RGC Resources Inc (RGCO) 2024 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us as we discuss RGC Resources 2024 Third Quarter Results. I am Tommy Oliver, Senior Vice President, Regulatory and External Affairs for RGC Resources. I am joined this morning by Paul Nester, President and CEO of RGC Resources; and Tim Mulvaney, our VP, Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer.

大家早安，感謝您加入我們討論 RGC 資源 2024 年第三季業績。我是 RGC Resources 監管和對外事務資深副總裁 Tommy Oliver。今天上午，RGC Resources 總裁兼執行長 Paul Nester 也加入了我的行列。以及我們的副總裁、財務長兼財務長 Tim Mulvaney。

Before we begin, I want to review a few administrative items. (Event Instructions) The link to today's presentation is available on the Investor and Financial Information page of our website at www.rgcresources.com. Third, at the conclusion of the presentation and our remarks, we will take questions.

在我們開始之前，我想回顧一下一些管理專案。（活動說明） 今天示範的連結可在我們網站 www.rgcresources.com 的投資者和財務資訊頁面上找到。第三，在演講和發言結束時，我們將回答問題。

So let's turn to slide 1. This presentation contains forecasts and projections. Slide 1 has information about risks and uncertainties, including forward-looking statements that should be understood in the context of our public filings.

讓我們轉到投影片 1。本簡報包含預測和預測。第 1 張投影片包含有關風險和不確定性的信息，包括應在我們的公開文件中理解的前瞻性陳述。

Slide 2 contains our agenda. We will discuss the MVP; review our quarterly, operational, and financial results; provide a regulatory update; discuss the outlook for full year fiscal '24; and provide brief comments on fiscal 2025; with time allotted for questions at the end.

第 2 投影片包含我們的議程。我們將討論 MVP；審查我們的季度、營運和財務業績；提供監管更新；討論 '24 財年全年展望；並對 2025 財年提供簡要評論；最後留出提問時間。

So I'll turn the presentation over to Paul now to talk about the MVP.

所以我現在將演講交給 Paul 來討論 MVP。

Well, thank you, Tommy, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. We hope your day is off to a good start. We thought we would just end the suspend immediately in the earnings call and talk about Mountain Valley at the beginning.

好吧，謝謝你，湯米，大家早安。感謝您加入我們。我們希望您的一天有一個好的開始。我們原以為我們會在財報電話會議上立即結束暫停，並從一開始就討論 Mountain Valley。

Hopefully, you've had the opportunity to see our press release issued on June 14, declaring the MVP in service, and in fact, on that same day, receipt of the initial natural gas delivery into our Roanoke Gas system. It's hard to believe but we're almost two months in operation now as of this day. We're just so excited to have finally reached and achieved this milestone.

希望您有機會看到我們在 6 月 14 日發布的新聞稿，宣布 MVP 投入使用，事實上，在同一天，我們收到了首次輸送到我們的羅阿諾克天然氣系統的天然氣。難以置信，但截至今天我們已經運營了近兩個月了。我們非常高興終於達到並實現了這一里程碑。

Although gas flows started in mid-June, the shipper contracts for the capacity and demand charges did not go into effect on July 1 and that was contemplated in those agreements. Tim's going to give us some additional color on how this transition from construction to pipeline operation will be reflected in our financial statements when he gives us his remarks shortly.

儘管天然氣供應於 6 月中旬開始，但運力和需求費用的托運人合約並未於 7 月 1 日生效，而這是這些協議中所考慮的。蒂姆很快就會向我們發表講話，他將向我們提供一些額外的信息，說明從建設到管道運營的轉變將如何反映在我們的財務報表中。

Moving on to slide 4. This is a picture we've used in some of our other presentations. You may have seen it. But it's what the Mountain Valley Pipeline right of way looks like once it has been restored and the vegetation has had an opportunity to take hold. As you can see, it's quite beautiful. The joint venture is completing the restoration along the entire right of way of the pipeline as we speak.

繼續看投影片 4。這是我們在其他一些演示中使用的圖片。你可能已經看到了。但這就是山谷管道通行權恢復後的樣子，植被有機會紮根。正如你所看到的，它非常漂亮。截至我們發言時，該合資企業正在完成整個管道通行權的修復工作。

One important point once this restoration is finished, the construction project will also be deemed complete. And at that point, RGC Midstream's final ownership level will be set. In other words, our percentage of the operating earnings and the available cash flows from the joint venture will be locked in at that point in time.

重要的是，一旦修復完成，建設項目也將被視為完成。屆時，RGC Midstream 的最終所有權水準將確定。換句話說，我們在合資企業的營業利潤和可用現金流中所佔的百分比將在那時被鎖定。

Moving to slide 5. We've included a picture of our Lafayette interconnect in today's presentation that's one of our two interconnects to the Mountain Valley, the other being the Summit View gate station in Franklin County. Both interconnect stations are complete and in fact, attached MVP and gas is flowing. We've stated this for many, many years, but these stations will enable the additional firm capacity provided by MVP and contracted for by Roanoke gas to enter the Roanoke Gas system and, of course, also provide gas through that Summit View interconnect in Franklin County.

