NRG Energy Inc (NRG) 2022 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the NRG Inc. Second Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the call over to today's speaker, Kevin Cole, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

美好的一天，感謝您的支持。歡迎來到 NRG Inc. 2022 年第二季度財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）請注意，今天的會議正在錄製中。我現在想將電話轉交給今天的發言人，投資者關係主管 Kevin Cole。請繼續。

Thank you, Felicia. Good morning, and welcome to NRG Energy's Second Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. This morning's call will be 45 minutes in length and is being broadcast live over the phone and via webcast, which can be located in the Investors section of our website at www.nrg.com under Presentations & Webcasts. Please note that today's discussion may contain forward-looking statements which are based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable as of this date. Actual results may differ materially. We urge everyone to review the safe harbor in today's presentation as well as the risk factors in our SEC filings. We undertake no obligation to update these statements as a result of future events, except as required by law.

謝謝你，費利西亞。早上好，歡迎參加 NRG Energy 的 2022 年第二季度財報電話會議。今天上午的電話會議時長為 45 分鐘，將通過電話和網絡直播進行現場直播，該電話可在我們網站 www.nrg.com 的“投資者”部分的演示文稿和網絡廣播下找到。請注意，今天的討論可能包含基於我們認為截至該日期是合理的假設的前瞻性陳述。實際結果可能大不相同。我們敦促大家在今天的演示文稿中審查安全港以及我們提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中的風險因素。我們不承擔因未來事件而更新這些聲明的義務，除非法律要求。

In addition, we will refer to both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. For information regarding our non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures, please refer to today's presentation. And with that, I'll now turn the call over to Mauricio Gutierrez, NRG's President and CEO.

此外，我們將參考 GAAP 和非 GAAP 財務指標。有關我們的非 GAAP 財務指標以及與最直接可比的 GAAP 指標的對賬信息，請參閱今天的演示文稿。有了這個，我現在將把電話轉給 NRG 總裁兼首席執行官 Mauricio Gutierrez。

Thank you, Kevin. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for your interest in NRG. I'm joined this morning by Alberto Fornaro, our Chief Financial Officer. Also on the call and available for questions, we have Elizabeth Killinger, Head of Home; Rob Gaudette, Head of Business and Market Operations; and Chris Moser, Head of Competitive Markets and Policy. I'd like to start with the 3 key takeaways of today's presentation on Slide 4. We are maintaining our financial guidance ranges as we continue to navigate through volatile market conditions and are increasing our capital available for allocation by $140 million.

謝謝你，凱文。大家早上好，感謝您對 NRG 的關注。今天早上，我們的首席財務官 Alberto Fornaro 加入了我的行列。我們還有 Elizabeth Killinger，家庭主管，正在電話中回答問題； Rob Gaudette，業務和市場運營主管；競爭市場和政策主管 Chris Moser。我想從今天幻燈片 4 演示文稿的 3 個關鍵要點開始。隨著我們繼續在動蕩的市場環境中導航，我們將維持我們的財務指導範圍，並將我們的可分配資本增加 1.4 億美元。

We continue to make good progress in achieving our strategic growth priorities, particularly on direct energy integration. And finally, our share repurchase program continues with approximately $600 million in remaining capacity to be executed this year.

我們在實現戰略增長重點方面繼續取得良好進展，特別是在直接能源整合方面。最後，我們的股票回購計劃繼續進行，今年將執行約 6 億美元的剩餘產能。

Moving to the second quarter financial and operational results on Slide 5. We delivered $358 million of adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter. 70% of the difference compared to last year are items that we previously identified, including asset sales and transitory items. The remaining variance is primarily driven by the forced outage of our 610-megawatt coal unit at the WA Parish facility. This outage began on May 9 and is expected to be back for summer operation next year. The unit is covered by both business interruption and property damage insurance.

轉到幻燈片 5 上的第二季度財務和運營結果。我們在第二季度實現了 3.58 億美元的調整後 EBITDA。與去年相比，70% 的差異是我們之前確定的項目，包括資產銷售和臨時項目。剩餘的差異主要是由於我們在西澳教區設施的 610 兆瓦煤炭機組被迫停電。此次停電於 5 月 9 日開始，預計將於明年夏季恢復運營。該單位由業務中斷和財產損失保險承保。

I'm pleased to report that we once again achieved top decile safety performance for the quarter and that we publish our 12th Sustainability Report, a testament to our commitment to transparency and accountability. We also continue to realize strong customer retention, which I will discuss in more detail shortly. We continue to make progress on our 5 key strategic priorities: integrate direct energy, perfect our integrated platform by better matching retail with supply, grow our core electricity and natural gas businesses, integrate adjacent products and services that will allow us to expand margins and term from our customers and return capital to our shareholders.

我很高興地報告，我們在本季度再次取得了最高的十分位數安全績效，並且我們發布了第 12 份可持續發展報告，這證明了我們對透明度和問責制的承諾。我們還繼續實現強大的客戶保留，我將在稍後更詳細地討論。我們繼續在 5 個關鍵戰略重點方面取得進展：整合直接能源、通過更好地匹配零售與供應來完善我們的整合平台、發展我們的核心電力和天然氣業務、整合相鄰的產品和服務，這將使我們能夠擴大利潤和期限來自我們的客戶，並將資金返還給我們的股東。

I'd like to give you a quick update on those priorities. The direct energy integration is going well, and we are on track to achieve our run rate synergies of $300 million by the end of 2023. In late June, we received ERCOT securitization proceeds related to Winter Storm Uri in line with our expectations. We have continued to make progress on our mitigation efforts and now expect an additional $80 million in recovery, bringing our total mitigation efforts to 70% of the original impact.

我想給你一個關於這些優先事項的快速更新。直接能源整合進展順利，我們有望在 2023 年底之前實現 3 億美元的運行率協同效應。6 月下旬，我們收到了與 Winter Storm Uri 相關的 ERCOT 證券化收益，符合我們的預期。我們在緩解工作上繼續取得進展，現在預計將額外獲得 8000 萬美元的恢復，使我們的總緩解工作達到最初影響的 70%。

We continue to optimize our supply portfolio through monetization of the Watson generation facility in California and retirements of possible assets in PJM. We have also expanded our capital-light PPA strategy to focus on energy storage and quick-start natural gas generation. I expect PPA market conditions to improve into year-end, especially if the proposed Inflation Reduction Act is passed.

我們繼續通過將加利福尼亞州的 Watson 發電設施貨幣化和退役 PJM 中的可能資產來優化我們的供應組合。我們還擴大了輕資本 PPA 戰略，專注於能源儲存和快速啟動天然氣生產。我預計 PPA 市場狀況將在年底有所改善，尤其是如果通過了擬議的《通脹降低法案》。

Our retail brands continue to perform well with a strong customer count, retention metrics and an unmatched ability to generate insights on price elasticity. We remain focused on expanding our product offerings and improving our digital customer experience. I am proud that one of our flagship brands, Reliant Energy, was also recognized as the best electricity company in Houston, our hometown.

我們的零售品牌繼續表現良好，擁有強大的客戶數量、保留指標和無與倫比的價格彈性洞察能力。我們仍然專注於擴大我們的產品供應和改善我們的數字客戶體驗。我很自豪我們的旗艦品牌之一 Reliant Energy 也被公認為我們家鄉休斯頓最好的電力公司。

Last quarter, I spoke about Goal Zero, our resilience and battery storage business and the significant opportunity it represents given growing grid instability and extreme weather events. During the quarter, we launched a marketing campaign in one of its core markets, California, to increase awareness for the product and brand with very strong results.

上個季度，我談到了零目標、我們的彈性和電池存儲業務，以及在電網不穩定和極端天氣事件日益嚴重的情況下它所代表的重大機遇。本季度，我們在其核心市場之一加利福尼亞州開展了營銷活動，以提高對該產品和品牌的認知度，並取得了非常好的效果。

As a result of these targeted campaign, web traffic increased 400% and the average order increased by almost 1/3. We continue to make progress in other areas, but remain keenly focused on pacing our investments as we navigate ongoing supply chain constraints and recessionary environment. Finally, we are maintaining our financial guidance range, but due to the impact of the WA Parish Unit 8 outage, we're currently trending towards the bottom end.

