Portland General Electric Co (POR) 2021 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, everyone. And welcome to the Portland General Electric Company's First Quarter 2021 Earnings Results Conference Call. Today is Friday, April 30, 2021. This call is being recorded. (Operator Instructions)

For opening remarks, I will turn the conference call over to Portland General Electric's Senior Director of Investor Relations, Mr. Jardon Jaramillo. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Ren. Good morning, everyone. I'm pleased that you're able to join us today. Before we begin this morning, I'd like to remind you that we have prepared a presentation to supplement our discussion which we'll be referencing throughout the call. The slides are available on our website at investors.portlandgeneral.com. Referring to Slide 2, some of our remarks this morning will constitute forward-looking statements. We caution you that such statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties and actual results may differ materially from our expectations. For a description of some of the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, please refer to our earnings press release and our most recent periodic reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q, which are available on our website.

Leading our discussion today are Maria Pope, President and CEO; and Jim Ajello, Senior Vice President of Finance, CFO and Treasurer. Following their prepared remarks we will open the line for your questions.

Now it's my pleasure to turn the call over to...

Thank you, Jardon, and thank you all for joining us today. Our financial results this quarter were strong, we reported net income of $96 million or $1.07 per share compared to net income of $81 million or $0.91 per share in the first quarter of last year. In light of the strong quarter and positive outlook, we are reaffirming our 2021 earnings guidance of $2.55 to $2.70 per share, as well as our long-term earnings and dividend growth rates. Jim will cover first quarter results in more detail, provide regulatory capital updates as well as discuss the outlook for the rest of the year.

This quarter again presented significant weather-driven operational challenges and I'm proud of how our teams came together responding to the most severe ice, wind and snowstorms in our history. Improving our operations and achieving important customer-focused results. In February, we restored over 750,000 customer outages as nearly half of our customers were without power, many of whom experienced multiple outages, over more than 2.5-week period. I want to recognize the hard work of our coworkers, mutual aid crews and assistance from as far away as Southern California, Utah, Montana to Alberta, British Columbia, all of whom in the midst of a pandemic went above and beyond to restore power quickly, and most importantly safely.

Even as we speak, crews continue to repair equipment and clear down the trees as damage is still extensive. As of March 31st, the cost of the February storm were $87 million, which Jim will discuss in detail. The recent storms and wildfires last fall on top of the pandemic, with so many people living, working and learning remotely, underscore the importance of our ongoing system hardening and reinvestment programs. combined with the deployment of digital capabilities, AI and smart grid technologies.

Today versus a year ago, customers are experiencing about 16% percent less planned outages. Average outage restoration times are about 7% faster and outage text notifications and digital payment options are making a difference in customer satisfaction. And equally important to note is what did not happen during those February weather events. Our generation plants as well as wind and hydro facilities operated seamlessly and power was generated across the region throughout the harsh conditions. Turning to load growth and the economy, for the last couple of years, we have discussed the strength of our service territory. Overall year-over-year customer count increase more than 1%, and load growth was up 1.2% on a weather adjusted basis and 2.3% after accounting for the harsh winter conditions. Residential usage was up 3%, weather-adjusted offsetting commercial declines of 5%. Industrial usage grew an impressive 8%, powered by the strength of the tech and digital sectors. Expansion within our region of several digital companies and the global semiconductor shortage are expected to continue and solidify our positive outlook.

Overall, Oregon's economy is recovering with nearly 2/3 of the state's pandemic-driven job loss recovered. Unemployment currently stands at 5.7% across our service territory. ESG, Portland General has long been an ESG Leader. And this quarter, we joined the Amazon climate pledge in keeping with our commitment to reduce carbon by 80% by 2030,\over 2010 levels and our aspirational goal of net zero by 2040. We also know that to make real progress on climate, we need to partner in addressing the admissions from transportation and other sectors. Last week, in partnership with Daimler Trucks North America, we celebrated the opening of the first of its kind heavy duty electric truck charging site.

This site aligned with the West Coast clean transit corridor initiative to electrify along the I-5 Corridor, from the borders with British Columbia to Mexico. And finally, I'd like to address the ongoing social unrest and importance of our diversity equity inclusion work. In these tumultuous time, corporations have an opportunity for change.

At Portland General, our DE&I priorities are focused on recruiting, retaining, training and promoting from our front lines to our Board of Directors. We are committed to transparency and have published for 3 years running, our workforce and pay equity statistics. We've made good progress, but we know that there is still much work to do.

