Fluence Energy Inc (FLNC) 2023 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Fluence Energy, Inc. Q3 2023 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, today's call is being recorded.

感謝您的耐心等待，歡迎參加 Fluence Energy, Inc. 2023 年第三季度收益電話會議。 （操作員說明）謹此提醒，今天的通話正在錄音。

I would now like to turn the call over to your host, Mr. Lex May, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

現在我想將電話轉給東道主投資者關係副總裁 Lex May 先生。請繼續。

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to Fluence Energy's Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. A copy of our earnings presentation, press release and supplementary metric sheet covering financial results, along with supporting statements and schedules, including reconciliations and disclosures regarding non-GAAP financial measures are posted on the Investor Relations section of our website at fluenceenergy.com.

謝謝。早上好，歡迎參加 Fluence Energy 2023 年第三季度收益電話會議。我們的收益報告、新聞稿和涵蓋財務業績的補充指標表的副本，以及支持性報表和時間表，包括有關非公認會計準則財務指標的調節和披露，均發佈在我們網站fluenceenergy.com 的投資者關係部分。

Joining me on this morning's call are Julian Nebreda, our President and Chief Executive Officer; Manu Sial, our Chief Financial Officer; and Rebecca Boll, our Chief Products Officer.

與我一起參加今天早上電話會議的是我們的總裁兼首席執行官 Julian Nebreda； Manu Sial，我們的首席財務官；以及我們的首席產品官麗貝卡·波爾 (Rebecca Boll)。

During the course of this call, Fluence's management may make certain forward-looking statements regarding various matters relating to our business and company that are not historical facts. Such statements are based upon the current expectations and certain assumptions and are, therefore, subject to certain risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual results to differ materially. Please refer to our SEC filings for our forward-looking statements and for more information regarding certain risks and uncertainties that could impact our future results. You are cautioned to not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of today.

在本次電話會議期間，Fluence 的管理層可能會就與我們的業務和公司相關的各種事項做出某些非歷史事實的前瞻性陳述。此類陳述基於當前預期和某些假設，因此存在某些風險和不確定性。許多因素可能導致實際結果存在重大差異。請參閱我們向 SEC 提交的文件，了解我們的前瞻性聲明以及有關可能影響我們未來業績的某些風險和不確定性的更多信息。請您注意不要過分依賴這些前瞻性陳述，這些陳述僅代表今天的情況。

Also, please note that the company undertakes no duty to update or revise forward-looking statements for new information. This call will also reference non-GAAP measures, which we view as important in assessing the performance of our business. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measure is available in our earnings materials on the company's Investor Relations website. Following our prepared comments, we will conduct a question-and-answer session with our team. (Operator Instructions) Thank you very much. I'll now turn the call over to Julian.

另請注意，該公司不承擔更新或修改新信息的前瞻性陳述的義務。這次電話會議還將參考非公認會計原則衡量標準，我們認為這些衡量標準對於評估我們的業務業績非常重要。這些非公認會計準則衡量標準與最具可比性的公認會計準則衡量標準的調節可在公司投資者關係網站上的收益材料中找到。根據我們準備好的意見，我們將與我們的團隊進行問答會議。 （操作員說明）非常感謝。我現在將把電話轉給朱利安。

Thank you, Lex. I would like to send a warm welcome to our investors, analysts and employees who are participating on today's call.

謝謝你，萊克斯。我謹向參加今天電話會議的投資者、分析師和員工表示熱烈歡迎。

This morning, I will provide a brief update on our business, and then review our progress on our strategic objectives. Following my remarks, Manu will discuss our financial performance for the third quarter as well as our outlook for the rest of the fiscal year.

今天早上，我將簡要介紹我們的業務最新情況，然後回顧我們在戰略目標方面的進展。在我發表講話後，馬努將討論我們第三季度的財務業績以及我們對本財年剩餘時間的展望。

Starting on Slide 4, with the key highlights. I'm pleased to report that, in the quarter, we recognized $536 million of revenue. We continue to experience strong demand as new orders were approximately $565 million, highlighted by our solution business contracting 1.4 gigawatt hours and our digital business adding nearly 1 gigawatt of new contracts. Furthermore, our signed contract backlog as of June 30 increased to $2.9 billion.

從幻燈片 4 開始，重點突出。我很高興地報告，本季度我們確認了 5.36 億美元的收入。我們繼續感受到強勁的需求，新訂單約為 5.65 億美元，其中我們的解決方案業務簽訂了 1.4 吉瓦時的新合同，而我們的數字業務則增加了近 1 吉瓦的新合同。此外，截至 6 月 30 日，我們已簽署的積壓合同增加至 29 億美元。

Turning to adjusted gross profit. We delivered $24 million or a margin of approximately 4.4% for the quarter. This is slightly lower than the Q2 level of 4.6, primarily because of one project that experienced delay from a noncore supplier. This was an isolated incident, which would not hinder us from our expectation of achieving double-digit gross profit margins in Q4.

轉向調整後的毛利潤。本季度我們交付了 2,400 萬美元，利潤率約為 4.4%。這略低於第二季度 4.6 的水平，主要是因為一個項目經歷了非核心供應商的延遲。這是一個孤立的事件，不會妨礙我們實現第四季度毛利率兩位數的預期。

Lastly, our services and digital business, which represents the sum of our recurring businesses. We continue to see traction. Our deployed service attachment rate, which is based on our cumulative active service contracts, relative to our deployed storage, remains above 90%. As we have noted previously, we typically see a lag between signing solution contracts and entering into a service contract, which is why we believe that cumulative attachment rate is a better metric.

最後是我們的服務和數字業務，它代表了我們經常性業務的總和。我們繼續看到牽引力。我們的部署服務附加率（基於我們累積的活躍服務合同，相對於我們部署的存儲而言）保持在 90% 以上。正如我們之前所指出的，我們通常會看到簽署解決方案合同和簽訂服務合同之間存在滯後，這就是為什麼我們認為累積附件率是一個更好的指標。

Turning to our digital business. We had a very strong quarter as we were able to contract nearly 1 gigawatt. However, our digital assets under management at the end of the third quarter was slightly lower than the second quarter level as a result of a customer not renewing its contract with us. This slight decline will be more than offset as the new contracts not yet deployed moved from our digital backlog to our digital assets under management.

轉向我們的數字業務。我們有一個非常強勁的季度，因為我們能夠簽訂近 1 吉瓦的合同。然而，由於客戶未與我們續簽合同，我們第三季度末管理的數字資產略低於第二季度水平。隨著尚未部署的新合約從我們的數字積壓轉移到我們管理的數字資產，這種輕微的下降將被抵消。

While we don't like losing customers, the nonrenewal is within our expected 5% rate for churn or customer attrition. Our low churn rates highlights the general stickiness of our customer base. Overall, we still have a lot of work to do regarding our digital business, but we're on track to deliver on our commitments.

雖然我們不喜歡失去客戶，但不續訂的客戶流失率或客戶流失率在我們預期的 5% 之內。我們的低流失率凸顯了我們客戶群的總體粘性。總的來說，我們的數字業務還有很多工作要做，但我們正在兌現我們的承諾。

Turning to Slide 5. I'd like to discuss the five strategic objectives that we highlighted previously and provide you with an update on our progress. First, on delivering profitable growth. I'm pleased to report that we are raising our fiscal year '23 guidance for both revenue and adjusted gross profit.

轉向幻燈片 5。我想討論我們之前強調的五個戰略目標，並向您提供我們進展的最新信息。首先，實現盈利增長。我很高興地報告，我們正在提高 23 財年的收入和調整後毛利潤指引。

As Manu will discuss in more detail, we're able to raised our guidance due to better project execution, thanks in a large part to our supply chains improving. Additionally, we are reaffirming our expectations that we will be close to adjusted EBITDA breakeven in our fiscal fourth quarter.

正如馬努將更詳細地討論的那樣，由於更好的項目執行，我們能夠提高我們的指導，這在很大程度上要歸功於我們供應鏈的改善。此外，我們重申我們的預期，即我們將在第四財季接近調整後的 EBITDA 盈虧平衡。

Second, we will continue to develop products and solutions that our customers need. As such, I'm pleased to report that we signed a 400-megawatt hour contract that will utilize Northvolt batteries. This is a significant milestone, and this will mark our first major project that will utilize European manufacturer batteries and illustrates our commitment to diversifying our supply chain.

其次，我們將繼續開發客戶需要的產品和解決方案。因此，我很高興地報告，我們簽署了一份 400 兆瓦時的合同，將使用 Northvolt 電池。這是一個重要的里程碑，這將標誌著我們第一個使用歐洲製造商電池的重大項目，並體現了我們對供應鏈多元化的承諾。

Third, we will convert by changing into our competitive advantage. I'm pleased to say that we have signed a U.S. sales supply agreement with ASC, under which we will procure U.S. manufacture battery cells. This is a tremendous achievement for us as we believe this will position Fluence to be one of the first companies to provide customers with a storage product that qualifies for the 10% investment tax credit bonds under the IRA domestic content rules. This contract provides us access to the limited early U.S. cell supply and give us a first mover advantage, which position us to potentially increase our existing market share. As I mentioned previously, this agreement supports our domestic module manufacturing, for which we expect we will capture the incentive of $10 per kilowatt hour, which I will touch on more shortly.

第三，我們要通過變革轉化為我們的競爭優勢。我很高興地說，我們已經與 ASC 簽署了美國銷售供應協議，根據該協議，我們將採購美國製造的電池。這對我們來說是一項巨大的成就，因為我們相信這將使 Fluence 成為首批為客戶提供符合 IRA 國內內容規則 10% 投資稅收抵免債券資格的存儲產品的公司之一。該合同使我們能夠獲得美國早期有限的電池供應，並為我們提供了先發優勢，這使我們有可能增加現有的市場份額。正如我之前提到的，該協議支持我們的國內組件製造，我們預計我們將獲得每千瓦時 10 美元的激勵，我將很快談到這一點。

Fourth, we will use Fluence digital as a competitive differentiator and a margin driver. I'm pleased to report that we continue to make progress on our Nispera product road map. This quarter, we launched an artificial intelligence-based predictive maintenance tool, our first artificial intelligence tool for battery storage on the Nispera platform. I will also discuss this in more detail momentarily.