由於這些有針對性的活動，網絡流量增加了 400%，平均訂單增加了近 1/3。我們將繼續在其他領域取得進展，但在我們應對持續的供應鏈限制和衰退環境時，仍會密切關注我們的投資節奏。最後，我們將維持我們的財務指導範圍，但由於西澳教區 8 號機組停電的影響，我們目前正趨向於低端。

We have been focused on taking steps like onetime cost savings and incremental direct energy synergies to improve our results. Alberto will provide details on this and the additional capital available for allocation.

我們一直專注於採取一次性成本節約和增量直接能源協同效應等措施來改善我們的業績。 Alberto 將提供有關這方面的詳細信息以及可用於分配的額外資本。

Turning to Slide 6 for our market review in Texas. ERCOT experienced record hit during the quarter, 32% above the 10-year average, resulting in record peak demand. However, real-time power prices were mixed versus what the forward indicated, driven primarily by the performance of renewable energy on any given day. As we look into the summer, we expect prices to remain volatile and highly dependent on renewable performance.

轉向幻燈片 6，查看我們在德克薩斯州的市場評論。 ERCOT 在本季度經歷了創紀錄的打擊，比 10 年平均水平高出 32%，導致需求達到創紀錄的峰值。然而，實時電價與遠期預測的數據不同，主要受可再生能源在任何一天的表現驅動。展望夏季，我們預計價格將保持波動並高度依賴可再生能源的表現。

Turning to the right-hand side of the slide, beginning with Retail. We saw strong performance through the quarter, with retention 5% ahead of expectations and customer count increasing 1.2%. We also extended term length of customer offers, which enables meal management and improves margin predictability. This occurred while consumers grapple with inflation, only further demonstrating the resilience of our retail brands and pricing strategy.

轉到幻燈片的右側，從零售開始。我們在整個季度看到了強勁的表現，保留率超出預期 5%，客戶數量增加了 1.2%。我們還延長了客戶報價的期限，從而實現膳食管理並提高利潤率的可預測性。這發生在消費者努力應對通貨膨脹的同時，進一步證明了我們零售品牌和定價策略的彈性。

On supply, the unplanned outage at WA Parish Unit 8 impacted performance. While there is an earnings recognition delayed even the time line to receive business interruption insurance proceeds, insurance is an effective tool to mitigate this risk. Beyond that, we have seen strong operational performance from our fleet due to our expanded spring outage maintenance plan and opportunistic maintenance outages that best positions our fleet to perform through these extreme and extended summer conditions.

在供應方面，WA Parish Unit 8 的計劃外停電影響了性能。雖然即使是收到業務中斷保險收益的時間線也會延遲收益確認，但保險是減輕這種風險的有效工具。除此之外，由於我們擴大了春季停機維護計劃和機會性維護停機，我們的機隊在這些極端和延長的夏季條件下發揮了最佳作用，我們看到了我們機隊的強勁運營表現。

Finally, our balance hedging strategy that uses both on-generation and third-party contracts further derisks our portfolio through optimizing operational versus counterparty risk, which are important attributes through current market conditions.

最後，我們同時使用發電合同和第三方合同的平衡對沖策略通過優化運營與交易對手風險來進一步降低我們的投資組合風險，這是當前市場條件下的重要屬性。

Now moving to Slide 7. Just like we did last quarter on Goal Zero. Today, I want to focus on one area of growth that is complementary to our core offerings and presents an exciting opportunity, heating and cooling or HVAC maintenance and installation. Airtron is our home services HVAC company, which was acquired as part of Direct Energy. It represents a complementary offering to our existing core products as HVAC systems use the most energy of any single home appliance, responsible for up to 50% of a home energy consumption.

現在轉到幻燈片 7。就像我們上個季度在目標零上所做的那樣。今天，我想專注於一個與我們的核心產品相輔相成的增長領域，它提供了一個令人興奮的機會，即供暖和製冷或 HVAC 維護和安裝。 Airtron 是我們的家庭服務暖通空調公司，它是作為 Direct Energy 的一部分被收購的。它是我們現有核心產品的補充產品，因為 HVAC 系統使用的能源是任何單一家用電器中最多的，佔家庭能源消耗的 50%。

The HVAC industry with a total U.S. addressable market of $100 billion is highly fragmented and traditionally served by local providers with limited scope and reach. In contrast, Airtron operates in 9 states, which represent a $10 billion serviceable market, including Texas, where they call leadership positions in both Houston and Dallas with a single recognizable brand and scale that is unmatched.

美國潛在市場總額為 1000 億美元的暖通空調行業高度分散，傳統上由范圍和範圍有限的本地供應商提供服務。相比之下，Airtron 在 9 個州開展業務，這些州代表著價值 100 億美元的可服務市場，包括德克薩斯州，他們在休斯頓和達拉斯都稱其為領導地位，擁有無與倫比的單一品牌和規模。

Combined with our existing consumer services platform, we can grow both within our existing customer base and through expansion into new territories, creating a significant and compelling opportunity. In the last 3 years, Airtron has grown revenues 11% per year to $450 million, with gross margins of 30% or more. The revenues come from residential new construction, services and maintenance as well as direct-to-consumer home replacement. Our early insights suggest that there is significant growth potential in direct-to-consumer home replacement. Given energy efficiency initiatives, and extreme weather that shortens the lifetime of HVAC systems.

結合我們現有的消費者服務平台，我們既可以在現有客戶群中發展，也可以通過向新領域擴張，創造重要且引人注目的機會。在過去 3 年中，Airtron 的收入每年增長 11%，達到 4.5 億美元，毛利率達到 30% 或更高。收入來自住宅新建、服務和維護以及直接面向消費者的房屋更換。我們的早期見解表明，直接面向消費者的房屋置換具有顯著的增長潛力。考慮到能源效率舉措，以及縮短 HVAC 系統壽命的極端天氣。

The ability to leverage our existing consumer base and sales channels to augment the direct-to-consumer growth while cross-selling with our electricity and gas customers is precisely the type of value opportunity that increases margin and retention that we highlighted during our Investor Day.

利用我們現有的消費者基礎和銷售渠道來增加直接面向消費者的增長，同時與我們的電力和天然氣客戶進行交叉銷售的能力正是我們在投資者日強調的提高利潤率和保留率的價值機會類型。

I look forward to providing you updates on their progress as we integrate these solutions closer with our core energy offerings. So with that, I will pass it over to Alberto for the financial review.

隨著我們將這些解決方案與我們的核心能源產品更緊密地整合在一起，我期待著向您提供他們的最新進展。因此，我將把它交給阿爾貝托進行財務審查。

Thank you, Mauricio. I will now turn to Slide 9 for a review of the second quarter results. Energy delivered $358 million in adjusted EBITDA, a $298 million decrease versus prior year, excluding the impact of Winter Storm Uri. As you can see in the waterfall chart, this decrease is primarily due to the previously guided impact of the 4.8-gigawatt fossil asset sales completed in December, PJM assets retirement in the second quarter, New York capacity revenue and early settlement of demand response revenue in the second quarter of 2021.

謝謝你，毛里西奧。我現在將轉到幻燈片 9 來回顧第二季度的結果。能源部門的調整後 EBITDA 為 3.58 億美元，較上年減少 2.98 億美元，不包括冬季風暴 Uri 的影響。正如您在瀑布圖中看到的那樣，這一下降主要是由於 12 月完成的 4.8 吉瓦化石資產銷售、第二季度 PJM 資產退役、紐約產能收入和需求響應收入提前結算的先前指導影響在 2021 年第二季度。

In addition, not included in our expectation were the extended unplanned outage at Parish Unit 8 and the modest amount of growth expenses. From a regional perspective, adjusted EBITDA in Texas declined $61 million compared to the second quarter of last year. As Mauricio said in his scripted remarks, summer came early with record setting temperatures beginning in May raising both market prices and build volumes.