As we look to the year ahead, we are excited to lead a clean energy transformation and humbled by the challenges as we work seamlessly to integrate ever increasing amounts of renewable and distributed energy resources into a growing, reliance and resilient grid, meaning customers' needs for safe, affordable clean energy. I'll now turn it over to Jim.

Thanks, Maria, I too was impressed with the efforts of our teams across the company to restore power safely to customers during the February storms. As we turn to economic conditions, it's clear that we're beginning to see recovery take hold approximately 40% of Oregonians have had at least one vaccine shot and as of mid-April K-12 public schools reopened for in-person education either hybrid or full time.

As of March 2021, the unemployment rate in PGE's service territory was 5.7% compared to a 14% peak in April 2020. In the first quarter, Oregon saw accelerated job growth and as of March has recovered over half of the jobs lost last spring. Harder hit segments, such as leisure and hospitality have posted the noteworthy gains after experiencing a second wave of job losses in late 2020. While there are green shoots of recovery, we appreciate that many of our customers are still facing challenges and we embrace our role as an essential service provider and partner to Oregon communities. Turning to Slide 5, I'll cover our financial performance. As Maria said, we reported $1.07 per share compared to $0.91 per share in the first quarter of 2020. First, we saw a $0.06 increase in total revenue. This is composed of $0.04 due to higher loads, which increased 1.2% over -- year-over-year weather-adjusted and a $0.02 positive impact from weather. Additionally, there was $0.02 from the earnings power associated with the Wheatridge Renewable Energy Facility which was placed in service in the fourth quarter of 2020. Next, a $0.03 decrease in net variable power costs, driven by lower hydro wind production in 2021.

While our wind production exceeded our expectations, it was still less than the unusually high levels of production experienced in 2020. A $0.07 decrease was associated with higher operating and maintenance administrative expense, which consists of $0.05 of favorable fixed plant O&M, primarily due to lower maintenance expense that our generation facilities. This was offset by $0.12 of unfavorable administrative expenses, which included $0.03 of higher employee benefit expenses, $0.03 of higher legal and professional expense and $0.03 from the timing of bad debt recognition under our COVID deferral and $0.03 from other items. A $0.05 increase was associated with lower depreciation and amortization expense, largely as a result of asset retirements, which were partially offset by capital addition. There was a $0.04 increase in other income, primarily attributed to market returns on the non-qualified benefit trust. It was an $0.11 increase from lower tax expense, primarily driven by a onetime recognition of the benefit from a local flow through tax.

Turning to the regulatory update, we are continuing to evaluate our cost structure to ensure that we're providing safe, reliable and affordable service to our customers, while making investments that leverage the use of technology and advance our strategy. We are still assessing our need and the appropriate timing to file a general rate case with the Oregon Public Service -- Utilities Commission for '22 test year. This last week we requested a docket to be open to select an independent evaluator with stakeholders for our upcoming RFP. This is the first step towards the RFP. The process of which is expected to continue into 2022, before finalizing potential selections.

The RFP will seek both renewable energy and dispatchable resource bids. PGE has identified a roughly 500-megawatt capacity need that we'll seek to fill as part of this 2021 all source RFP for the 2019 acknowledged IRP, PGE is permitted to have 150 megawatts of energy-producing resources, like renewables, to fill a portion of this capacity need. We plan to file a benchmark resource into this competitive process.

Additionally, as it relates to capacity. We are continuing to pursue cost competitive agreements for existing capacity in the region. If PGE is successful in these negotiations, it might reduce the size of the 2021 RFP, depending on the contracting dates for an existing capacity resource. Regarding the deferral related to our storm costs, detailed on Slide 6 through March 31, 2021, we've incurred an estimated $87 million in incremental cost due to the February storm, of which $33 million were capital expenditures and $54 million were operating expenditures associated with our transmission and distribution system. We have a storm deferral mechanism that collects $4 million annually from retail customers to cover incremental expenses related to storm damages and we defer any amount not utilized in the current year.

In response to the February storms, we exhausted our storm collection balance for 2021 of $9 million to offset operating expenses. This brings the cumulative incurred cost from the February storm to be estimated at $45 million net as of March 31, 2021. We have filed an application for authorization to defer emergency restoration costs for the February storms. We expect a decision from the PUC on this in 2022.

We are confident these costs were incurred prudently in response to this unique and unprecedented storm, although there are comparable storms of similar size and duration in other regions at a similar expense. The OPC has significant discretion in making the final determination of recovery and their conclusion of the overall prudence.