轉到投影片 5。我們在今天的演示中添加了一張拉斐特互連線的圖片，這是我們通往山谷的兩條互連線之一，另一個是富蘭克林縣的 Summit View 門站。兩個互連站都已完成，事實上，附加的 MVP 和氣體正在流動。我們已經聲明這一點很多很多年了，但這些加油站將使MVP 提供的額外固定容量和羅阿諾克天然氣公司承包的額外容量能夠進入羅阿諾克天然氣系統，當然，還可以通過富蘭克林的Summit View 互連繫統提供天然氣縣。

For the first time in Franklin County's history, we are working earnestly to connect our first customer in Franklin County, and we expect that connection to be completed very, very soon. In fact, the picture on the agenda page that Tommy reviewed was from just a few weeks ago where we were installing the natural gas main in the Summit View Park downstream of the Summit View gate station.

在富蘭克林縣歷史上，我們第一次認真工作以連接富蘭克林縣的第一位客戶，我們預計連接將很快完成。事實上，Tommy 查看的議程頁面上的圖片來自幾週前，當時我們正在 Summit View 門站下游的 Summit View 公園安裝天然氣總管。

Finally, we're just going to mention this one last time. We really believe the Mountain Valley. Now that it's operational will spur economic development in this region. We're excited about that. We continue to actively participate with our Roanoke Regional partnership and Virginia economic development partnership and the other localities, their economic development offices to promote and enhance economic development.

最後，我們最後一次要提到這一點。我們真的相信山谷。現在它的運作將刺激該地區的經濟發展。我們對此感到興奮。我們繼續積極參與羅阿諾克地區夥伴關係和維吉尼亞州經濟發展夥伴關係以及其他地方及其經濟發展辦公室，以促進和加強經濟發展。

With that, I'll turn it back to Tommy.

這樣，我會把它轉回給湯米。

Well, thank you, Paul, and we're now on slide 6. Main extensions and renewals for the first nine months of 2024 fiscal year totaled 4.6 miles, and we connected 478 new services. In addition, we renewed 319 services during that same period. This reflects continued growth in our rate base and customer base.

好的，謝謝你，保羅，我們現在看的是投影片 6。2024 財年前 9 個月的主要延期和續約總計 4.6 英里，我們連接了 478 項新服務。此外，我們在同一時期也續簽了 319 項服務。這反映了我們的費率基礎和客戶群的持續成長。

Now on slide 7, where we're showing our delivered gas volumes for the quarter. Volumes, overall, were 6% lower compared to the third quarter of last year, with the decline attributable to the continuation of warmer weather throughout the third quarter of the 2024 fiscal year. This is very evident in the residential and commercial volumes, which are much more weather-sensitive than industrial usage.

現在在投影片 7 上，我們展示了本季的天然氣交付量。總體而言，銷量比去年第三季下降了 6%，下降的原因是 2024 財年第三季天氣持續溫暖。這在住宅和商業建築中表現得非常明顯，它們比工業用途對天氣更敏感。

Slide 8 shows delivered gas volumes for the 2024 fiscal year-to-date. And as shown, total volumes have remained steady compared to last year's comparable period.

幻燈片 8 顯示了 2024 財年迄今的天然氣交付量。如圖所示，與去年同期相比，總銷售量保持穩定。

We're on slide 9 now. Our CapEx spending totaled $16.6 million for the first nine months of fiscal 2024 compared to $19.4 million last year at the same time. This decrease is attributable to the $3.1 million spent in 2023 related to the RNG project. Paul will discuss the full year capital spending projection shortly. I'm now going to turn it over to Tim Mulvaney, our Treasurer, CFO, will discuss our financial results. Tim?

我們現在在幻燈片 9 上。2024 財年前 9 個月，我們的資本支出總額為 1,660 萬美元，去年同期為 1,940 萬美元。這一減少歸因於 2023 年與 RNG 項目相關的 310 萬美元支出。保羅將很快討論全年資本支出預測。我現在將把它交給我們的財務主管、財務長 Tim Mulvaney，他將討論我們的財務表現。提姆？

Thank you, Tommy. Moving on to slide 10. As we noted last quarter, we continue to experience cost pressures compared to a year ago, particularly for personnel and professional costs. Third quarter operating income decreased $240,000 or 13% to $1.6 million compared to the third quarter of 2023 as the higher costs were not offset with new revenues during the quarter. New interim rates went into effect July 1 under the February 2 filed rate case. Tommy will discuss the rate case in more detail in a moment.