此外，我們的預期中沒有包括 Parish Unit 8 延長的計劃外停電和少量的增長費用。從區域角度來看，德克薩斯州調整後的 EBITDA 與去年第二季度相比下降了 6100 萬美元。正如毛里西奧在他的腳本評論中所說，夏天來得早，從 5 月開始創紀錄的氣溫提高了市場價格和建造量。

On May 9, a fire at the Parish facility caused an extended outage at Unit 8 and a 10-day outage at Unit 7. We were therefore forced to replace the power with the combination of our more expensive out of the many generation hedges and some opportunistic market purchase, which together impacted EBITDA by an estimated $70 million. In addition, the benefit normally associated to higher build volumes with our home and business customers, affect impact of additional outages on our remaining Texas fleet and higher maintenance expenses recorded in this quarter.

5 月 9 日，Parish 設施發生火災，導致 8 號機組長時間停電，7 號機組停電 10 天。因此，我們被迫用我們在多代對沖中更昂貴的組合和一些機會主義的市場購買，合計影響 EBITDA 約 7000 萬美元。此外，通常與我們的家庭和企業客戶更高的建造量相關的好處，會影響額外停電對我們剩餘的德克薩斯機隊的影響以及本季度記錄的更高的維護費用。

Finally, we were able to fully offset the previously disclosed transitory items, which includes the Limestone outage and the ancillary costs for a total negative $61 million with some nonrecurring items of $79 million, which include an earlier-than-anticipated partial insurance reimbursement of the business interruption expenses at Limestone Unit 1 and the early settlement of an online PPA.

最後，我們能夠完全抵消之前披露的臨時項目，其中包括石灰石停運和輔助成本，總計負 6100 萬美元，其中一些非經常性項目為 7900 萬美元，其中包括早於預期的部分保險報銷。 Limestone Unit 1 的業務中斷費用和在線 PPA 的提前結算。

Turning on the West -- East, West and other segments. The year-over-year decline was primarily driven by the $63 million EBITDA reduction from asset divestiture and retirement as well as by the decline in demand response revenue associated with an early settlement in the second quarter of 2021.

打開西——東、西和其他段。同比下降的主要原因是資產剝離和退役導致 EBITDA 減少了 6300 萬美元，以及與 2021 年第二季度提前結算相關的需求響應收入下降。

Next, compared to Texas, where the impact of coal constraints was minimal, generation indeed continues to be impacted by coal availability for a $23 million impact during the quarter. After accounting for these previously guided items, the remaining $63 million negative variance versus 2021 was driven by the combination of lower power volumes, reduced profitability at our Watson facility, which was monetized during the quarter, an intra-year timing related to C&I customer hedge monetization, which will be recovered through the second half of this year as we associated to retain hedges settle and the balance by higher supply costs.

其次，與煤炭限制影響最小的德克薩斯州相比，發電確實繼續受到煤炭供應的影響，在本季度產生了 2300 萬美元的影響。在考慮了這些先前指導的項目後，與 2021 年相比，剩餘的 6300 萬美元負差異是由較低的電力容量、我們沃森設施的盈利能力下降共同推動的，該設施在本季度貨幣化，與 C&I 客戶對沖相關的年內時間貨幣化，這將在今年下半年恢復，因為我們通過更高的供應成本來保留對沖結算和余額。

Next, I will provide you a brief update regarding our progress in achieving direct energy savings and mitigating Winter Storm Uri impact. Direct Energy, incremental synergies from the beginning of the year reached $39 million. We remain on track to achieve our full year target of $50 million in 2022 and $225 million since the acquisition of Direct Energy. We also expect to improve the recovery of our 2021 losses from Winter Storm Uri.

接下來，我將向您簡要介紹我們在實現直接節能和減輕冬季風暴 Uri 影響方面取得的進展。 Direct Energy，年初的增量協同效應達到了 3900 萬美元。自收購 Direct Energy 以來，我們仍有望實現 2022 年 5000 萬美元和 2.25 億美元的全年目標。我們還希望改善 2021 年冬季風暴烏里造成的損失的恢復。

You may recall that at the end of the last year, we estimated that the final impact net of recovery was going to be $380 million. During Q2, we were able to make progress in several areas where we have remaining gross losses. And therefore, we have improved our estimates by $80 million, bringing the net impact to $300 million.

您可能還記得，去年年底，我們估計扣除復甦後的最終影響將是 3.8 億美元。在第二季度，我們能夠在仍存在總虧損的幾個領域取得進展。因此，我們將估算值提高了 8000 萬美元，淨影響達到 3 億美元。

Now let's move to the full year guidance. As Mauricio mentioned, we are maintaining our guidance range but based on the recent events, we are trending to the bottom of the guidance ranges. The full year impact from the Parish Unit 8 outage based on current prices, is estimated to be a little over $200 million.

現在讓我們轉到全年指導。正如毛里西奧所提到的，我們正在維持我們的指導範圍，但根據最近的事件，我們正趨向於指導範圍的底部。根據當前價格，Parish Unit 8 停電對全年的影響估計略高於 2 億美元。

The fleet carries both business interruption insurance for lost earnings and property damage insurance to cover the cost of returning the unit to full operation. Given that the outage started at the beginning of May, the second quarter impact reflects the deductible period. As of today, we're assuming the business interruption insurance proceeds will not be collected until 2023. However, the property damage proceeds will more closely match the expenses and the maintenance CapEx deployed throughout the time needed to restore the unit.

車隊同時為收入損失投保業務中斷保險和財產損失保險，以支付設備恢復全面運營的成本。鑑於停電始於 5 月初，第二季度的影響反映了免賠期。截至今天，我們假設業務中斷保險收益要到 2023 年才能收取。但是，財產損失收益將更接近於恢復設備所需的整個期間部署的費用和維護資本支出。

Additionally, for our free cash flow before growth, we continue to closely manage the impact to working capital from higher commodity prices, primarily in our natural gas business. To be clear, as for the transitory items disclosed at the end of last year, we have taken and we will continue to take steps aimed to improve our position.

此外，對於我們增長前的自由現金流，我們將繼續密切管理商品價格上漲對營運資金的影響，主要是在我們的天然氣業務中。需要明確的是，對於去年底披露的暫時性事項，我們已經採取並將繼續採取措施改善我們的狀況。

In particular, we have identified a serious opportunity in managing our costs and operating expenses, including early realization of synergies and onetime reduction of expenses. And as you know, we manage our business for cash, so we have also incorporated action to improve cash generation and mitigate our net working capital increases, including through the recovery of property damage proceeds and noncore asset sales. We look forward to providing you additional updates throughout the year.

特別是，我們發現了管理成本和運營費用的重要機會，包括儘早實現協同效應和一次性減少費用。如您所知，我們以現金管理我們的業務，因此我們還採取了行動來改善現金產生並減輕我們的淨營運資本增加，包括通過收回財產損失收益和非核心資產銷售。我們期待全年為您提供更多更新。

I will turn now to Slide 10 for a brief update of our 2022 capital allocation. Moving left to right, the midpoint of our free cash flow before growth guidance remains unchanged at $1.290 billion. Next, we received $689 million of securitization proceeds from ERCOT related to Winter Storm Uri in late June, which net of the bill credit issued to C&I customers brings the total net inflow for 2022 to $599 million.

我現在將轉到幻燈片 10，簡要更新我們 2022 年的資本配置。從左到右，我們在增長指導之前的自由現金流的中點保持不變，為 12.9 億美元。接下來，我們在 6 月下旬從 ERCOT 收到了與 Winter Storm Uri 相關的 6.89 億美元證券化收益，扣除發給工商業客戶的票據信貸後，2022 年的總淨流入達到 5.99 億美元。

As mentioned before, we expect to receive an incremental $80 million of cash proceeds from some additional recovery. Focusing next on change from last quarter. Since May of this year, we have repurchased an additional 143 million of shares towards our $1 billion repurchase program, leaving a robust $595 million to be completed by year-end.