Turning to Slide 7, which shows our updated capital forecast through 2025. We've increased our 2021 capital expenditures by $45 million this year. The majority of which relates to the capital expenditures from the recent storm restoration. Our capital plan remains on track and we continue to invest primarily in projects that enhance the resiliency and reliability of our system for the benefit of the customers, while maintaining affordability. Given our guidance today, we raised our O&M guidance by $20 million, this is in response to several factors. $12 million of this increase is associated with the February storm response expense which is ultimately offset in revenue and the remaining $8 million is associated with additional initiatives, to address wildfire risk, improve our outage restoration estimation and outage response processes.

On to Slide 8. We continue to maintain a solid balance sheet, including strong liquidity and investment grade ratings accompanied by a stable outlook. Based on our strong financial condition, we do not expect to issue additional equity in 2021. We expect to fund 2021 capital expenditures and long-term debt maturities with cash from operations during '21, which is expected to range from $600 million to $650 million. We've also increased a long-term debt issuance later this year, up to $350 million, which will refinance the short-term loan closed earlier this year and satisfy our 2022 requirements. Total liquidity is $780 million, all of which is available.

Earlier this week, our Board approved a dividend increase of $0.09 per share on an annualized basis, which represents a 5.5% increase. This increase is consistent with our long-term dividend growth guidance of 5% to 7%, while observing a dividend payout ratio of 60% to 70%. Turning to our 2021 outlook, our first quarter performance was strong. We are on track to achieve our guided range and finished within the long-term growth guidance of 4% to 6% from the 2019 base year. We expect continued impacts from the pandemic on the economy and regional power fixture through the second quarter. We anticipate a similar load competition to the -- composition to the trends that we've experienced over the last 2 quarters. Our commercial customers face risks associated with economic impact of the pandemic in Oregon, but the strength of our residential and industrial energy deliveries has mitigated this decline.

Right now we are still under the cap of our decoupling mechanism. Residential customer usage on a weather adjusted basis is above the established threshold and is expected to be refunded to customers. As I settle in, I can see excellent fundamentals in the business. Low growth is strong and we continue to see opportunities to drive efficiency in our operations, mostly through an investment in technology and developing a smarter, more resilient grid, all of which will result in better outcomes for our customers.

Overall, we are continuing to reaffirm our full year 2021 earnings guidance of $2.55 to $2.70 per diluted share based on the assumptions outlined in our press release and our long-term growth target of 4% to 6% over time. And now operator, we're ready for questions.

(Operator Instructions) We have our first question from the line of Insoo Kim from Goldman Sachs.

First question on just the good performance in the quarter and setting up for the rest of the year. Could you just run through maybe, the -- if all the items lack the tax benefit this quarter, some 24, increased O&M and how much of that you had already anticipated, how much do you think it maybe about the plan. Just more detail there.

Yes, thanks, Insoo. So the tax benefit, the $0.11, I mentioned here on the earnings walk bridge is really $0.09 associated with a local pass through tax that's a onetime adjustment. So of course, that wasn't in the plan as we go forward here. So -- and the rest of it, call it a couple of cents miscellaneous items on the tax side, right. So that is really the tax item, a local pass-through tax that should have been booked earlier and over time very soon.

And if that's the case, does that mean, just based on when you were giving the original 2021 guidance, all else equal, I know $0.09 of it is more onetime but you're trending towards that upper half?

I wouldn't necessarily say that at this point in time. Right. So we're really not altering guidance for the balance of the year, but this particular item wasn't included in the guidance that we offer earlier in February or today for that matter.

Understood and one more for me. I did see in the 10-Q that I think the Futures Trading Commission has an investigation into the August trading incident. I'm just not premier familiar with the process with our agency and what typical range are range of outcomes results from something like this, but I don't know if there's anything you can share in terms of what we could expect over the next coming one.

Really nothing to shed in the way of predictions. These are very early days in the process like that, I would say it's not unexpected in matters such as this of course we're going to fully collaborate with any review that's done by the agencies and I will tell you we're fully disclosed on the matter. So in terms of the trading matter from last year and obviously the Board concluded its special review on the issue.

Our next question is from the line of Julien Smith from Bank of America.

If I can kick this off. Just on the rate case timing super quickly here. You just said you don't necessarily know when or if still, but I presume that the positive results in the first quarter dried, delayed some of the timing here or how are you thinking about this in terms of the latest updates on factors.