第四，我們將使用 Fluence digital 作為競爭優勢和利潤驅動因素。我很高興地報告，我們的 Nispera 產品路線圖繼續取得進展。本季度，我們推出了基於人工智能的預測維護工具，這是我們在 Nispera 平台上第一個用於電池存儲的人工智能工具。我稍後也會更詳細地討論這個問題。

And finally, our fifth objective is to work better. I'm proud to state that Fluence has increased its total cash position by more than $30 million from the second quarter level, further bolstering our liquidity. Our total cash includes cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investments.

最後，我們的第五個目標是更好地工作。我很自豪地宣布，Fluence 的現金頭寸總額較第二季度增加了 3000 萬美元以上，進一步增強了我們的流動性。我們的現金總額包括現金、現金等價物、限制性現金和短期投資。

Turning to Slide 6. Demand for energy storage continues to accelerate. In fact, our pipeline now sits at $12.4 billion, which is an increase of more than $1 billion from last quarter. Additionally, as I mentioned, we saw our backlog increase to approximately $2.9 billion. We expect to see some initial project awards in the second half of this calendar year that are directly attributed to the Inflation Reduction Act. As such, we reaffirm our belief that consolidated revenue growth will be between 35% to 40% in fiscal year '24 relative to our increased revenue guidance for fiscal year '23.

轉向幻燈片 6。對儲能的需求持續加速。事實上，我們的管道現在達到 124 億美元，比上季度增加了 10 億多美元。此外，正如我提到的，我們的積壓訂單增加至約 29 億美元。我們預計將在今年下半年看到一些直接歸因於《通貨膨脹削減法案》的初始項目獎勵。因此，我們重申，相對於我們對 23 財年增加的收入指導，24 財年的綜合收入增長將在 35% 至 40% 之間。

Turning to Slide 7. As I mentioned earlier, we have secured an offtake agreement with ASC for U.S.-made battery cells. This agreement strengthens our capacity to offer customers a storage product that we expect to qualify for the additional 10% investment tax credit. A bonus granted to products complying with the prescribed criteria for domestic content under the IRA. We expect the first U.S. cells to be delivered in calendar year -- in calendar Q4 of '24.

轉向幻燈片 7。正如我之前提到的，我們已與 ASC 簽訂了美國製造電池的承購協議。該協議增強了我們為客戶提供存儲產品的能力，我們預計該產品有資格獲得額外 10% 的投資稅收抵免。向符合 IRA 規定的國內含量標準的產品授予獎金。我們預計首批美國電池將在 2024 年第四季度交付。

Additionally, we're still on track to begin manufacturing our battery modules in our facility in Utah in the summer of '24. We know that the battery modules will produce starting in the summer of '24 to qualify for the $10 per kilowatt hour incentive and will support the offering of a product compliant with the IRA domestic content requirements upon the integration of U.S. manufacturer cells in the -- in Q4 of '24.

此外，我們仍有望於 2024 年夏天在猶他州工廠開始生產電池模塊。我們知道，電池模塊將於 24 年夏季開始生產，以獲得每千瓦時 10 美元的獎勵，並將支持在美國製造商電池整合後提供符合 IRA 國內含量要求的產品—— 24 年第 4 季度。

In regard to our U.S. module manufacturing, we do not expect that we will capture incremental margin as a result of manufacturing our own modules in the U.S. Instead, we expect the $10 per kilowatt hour incentive will go towards offsetting the cost of reaching economies of scale.

就我們的美國組件製造而言，我們預計不會因在美國製造自己的組件而獲得增量利潤。相反，我們預計每千瓦時 10 美元的激勵措施將用於抵消實現規模經濟的成本。

From an accounting standpoint, our current expectation is that we will account for the $10 per kilowatt hour incentive on our income statement as a reduction to cost of goods and services. Furthermore, we expect to elect the direct pay provision for the first 5 years of the credit. The exact timing of the cash payment is expected to lag our accounting recognition, thus we expect it to be in conjunction with our federal income tax reform.

從會計角度來看，我們目前的預期是，我們將在損益表中將每千瓦時 10 美元的獎勵計入損益表中，作為商品和服務成本的降低。此外，我們預計在信貸的前 5 年選擇直接支付條款。現金支付的確切時間預計將滯後於我們的會計確認，因此我們預計它將與我們的聯邦所得稅改革結合起來。

With respect to the U.S. manufacturer product, we're exploring whether our first-mover advantage will allow us to share some of the benefits our customers will enjoy from our offering and thus, provide us with incremental margin. It's too early to define a concrete view. But as the situation evolves, we will provide more color on this potential upside.

對於美國製造商的產品，我們正在探索我們的先發優勢是否能讓我們分享客戶從我們的產品中獲得的一些好處，從而為我們提供增量利潤。現在定義具體的觀點還為時過早。但隨著形勢的發展，我們將提供更多有關這一潛在好處的信息。

As you may have seen earlier this summer, the U.S. Treasury Department released its domestic content regulation. Overall, we're pleased to see the regulations. However, there are still outstanding questions that we're hoping the IRA will clarify by the end of the calendar year.

正如您今年夏天早些時候可能已經看到的那樣，美國財政部發布了國內內容監管規定。總的來說，我們很高興看到這些規定。然而，仍有一些懸而未決的問題，我們希望愛爾蘭共和軍能夠在今年年底前澄清。

Turning to Slide 8. I'm pleased to announce we recently launched an artificial intelligence-based predictive maintenance feature for battery and storage as part of our Nispera offering. This is our first Nispera artificial intelligence-based feature, following the success of the AI capabilities on our Mosaic building application.

轉向幻燈片 8。我很高興地宣布，我們最近推出了基於人工智能的電池和存儲預測維護功能，作為 Nispera 產品的一部分。這是繼我們的 Mosaic 建築應用程序的人工智能功能取得成功之後，我們的第一個基於 Nispera 人工智能的功能。

Nispera AI-based predictive maintenance feature is an advanced solution, designed to upgrade the performance and reliability of an e-store system. By harnessing the power of artificial intelligence model, this (inaudible) technology prioritizes and acts upon the storage performance issues, thereby significantly reducing downtime and ensuring uninterrupted power supply.

Nispera 基於人工智能的預測維護功能是一種先進的解決方案，旨在升級電子商店系統的性能和可靠性。通過利用人工智能模型的力量，這種（聽不清）技術可以優先考慮存儲性能問題並採取行動，從而顯著減少停機時間並確保不間斷供電。

From a customer standpoint, the AI-based predictive maintenance figure offered by Nispera will provide numerous benefits, including minimized downtime, significant maintenance cost savings, enhanced asset reliability, optimized maintenance scheduling and improved safety. I'm pleased to say that we've deployed this solution onto its first project in California. More importantly, this feature provides another tangible proof point that we're on track with our digital business commitment, which we say will not be meaningful before 2025.

從客戶的角度來看，Nispera 提供的基於人工智能的預測維護數據將帶來諸多好處，包括最大限度地減少停機時間、顯著節省維護成本、增強資產可靠性、優化維護計劃和提高安全性。我很高興地說，我們已將該解決方案部署到其位於加利福尼亞州的第一個項目中。更重要的是，這一功能提供了另一個切實的證據，證明我們正在履行我們的數字業務承諾，我們認為這一承諾在 2025 年之前將沒有任何意義。

In conclusion, I'm pleased with the achievements of the third quarter. Although we're mindful there's still work to be done, we will look to continue this momentum as we progress through the remainder of the year.

總之，我對第三季度的成績感到滿意。儘管我們意識到仍有工作要做，但我們將在今年剩餘時間內繼續保持這一勢頭。

I will now turn the call over to Manu.

我現在將把電話轉給馬努。

Thank you, Julian. I will begin by reviewing our financial performance for the third quarter and then discuss our guidance for fiscal year 2023. Please turn to Slide 10.

謝謝你，朱利安。我將首先回顧我們第三季度的財務業績，然後討論我們對 2023 財年的指導。請參閱幻燈片 10。

Our third quarter revenue was $536 million, 124% above prior year. We continue to execute well as we work through our legacy backlog, which accounted for more than half of our revenue in the third quarter. As we alluded to on our last call, third quarter had a larger impact from the roll off of our remaining legacy contracts than we expect to occur in the fourth quarter. We continue to anticipate a majority of our lower-margin legacy backlog will be turned over by the end of this fiscal year, though, as I've indicated previously, a small portion will bleed into fiscal year 2024.

我們第三季度的收入為 5.36 億美元，比去年同期增長 124%。我們在處理遺留積壓工作時繼續表現良好，這些積壓工作占我們第三季度收入的一半以上。正如我們在上次電話會議中提到的那樣，第三季度剩餘遺留合同的延期所產生的影響比我們預期的第四季度更大。我們仍然預計，我們的大部分低利潤遺留積壓訂單將在本財年年底前移交，不過，正如我之前指出的，一小部分將流入到 2024 財年。

We generated approximately $24 million of adjusted gross profit in the third quarter, which was an adjusted gross margin of 4.4%, slightly lower than the second quarter level. As Julian mentioned, the driver of the decline was one specific legacy project that incurred delays driven by a noncore supplier.

第三季度我們產生了約2400萬美元的調整後毛利潤，調整後毛利率為4.4%，略低於第二季度水平。正如朱利安提到的，下降的驅動因素是一個特定的遺留項目，該項目因非核心供應商而導致延誤。

More importantly, for the fourth quarter, we expect our margin to be about 10%, which reflects an increased weighting of the higher quality higher-margin orders that we have recently signed relative to prior years and expect this to be a good proxy for the expected margins in fiscal 2024.

更重要的是，我們預計第四季度的利潤率約為10%，這反映出我們最近簽署的更高質量、更高利潤率的訂單相對於前幾年的權重有所增加，並預計這將成為2024 財年的預期利潤率。

Third quarter operating expense, excluding stock compensation, was $54 million or approximately 10% of revenue, which is lower than prior quarter in absolute terms, though up just slightly as a percentage of revenue. We remain disciplined about holding our operating expense growth to less than 50% of revenue growth and expect this model to create operating leverage in 2023 and beyond. This is also reflected in the year-to-date third quarter operating expense as a percentage of revenue, which is 10.9%, down from 17.2% in year-to-date third quarter 2022.