如前所述，我們預計將通過一些額外的恢復獲得額外的 8000 萬美元現金收益。接下來關注上一季度的變化。自今年 5 月以來，我們為 10 億美元的回購計劃額外回購了 1.43 億股股票，到年底還剩下 5.95 億美元的強勁計劃。

Next, we have reduced the amount of expected other investments by the net cash proceeds of the sale of our interest in the Watson facility for $59 million. Lastly, given the additional Uri recovery and asset sales net cash proceeds, we have increased capital available for our allocation by $141 million. As you see in the far right column, the total remaining capital available for allocation is $456 million, of which we have earmarked approximately $100 million to fund the initial project in our $2 billion growth plan, including the initiatives that are being launched to accelerate the growth of our Goal Zero business. The remaining $356 million will be allocated later in the year as we earn the cash. Back to you, Mauricio.

接下來，我們通過以 5900 萬美元出售沃森設施權益的淨現金收益減少了預期的其他投資金額。最後，考慮到額外的 Uri 回收和資產銷售淨現金收益，我們將可用於分配的資本增加了 1.41 億美元。正如您在最右側的欄中所看到的，可供分配的剩餘資金總額為 4.56 億美元，其中我們已預留約 1 億美元來資助我們 20 億美元增長計劃中的初始項目，包括正在啟動的旨在加速我們的零目標業務的增長。剩下的 3.56 億美元將在今年晚些時候分配給我們以賺取現金。回到你身邊，毛里西奧。

Thank you, Alberto. I want to provide some closing thoughts on Slide 13. During the quarter, we continued to make progress on all our strategic priorities. As we have done in the past, over the remainder of 2022, our team will work tirelessly to improve our results. I am confident we have built the right platform and have the right strategy to deliver strong and predictable earnings and create significant shareholder value. So with that, I want to thank you for your time and interest in NRG. Felicia, we're now ready to open the line for questions.

謝謝你，阿爾貝托。我想就幻燈片 13 提供一些結束的想法。在本季度，我們繼續在所有戰略重點方面取得進展。正如我們過去所做的那樣，在 2022 年剩餘的時間裡，我們的團隊將孜孜不倦地努力改善我們的成績。我相信我們已經建立了正確的平台，並製定了正確的戰略，以提供強勁且可預測的收益並創造重要的股東價值。因此，我要感謝您對 NRG 的時間和興趣。 Felicia，我們現在可以開始提問了。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

The first question comes from Julien Dumoulin-Smith of Bank of America.

第一個問題來自美國銀行的 Julien Dumoulin-Smith。

So Mauricio, I'd love to hear -- I want a couple of strategy questions to you today. As you think about this year, how do you think about the desire to continue with the generation portfolio? Have the latest events pushed you towards saying maybe we should reevaluate the integrated strategy and the pivot towards retail? Or actually, are you even more convinced in the strategy? And could we see you engaging in more contracting? And maybe to that end, could you also marry this up with some of the commenting -- comments around PPA strategy you guys have been undertaking in prior periods? Are you thinking about doubling down on that considering the higher energy price environment today?

毛里西奧，我很想听聽——我今天想問你幾個戰略問題。當您考慮今年時，您如何看待繼續使用一代產品組合的願望？最新事件是否促使您說也許我們應該重新評估整合戰略和轉向零售？或者實際上，您是否更相信該策略？我們可以看到你參與更多的合同嗎？也許為此，您是否也可以將其與一些評論結合起來——關於你們之前一直在進行的 PPA 策略的評論？考慮到當今較高的能源價格環境，您是否正在考慮加倍下注？

Sure. Well, Julien, let me start with the retail engine. I mean, as you can see on the numbers, it is incredibly, incredibly strong. Customers are in this environment, I described them as a flight to safety. And obviously, Elizabeth can talk a little bit more about that. But when I think about the supply strategy, you really need to think about, okay, what is the retail law that I need to serve and what is the supply that better serves that retail. It always starts with that. Now we have been in a path where we don't want to rely completely on our own generation to supply our retail. We want to make sure that we have a supply strategy that is diversified. And that was the big lesson learned from Winter Storm Uri. We don't want to have a single point of failure.

當然。好吧，朱利安，讓我從零售引擎開始。我的意思是，正如你在數字上看到的那樣，它非常非常強大。客戶處於這種環境中，我將他們描述為安全飛行。顯然，伊麗莎白可以多談一點。但是當我考慮供應策略時，你真的需要考慮，好吧，我需要服務的零售法是什麼，以及更好地服務於零售的供應是什麼。它總是從那開始。現在我們已經走上了一條我們不想完全依靠我們這一代人來供應零售的道路。我們要確保我們有一個多元化的供應戰略。這就是從冬季風暴烏里身上學到的重要一課。我們不希望出現單點故障。

So what you should expect in the future is a combination of our own generation and third-party megawatts to supply our retail loan. Now on the generation side, obviously, we are -- we always have invested in the fleet. Right now, I think the maintenance CapEx that we have on the fleet per year is in the order of $200 million. But we have to recognize that the generation fleet has been going through a period almost a 10-year period of very low gas prices. And our maintenance CapEx is sized according to that, right? Not every megawatt matter in a $2 or $3 gas price environment.

因此，您未來應該期待的是我們自己的發電和第三方兆瓦的組合來提供我們的零售貸款。現在在發電方面，顯然，我們一直在投資車隊。目前，我認為我們每年在機隊上的維護資本支出約為 2 億美元。但我們必須認識到，發電船隊已經經歷了近 10 年的非常低的天然氣價格時期。我們的維護資本支出是根據這個來確定的，對吧？在 2 美元或 3 美元的天然氣價格環境中，並非每一兆瓦都很重要。

Now that is resetting itself to much higher natural gas and power prices, we're going to rightsize our maintenance CapEx to make sure that every megawatt is available because every megawatt matters at a dollar per MMBtu. So that's the first thing that I will say on the on the generation side. Now on the third-party megawatts, we actually use a combination of things. The first one is we have PPA. We started that with wind and solar, and now we have expanded that to storage and some gas peakers. And I can talk to you about the opportunities that we have within our own fleet for those gas peakers and how do we partner with other people on that.

現在這正在將其自身重置為更高的天然氣和電力價格，我們將調整我們的維護資本支出，以確保每兆瓦都可用，因為每兆瓦每 MMBtu 美元都很重要。所以這是我要在一代人方面說的第一件事。現在在第三方兆瓦上，我們實際上使用了一些東西的組合。第一個是我們有 PPA。我們從風能和太陽能開始，現在我們已經將其擴展到存儲和一些天然氣峰值。我可以和你談談我們在我們自己的車隊中為這些天然氣高峰期提供的機會，以及我們如何與其他人合作。

We have tolling agreements, we have bilateral physical contracts, we have financial hedges. So it is a combination of things that allow us to just have a very diverse supply strategy. Now remember, the main difference between on-generation and third-party is that on our on-generation, we are exposed to operational risk. And on the third-party megawatts, we're exposed to counterparty risk.

我們有收費協議，我們有雙邊實物合同，我們有金融對沖。因此，它是多種因素的組合，使我們能夠擁有非常多樣化的供應策略。現在請記住，on-generation 和第三方之間的主要區別在於，在我們的 on-generation 中，我們面臨著操作風險。在第三方兆瓦上，我們面臨交易對手風險。

But the attributes of those megawatts are basically the same. It is just what type of risk you want to carry. So as I think about in the future, the strategy of relying on third-party megawatts is completely consistent with how we see things in the future.

但是那些兆瓦的屬性基本是一樣的。這正是您想要承擔的風險類型。所以未來我想，依靠第三方兆瓦的策略，完全符合我們對未來的看法。

We're seeing more wind, more solar, we're going to start seeing more storage. And we want to make sure that our supply is keeping up with the transition that we're seeing in the electric grid, right? So just relying on our generation portfolio, is not keeping up with the transition that we're seeing in the market. And that's why this combined strategy of on-generation and third-party megawatts, I think, is the right strategy to better serve our loan.

