M, but also the other features of our capital investment plans, so -- and our capital structure and returns and so on and so forth. But we're hopeful that we will have settlement in this case, and we'll work really hard to make that happen. We're actually encouraged by what's happening in the IRP. We seem to be progressing conversations there. So we're going to take the same approach with the rate case.

絕對地。這些對話正在發生，並且還在繼續與委員會的工作人員進行，以建立對一次性和永久性的理解。所以我認為這是一項正在進行的工作，羅斯，委員會的工作人員。最終，將有一個決定，希望在這里達成和解，不僅解決運營和維護問題，還解決我們資本投資計劃的其他特徵，以及我們的資本結構和回報等等。但我們希望我們能就此案達成和解，我們會非常努力地實現這一目標。我們實際上對 IRP 中發生的事情感到鼓舞。我們似乎正在那裡進行對話。因此，我們將對利率案例採用相同的方法。

And following up on sort of Commissioner Phillips. I know every time this happens, it's a little bit different, but is there a general like average time it's taken to replace a commissioner when this has happened in the past? Or should we not look to that as a guidepost for proving the -- this individual process?

並跟進菲利普斯專員。我知道每次發生這種情況都會有所不同，但是過去發生這種情況時更換專員所需的平均時間是否一般？還是我們不應該將其視為證明這個單獨過程的路標？

I know the process is underway, and there's already -- my understanding, obviously, we're not on the other side of this, but my understanding is that there's already a list of candidates that are being considered. And so we're encouraged by that, that the Governor's Office is moving quickly on this. So I would expect in several months that we would have a new commissioner, unless there's difficulty that's encountered in finding the right candidate. And I think they're being -- my understanding is that they're being really, as they always are, selective about who they put on the commission.

我知道這個過程正在進行中，並且已經 - 我的理解，顯然，我們並沒有站在另一邊，但我的理解是已經有一份正在考慮的候選人名單。因此，我們感到鼓舞的是，州長辦公室正在迅速採取行動。所以我預計幾個月後我們將有一位新專員，除非在尋找合適的候選人方面遇到困難。而且我認為他們正在 - 我的理解是他們真的一如既往地選擇他們委託的人。

In light of the fact that this is a historic time for utilities in Michigan in terms of investment and really rebuilding the way we deliver energy and also the way we produce energy, so it's a really historic time in terms of transitioning the state to a much cleaner and more reliable future.

鑑於就投資和真正重建我們提供能源的方式以及生產能源的方式而言，對於密歇根州的公用事業來說，這是一個歷史性的時刻，因此，就將該州轉變為一個更強大的國家而言，這是一個真正的歷史性時刻更清潔、更可靠的未來。

There are no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the call back over to Jerry for closing remarks.

目前沒有其他問題。我想將電話轉回給 Jerry 以作結束語。

Thank you. Well, thank you, everyone, for joining us today. I'll just close by saying I'm excited about the opportunities that we have ahead of us to further strengthen our electric grid and prepare for increased demand for electrification of our system as well as really transforming the way we produce power, the way we deliver gas. We are in a historic period at DTE and in our state. So we will also continue executing on our plan to achieve our goals in 2023 and remain well positioned for future growth. I hope everybody has a great morning, and I look forward to seeing all of you at AGA in a few weeks. Thank you.

謝謝。好吧，謝謝大家今天加入我們。最後我想說我很高興我們有機會進一步加強我們的電網並為我們系統電氣化需求的增加做好準備以及真正改變我們生產電力的方式，我們的方式輸送氣體。我們正處於 DTE 和我們州的歷史時期。因此，我們還將繼續執行我們的計劃，以在 2023 年實現我們的目標，並為未來的增長做好準備。我希望每個人都有一個美好的早晨，我期待著幾週後在 AGA 見到你們所有人。謝謝。

This now concludes today's conference call. Enjoy your day. You may now disconnect.

現在結束今天的電話會議。祝您愉快。您現在可以斷開連接。