第三季度運營費用（不包括股票報酬）為 5,400 萬美元，約佔收入的 10%，從絕對值來看低於上一季度，但佔收入的百分比略有上升。我們仍然嚴格要求將運營費用增長控制在收入增長的 50% 以下，並預計這種模式將在 2023 年及以後創造運營槓桿。這也反映在今年迄今第三季度運營費用佔收入的比例中，該比例為 10.9%，低於 2022 年迄今第三季度的 17.2%。

Turning to our cash balance. I'm pleased to report we ended the third quarter with $416 million of total cash, including short-term investments and restricted cash. This represents an increase of more than $30 million from the second quarter. Rounding out the balance sheet discussion and in line with previous communication, we saw a decrease in inventory of approximately $250 million in the third quarter relative to the second and continue to see improvements in inventory turns. This, coupled with improved collections, drove the increase in our cash balance. In addition, we ended the third quarter with $165 million of undrawn revolver capacity and $80 million of unused supply chain financing, providing us additional sources of liquidity.

轉向我們的現金餘額。我很高興地報告，截至第三季度末，我們的現金總額為 4.16 億美元，其中包括短期投資和限制性現金。這比第二季度增加了超過 3000 萬美元。結束資產負債表討論並根據之前的溝通，我們看到第三季度的庫存相對於第二季度減少了約 2.5 億美元，並且庫存周轉率繼續改善。再加上收款的改善，推動了我們現金餘額的增加。此外，第三季度結束時，我們還有 1.65 億美元的未動用左輪手槍產能和 8000 萬美元的未使用供應鏈融資，為我們提供了額外的流動性來源。

Please turn to Slide 11. I'm pleased to report we have increased and narrowed our fiscal year 2023 guidance ranges for both revenue and adjusted gross profit. We now expect our total revenue to be between $2 billion and $2.1 billion, which is up from our previous revenue guidance of $1.85 billion to $2 billion.

請參閱幻燈片 11。我很高興地報告，我們已經提高並縮小了 2023 財年收入和調整後毛利潤的指導範圍。我們現在預計我們的總收入將在 20 億美元至 21 億美元之間，高於我們之前 18.5 億美元至 20 億美元的收入指導。

As Julian indicated, we are maintaining our outlook for 35% to 40% revenue growth in 2024 despite the higher 2023 revenue guide, as we continue to benefit from growing demand and strong supply chain assurance, though we expect roughly 75% of 2024 revenue to be generated in the second half of the fiscal year based on the current contract schedules we are seeing.

正如朱利安所指出的，儘管2023 年收入指導較高，但我們仍維持2024 年收入增長35% 至40% 的預期，因為我們繼續受益於不斷增長的需求和強大的供應鏈保證，儘管我們預計2024 年收入的約75%根據我們看到的當前合同時間表，將在本財年下半年產生。

We have all of 2024 battery supply secured, and the continued improvements in our supply chain position also helped support incremental increase in 2023 revenue guidance compared to prior estimates. We have also narrowed our guidance for adjusted gross profit to be between $117 million and $132 million, which implies a slight increase at the midpoint from our previous guidance of $110 million to $135 million.

我們已經確保了 2024 年的全部電池供應，而且我們供應鏈地位的持續改善也有助於支持 2023 年收入指引較之前估計的增量增長。我們還將調整後毛利潤的指導範圍縮小到 1.17 億美元至 1.32 億美元之間，這意味著我們之前指導的 1.1 億美元至 1.35 億美元的中間值略有增加。

As we have indicated on our second quarter conference call, we expect to be close to adjusted EBITDA breakeven in the fourth quarter 2023. As we focus on achieving adjusted EBITDA profitability for fiscal year '24 and beyond, we intend to provide formal guidance for fiscal 2024 for both revenue and adjusted EBITDA on our next earnings call, while continuing to provide transparency of other key operating and modeling assumptions.

正如我們在第二季度電話會議上表示的那樣，我們預計2023 年第四季度將接近調整後EBITDA 盈虧平衡。由於我們專注於實現24 財年及以後的調整後EBITDA 盈利能力，因此我們打算為財政年度提供正式指導我們將在下一次財報電話會議上公佈 2024 年的收入和調整後 EBITDA，同時繼續提供其他關鍵運營和建模假設的透明度。

From a cash standpoint, we expect our fourth quarter total cash levels to be near breakeven, and we believe we have ample liquidity to meet our 2024 revenue targets. Please note that our U.S. battery cell supply agreement currently calls for a down payment of $150 million to reserve this capacity, which will be paid in installments over fiscal year '24 and fiscal year '25 and will be funded by our liquidity and customer deposits for these batteries. The first $35 million will be paid in the first quarter of fiscal year '24 and another $35 million will be paid in the second quarter of fiscal year '24.

從現金的角度來看，我們預計第四季度的總現金水平將接近盈虧平衡，並且我們相信我們有充足的流動性來實現 2024 年的收入目標。請注意，我們的美國電池供應協議目前要求支付 1.5 億美元的首付款來保留這一產能，這筆款項將在 24 財年和 25 財年分期支付，並將由我們的流動資金和客戶存款提供資金這些電池。首筆 3500 萬美元將在 24 財年第一季度支付，另外 3500 萬美元將在 24 財年第二季度支付。

Before I turn the call back to Julian for final comments, I would like to reiterate that we continue to see strong demand, which is reflected in the significant growth of our pipeline, which gives us confidence that we will be close to adjusted EBITDA breakeven in the fourth quarter and generate positive adjusted EBITDA in 2024.

在我回電朱利安徵求最終意見之前，我想重申，我們繼續看到強勁的需求，這反映在我們管道的顯著增長上，這使我們有信心我們將接近調整後的 EBITDA 盈虧平衡點。第四季度實現盈利，並於2024 年產生正調整EBITDA。

With that, I will turn the call back to Julian.

這樣，我會將電話轉回朱利安。

Thank you, Manu. In closing, I would like to reiterate what I consider to be the key takeaways from this quarter results. First, we had a solid quarter in terms of our financial performance, clearing out much of our legacy low-margin contracts, while generating cash and raising our guidance yet again. We have also reiterated our expectations that we will be close to adjusted EBITDA breakeven in our fourth quarter.

謝謝你，馬努。最後，我想重申我認為本季度業績的關鍵要點。首先，我們的季度財務業績表現穩健，清理了大部分遺留的低利潤合同，同時產生了現金並再次提高了我們的指導。我們還重申了我們的預期，即我們將在第四季度接近調整後的 EBITDA 盈虧平衡。

Second, we have taken steps to secure our future by locking up our fiscal year '24 battery supply as well as locking up early domestic battery cell production, providing us a clear first-mover advantage.

其次，我們已採取措施確保我們的未來，鎖定我們'24財年的電池供應以及鎖定早期的國內電池生產，為我們提供了明顯的先發優勢。

Third, we launched our new AI-based feature for Nispera to help provide our customers with additional tools necessary to lower the total cost of ownership.

第三，我們為 Nispera 推出了基於人工智能的新功能，以幫助為客戶提供降低總擁有成本所需的額外工具。

This concludes my prepared remarks. Operator, we are now ready to take questions.

我準備好的發言到此結束。接線員，我們現在準備好回答問題。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of James West of Evercore ISI.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 Evercore ISI 的 James West。

Good quarter and the outlook looks very strong. I was curious, as we've had IRA guidance provided now and we obviously know -- you and I know kind of the demand drivers here for energy storage. Has there been any net change in that demand, either up or probably -- up or down but probably up with pure guidance out there for the U.S.? And then how are you guys thinking about also the European markets as they start to figure out the green industrial plan that they've put out there?

季度表現良好，前景看起來非常強勁。我很好奇，因為我們現在已經獲得了愛爾蘭共和軍 (IRA) 的指導，而且我們顯然知道——你和我都知道這裡對能源存儲的需求驅動因素。這種需求是否有任何淨變化，無論是上升還是可能——上升或下降，但根據美國的純粹指導，可能會上升？那麼，當歐洲市場開始製定他們在那裡推出的綠色工業計劃時，你們又如何看待歐洲市場呢？

In terms of the U.S., I don't think we have seen a major movement since the guidelines came out. So it's in line with what we said that for a total demand, 35% to 40%, and that's what we're guiding revenue for next year. And the U.S., a little bit higher than that.

就美國而言，我認為自指導方針發布以來我們還沒有看到重大變化。因此，這與我們所說的總需求的 35% 到 40% 一致，這就是我們明年的收入指導。而美國，比這個要高一點。

For Europeans, we do -- we are seeing some -- a little of the markets being a lot more, I would say, moving a lot. So where -- first, Germany, I think. Germany was a market where was incipient. Now we see a lot more activity. And then the Nordic countries, is another group where we are seeing now a lot more demand.

對於歐洲人來說，我們確實——我們看到了一些——我想說的是，一些市場發生了很大的變化。那麼，我想首先是德國。德國是一個剛剛起步的市場。現在我們看到更多的活動。然後北歐國家是另一個我們現在看到需求更多的群體。

I don't think this is enough today to go for a review in our 35% to 40%, but good signs, especially Germany being such a big economy. I'm sure it's going to be a competitive market. So it will be a fun ride for us, but that might be meaningful. But that's kind of where we are. I think we feel we're very confident about 35% to 40% for next year and positive that we will see demand getting better.

我認為今天這還不足以對我們的 35% 至 40% 進行審查，但這是好的跡象，特別是德國是一個如此大的經濟體。我確信這將是一個競爭激烈的市場。所以這對我們來說將是一次有趣的旅程，但這可能很有意義。但這就是我們現在的情況。我認為我們對明年的 35% 到 40% 非常有信心，並且對我們將看到需求好轉充滿信心。

The other one we're seeing that, maybe, is Canada, which was something that I think I talked about with some of you before. We start seeing demand in Canada, mostly in Ontario. And that has been very, very -- that's also very, I think, meaningful. And it could be a huge market.

我們看到的另一個可能是加拿大，我想我之前曾與你們中的一些人討論過這一點。我們開始看到加拿大的需求，主要是在安大略省。我認為這非常非常有意義。這可能是一個巨大的市場。

And that proves a point. I think that if I can make maybe a little bit of an add. As you know, the Canada electric city has a lot of hydropower. And a lot of people, when they see hydropower, they don't see a need for battery storage. And our view is that reservoirs do their jobs. Our job is completely different. We provide services to the grid to ensure stability, to move capacity faster or fast response to provide block starts. These are things that are not necessarily reservoirs can do. So it really proves a point that even hydro systems or systems that have a lot of hydro capacity need dramatic storage to ensure that they can add up to a new power center landscape.