我們看到更多的風能，更多的太陽能，我們將開始看到更多的存儲。我們希望確保我們的供應跟上我們在電網中看到的轉變，對嗎？因此，僅僅依靠我們的發電產品組合，並不能跟上我們在市場上看到的轉變。這就是為什麼這種發電和第三方兆瓦的組合策略，我認為，是更好地為我們的貸款服務的正確策略。

And just to clarify and boil that down to make sure I heard that essence of the last one. Are you talking about contracting up more gas peakers? And could that result in new gas peakers in, for instance, ERCOT here? just to make sure I'm hearing this right, again I...

只是為了澄清並歸結為確保我聽到了最後一個的精髓。你是在談論承包更多的天然氣高峰期嗎？這是否會導致新的天然氣峰值出現在例如這裡的 ERCOT？只是為了確保我沒聽錯，我再次...

Correct. So when you think about the PPA strategy, we started with wind and solar, and this is really bringing new megawatts to the market. We provide them long-term contracts because our rebuild supply, our retail low, and we can actually bring these new megawatts to market because they can now finance those power plants. We're now extending that to storage, and we actually are running RFPs on storage that gives us a lot of visibility in terms of what's in the market.

正確的。因此，當您考慮 PPA 戰略時，我們從風能和太陽能開始，這確實為市場帶來了新的兆瓦級。我們為他們提供長期合同，因為我們的重建供應，我們的零售量很低，而且我們實際上可以將這些新兆瓦推向市場，因為他們現在可以為這些發電廠提供資金。我們現在正在將其擴展到存儲，實際上我們在存儲上運行 RFP，這讓我們對市場上有很多可見性。

But now we have expanded that to gas peaking. And the gas peaking, not only we need to -- we can rely on developers, but keep in mind, we already have a lot of brownfield opportunities within our sites. And I will tell you today that we've been working over the last 1.5 years in identifying new projects. We actually have one that is shovel-ready, fully permitted.

但現在我們已將其擴展到天然氣峰值。天然氣達到峰值，不僅我們需要——我們可以依賴開發人員，但請記住，我們已經在我們的網站內擁有很多棕地機會。今天我要告訴你，我們在過去 1.5 年裡一直在努力尋找新項目。我們實際上有一個準備好鏟子的，完全允許的。

Another one is right behind it. And right now, we want to explore potential partnerships where we can bring capital from other entities. We can take the offtake and we can be also the developer since we have a long history of power plant development. So I think it can be a win-win for everybody. So we don't need to use our own capital to develop these plants and still benefit from this incremental megawatts in the grid.

另一個就在它後面。現在，我們想探索潛在的合作夥伴關係，我們可以從其他實體那裡獲得資金。我們可以承購，我們也可以成為開發商，因為我們擁有悠久的發電廠開發歷史。所以我認為這對每個人來說都是雙贏的。因此，我們不需要使用自己的資金來開發這些工廠，並且仍然可以從電網中增加的兆瓦數中受益。

Right. And just to make sure I'm hearing you right, this would be effectively monetizing upfront the development rights that you have on your brownfield to another party that you're developing megawatts, not taking the operational risk, but ultimately enabling new assets to be developed in ERCOT.

正確的。為了確保我沒聽錯，這將有效地將您在棕地擁有的開發權預先貨幣化給您正在開發兆瓦的另一方，而不是承擔運營風險，但最終使新資產能夠在 ERCOT 中開發。

Exactly.

確切地。

Our next question comes from Shahriar Pourreza of Guggenheim Partners.

我們的下一個問題來自 Guggenheim Partners 的 Shahriar Pourreza。

Mauricio, just as we look at sort of the balance of the year, how should we sort of think about maybe the size and shaping of the lever as you laid out to maybe help get you back to that midpoint. Could sort of that synergy upside from Direct Energy help there?

毛里西奧，就像我們在看今年的平衡時一樣，我們應該如何考慮槓桿的大小和形狀，因為你可能會幫助你回到那個中點。直接能源帶來的協同效應會有所幫助嗎？

Yes. I mean there will be a combination of things, Shar. As Alberto pointed out, I mean, we're looking at and we've been working on this because as part of the transitory items, we wanted to mitigate also those transitory items. So we've been working on this throughout the year. That is, do we have the opportunity for onetime cost savings?

是的。我的意思是會有一些事情的組合，夏爾。正如 Alberto 指出的那樣，我的意思是，我們正在研究並且一直在努力解決這個問題，因為作為臨時項目的一部分，我們也希望減輕這些臨時項目的影響。所以我們一整年都在努力。也就是說，我們是否有機會一次性節省成本？

Obviously, the direct energy synergies, we feel very comfortable with the number, but we are now looking at upsizing that and working on it. Obviously, we need to make insurance proceeds and whether we can accelerate some of these insurance proceeds, and Alberto already mentioned some of that.

顯然，直接的能量協同作用，我們對這個數字感到非常滿意，但我們現在正在考慮擴大規模並努力解決這個問題。顯然，我們需要獲得保險收益，以及我們是否可以加速其中的一些保險收益，阿爾貝托已經提到了其中的一些。

And look, I mean, that's not completely dependent on us, but that doesn't mean that we're going to work hard to accelerate that. And then -- so I would say that some of them are levered. I also want to mention that we run this business for cash. And I think the sale of Watson, it is an example of us being completely focused in monetizing the value of our portfolio. And if we can accelerate some of the divestitures of noncore assets, we're going to continue to do that, to bring cash in this year to make up for the cost of the unit insurance outage. So there is a number of things that we're doing, Shar, to make up for the lost earnings of the unit 8 outage.

看，我的意思是，這並不完全取決於我們，但這並不意味著我們將努力加速這一進程。然後 - 所以我會說其中一些是槓桿的。我還想提一下，我們經營這項業務是為了現金。我認為出售 Watson 是我們完全專注於將我們的投資組合價值貨幣化的一個例子。如果我們能夠加速一些非核心資產的剝離，我們將繼續這樣做，在今年帶來現金以彌補單位保險中斷的成本。因此，Shar，我們正在做很多事情來彌補 8 號機組停電造成的收入損失。

Okay. Perfect. That helps there. And then just lastly, I know you guys mentioned retention is exceeding your internal targets. Just is this split fairly evenly between East Texas? Or is it skewed? And then just curious how East has held up with a heavier C&I book.

好的。完美的。這對那裡有幫助。最後，我知道你們提到留存率超出了您的內部目標。只是這在東德克薩斯州之間的分配相當平均嗎？還是歪斜了？然後只是好奇 East 是如何堅持住一本更重的 C&I 書的。

Sure. I'll turn it over to Elizabeth for kind of this East Texas split, but I will tell you that the -- I mean, the retail engine is really, really strong. And as I said in the previous answer, we're seeing a flight to safety and our brands are that flight to safety. So we're seeing really, really strong numbers, but Elizabeth, can you provide additional detail?

當然。我將把它交給伊麗莎白，以了解東德克薩斯州的這種分裂，但我會告訴你——我的意思是，零售引擎非常非常強大。正如我在之前的回答中所說，我們正在看到安全的飛行，我們的品牌就是安全的飛行。所以我們看到了非常非常強大的數字，但是伊麗莎白，你能提供更多細節嗎？

Yes. Thanks for the question, Shar. We are seeing really solid retention, Mauricio mentioned, 5% above expectations. That's really driven by our unmatched analytics and care capabilities. We also have a significant amount of customer and community loyalty and of course, the compelling products. From a Texas versus East, pretty consistent, maybe a slight advantage in Texas, but it's not dramatic. And we're also seeing retention better than expected from the DE acquisition.