Julien, it's Jim. So I would say to you that we're continuing to look at it literally all the time. We are constantly examining our cost structure, how we're managing through it. We're looking at community impacts, COVID is still with us, of course, but we're managing well, I think through the period of time and if we can be sure to manage and provide good customer care and pricing that gives us a little more opportunity to delay the filing.

Excellent. Okay. And then if I can, I think also in the 10-Q there were some discussion around, there's I think it's called the Green future impact program, but that seems like it might have some incremental opportunities, can you talk about that relative to plan here and how you think about that against other generation?

Yes, it's pretty early on. We've just received the order, it's an incremental 200 megawatts if you probably have noticed and there is an opportunity for us to provide more green power, which is in great demand in our region territory, but at this point in time. I couldn't be very specific about how we're going to roll that out. We're still examining our options on that one, but we've got the largest voluntary renewable energy program in the U.S. still this will add to that opportunity, but the details we don't quite have yet.

Julien, it's really important that we're able to serve customers with the clean energy that they want, whether that is small municipal customers, Jim just noted, our voluntary renewable program, which is largely a residential, in small commercial programs, but we also to our largest customers, they are increasingly wanting a 100% green energy, and it's important that we're able to deliver that to them.

Right. But maybe to clarify that, on this program your ownership opportunity or prospective ownership opportunity.

Yes, I mean that's a possibility, but it all depends on what competitive and what's the best thing for customers.

You will have noticed. Julien, you probably noticed the prior announced transaction with 7-17 C&I customers earlier a number of months ago. So I would just leave it at such that this could be a buy build opportunity, we're not sure yet.

Got it. Excellent. And then if I can squeeze a sense -- I know that you, in particular, were at some Senate hearings of late and this Wyden tax bill certainly is novel in terms of how it would sort of rewrite the renewable tax code. I'm curious if you have any perspectives to add to that, certainly early days altogether on tax reform and the subject of renewable tax reform is something that we haven't really broached meaningful yet. So any thoughts on that, I know for instance, it includes a nuclear PTC, there is a few other pieces there that certainly are novel to the industry.

Great. Well, thank you, Julien. And yes, what Senator Wyden is trying to do is really rationalize and modernize a lot of the tax incentives that go to our industry and the energy industry in total, and really focus those on clean energies on new technologies. His bill is unique in a couple of ways, first it's technology-neutral. So all technologies as to the extent that they reduce carbon, are on the table. The other is, is it does not pick winners and losers. So there is some fixes for the normalization issues that utilities have faced in the past, creating a much more level playing field and allowing for acceleration of a clean energy future. It includes transmission, it includes transportation sector, and it does not include nuclear at this point in time, although there is a lot of discussion taking place around that, as you know, 20% of the energy generated in the country is nuclear and that's important source of clean energy. As we move forward, if we're going to hit the aggressive 2030 and then 2035 goals, as laid out by the administration.

Our next question is from Anthony Crowdell from Mizuho.

Hopefully, just 2 quick ones. One is, any contribution this quarter from the PCAM mechanism? I apologize if you guys went over that are ready.

So in general, when we look at the PCAM. We look at how it -- whether it's over or under versus our baseline. It is calculated on a full year basis and this year in the quarter, we were about $13 million under the baseline. However, it's just really too early days. As you probably have noted the West is having an overall drought, our hydro conditions remain pretty good in the Pacific Northwest. Right now, so the biggest mover of power prices from a hydro perspective is the Columbia River Basin measured at the Dallas, which is right about 89%-90%, but we are -- I would, I think it's just too early to call for the year.

Okay. Great. And then if I could follow up on one of Insoo's question I think there was an $0.11 benefit to tax this quarter. Jim went over the details, between them and I think $0.09 of the $0.11 was more of a onetime in nature. How does that correspond to also the rising guidance, meaning are you using the tax benefit, maybe as an opportunity to maybe pull forward guidance with some wildfire risk. I know you had the storms but also may be pulling forward and doing some of initial wildfire risk to give you some headroom later in the year or maybe in 2022.

Yes. No, as Jim noted, we've not changed our guidance and we're not picking any side of the ranges of our guidance. Again, it's just too earlier in the year, we did increase our O&M costs as Jim outlined and we had onetime issue literally from the accounting adjustment we had on a -- and it's a relatively small tax fund, just was over time.