這證明了一點。我想如果我能做一點點補充的話。如您所知，加拿大電力城擁有大量水力發電。很多人在看到水力發電時，並不認為需要電池存儲。我們的觀點是水庫發揮了其作用。我們的工作完全不同。我們向電網提供服務，以確保穩定性、更快地轉移容量或快速響應以提供區塊啟動。這些事情不一定是水庫能做到的。因此，這確實證明了一點，即使是水力系統或擁有大量水力容量的系統也需要大量存儲，以確保它們能夠構成新的電力中心景觀。

Okay. That's very interesting. And then a question on Nispera, the adoption of Nispera. How is that -- you put much more emphasis the last couple of quarters on that, the adoption rate on the software side of the business. How is that progressing?

好的。這很有趣。然後是關於 Nispera 的問題，即 Nispera 的採用。這是怎麼樣的——過去幾個季度你更加重視業務軟件方面的採用率。進展如何？

We signed like around 1 giga. It was mostly Nispera. We have some Mosaic there, and it's doing very well. I think the fact that we have the first integrated portfolio management, asset performance management tool that covers all the renewal technology storage, wind, solar, really makes a difference. And it has really helped us. We're very, very happy with it.

我們簽約了大約 1 GB。主要是尼斯佩拉。我們那裡有一些馬賽克，而且做得很好。我認為，我們擁有第一個綜合投資組合管理、資產績效管理工具，涵蓋了所有更新技術存儲、風能、太陽能，這一事實確實產生了影響。它確實對我們有幫助。我們對此非常非常滿意。

I think these new tools that we just announced, the maintenance tool, (inaudible) beginning, this one is based on temperature readings, but there's (inaudible) charts, state of chart. There's a lot more -- the batteries are very, very rich in data. So there's a lot of value we will create by harnessing that data and convert it into information that our customers can use to manage our systems a lot better.

我認為我們剛剛宣布的這些新工具，維護工具，（聽不清）開始，這個工具是基於溫度讀數的，但是有（聽不清）圖表，圖表狀態。還有更多——電池中的數據非常非常豐富。因此，通過利用這些數據並將其轉換為客戶可以用來更好地管理我們的系統的信息，我們將創造很多價值。

Our next question comes from the line of Brian Lee of Goldman Sachs.

我們的下一個問題來自高盛的布萊恩·李。

Kudos on the solid execution here again. Question, I guess, on margins. It's a high-quality problem to have, but you seem to have gotten through a lot of the backlog that had some of the lower margin, less profitable projects, Q4 guide, or I guess, the annual guide here for the rest of the year implies Q4 is going to be somewhere in the like 11% range, if my math is right.

再次感謝這裡的紮實執行。我想，問題是在邊緣。這是一個高質量的問題，但你似乎已經解決了很多積壓的問題，其中有一些利潤率較低、利潤較低的項目、第四季度指南，或者我猜，今年剩餘時間的年度指南意味著如果我的數學正確的話，第四季度的增長率將在11% 左右。

So I know you're talking more about like 10% for '24 and you're going to give us more of an official view here in the next quarter, but what are kind of some of the puts and takes between the 10% and 15% long-term guide? And then mapping that to 24% given you're sort of at a good exit rate here for '23, and it seems like a lot of those legacy projects are now off the books or mostly off the books?

所以我知道你更多地談論的是 24 年的 10%，你將在下個季度向我們提供更多官方觀點，但是 10% 和15%長期指導？然後將其映射到 24%，因為您在 23 年的退出率很高，而且似乎很多遺留項目現在都已不再記錄或大部分不再記錄？

Yes. (inaudible)

是的。 （聽不清）

Yes, absolutely. So Brian, there's a lot to unpack in your question. So let me go take it piece by piece. So I think just from how to think about the '24 margins, we are signing contracts in the 10% to 15% margin range, and that is still the case.

是的，一點沒錯。布萊恩，你的問題中有很多東西需要解釋。那麼讓我去一點一點地看吧。因此，我認為，從如何考慮 24 年的利潤率來看，我們簽訂的合同的利潤率範圍在 10% 到 15% 之間，而且情況仍然如此。

And -- but the Q4 margin is a good proxy for how to think about '24 margins, right? And then as we have a little bit more contribution from our services business and our digital business maybe ticks up a little bit, but Q4 is a good proxy for '24, and that will continue to increase as we go from '24 to '25. So that's one.

而且——但第四季度的利潤率可以很好地代表如何思考 24 年的利潤率，對吧？然後，隨著我們的服務業務做出更多貢獻，我們的數字業務可能會有所增長，但第四季度是24 年的一個很好的代表，隨著我們從24 年到25 年，這一貢獻將繼續增加。這就是其中之一。

In terms of legacy, you're right, we are done with most of our legacy projects. I think there's about $100 million to $150 million that trickles into '24, mostly done in the first half of the year. So as you do the quarterly profiling and the calculus of '24 margins, keep that in mind.

就遺留問題而言，你是對的，我們已經完成了大部分遺留項目。我認為大約有 1 億到 1.5 億美元會流入到 24 年，其中大部分是在今年上半年完成的。因此，當您進行季度分析和 24 年利潤率計算時，請記住這一點。

And then you're right, the business is performing really well. I would want to point out the fact that: one, we've been fairly disciplined from an overhead perspective. And that's important because as we turn the page to '24, the focus is going to be a lot on EBITDA dollars, right? That is a better measure of profitability than gross margin or gross margin percent.

然後你是對的，業務表現非常好。我想指出這樣一個事實：第一，從管理角度來看，我們一直相當自律。這很重要，因為當我們翻到 24 年時，焦點將集中在 EBITDA 上，對嗎？這是比毛利率或毛利率百分比更好的盈利能力衡量標準。

And I think that's what we want the investor community to be focused on. And that's reflected in our comments that we get close to EBITDA breakeven in the current quarter or in the fourth quarter.

我認為這就是我們希望投資者界關注的問題。這反映在我們的評論中，我們在本季度或第四季度接近 EBITDA 盈虧平衡。

And then I'll round up my comments from a cash perspective. We generated cash in the third quarter. My comments talked about cash breakeven in the fourth quarter, which means we'll generate cash in the back half of the year. So that is another area we are focused on. So EBITDA and cash becomes much more relevant than gross margin, gross margin percent.

然後我將從現金角度總結我的評論。我們在第三季度產生了現金。我的評論談到了第四季度的現金收支平衡，這意味著我們將在今年下半年產生現金。這是我們關注的另一個領域。因此，EBITDA 和現金比毛利率、毛利率百分比更重要。

My last comment before I pass it on back to you is we've been very pleased with the performance of the business. And what that's got us is, it's got us to be Big C-enabled. So Big C is well-known season [issuer]. And we intend to file a universal shelf tomorrow after the market for good housekeeping. And that's really reflective of the confidence that the shareholders have placed in our business that allows us to be a Big C now.

在將其轉回給您之前，我的最後一句話是，我們對公司的業績非常滿意。這讓我們成為 Big C 的支持者。所以Big C是眾所周知的季節[發行人]。我們打算在明天市場結束後歸檔一個通用貨架，以實現良好的內務管理。這確實反映了股東對我們業務的信心，使我們現在能夠成為 Big C。

My only comment on the filing is that we do not intend to raise -- we have no plans to raise capital in any way during -- for '24. We don't need it, but I think this is just for housekeeping.

我對這份文件的唯一評論是，我們不打算在 24 年期間籌集資金——我們沒有計劃以任何方式籌集資金。我們不需要它，但我認為這只是為了做家務。

Yes. And that is consistent with the comments that we had in (inaudible).

是的。這與我們在（聽不清）中的評論是一致的。

Right.

正確的。

Okay. Yes, fair enough. No, I appreciate all that additional color. I guess second question, shifting to maybe the top line here. I know even with the pull forward, it seems like you had here and being able to raise the '23 guidance, you're comfortable with the 35% to 40% growth trajectory into '24.

好的。是的，很公平。不，我很欣賞所有額外的顏色。我想是第二個問題，也許轉移到這裡的頂行。我知道，即使有所提前，您似乎也能提高 23 年指導，您對 24 年 35% 至 40% 的增長軌跡感到滿意。

Can you maybe give us a sense of how much of that is just additional demand, bookings activity you're comfortable with heading into next year? And how much of that is maybe conversion time lines? It seems like some of those are maybe pulling in a little bit. If you can provide a little bit more color around that and then I'll pass it on.

您能否讓我們了解其中有多少只是額外的需求，您對明年的預訂活動感到滿意？其中有多少可能是轉換時間線？看起來其中一些可能會有點拉動。如果你能提供更多的顏色，然後我會把它傳遞出去。

Yes. We're kind of -- the way I will maybe phrase it is that when you looked at our backlog and you looked at our '24 revenue, we're covered right in line with where we were last year. So we feel very, very confident that for what -- the backlog that we will convert in '24 is what we will do this quarter and next, that we will be more than enough to meet the 35% to 40%. So we feel very, very confident about it.

是的。我們的方式——我可能會這麼說，當你查看我們的積壓訂單和我們 24 年的收入時，我們的覆蓋範圍與去年的情況一致。因此，我們非常非常有信心，我們將在 24 年轉換的積壓訂單是我們本季度和下季度要做的事情，我們將足以滿足 35% 至 40% 的要求。所以我們對此非常非常有信心。

So we will provide you exactly how much of our '24 -- of our revenue is covered by backlog in our next earnings call. We will provide guidance on '24. So I want to get ahead of ourselves, but we are in a similar position to where we were last year when we were doing this year's planning process. Our plan is to provide guidance on '24 in the next earnings call in late November.

因此，我們將在下一次財報電話會議上準確地向您提供我們 24 年收入中有多少是由積壓訂單覆蓋的。我們將在 24 日提供指導。所以我想超越自己，但我們的處境與去年進行今年規劃過程時的處境相似。我們的計劃是在 11 月下旬的下一次財報電話會議上提供 24 日的指導。

Our next question comes from the line of Justin Clare of ROTH.

我們的下一個問題來自羅斯的賈斯汀克萊爾。

I wanted to ask you about a project time line. So this quarter, you increased the revenue guide again here. And so I was wondering if you're seeing project time lines further compress? I think you were at around 18 months a little while back here, but things have been trending lower. So where are time lines today? And do you see a path to continuing to shorten the time line potentially to a time frame of 12 months, say?