是的。謝謝你的問題，夏爾。 Mauricio 提到，我們看到了非常穩固的留存率，比預期高出 5%。這確實是由我們無與倫比的分析和護理能力推動的。我們還擁有大量的客戶和社區忠誠度，當然還有引人注目的產品。從德克薩斯州對東部的比賽來看，相當一致，也許在德克薩斯州有一點優勢，但並不引人注目。我們還看到，從 DE 收購中獲得的留存率好於預期。

So really, our -- the strength of our platform right now, especially during the -- with the volatility in the COGS. I mean, we're -- I'm so pleased with how resilient our platform is through this. And frankly, the strength of our channel, both sales and marketing channels to pivot within regions and between regions. So yes, it really is a strong platform.

所以真的，我們的 - 我們現在平台的實力，尤其是在 - 隨著 COGS 的波動。我的意思是，我們 - 我很高興我們的平台在這方面的彈性。坦率地說，我們的渠道實力，包括銷售和營銷渠道在區域內和區域之間的樞軸。所以是的，它確實是一個強大的平台。

Our next question comes from Michael Lapides of Goldman Sachs.

我們的下一個問題來自高盛的邁克爾·拉皮德斯。

Congrats for being able to keep the guidance range during a tough operational time, given the Parish outage. Just curious to -- the history of Texas shows that there are power price and heat rate blowouts that happened in an unusual time. I mean, if I go back in time, you own the Reliant business because of what I thought was an April heat rate blowout that happened 12, 14 years ago or so. Just curious, with Parish, one of your base load units out through the second quarter next year, can you just talk about how much gas-fired generation you have under contract for next year, meaning whether it's a hedge from a gas-fired unit or whether it's a PPA or a toll from a gas-fired unit? We've seen some periods recently where some of the renewable units were running fine and then all of a sudden due to cloud cover shut down and it caused a price blowout, happened a couple of some days ago in Texas. So just trying to think about how much backup you've got from third-party fossil for the period when Parish is out?

鑑於教區停電，恭喜您能夠在艱難的運營時期保持指導範圍。只是好奇——得克薩斯州的歷史表明，在不尋常的時間發生了電價和熱耗率井噴。我的意思是，如果我回到過去，你擁有 Reliant 業務，因為我認為這是 12、14 年前左右發生的 4 月份熱率井噴。只是好奇，Parish 是您的基本負荷單位之一，到明年第二季度為止，您能否談談您明年的合同中有多少燃氣發電，這意味著它是否是燃氣機組的對沖或者是 PPA 還是燃氣裝置的通行費？我們最近看到一些時期，一些可再生能源裝置運行良好，然後突然由於雲層關閉而導致價格井噴，幾天前發生在德克薩斯州。所以只是想想想在教區外出期間你從第三方化石獲得了多少備份？

Yes, Michael. So I think in the last earnings, I provided an indication of our hedge for 2023. And if you recall that one had against the expected load that we have for 2023, half comes from third-party megawatts, about half comes from our economic generation. And then we have uneconomic generation that is maintained as insurance, our own uneconomic generation. So there is a -- it's just a lot of combination in that third-party megawatts. We have some tolling agreements with combined cycle plants. We have some heat rate auctions with peakers. We actually have some heat rate options with -- or actually out-of-the-money call options from the financial market.

是的，邁克爾。因此，我認為在上一份收益中，我提供了我們對 2023 年對沖的指標。如果你還記得我們在 2023 年的預期負荷，一半來自第三方兆瓦，大約一半來自我們的經濟一代.然後我們有不經濟的一代，作為保險來維持，我們自己的不經濟的一代。所以有一個 - 它只是第三方兆瓦的很多組合。我們與聯合循環工廠簽訂了一些收費協議。我們有一些峰值熱率拍賣。實際上，我們有一些熱費率選項——或者實際上是來自金融市場的價外看漲期權。

So there is a combination of tools that we have to be able to manage weather variability in any given year. Now as you mentioned, I mean, the second quarter was pretty extreme. We always plan for some weather variability. But what we actually saw in the spring and July is record-breaking heat in Texas. And while we manage for some variability, it is incredibly expensive to manage for all weather variability now.

因此，我們必須使用多種工具組合來管理任何給定年份的天氣變化。現在正如你提到的，我的意思是，第二季度非常極端。我們總是計劃一些天氣變化。但我們在春季和七月實際看到的是德克薩斯州創紀錄的高溫。雖然我們管理了一些變化，但現在管理所有天氣變化的成本非常高。

Now perhaps one of the lessons learned here is as we think about 2023 and given that we have a lot of time to plan for how to set up the portfolio for that year, I expect that we're going to buy a little bit more insurance for extreme weather than in the past. And I think that's -- I mean, that's going to be the prudent thing to do given what we're seeing in Texas. I mean the peak -- the record peak was broken by, I think, 5,000 megawatts. I mean the old peak was 75,000. Now the new peak is close to 80,000 megawatts. I mean, you have 7%, 8% increase. I mean, that's pretty significant. And I think we need to recognize that. Perhaps we're going to see greater weather -- extreme weather events, and we need to plan for it.

現在，也許在這裡學到的一個教訓是我們考慮 2023 年，鑑於我們有很多時間來計劃如何設置那一年的投資組合，我希望我們會購買更多的保險對於極端天氣比過去。而且我認為這是 - 我的意思是，鑑於我們在德克薩斯州看到的情況，這將是謹慎的做法。我的意思是峰值——我認為，創紀錄的峰值被 5,000 兆瓦打破了。我的意思是舊的峰值是 75,000。現在新的峰值接近80,000兆瓦。我的意思是，你有 7%、8% 的增長。我的意思是，這非常重要。我認為我們需要認識到這一點。也許我們會看到更大的天氣——極端天氣事件，我們需要為此做好計劃。

Well -- and Texas is showing massive robust demand growth way above the national average. Part of that is just residential new connect, people move in there. Part of that is massive pet chem industrial demand. Part of it is probably crypto mining, which there are all kinds of dockets that are at ERCOT and PUCT discussing the impact of that. If we enter a sustained period where Texas load -- peak load growth is in the 3% to 5% range for a number of years, would that alter your power procurement strategy and your asset ownership strategy at all? Meaning, if demand comes in for a multiyear period, way above what we saw in the last 3 to 5 years.

好吧——德克薩斯州的需求增長強勁，遠高於全國平均水平。其中一部分只是住宅新連接，人們搬到那裡。其中一部分是巨大的寵物化學工業需求。其中一部分可能是加密挖掘，ERCOT 和 PUCT 有各種各樣的案卷討論其影響。如果我們進入德州負荷的持續時期——峰值負荷增長在 3% 到 5% 範圍內持續數年，這會改變你的電力採購策略和資產所有權策略嗎？這意味著，如果需求持續多年，遠高於我們在過去 3 到 5 年看到的水平。

Yes. Well, absolutely. So 2 things on that. If demand is growing at 3% to 4% a year, that's really good for us. Because if we maintain our market share, that means we're growing our retail business, and that's really, really good, and that's what we want to see. Now obviously, we need to make sure that we keep up our supply strategy with that incremental demand. And the way we're going to do, it is one -- as I mentioned, I think there is an opportunity for us to bring new megawatts in some of our current sites and those were -- would be primarily gas peaking and an energy storage. And we are -- as I mentioned, we already have at least one project that is being fully permitted and is shovel-ready and now it's just a matter of what's the right partner to bring into the table.

是的。嗯，絕對的。所以有兩件事。如果需求以每年 3% 到 4% 的速度增長，那對我們來說真的很好。因為如果我們保持我們的市場份額，這意味著我們正在發展我們的零售業務，這真的非常非常好，這就是我們想要看到的。現在顯然，我們需要確保我們的供應策略與增量需求保持一致。我們將採取的方式是——正如我所提到的，我認為我們有機會在我們現有的一些站點中引入新的兆瓦，而那些站點主要是天然氣峰值和能源貯存。而且我們 - 正如我所提到的，我們已經至少有一個項目被完全允許並且準備就緒，現在只是將什麼是合適的合作夥伴帶到桌面上的問題。

We have another one that is right behind it and is in the process of getting permitted. And I'm sure that -- and I will tell you, the team is already looking at other opportunities where we can bring storage there. So I think you're going to see us participate on that new dispatchable quick-start generation opportunity in our sites, but not necessarily with our capital, and we will be the off-taker.