Yes, Anthony, I just want to point out that there is really no necessary connection between that tax item recognition and the O&M increase, the money of has to do primarily with the storm in the 8 is to prepare us better for outage and other uses of technology on the grid. So apple and an orange, I would say.

Yes, I would say, overall we are investing in reliability of particularly as we look at significant weather events potentially fires and other, making sure we are best prepared as possible.

Great. And then just lastly, also Insoo addressed it. On the investigation with the SEC and then also in the Q. I think as several lawsuits that have been filed of relating to the trading incident last year. Is just because I'm not familiar with the process, isn't an investigation something you could settle like you meet with the SEC and you settle or that's not how an investigation works?

We are entirely unsure of the direction this will go. As I said, it's very early days. And so I wouldn't want to speculate on the outcome of that, there's just no way to predict the outcome. So I'll just leave it at that.

Our next question is from Brian Russo from Sidoti.

So just a follow-up on the PCAM as you mentioned, you are $13 million below as of March of this year I think the commentary in the Q is that you expect to be below the baseline for the full year of 2021, but is it basically just extrapolating what's recorded as of the first quarter or is it kind of projecting for the remainder of the year based on hydro conditions in pulp prices, et cetera. And then does your guidance assume a zero PCAM balance?

Yes, our guidance has a little bit of a balance as we noted in the Q below the baseline. This time last year we were $20 million below the baseline and you look at the prior year. We were actually above the baseline in 2019 I just, it's just too early days to tell and we're going to very interesting energy markets in the Pacific Northwest.

The market prices are clearly higher than anyone would have expected at this time last year or even a couple of months ago, and I think we just have a good solid balance of the year to work through, and I don't think we'd want to call it until we are clearly past the third quarter time period.

Okay. Understood. So -- and then also just a follow-up, the $0.03 decline or headwind on net variable power cost is basically the delta of the $20 million below in first quarter '20 that you mentioned, versus the $13 million below that you are in this first quarter.

Yes.

Yes, okay.

Exactly. One of the things like I think is really important to point out last year was in 2020 a remarkably good wind year we had good hydro, but we had significantly above average wind conditions. It was, it was a terrific wind here. And then on the RFP you mentioned that you hope to finalize the independent auditor process sometime in 2022 and then start the RFP any idea on timing first half of 2022 or second half of 2022.

Yes, You're -- it's hard to tell exactly, but I would say by the end of the first half will be relatively set to go there so, but the main, the main driver here is to get plants or capacity in service by 2024. So everything will be sort of solved from that end point and go backwards. So whether we're one month or one quarter in 2022 is another issue, but we're really all about getting it in service by 2024.

One thing I would note in our past processes is the independent evaluator discussions and selection criteria has been particularly time consuming, as we work through with parties and everyone involved. So I would expect unless something changes for this to take longer than many states -- many other states probably.

Understood. And then lastly Portland General is clearly a leader in electrification and decarbonization and you've made a number of announcements, including the truck battery charging stations a couple of weeks ago with Daimler. I'm just wondering when might this materialize into, in investment scenario that gets layered into CapEx that you're able to earn a return of and on future investments.

Yes, that's a great question and it's one we're asking ourselves as well. The investment category has come in a couple of different buckets. The first one is just in terms of charging stations and cells and just the ability to charge whether that's in the [right of way], whether that is residential, whether that is industrial commercial, whatever. The next is really the what I call the infrastructure and in particular what we call the make ready. So all the cabling that leads to those charging stations that also includes upgrades to substation so in many instances there is a 2 for us, it enhances reliability and upgrades aging infrastructure to accommodate more charging.

And then I think, third is really energy usage but really flexible energy usage, so that we're able to charge batteries or maybe even in the future vehicle to grid that optimizes more renewable energy, allowing us to not only charge when the sun is shining and the wind is blowing but when prices are at their lowest. So we really see the opportunities here as very synergistic with our regular utility operations and enhancing reliability and the grid performance overall. So we look forward to the day when there is that much more volume as much as anyone does.

The next is from Sophie Karp from KeyBanc.

So couple of questions here, maybe first on how are you thinking about the timing of the GRC in the context of also having to ask for the storm recovery and maybe along those lines if you could comment on what kind of mechanisms you envision maybe you could you do something like securitization for the storm costs or is it just going to be recovered in rates can, how should we think about this?