我想問你有關項目時間表的問題。因此，本季度，您再次增加了收入指南。所以我想知道您是否看到項目時間線進一步壓縮？我想不久前你才 18 個月大，但情況一直在下降。那麼今天的時間線在哪裡呢？您是否認為有可能繼續將時間線縮短至 12 個月？

In general, we don't see time lines compressing. So we're -- I think that -- as we look at our financial planning, we see still projects around the 18 months that we told you. This is a line that we want to work on. And I think this is something there's work to be done.

一般來說，我們沒有看到時間線被壓縮。因此，我認為，當我們審視我們的財務規劃時，我們仍然看到我們告訴您的 18 個月左右的項目。這是我們想要努力的方向。我認為這是有待完成的工作。

Clearly, there are two drivers for this. One is supply chain and the lead times we need for our supply chains to deliver the products on time. And the other one is ensuring that our customers are ready with the infrastructure. So between the two, I think, that -- today, I think we can work with the supply chain to accelerate it. There are our customers. We can also help them to extend, but there's a limit to that. But today, what we have is an 18-month plan. I mean I think you haven't gotten any better.

顯然，這有兩個驅動因素。一是供應鏈以及供應鏈按時交付產品所需的交貨時間。另一方面是確保我們的客戶準備好基礎設施。因此，我認為，在兩者之間，今天，我認為我們可以與供應鏈合作來加速這一進程。有我們的客戶。我們也可以幫助他們延長期限，但這是有限度的。但今天，我們有一個為期 18 個月的計劃。我的意思是我認為你還沒有好轉。

Got it. Okay. And then I just want to ask also about your U.S. manufacturing. You signed an agreement here with ASC. How much of that agreement really covers your need for U.S. cells? Does that cover all of your anticipated U.S. cell supply? Or are you looking for additional suppliers potentially?

知道了。好的。然後我還想問一下你們美國的製造業。您在此與 ASC 簽署了協議。該協議的多少內容真正滿足了您對美國電池的需求？這是否涵蓋了您預期的美國所有電池供應？或者您是否正在尋找其他供應商？

And then also maybe if you could just speak more broadly about the plan for potentially expanding your capacity footprint in the U.S. I think your plan is 6 gigawatt hours in fiscal '24. How should we think about potentially moving above that?

然後也許您可以更廣泛地談論可能擴大您在美國產能足蹟的計劃。我認為您的計劃是在 24 財年實現 6 吉瓦時。我們應該如何考慮超越這一點的可能性？

Yes. I think that in terms of -- we believe this deal which was signed will essentially cover a large amount of our U.S. demand. We believe that the U.S. market will -- there will be a competition between U.S. manufactured sales and imported sales, and we will be working on both sides of that fence. And so -- but we believe that what we have is enough for our expected demand for the next years.

是的。我認為，我們相信簽署的這項協議將基本上滿足我們美國的大量需求。我們相信，美國市場將會——美國製造的銷售和進口銷售之間將會存在競爭，我們將在兩邊努力。所以 - 但我們相信我們所擁有的足以滿足我們未來幾年的預期需求。

Sorry, your second question, if you don't mind repeating Justin. I don't know if I got it. Sorry -- module manufacturing, sorry. On module manufacturing, we are -- we built this plan with the ability to increase the output if we want for the module manufacturing. We mostly -- it depends on how it goes. We can very, very quickly -- this is a -- we can double the production very, very quickly and maybe triple it. So we are -- but we will see how it goes and then make the decisions (inaudible). So -- that's a looking at that.

抱歉，你的第二個問題，如果你不介意重複賈斯汀的話。我不知道我是否收到了。抱歉——模塊製造，抱歉。在模塊製造方面，我們制定了這個計劃，如果我們想要模塊製造的話，我們能夠增加產量。我們主要——這取決於事情進展如何。我們可以非常非常快地——這是——我們可以非常非常快地將產量翻倍，甚至可能翻倍。所以我們是 - 但我們會看看事情進展如何，然後做出決定（聽不清）。所以——這就是一個問題。

Our next question comes from the line of Julien Dumoulin-Smith of Bank of America.

我們的下一個問題來自美國銀行的 Julien Dumoulin-Smith。

It's actually Alex (inaudible) for Julien taking the question. Listen, keeping on the theme on sort of the U.S. piece here. Congrats on the ASC, I guess, announcement.

實際上是 Alex（聽不清）為 Julien 提出了這個問題。聽著，繼續這裡的美國作品的主題。我猜，恭喜 ASC 的宣布。

Let me ask you this, how sustainable of an advantage do you think that this is? Is there any sort of, I guess, value wedge that you think you can create there relative to pricing and where you're able to get those batteries? And then I'm not sure if you mentioned it, but are those raw material indexed? I know that you have some sort of indexation on some of the other contracts. Just curious as far as you guys having an early-mover advantage, if you could elaborate on that a little bit?

讓我問你，你認為這種優勢的可持續性如何？我想，您認為您可以在定價方面以及在哪裡可以獲得這些電池方面創造出某種價值楔子嗎？然後我不確定你是否提到過，但這些原材料是否已編入索引？我知道你們對其他一些合約有某種指數化。只是好奇你們擁有先發優勢，您能否詳細說明一下？

Yes. I mean I'll tell you, talking to customers, what I hear from them is that we are the only ones offering this. That we're the only ones talking to them about this. So that's my view.

是的。我的意思是，我會告訴你，通過與客戶交談，我從他們那裡聽到的是，我們是唯一提供此服務的公司。我們是唯一與他們談論此事的人。這就是我的觀點。

How long of an advantage? How far away are the other suppliers? I don't know. We -- you'll hear different things from different people. Some people say that they do not believe that the U.S. battery manufacturer will be competitive. Why disagree? And we disagree, and we think we'll show it to them.

優勢能維持多久？其他供應商的距離有多遠？我不知道。我們——你會從不同的人那裡聽到不同的事情。有人表示，他們不相信美國電池製造商會有競爭力。為什麼不同意？我們不同意，但我們認為我們會向他們展示這一點。

We'll see, how long? How far away? How far away? I think that it will be -- in my opinion, it will be very simple. Once they see that we're here that we can do and that we can offer a project that's very competitive, that we can put the U.S. flag on top of it, it's really -- where they can see that, I'll see them try to copy it. And there'll probably be a few years. They had a couple of years behind. It's difficult to know.

我們拭目以待，多久？有多遠？有多遠？我認為，在我看來，這將非常簡單。一旦他們看到我們在這裡可以做的事情，我們可以提供一個非常有競爭力的項目，我們可以把美國國旗放在上面，那真的是——在他們能看到的地方，我就會看到他們嘗試複製它。而且可能還要幾年時間。他們落後了幾年。很難知道。

Clearly, people don't announce -- I haven't seen any announcements and what I hear from my customers that nobody is talking about this, but that's what I can -- how much -- I guess your second question goes through, can we capture higher margin on this? Or the second part of your question.

顯然，人們不會宣布——我沒有看到任何公告，我從客戶那裡聽到沒有人在談論這個問題，但這就是我能做的——多少——我想你的第二個問題已經解決了，可以嗎？我們在此獲得更高的利潤？或者你問題的第二部分。

Well, we believe that you can -- we have to, but we just started doing this conversation with our customers, and this is a plan that is a little bit complex. So it's very difficult to give a concrete view of where we see that happen. But we do see that our customers are going to get a significant upside and we should share part of it with them as we are delivering this to them.

嗯，我們相信你可以——我們必須這樣做，但我們剛剛開始與客戶進行對話，這是一個有點複雜的計劃。因此，很難具體說明我們在哪裡看到這種情況發生。但我們確實看到我們的客戶將獲得顯著的好處，當我們向他們提供這些好處時，我們應該與他們分享其中的一部分。

It will also, for sure, whatever like we said, for sure, it will convert to higher volume. And that because -- as I said earlier, we will work on both offering imported sales and the U.S. content sales. So we will be playing on both sides of the fence. And that's what I think will be the trick here.

當然，無論像我們所說的那樣，它肯定會轉化為更高的銷量。這是因為——正如我之前所說，我們將致力於提供進口銷售和美國內容銷售。所以我們將在柵欄的兩側進行比賽。我認為這就是這裡的訣竅。

We're not going only -- we're not only riding one horse. We work so -- customers who have -- the customer have different preference than customers who do not prefer a U.S. content -- U.S. domestic content compliant solution, we will offer them also a solution, but also not met that. So really -- we're really excited about this prospect. And I think that it will solidify our position in the U.S. market.

我們不只是去——我們不只騎一匹馬。我們的工作是這樣的——擁有美國內容的客戶與不喜歡美國內容的客戶有不同的偏好——符合美國國內內容的解決方案，我們也會為他們提供一個解決方案，但也沒有滿足這一點。所以說真的——我們對這個前景感到非常興奮。我認為這將鞏固我們在美國市場的地位。

Yes. No, fair enough. Just two quick follow-ups, sort of cleanup questions, if you will, for me maybe for Manu. Just on the delays in 2Q, should we expect any deferred flowback of LDs? I know you guys have seen that in some historical examples. And then on the deposits piece, I mean do you expect that to be entirely fronted by customers? Or is there some sort of working capital dynamics between cash in from them versus cash [up the] -- from you guys on the deposit piece? If you can clarify.

是的。不，很公平。只是兩個快速跟進，一些清理問題，如果你願意的話，對我來說也許對馬努來說。就第二季度的延遲而言，我們是否應該預期 LD 會出現延遲回流？我知道你們在一些歷史例子中已經看到了這一點。然後在存款方面，我的意思是您是否希望這完全由客戶主導？或者他們的現金與你們存款的現金之間是否存在某種營運資金動態？如果你能澄清一下。

Yes. So I think let me take the two questions in order. From a margins perspective, I think any potential LD is the kind of boxed it in really well in our third quarter actuals than our fourth quarter guidance. So I think that kind of clears that.

是的。所以我想讓我按順序回答這兩個問題。從利潤率的角度來看，我認為任何潛在的 LD 都在我們第三季度的實際數據中，而不是我們第四季度的指導中。所以我認為這已經澄清了這一點。

In terms of how to finance the $70 million of deposits for the first half of '24, I think a good assumption from a modeling perspective is a little over half funded by the customers and the rest funded by our liquidity or any working capital lines that we have.

就如何為24 年上半年的7000 萬美元存款融資而言，我認為從建模角度來看，一個好的假設是一半多一點由客戶提供資金，其餘部分由我們的流動性或任何營運資金額度提供資金我們有。

Our next question comes from the line of Ben Kallo of Baird.