我們有另一個就在它後面，並且正在獲得許可。而且我敢肯定——我會告訴你，團隊已經在尋找其他可以將存儲帶到那裡的機會。因此，我認為您將看到我們參與我們站點中新的可調度快速啟動發電機會，但不一定是用我們的資金，我們將成為承購方。

In addition to that, we're going to continue bringing new wind and solar and energy storage as we have done already with our current PPA. So we're looking at these in kind of these 2 ways, bring new megawatts that are zero variable cost in the form of wind, solar and perhaps storage. And bring contract also with new gas peaking dispatchable generation in our existing sites, but not necessarily with our capital.

除此之外，我們將繼續引入新的風能、太陽能和能源存儲，就像我們已經在當前的 PPA 中所做的那樣。所以我們以這兩種方式來看待這些，以風能、太陽能和儲能的形式帶來零可變成本的新兆瓦。並在我們現有的站點上與新的天然氣調峰可調度發電簽訂合同，但不一定與我們的資金簽訂。

Got it. And one last one, and this is probably an Elizabeth question. Just curious, over the last year or so, can you talk about what your Texas customer count has done since the Direct Energy acquisition, so January of '21? like how much is your mass market customer count up since the Direct deal, meaning if I did it apples-to-apples? And then what are you seeing on the residential level at a usage per customer basis?

知道了。最後一個，這可能是伊麗莎白的問題。只是好奇，在過去一年左右的時間裡，您能否談談自 21 年 1 月收購 Direct Energy 以來您的德克薩斯客戶數量做了什麼？例如，自從直接交易以來，您的大眾市場客戶數量增加了多少，這意味著如果我做到了蘋果對蘋果？然後，您在每個客戶的使用情況下在住宅層面看到了什麼？

So from a customer count perspective, year-over-year between -- since the DE acquisition, relatively steady, a slight decline. And as I have mentioned before on calls, from a customer count perspective, year-over-year between -- since the DE acquisition, relatively steady, a slight decline. And as I have mentioned before on calls, when we do both book acquisitions and large acquisitions, there's a bit of a settling period in the first year or 2. And so we've seen that.

因此，從客戶數量的角度來看，與去年同期相比——自從收購 DE 以來，相對穩定，略有下降。正如我之前在電話會議上提到的那樣，從客戶數量的角度來看，自收購 DE 以來，與去年同期相比，相對穩定，略有下降。正如我之前在電話會議上提到的，當我們同時進行書籍收購和大型收購時，第一年或第二年會有一段穩定期。所以我們已經看到了這一點。

But as I mentioned earlier, we're performing better than we expected and modeled from those -- that we expected and modeled from those acquisitions. From a customer usage perspective, in the ERCOT market relatively steady, although with weather, we're seeing an increase that especially in this second quarter versus prior period. So we do expect customer usage to be either steady or growing with the electrification of people's lives and communities.

但正如我之前提到的，我們的表現比我們預期的要好，並以此為模型——我們預期並以這些收購為模型。從客戶使用的角度來看，ERCOT 市場相對穩定，儘管由於天氣原因，我們看到特別是在第二季度與上一季度相比有所增加。因此，我們確實希望隨著人們生活和社區的電氣化，客戶的使用量將保持穩定或增長。

Right. I mean, I think, Michael, you need to think about that usage in 2 context, weather normalize and then weather affected. And I think what you saw in Q2 is a significant increase in usage per customer because of weather. But we're also seeing an increase in usage per customer because of the electrification of the economy, right? So you can point to electric vehicles. You can point to a lot of different things that are driving this electrification that will increase the usage per capita.

正確的。我的意思是，我認為，邁克爾，你需要在兩種情況下考慮這種用法，天氣正常化，然後天氣受影響。而且我認為您在第二季度看到的是由於天氣原因，每位客戶的使用量顯著增加。但是，由於經濟的電氣化，我們也看到每位客戶的使用量有所增加，對吧？所以你可以指向電動汽車。您可以指出許多推動這種電氣化的不同因素，這些因素將增加人均使用量。

The next question comes from Angie Storozynski of Seaport.

下一個問題來自 Seaport 的 Angie Storozynski。

So I wanted to change the topic just for a moment. The pending inflation bill and the benefits that your nuclear plants could get some from nuclear PTCs. I'm just struggling to gauge at what is the price that STP is hedged at, say, for the next year or 2? As we're trying to calculate the delta between that and the $44 per megawatt hour that this bill would bring.

所以我想暫時換個話題。未決的通貨膨脹法案以及您的核電站可以從核 PTC 中獲得一些好處。我只是在努力衡量 STP 對沖的價格是多少，比如說，明年或 2 年？當我們試圖計算這與該法案將帶來的每兆瓦時 44 美元之間的差值時。

Yes. Angie. Well, I mean, so clearly, this deal could potentially be a positive for nuclear owners, including us. And as you mentioned, I mean, I think everybody is looking at, okay, what is that trigger that will allow us to get the PTCs or not. So that's a moving target. And obviously, that's a moving target with the market, right, like everybody else. So I'm not sure if I can give you that level of specificity in terms of what price is hedged because we look at it on a portfolio basis.

是的。安吉。好吧，我的意思是，很明顯，這筆交易可能對包括我們在內的核擁有者有利。正如你所提到的，我的意思是，我認為每個人都在看，好吧，是什麼觸發器可以讓我們獲得 PTC。所以這是一個移動的目標。顯然，這是市場的一個移動目標，對，就像其他人一樣。因此，我不確定我是否可以就對沖的價格為您提供那種程度的特異性，因為我們是在投資組合的基礎上看待它的。

But I mean, this is something that we'll start to -- I guess, outlined as this bill progresses and if passed, then we will need to have that level of clarity to ensure that we can support and justify the incremental PTC, but that's something that to be worked on.

但我的意思是，這是我們將開始做的事情——我想，隨著該法案的進展而概述，如果通過，那麼我們將需要有這樣的清晰度，以確保我們能夠支持和證明增量 PTC，但是這是需要解決的問題。

Okay. And then going back to the hedging of your retail book. So one thing that sort of surprised me is that, I mean, you -- when you hedge your retail book, you always have all kinds of delta hedges and options in order to protect you against unplanned outages also spikes in usage. So I would have thought that Parish was not a big component of the supply stack to start with, given coal supply constraints. And then you should have had those additional hedges. So I'm a little bit surprised that the impact is this big? And then lastly, when you show your drivers for the year, I don't see any comments about any uptick in bad debt expense and we see it at regulated utilities. So I was just wondering how you manage that.

好的。然後回到你的零售書籍的對沖。所以讓我感到驚訝的一件事是，我的意思是，當你對沖零售賬簿時，你總是有各種 delta 對沖和期權，以保護你免受計劃外中斷的影響，同時使用量也會激增。因此，考慮到煤炭供應的限制，我會認為教區並不是供應堆棧的重要組成部分。然後你應該有那些額外的對沖。所以我有點驚訝影響這麼大？最後，當你展示你的司機時，我沒有看到任何關於壞賬費用上升的評論，我們在受監管的公用事業公司看到了它。所以我只是想知道你是怎麼做到的。

Yes, Angie. So as you mentioned, we always plan for some forced outages and some weather variability. I think the impact here is that the outage was in a pretty large coal unit, close to 600 megawatts with prices where they were in the forward market for -- starting in May. That unit is pretty deep in the money. So as you mentioned, I mean, the coal conservation that we have was really in the shoulder months and perhaps in some of these shoulder hours. But in the peak hours, this unit was expected to be there to help manage and supply our load.