Thanks, Sophie. It's Jim. So we're playing out the strategy right now. So we don't have it quite done to talk about today. But obviously, we have a number of deferrals, so the wildfire existing the COVID, existing this new deferral that we've applied for on the recent storm is there and then the possibility of a rate case. So will collaborate with our regulators to determine whether or not we bring those altogether or we talk about those deferrals on a separate track. One clarification, we don't have the opportunity to do a securitization. But I believe will talk to the regulators Of course about how we amortize these deferrals over some period of time. It could very well be wrapped up in the rate case as well. So the options are open and they are subject to a conversations with the regulators, which haven't happened yet. I would say.

Got it, thank you for the color here. And then on the RFP process, so I think I heard correctly that you expect to be the benchmark resource into that, is that accurate, and if so can you give us any color on what kind of resource could be and the sizing of that?

Yes. So out of. So it will be about 150 megawatts, it will be a non-emitting resource, may include batteries as well. And so at this point in time, we're focused on picking the independent evaluator. That's just kicked off as Maria just said it could take many months to accomplish that. And so in the meantime, we're evaluating what our options are for the RFP. We will bid the benchmark resource into that campaign.

Got it. Thank you. And lastly from me, maybe on wildfires like you correctly pointed out, the West is still in the State of drought this year and is there anything that you're doing maybe differently this year ahead of the wildfire season given the experiences from 2020 to pre-emptively mitigate some of the potential damages that may incur.

Sure. Thank you. As you know we've been thinking about preparing and learning from our utility peers from California, Arizona, Colorado and actually also those from Australia. In terms of wildfire mitigation. The detection wildfires, and then how we handle them should that occur in our service territory. Right now we're doing a tremendous amount of vegetation management. We're also working and collaborating with our community partners at the very local and overall enhancing our preparedness, it's really around continuous and improvements and we learned a lot from the wildfire season last September and continue all of the work that we have been doing over the last number of years.

Our next question is from Travis Miller from Morningstar.

Just a real quick one on the dividend. Confirming this is the, with the raise that you had this quarter, this is the typical cadence that you expect to get back to going forward, all else equal is that, just want to confirm that?

That's right, Travis. We -- the Board adopted a increased 5.5%, $0.09 a share, $1.63 to $1.72 and that would put us on our cadence our regular cadence.

Okay. Great. And then you got my EV question that I was going to ask, but let me ask a little follow-on to that is, you talk about these different areas understand that the infrastructure and as you characterize it in terms of the 1, 2, 3 infrastructure part would be kind of your thing, what are you, what's your long-term strategy in terms of, for lack of a better word outsourcing the charging the energy management parts, the in-home energy management, all of that stuff. Obviously, we've seen a lot of companies come out with services like that and with plans to grow like that, what's your long-term strategy in terms of owning that energy service part, whether it's the charging stations or the actual usage.

That's a great question. And actually if you go onto our website, you can see a marketplace where you can buy thermostats with ETO, Energy Trust of Oregon credits and participate in a distributed energy programs through Portland General we're building out an integrated operation center, which will enhance our capabilities of managing a bidirectional grid and we remain very focused on serving customers. As an example, we have our distributed energy resource test beds where we're actually interacting with customers on their cell phone, they can opt into energy events and reduce their energy usage through a critical peak times and shave off almost 10% on their bills during those during those months and so it's -- for us, there is a tremendous amount of opportunity we're also partnering with number of technology partners, we don't expect to do at all and many companies have terrific technologies that will enhance the capabilities of reliably manning to the grid as we go forward.

Okay. And then if we think about just in terms of accounting and cash flow would do you think about that as kind of recoverable O&M such that over time we would see O&M go back, go up, but then kind of EV-related charges would flow through regulatory rates?

We would expect that the work that we're doing is all within the utility, it's to enhance customers' experience, particularly as customers' expectations change quite dramatically, and all of those actions really contribute to a more reliable grid. We have used our distributed energy system, our standby generation system, which is quite significant, several times during critical peak times to shave off those peaks creating less stress on the overall reliability of the system and enhancing our resource adequacy. So we expect to only continue. We see all of these things as synergistic and most importantly, as we add more renewable variable resources, they're not just synergistic, they're essential to maintaining reliability of the system and serving customers with the clean and affordable energy they want.

I'm showing no further questions at this time, I would now like to turn the conference back to Ms. Maria Pope.

Thank you very much. We appreciate your questions and interest and joining us for today's call. We invite you to follow up as well as to join us after the second quarter in July. Thank you very much.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference. Thank you for your participation and have a wonderful day. You may all disconnect. Have a great day.