我們的下一個問題來自貝爾德 (Baird) 的本·卡洛 (Ben Kallo)。

So sticking on ASC. Could you guys talk a little bit about your diligence with them and how you chose them? And then I think they have one plant that's operating and one under construction, but where you would begin to sell from -- with them. And then I have a follow-up on different topic.

所以堅持ASC。你們能談談你們對他們的勤奮以及你們是如何選擇他們的嗎？然後我認為他們有一家正在運營的工廠和一家正在建設中的工廠，但你可以從那裡開始與他們一起銷售。然後我對不同的主題進行跟進。

Yes. We don't want to disclose too much, but I'll tell you is the reason -- one of the main reasons why we picked them and decided to work with them because we are -- these batteries will come out of our reconverted plan, a plan that's just going through. It is producing and it will reconvert to produce battery cells for the stationary start.

是的。我們不想透露太多，但我會告訴你原因 - 我們選擇它們並決定與他們合作的主要原因之一，因為我們 - 這些電池將來自我們的重新改造計劃，一個剛剛進行的計劃。它正在生產並將重新轉換為生產用於穩定啟動的電池。

So we believe that in the current environment that they were further ahead than anybody else in offering this, and they already have employees already have, as you know, which is a major issue for some of these plants, they already have the technology. They have the supply chains working very, very well. So the -- very, very good.

因此，我們相信，在當前環境下，他們在提供此方面比其他任何人都領先，而且他們已經擁有員工，正如你所知，這對其中一些工廠來說是一個主要問題，他們已經擁有了技術。他們的供應鏈運轉得非常非常好。所以——非常非常好。

And clearly, also ASC is one of the Tier 1 battery manufacturers. They have been working globally or in the U.S. for some time. So that's the reason why we think that they're a good partner. They are in a very, very good position to offer these batteries today.

顯然，ASC 也是一級電池製造商之一。他們已經在全球或美國工作了一段時間。這就是為什麼我們認為他們是一個很好的合作夥伴。他們現在處於非常非常有利的位置來提供這些電池。

And my follow-up question on different topic is just market dynamics. And I'm thinking about Tesla talking about having pricing power in the market for their storage business. I just wanted to understand if you guys are seeing that and what's causing that? And just the competitive dynamics and how it's changed, either some of your competitors are not as financially strong as you guys or new competitors or anything like that, but then more so on the pricing power?

我關於不同主題的後續問題只是市場動態。我正在考慮特斯拉談論其存儲業務在市場上擁有定價權。我只是想了解你們是否看到了這一點以及造成這種情況的原因是什麼？只是競爭動態及其變化，要么你的一些競爭對手在財務上不如你們或新競爭對手或類似的東西，但更重要的是定價能力？

I don't think that the competitive landscape has improved to our advantage. Let me put it that way. I think this is a very competitive market. Tesla is a very, very strong competitor and there are others, as you said, there are a lot of small players who might not -- do not have the capacity to the stuff we can offer. But I think we're far away still. I think we are far.

我不認為競爭格局已經改善到我們的優勢。讓我這樣說吧。我認為這是一個競爭非常激烈的市場。特斯拉是一個非常非常強大的競爭對手，正如你所說，還有其他一些小型參與者可能沒有能力提供我們可以提供的東西。但我認為我們還很遙遠。我想我們還很遠。

I'm going to say far away but far from the point where the industry consolidates in a way that we are a limited number of players that I don't say we're there, too. So for us, competitiveness is a driver internally to ensure that we did everybody on price, but not only on price, prices, are drivers not the main driver on ensuring our customers have a product that meets their needs. Price being one, our performance, what we do, how they can bank or finance our investments, the type of guarantees we provide them to ensure that they feel comfortable on in our assets going forward.

我要說的是，距離行業整合的程度還很遠，但我們的參與者數量有限，但我並沒有說我們也在那裡。因此，對我們來說，競爭力是內部驅動因素，以確保我們在價格上滿足每個人的需求，但不僅僅是價格，價格驅動因素並不是確保我們的客戶擁有滿足其需求的產品的主要驅動力。價格就是其中之一，我們的表現，我們做什麼，他們如何為我們的投資提供銀行或融資，我們為他們提供的保證類型，以確保他們對我們的資產感到滿意。

And I think that we work very, very hard, and we work out every day and we have everybody looking internally. I don't ensure we'll be Tesla and any other one. That's around.

我認為我們工作非常非常努力，我們每天都鍛煉，我們讓每個人都在審視自己的內心。我不確定我們會成為特斯拉或任何其他公司。就在附近。

Alright, congrats on the results guys.

好吧，恭喜大家的結果。

Our next question comes from the line of Pavel Molchanov of Raymond James.

我們的下一個問題來自雷蒙德·詹姆斯的帕維爾·莫爾恰諾夫。

2024, so recognizing you're going to give kind of more detailed guidance a bit later by much more back-end weighted revenue picture compared to this year. And I'm just kind of curious why the difference in sequencing?

2024 年，因此認識到，與今年相比，您將稍後通過更多的後端加權收入情況提供更詳細的指導。我只是有點好奇為什麼排序會有所不同？

So I think the way to think about '24 from a first half, second half perspective is as follows, right? If you look at how the '23 guidance has evolved, as we have gone about from our original guidance, which I think the midpoint was 1.55 or 1.6 to where we are, which is closer to 2.05, we've kept the growth rate the same, roughly at 35% to 40%, right?

所以我認為從上半場和下半場的角度來思考'24的方式如下，對吧？如果你看看 23 年指導方針是如何演變的，我們已經從最初的指導方針（我認為中點為 1.55 或 1.6）發展到了接近 2.05 的水平，我們將增長率保持在同樣，大約在35% 到40%，對嗎？

And that adds incremental between $600 million and $700 million of margin and -- sorry, of revenue. And given the cycle times of our projects, that's more back-end loaded compared to the first half, right? So I think the split between first half and second half it is largely driven by the strength of our order book. As we've gone through '23, that has resulted in a higher revenue for '24, but it's coming in the back half of the year.

這增加了 6 億至 7 億美元的利潤和——抱歉，收入。考慮到我們項目的周期時間，與上半年相比，後端負載更多，對吧？因此，我認為上半年和下半年之間的差距很大程度上是由我們的訂單實力推動的。正如我們已經經歷的 23 年，這導致了 24 年的收入更高，但它會在今年下半年出現。

We feel really confident, and I'll point to the fact that we have $2.9 billion in backlog as we enter the fourth quarter. And more importantly, we have close to $12.5 billion in pipeline. So we feel very good about where we sit for '24.

我們非常有信心，我要指出的是，進入第四季度時，我們有 29 億美元的積壓訂單。更重要的是，我們還有近 125 億美元的儲備資金。所以我們對 24 年的排名感覺非常好。

Okay. Let me follow up on the digital AUM kind of coming down in the quarter. You mentioned there was a nonrenewal by a particular customer. Is there a certain churn rate or some other way to just think about digital AUM more broadly?

好的。讓我跟進一下本季度數字資產管理規模的下降情況。您提到某個特定客戶沒有續訂。是否存在一定的流失率或其他方式來更廣泛地考慮數字資產管理規模？

I mean our churn rate is fairly low, 5%. So -- and this customer that didn't renew essentially is an asset that was sold. They were part of -- that were sold to another company. The company had their own system, and they decided to which, in a way, makes sense, they decided to use the system and used further assets.

我的意思是我們的客戶流失率相當低，只有 5%。因此，這個沒有續約的客戶本質上是被出售的資產。它們是被出售給另一家公司的一部分。該公司有自己的系統，他們決定使用該系統並使用更多資產，這在某種程度上是有意義的。

I think that this was within our 5% churn. It's very, very low. And we are only, I just raised it because it appeared in the numbers. So I wanted you to be aware of what happened, but we signed more than 1 -- almost 1 giga.

我認為這在我們 5% 的流失率之內。這是非常非常低的。我們只是，我只是提出它，因為它出現在數字中。所以我想讓你們知道發生了什麼，但我們簽署了超過 1 個——幾乎 1 個千兆。

And so we did -- I think it was a good quarter for our digital business, in general. And these things will happen from time to time and as long as they're within the end they are, we have no indications that we will end the year within the 5% churn rate that we usually have -- which you have for this business.

所以我們做到了——我認為總的來說，對於我們的數字業務來說，這是一個很好的季度。這些事情會時不時地發生，只要它們在最後，我們就沒有跡象表明我們將在今年結束時將客戶流失率控制在我們通常擁有的 5％ 之內 - 這就是您在這項業務中所擁有的。

Our next question comes from the line of Kashy Harrison Piper Sandler.

我們的下一個問題來自 Kashy Harrison Piper Sandler。

So I wanted to go back to just this discussion on cell sourcing. You're highlighting U.S. health capacity from ASC. You're highlighting Northvolt as well, but obviously, you still have a lot of Chinese cell exposure today. And so -- maybe if you look out a few years from now, is your expectation that your U.S. that you will sign enough U.S. cell capacity just for U.S. projects and then European cells solely support European projects? And then what does that mean for your Chinese exposure again a few years out from where we are today?

所以我想回到關於細胞來源的討論。您強調了 ASC 的美國衛生能力。您也強調了 Northvolt，但顯然，您今天仍然有很多中國電池的曝光。因此，也許如果你從現在開始幾年後觀察，你是否期望你的美國會為美國項目簽署足夠的美國電池產能，然後歐洲電池只支持歐洲項目？那麼，從今天的情況來看，這對您幾年後再次在中國的曝光意味著什麼呢？

This is my -- I think that, a, I will see today -- in our planning scenario, we don't see a world where the U.S. will be fully supplied by U.S. manufactured cells nor in Europe. So that will take some time. The Chinese manufacturers are -- they do best in need. They have been best, they have (inaudible). They started earlier. They have invested a lot in technology. It will take a long time for European and U.S. manufacturers to get there.

這是我的——我認為，我今天會看到——在我們的規劃場景中，我們不會看到美國或歐洲將完全由美國製造的電池供應的世界。所以這需要一些時間。中國製造商在需要時做得最好。他們已經是最好的了，他們已經（聽不清）。他們開始得更早。他們在技術上投入了大量資金。歐洲和美國製造商需要很長時間才能實現這一目標。

So that's the way I see it and that's the way I look -- we want to continue working with our Chinese suppliers, and hope to continue working with them for some time. They provide us with very, very good product. That they have good product road map, and we work with them well. And so we want to continue working with them.