是的，安吉。因此，正如您所提到的，我們總是計劃一些強制中斷和一些天氣變化。我認為這裡的影響是停電發生在一個相當大的煤炭機組中，接近 600 兆瓦，其價格處於遠期市場的水平——從 5 月開始。這個單位的錢很深。所以正如你提到的，我的意思是，我們的煤炭節約實際上是在肩上的幾個月裡，也許在這些肩上的幾個小時裡。但在高峰時段，預計該裝置將在那裡幫助管理和供應我們的負載。

The unique situation here is both happened at the same time. We had a forced outage on a large coal unit exactly at the time when we had record-breaking heat, and that really goes outside of kind of this planning area that we look at. So this was the combination of these 2 very extreme conditions. And it's not like we don't plan for it, but we don't plan the intersection of both of them exactly as we're leading into the summer.

這裡的獨特情況是兩者同時發生的。恰好在我們遇到破紀錄的高溫時，我們對一個大型燃煤機組進行了強制停電，這確實超出了我們所關注的這種規劃區域。所以這是這兩個非常極端的條件的組合。並不是說我們沒有計劃，而是我們沒有計劃他們兩者的交集，就像我們即將進入夏天一樣。

Now we use some of our uneconomic generation, and it was very effective, but this uneconomic generation that we have, some of the gas peakers, they come at a really high cost given where the natural gas price is today. So if you're at $8, $9 gas and you're deploying 12, 13 heat rate peakers. The cost of that is pretty high, although it caps us from buying at the cap, for example, but it's still pretty high compared to where the cost of generation is for our coal plant. Anything to add, Alberto?

現在我們使用了一些不經濟的一代，它非常有效，但是我們擁有的這個不經濟的一代，一些天然氣峰值，考慮到今天的天然氣價格，它們的成本非常高。因此，如果您的汽油價格為 8 美元、9 美元，並且您正在部署 12、13 個熱耗率峰值器。這樣做的成本相當高，儘管它限制了我們購買的上限，例如，但與我們的燃煤電廠的發電成本相比，它仍然相當高。有什麼要補充的嗎，阿爾貝托？

Yes, Angie, so regarding your question regarding -- related to bad debt expenses, we are not seeing any pickup in the bad debt expenses and considered now the level of receivables is much higher, given the level of gas prices and power. So when we see percentage is absolutely in line. And even we look at late payment fees and so on, and it's pretty normal, particularly in Texas. So for the time being, we are not seeing any sign of deterioration of the quality of our receivable portfolio.

是的，安吉，所以關於你關於壞賬費用的問題，我們沒有看到壞賬費用有任何回升，考慮到天然氣價格和電力水平，現在考慮到應收賬款水平要高得多。因此，當我們看到百分比絕對符合時。甚至我們也會考慮滯納金等，這很正常，尤其是在德克薩斯州。因此，就目前而言，我們沒有看到任何應收賬款組合質量惡化的跡象。

Our next comes from Steve Fleishman of Wolfe Research.

我們的下一個來自 Wolfe Research 的 Steve Fleishman。

Mauricio, the -- you mentioned increasing the maintenance CapEx on the fleet from the $200 million. How much higher might that go going forward?

Mauricio，您提到將機隊的維護資本支出從 2 億美元增加。未來還能漲多少？

Well, I mean, we're -- yes, Steve. I mean we're going to evaluate these. But obviously, if your plants are a lot more profitable than they were, let's say, the last 5, 6 years under a low gas environment, they can support incremental maintenance CapEx. And not only they can support, it's advisable, right? Because right now, every megawatt counts. Before we had a lot more megawatts that were marginal, and we don't necessarily need to have that -- maximize the output of the plant.

好吧，我的意思是，我們是——是的，史蒂夫。我的意思是我們要評估這些。但很明顯，如果您的工廠比過去 5、6 年在低氣體環境下的利潤高得多，它們可以支持增量維護資本支出。不僅他們可以支持，而且是可取的，對嗎？因為現在，每一兆瓦都很重要。在我們擁有更多的邊際兆瓦之前，我們不一定需要擁有它——最大化工廠的輸出。

Now we really need to maximize the output of the plant. And look, the capacity factors, the amount of time that these plants are going to run are going to be more than they have been in the past, and we need to take that into consideration. So I would say that there will be an increase. I don't think it's a step-up change from the maintenance CapEx. But it is -- we need to rightsize it to the amount of run hours that the unit is going to have, number one. And number two, for the profitability of the plant, right? So every megawatt counts, and I want to make sure that we have it available when we need them.

現在我們真的需要最大化工廠的產量。看，產能因素，這些工廠的運行時間將比過去更多，我們需要考慮到這一點。所以我會說會有增加。我認為這不是維護資本支出的升級。但它是 - 我們需要將其調整為單元將擁有的運行小時數，第一。第二，為了工廠的盈利能力，對嗎？所以每一兆瓦都很重要，我想確保我們在需要時可以使用它們。

Okay. Great. On the Parish outage in the insurance. So I assume you're not assuming you're going to book any business interruption proceeds this year. It will be next year?

好的。偉大的。關於教區中斷的保險。因此，我假設您不會假設您將在今年預訂任何業務中斷收益。會是明年嗎？

Yes. Alberto?

是的。阿爾貝托？

Yes, it is correct. However, based also on the experience with Limestone, we're trying to accelerate the property damage, insurance proceeds and linked it basically to the expenses and the CapEx that we're going to deploy this year. So that's the area where we see more opportunity.

是的，這是正確的。然而，同樣基於 Limestone 的經驗，我們正在努力加速財產損失、保險收益，並將其與我們今年將部署的費用和資本支出基本掛鉤。所以這是我們看到更多機會的領域。

Okay. So just high level, you have the $200 million plus cost this year. Then next year, there will be some cost that continues in the first half, but then you'll have a benefit for business interruption that should offset -- should be more meaningful than the cost in '23.

好的。所以只是高水平，你今年有 2 億美元加上成本。然後明年，上半年會有一些成本繼續存在，但隨後您將獲得應該抵消的業務中斷收益——應該比 23 年的成本更有意義。

Correct.

正確的。

Yes. Okay. And then just a high level, I know somebody asked about the impact of IRA for the nuclear plant. But just maybe more broadly, could you -- there's a lot of provisions in this bill in different ways that could impact the business. So just could you just talk to anything else that particularly -- you're particularly focused on?

是的。好的。然後只是一個高層次，我知道有人問過愛爾蘭共和軍對核電站的影響。但也許更廣泛地說，你能 - 該法案中有很多條款以不同的方式可能會影響業務。所以你能不能只和其他任何特別 - 你特別關注的東西談談？

Sure. I mean the 2 -- I mean the 2 big ones is what is the impact on wind and solar, renewable energy and what's the impact on nuclear, right? So on wind and solar, we can see a reengagement and an acceleration of renewable development, which we have benefited from and our team is ready to start the conversation with developers again.

當然。我的意思是 2 - 我的意思是 2 大的影響是對風能和太陽能、可再生能源的影響以及對核能的影響，對嗎？因此，在風能和太陽能方面，我們可以看到可再生能源開發的重新參與和加速，我們從中受益，我們的團隊已準備好再次開始與開發商的對話。

And then on the nuclear side, we're going to be looking at what is the benefit that we can with our STP facility. And like every other nuclear generation in the country, I'm sure that they're starting to do the math to figure out how do we benefit from these production tax credits. So I would say those are the 2 big areas where we are focused on and that can impact our business.

然後在核方面，我們將研究我們的 STP 設施有什麼好處。和該國所有其他核能發電一樣，我相信他們已經開始進行數學計算，以弄清楚我們如何從這些生產稅收抵免中受益。所以我想說這是我們關注的兩大領域，這會影響我們的業務。

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation in today's conference. This concludes today's program. I will now turn the call back over to Mauricio.

女士們，先生們，感謝你們參加今天的會議。今天的節目到此結束。我現在將把電話轉回毛里西奧。

Thank you, Felicia, and thank you, and I look forward to speaking with you shortly. Thank you.

謝謝你，Felicia，謝謝你，我期待很快與你交談。謝謝你。