所以這就是我的看法，這就是我的看法——我們希望繼續與我們的中國供應商合作，並希望繼續與他們合作一段時間。他們為我們提供了非常非常好的產品。他們有良好的產品路線圖，並且我們與他們合作良好。因此我們希望繼續與他們合作。

So that's the reality. The other point I will say is that, hey, I want a world where there's free trade. So I want a world where we can buy batteries from many places because I think that's a world that's better for all of us, a world where our technology will continue evolving, where we'll have the ingenuity and the capacity of the U.S. engineers coming up with new ideas and making, but also competing with what Chinese and Europeans are doing. So that's the world I hope that we will have for our industry.

這就是現實。我要說的另一點是，嘿，我想要一個自由貿易的世界。所以我想要一個我們可以從許多地方購買電池的世界，因為我認為這是一個對我們所有人都更好的世界，一個我們的技術將繼續發展的世界，一個我們將擁有美國工程師的獨創性和能力的世界不斷提出新的想法和製作，同時也與中國和歐洲人的做法進行競爭。這就是我希望我們的行業擁有的世界。

So a little bit our planning reflects that concept. We want that world. That's a world we think that is a world that is better for our technology and better for our standard of living. For we need to -- also we will be able to properly address the challenges of climate change. If we try to do each region or each country apart, we need to cooperate and work together. And that's what -- so that's the way we see it.

所以我們的規劃稍微反映了這個概念。我們想要那個世界。我們認為這是一個對我們的技術和生活水平都更好的世界。因為我們需要——而且我們也將能夠妥善應對氣候變化的挑戰。如果我們試圖把每個地區或每個國家分開，我們就需要合作並共同努力。這就是我們的看法。

And then maybe a follow-up question for Manu. I appreciate the commentary on cash for Q4. But maybe just on a multiyear basis or maybe have been a target basis. Can you just help us think through what the -- what you think the cash conversion of this business is? Once you hit your targeted long-term margins, do you think this is a 50% EBITDA to free cash flow business? Is it 60%, 70%? Just some thoughts on how you expect EBITDA to convert to free cash long term.

然後也許是馬努的後續問題。我很欣賞第四季度現金的評論。但也許只是在多年的基礎上，或者可能是一個目標基礎。您能否幫助我們思考一下您認為該業務的現金轉換是什麼？一旦達到長期目標利潤率，您認為這是 50% EBITDA 自由現金流業務嗎？是60%還是70%？只是關於您期望 EBITDA 如何長期轉換為自由現金的一些想法。

So Kashy I think we laid out a cash model maybe two earnings calls back. And I think that's a good way to think about the model going forward, right? And the model goes something like this, right? We have our EBITDA. We have some amount of CapEx. And in the last few years, it's been high single digit, low double digit. That will opiate a little bit depending on specific needs of the business.

所以卡西，我認為我們可能會在兩次財報電話會議上製定現金模型。我認為這是思考未來模型的好方法，對吧？模型是這樣的，對吧？我們有我們的 EBITDA。我們有一定數量的資本支出。在過去的幾年裡，這個數字一直是高個位數，低兩位數。這將根據企業的具體需求而定。

And then from a working capital piece, which is the heart of your question, I think what we've said is take the revenue growth year-on-year and take 10% of that as a proxy for the working capital usage. And I think that's a pretty good model to think about as you plot out the next couple of years when we get to positive EBITDA territory and beyond.

然後從營運資金部分來看，這是你問題的核心，我認為我們所說的是採用同比收入增長，並以其中的 10% 作為營運資金使用的代理。我認為，當你規劃未來幾年我們達到正 EBITDA 範圍甚至更遠的目標時，這是一個非常好的模型。

Our next question comes from the line of Tom Curran of Seaport Research.

我們的下一個問題來自海港研究中心的湯姆·柯蘭 (Tom Curran)。

Over in the EU, when it comes to this churning skew of policy proposals, initiatives, regulatory changes, that the European Commission has been cooking up in Brussels, whether it's the green industrial plan, repower EU or this just past renewable energy directive, is there anything in there that's specifically targeted towards the stores [this] transmission market and expect it to expand and/or accelerate your set of storage as transmission opportunities?

在歐盟，當談到歐盟委員會在布魯塞爾醞釀的一系列政策建議、舉措、監管變革時，無論是綠色工業計劃、歐盟復興還是剛剛過去的可再生能源指令，那裡有什麼是專門針對商店[這個]傳輸市場的，並期望它能夠擴展和/或加速您的存儲集作為傳輸機會？

That -- the transformation rules are very, very local. So we have to work market-by-market. As you know, there is a transmission systems for all of Europe. But we had work -- the work we're doing today is market-by-market, what we have done in Germany, what we have done in Lithuania. We have not engaged from a pan-European type of process.

那——轉換規則是非常非常本地化的。因此，我們必須逐個市場開展工作。如您所知，整個歐洲都有一個傳輸系統。但我們有工作——我們今天所做的工作是逐個市場進行的，我們在德國所做的工作，我們在立陶宛所做的工作。我們還沒有參與泛歐洲類型的流程。

I think that will take us time. The -- generally, the way you should think about Europeans is that the way they regulate the transmission system is free access and -- essentially free access, let's put it that way. And that means that it allows for -- you need to allow energy coming from third parties.

我認為這需要我們時間。一般來說，你應該這樣看待歐洲人：他們監管傳輸系統的方式是自由訪問，並且本質上是自由訪問，讓我們這樣說吧。這意味著它允許——你需要允許來自第三方的能量。

In terms of what we are trying to do, a regulatory challenge when we go into this asset, it's a simple one. It's the following, is that most regulatory systems, restrict transmission operators from dispatching assets. However, when you put the battery support the transmission line, the system operator or the transmission owner needs to dispatch assets, needs to use the battery storage as a demand or a dispatch or charge it. And that has created some sort of a legal question for -- that we were able to refer in Lithuania. We were able to resolve in Germany and that we're working to resolve in other places, the U.K. and in Ireland.

就我們正在嘗試做的事情而言，當我們進入這項資產時，監管挑戰是一個簡單的挑戰。接下來，大多數監管系統都限制輸電運營商調度資產。然而，當你把電池支持輸電線路時，系統運營商或輸電所有者需要調度資產，需要使用電池存儲作為需求或調度或充電。這產生了某種法律問題，我們可以在立陶宛提出這一問題。我們能夠在德國解決這一問題，並且我們正在努力在其他地方（英國和愛爾蘭）解決這一問題。

But it is a challenge for some of the regulators because, in a way, it questions the segmentation of our industry. Our industry segment, as you know, in demand or distribution, transmission and generation and the views that the treat should be very, very separated, the way to create values by having them be very, very independent.

但這對一些監管機構來說是一個挑戰，因為在某種程度上，它質疑我們行業的細分。如您所知，我們的行業細分在需求或分配、傳輸和發電方面，以及對待應該非常非常獨立的觀點，通過讓它們非常非常獨立來創造價值的方式。

So demand cannot on transmit distribution. Transmission cannot dispatch generation, all these things that all these rules. I think as our technology goes into the grid, that segmentation blurs. And that's what -- that's the challenge we have. And the challenge we have in the U.S., and that's a challenge we have to call.

所以需求不能放在傳輸分配上。傳輸不能調度生成，所有這些事情都由這些規則決定。我認為，隨著我們的技術進入網格，這種分割變得模糊。這就是我們面臨的挑戰。我們在美國面臨的挑戰，這是我們必須呼籲的挑戰。

I think that this will happen, and they will have to be a regulatory -- and we have been able to successfully resolve it in Germany and in Europe, but it is something that we need to work with all the regulatory players as we move forward.

我認為這種情況將會發生，而且必須進行監管——我們已經能夠在德國和歐洲成功解決這個問題，但在我們前進的過程中，我們需要與所有監管機構合作。

But I don't -- the -- I don't see a pan-European solution for this. This is more of a local issue where we need to work with the local system operators and system regulators.

但我不認為，我沒有看到泛歐洲的解決方案。這更多的是一個本地問題，我們需要與本地系統運營商和系統監管機構合作。

That's very helpful clarification. And then Manu, in the quarter, you incurred CapEx of $7.3 million related to software investments. Would you expound upon the nature of that spending and provide us with an estimate of software CapEx for fiscal '24?

這是非常有幫助的澄清。然後 Manu，在本季度，您因軟件投資而產生了 730 萬美元的資本支出。您能否詳細說明該支出的性質並向我們提供 24 財年軟件資本支出的估算？

Yes. So let me help start with your '24 question first and then kind of bring it back because I think it goes to our long-term view on how we think about software and as a key driver of the business. right? So I think we've talked about, call it, double digits, low double digits type of CapEx spend. That includes capitalized software as well. And I think it's both our own parties, our employees as well as any third parties that kind of help develop from a software perspective. It covers both our operating system projects that we are doing as well as the digital initiatives to advance both Nispera and Mosaic and that adds more capabilities to our current functionality. So that kind of encapsulates where we've been spending money for this quarter and going forward. But I think the overall capitalized software is part of our $10 million, $15 million.

是的。因此，讓我先幫助您回答 24 世紀的問題，然後再帶回來，因為我認為這關係到我們如何看待軟件以及作為業務關鍵驅動因素的長期觀點。正確的？所以我認為我們已經討論過，稱之為兩位數，低兩位數類型的資本支出。這也包括資本化的軟件。我認為我們自己的各方、我們的員工以及任何第三方都從軟件的角度幫助開發。它涵蓋了我們正在進行的操作系統項目以及推進 Nispera 和 Mosaic 的數字計劃，並為我們當前的功能增加了更多功能。因此，這概括了我們本季度和未來的支出情況。但我認為整個軟件資本是我們 1000 萬、1500 萬美元的一部分。

Yes, sure. So this is Rebecca. And I'll tell you from my perspective of leading the technology team, we have a large group of people who create the operating system software platform and we're actually reinvigorating that platform right now. And that's a big part of how we see the money -- the estimates in for capitalization.

是的，當然。這就是麗貝卡。我將從我領導技術團隊的角度告訴你，我們有一大批人創建了操作系統軟件平台，我們現在實際上正在重振該平台。這是我們如何看待資金的一個重要部分——資本化的估計。

We follow along our product development plans to create new functionality on that software for the different markets, and that mostly is labor, and that labor turns into an opportunity to capitalize it.

我們遵循我們的產品開發計劃，為不同市場的軟件創建新功能，這主要是勞動力，而勞動力變成了資本化的機會。

As Manu mentioned, that's also paired with the investment that we make in our cloud-based software. And again, mostly, that's labor and delivering some of the new functionality, as discussed today, some of that artificial intelligence-based functionality. But all that labor that goes into creating the different software offerings and leads into a capitalization effort.

正如馬努提到的，這也與我們對基於雲的軟件的投資相結合。再說一次，這主要是勞動力和提供一些新功能，正如今天所討論的，一些基於人工智能的功能。但是，所有用於創建不同軟件產品的勞動都會轉化為資本化的努力。

Our last question comes from the line of Craig Shere of Tuohy.

我們的最後一個問題來自 Tuohy 的 Craig Shere。

So first, I wanted to dig in a little bit on the European transmission answer to Tom's question. I did notice the New York ISO was studying energy storage as transmission. And I think you'll find a little bit on the last earnings call about other markets having to address this and having issues. I believe you're mentioning Latin America at the time.

首先，我想深入了解歐洲傳輸對湯姆問題的回答。我確實注意到紐約 ISO 正在研究能量存儲作為傳輸。我認為你會在上次的財報電話會議上發現一些關於其他市場必須解決這個問題並存在問題的信息。我相信你當時提到的是拉丁美洲。

Could you opine on the prospects of working through the system by system issue worldwide and being one of the top 3 or 4 companies in the world that can even do this? How big a market this could be in 5 years?

您能否對解決全球範圍內的系統問題並成為世界上能夠做到這一點的前 3 或 4 名公司之一的前景有何看法？ 5年後這個市場會有多大？

Let's start with the last part of your questions. This, we believe, could be a material driver for our performance. We have the Standard & Poor analysis, it's a little bit still to go 30 gigs by 2030, I think it fell when you really look at the challenges that transmission has globally. The -- in terms of our -- I understood the first part of your questions, how's our (inaudible) effort? And are we making progress?

讓我們從你問題的最後一部分開始。我們相信，這可能是我們業績的物質驅動力。我們有標準普爾的分析，到 2030 年，距離 30 場演出還有一點距離，我認為當你真正審視全球傳輸面臨的挑戰時，它就會下降。就我們而言，我理解你問題的第一部分，我們（聽不清）的努力怎麼樣？我們正在取得進展嗎？

This is -- as I said earlier, this has to be -- I don't think we need to do this regulator by regulator and one by one. And our team identifies where we believe we have the highest chances of -- the highest chance of success and then that's what we work for our team in -- and this is what we did this with AES. As a partner with AES, we have been very successful in Chile (inaudible).

正如我之前所說，這必須是——我認為我們不需要一個接一個地監管。我們的團隊確定了我們認為最有可能成功的領域——最高的成功機會，然後這就是我們為我們的團隊所做的工作——這就是我們使用 AES 所做的事情。作為 AES 的合作夥伴，我們在智利取得了非常成功（聽不清）。

We're working some of jurisdictions in the U.S. and we have success depending on where we are. But I think after this over, and all the transmission challenges that we have seen, this is going to become a more urgent matter. And as people will see our projects coming online in Germany, I think we're going to see the U.S. system operators.

我們正在美國的一些司法管轄區開展工作，我們的成功取決於我們所在的地區。但我認為，在這一切結束以及我們所看到的所有傳播挑戰之後，這將成為一個更加緊迫的問題。當人們看到我們的項目在德國上線時，我認為我們將會看到美國的系統運營商。

They can go on what -- they can see at work and they see all the value you can create. I think that we will see a major, major acceleration of this. That's the way -- so we're very happy.

他們可以繼續他們在工作中看到的事情，他們看到你可以創造的所有價值。我認為我們將會看到這方面的巨大加速。就是這樣——所以我們很高興。

Unfortunately, today, I cannot announce anything yet, but we're working on a few concepts that hopefully will be come into reality soon. When Standard & Poor's takes another look at this market, it will significantly increase from what they were expecting. I think that analysis that is a couple of years back, it's a little bit stale.

不幸的是，今天我還不能宣布任何事情，但我們正在研究一些概念，希望很快就能實現。當標準普爾重新審視這個市場時，它會比他們的預期大幅增長。我認為幾年前的分析有點陳舊。

And I want to dig in a little more on the answer to Pavel's digital question. Is there a trend of customers increasing or decreasing their use of internal systems? Or is the market kind of deciding that specialized third-party digital services is the way to go? Or is it still kind of case by case?

我想進一步探討帕維爾數字問題的答案。客戶對內部系統的使用是否有增加或減少的趨勢？或者市場是否決定專業的第三方數字服務才是正確的出路？還是仍然是個案？

So when we talk to customers, we hear the need state for us to provide digital solutions that help them operate these battery systems better. So that's an open space in the market, and that's the one that we're focused on. When you talk about third-party software systems, usually that's related to people that have decided to self-integrate and that's a very specific section of the market.

因此，當我們與客戶交談時，我們聽到了我們需要提供數字解決方案來幫助他們更好地操作這些電池系統的需求。所以這是市場上的一個開放空間，也是我們關注的領域。當您談論第三方軟件系統時，通常與決定自我集成的人有關，這是市場的一個非常具體的部分。

The -- we're really not competing with that. So we're playing with customers, developers and IPPs that are consuming our products, and they're asking us to provide these digital solutions to help them operate the batteries over the long term. So if your question is, are we competing with self-provided software? I would say not really.

我們真的不與之競爭。因此，我們正在與使用我們產品的客戶、開發商和獨立發電商合作，他們要求我們提供這些數字解決方案，以幫助他們長期運行電池。那麼，如果您的問題是，我們是否正在與自行提供的軟件競爭？我想說不是真的。

If I can add one thing. From a product road map view, our concept is to integrate our software solutions into our hardware solutions in a way that there's significant value by having the two, to really create that additional concept. You know, we sell our Mosaic technology to third parties. We sell our portfolio -- asset performance management system to third parties, but we really think that fully integrated into our assets mix will create the ownership of our assets a lot more. It will help our customers reduce the total cost of ownership and make our assets more competitive in the market as that's conceptually what we're doing.

如果我可以添加一件事。從產品路線圖的角度來看，我們的概念是將我們的軟件解決方案集成到我們的硬件解決方案中，通過擁有兩者來真正創造附加概念，從而具有重大價值。您知道，我們將 Mosaic 技術出售給第三方。我們將我們的投資組合——資產績效管理系統出售給第三方，但我們確實認為，完全融入我們的資產組合將為我們的資產創造更多的所有權。它將幫助我們的客戶降低總擁有成本，並使我們的資產在市場上更具競爭力，因為從概念上講，這就是我們正在做的事情。

But I would say that today, clearly, our system, everybody from us, our battery management system as we deploy it, it will come from us. Where you see that people might have different systems are in the bidding application because there are other players, even though our integrates, as I said, very, very well with our infrastructure and in performance management tools that there are not that many players who can offer what we do, which is integrating your solar, your renewables and your battery store systems into one system. That's one way.

但我想說，今天，顯然，我們的系統、我們的每個人、我們部署的電池管理系統都將來自我們。你會看到人們在投標應用程序中可能有不同的系統，因為還有其他參與者，儘管正如我所說，我們與我們的基礎設施和績效管理工具集成得非常非常好，但沒有那麼多參與者可以提供我們所做的，即將您的太陽能、可再生能源和電池存儲系統集成到一個系統中。這是一種方法。

As you -- just a quick follow-up. So like 2, 3, 4 years out, as you morph this into a more fully integrated business line that historically wasn't necessarily, do you see the churn that you experienced in this last quarter kind of reducing or going away?

正如您一樣——只是快速跟進。因此，就像 2、3、4 年後，當您將其轉變為歷史上不一定的更全面集成的業務線時，您是否認為上個季度經歷的客戶流失有所減少或消失？

No, I think that the 5% a year is kind of the way we go. Remember, the bidding -- because this applies to our whole -- our whole offering. Reading applications are competitive market. There will be some people will do it, and then there is also the asset -- the performance management tools also you have third-party competitor. I think 5% is a good number. And for digital applications, it's fairly, fairly low.

不，我認為每年 5% 是我們的做法。請記住，投標——因為這適用於我們的整個——我們的整個產品。閱讀應用程序是競爭激烈的市場。會有一些人會這樣做，然後還有資產——績效管理工具，還有第三方競爭對手。我認為5%是一個不錯的數字。對於數字應用程序來說，它相當非常低。

Great. I think that this ends for today. So maybe I can just a parting remarks. So we're very, very proud of the work that our team has done here. The turnaround, Manu was asking me earlier today. It's been almost a year since we arrived here. We're very, very happy for the turnaround that our team has done here. Really their eye on the ball on all the drivers that we needed to bring this company to where we are. We are in the brink of getting to our double-digit gross margin and our breakeven point in [2000] and in the fourth quarter of '24.

偉大的。我想今天就到此為止了。所以也許我只能說一句臨別贈言。因此，我們對我們的團隊在這裡所做的工作感到非常非常自豪。馬努今天早些時候問我，情況如何。我們來到這裡已經快一年了。我們對我們的團隊在這裡所做的轉變感到非常非常高興。他們確實關注我們需要的所有驅動力，以將這家公司帶到我們現在的位置。我們即將在 2000 年和 2024 年第四季度達到兩位數的毛利率和盈虧平衡點。

So very, very happy with the progress. And this is an industry that is evolving. It's a competitive industry, but we have the desire, the capacity and the ambition to make this great. And I really thank all of you for your questions, your support and the insights you provide us every time we engage with you because that helps us to do our jobs here every day. Thank you very much, and talk to you soon.

對進展非常非常滿意。這是一個不斷發展的行業。這是一個競爭激烈的行業，但我們有願望、有能力、有雄心讓這個行業變得偉大。我真的感謝你們所有人提出的問題、你們的支持以及你們每次與你們接觸時向我們提供的見解，因為這有助於我們每天在這裡完成我們的工作。非常感謝你，很快就會和你談談。

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's conference. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect. Have a great day.

謝謝。女士們、先生們，今天的會議到此結束。感謝大家的參與。您現在可以斷開連接。祝你有美好的一天。