謝謝你，湯米。繼續看投影片 10。正如我們上季度指出的那樣，與一年前相比，我們繼續面臨成本壓力，特別是人員和專業成本。與 2023 年第三季相比，第三季營業收入減少 24 萬美元，或 13%，至 160 萬美元，因為較高的成本並未被本季的新收入所抵銷。根據 2 月 2 日提交的利率案件，新的臨時利率於 7 月 1 日生效。湯米稍後將更詳細地討論費率案例。

Equity and earnings of the unconsolidated affiliates or MVP was down $237,000 pretax compared to a year ago as the transition from construction phase that included noncash AFUDC to the operational phase occurred this quarter. With the MVP in operation, going forward, the company will recognize its share of earnings from the MVP favorably adjusted for a basis difference between the company's share of the MVP assets and the carrying value of our investment.

由於本季從包括非現金 AFUDC 的建設階段過渡到營運階段，未合併附屬公司或 MVP 的股本和收益較去年同期下降了 237,000 美元。隨著 MVP 的運營，今後，公司將確認其從 MVP 獲得的收益份額，並根據公司所佔 MVP 資產份額與我們投資的賬面價值之間的基礎差異進行調整。

You may recall that we took sizable write-downs of our investment in 2022. This basis difference will be amortized over the operational life of the MVP for 40 years. Interest expense increased $145,000 compared to the same quarter a year ago due to the higher interest rate environment, which is impacting our floating rate debt that supports our investment in the Mountain Valley pipeline and our Roanoke Gas line of credit.

您可能還記得，我們​​在 2022 年對投資進行了大量減記。此基礎差額將在 MVP 的使用壽命內攤銷 40 年。由於較高的利率環境，利息支出比去年同期增加了 145,000 美元，這影響了我們支持我們對 Mountain Valley 管道和羅阿諾克天然氣信貸額度投資的浮動利率債務。

Our net income was $160,000 in the third quarter of this year compared to $690,000 in the same quarter a year ago. The combination of cost pressures, lower MVP results and higher interest expense led to the decline. EPS was $0.02 per diluted share for the third quarter this year compared to $0.07 per diluted share in the quarter a year ago. The year-to-date numbers are also on slide 10.

今年第三季我們的淨利潤為 16 萬美元，而去年同期為 69 萬美元。成本壓力、較低的 MVP 成績和較高的利息支出共同導致了下滑。今年第三季稀釋後每股收益為 0.02 美元，去年同期稀釋後每股收益為 0.07 美元。今年迄今的數字也顯示在幻燈片 10 上。

The performance for the nine months is more favorable than the third quarter alone. Net income was $11.6 million or $1.15 per diluted share through nine months of fiscal '24 compared to $10.3 million or $1.04 per diluted share in fiscal '23. While the inflationary pressures and higher interest rates were present as they were in the third quarter of fiscal '24, revenues from the prior year rate case were present for all nine months in fiscal 2024 but only for six months in fiscal '23. Additionally, our share of AFUDC earlier in 2024 was stronger.

這九個月的表現比第三季的表現好。24 財年 9 個月的淨利潤為 1,160 萬美元，即稀釋後每股收益 1.15 美元，而 23 財年淨利為 1,030 萬美元，即稀釋後每股收益 1.04 美元。雖然通貨膨脹壓力和較高的利率與24 財年第三季一樣存在，但上年利率情況下的收入在2024 財年的所有九個月中都存在，但僅在23 財年的6 個月中存在。此外，2024 年初我們在 AFUDC 的份額也更大。

I will now turn the presentation back to Tommy to discuss our latest rate case and regulatory developments.

現在，我將把演講轉回湯米，討論我們最新的利率案例和監管發展。

Well, thank you, Tim. As we noted in our earnings call from last quarter, Roanoke gas filled for an increase in base rates on February 2 with the Virginia State Corporation Commission. The company is seeking an annual increase in its base rates of $4.3 million or approximately 5% increase in total revenues. The increase includes projected rate base through June 30, 2025, and an increase in our authorized ROE to 10.35%, which reflects current market conditions. Unlike our prior rate case, we did not roll our SAVE Rider in the base rates, nor did we roll in our RNG rider. The audit of the rate case continues.

嗯，謝謝你，提姆。正如我們在上一季的財報電話會議中指出的那樣，羅阿諾克天然氣公司於 2 月 2 日與維吉尼亞州公司委員會提高了基本費率。該公司尋求將基本費率每年增加 430 萬美元，即總收入增加約 5%。此次上調包括截至 2025 年 6 月 30 日的預期利率基數，以及我們的授權 ROE 上調至 10.35%，這反映了當前的市場狀況。與我們之前的費率情況不同，我們沒有在基本費率中滾動我們的 SAVE 車手，也沒有在我們的 RNG 車手中滾動。對費率案件的審計仍在繼續。

Staff's testimony is due on the case on September 20 and a hearing with the commission is set for November 7. We do not expect final resolution until the second quarter of 2025. With regard to the SAVE and RNG riders on May 30, we filed for an update to the RNG rider; and on June 28, we filed for an update to our RNG rider. Both of these cases are pending before the commission with the resolution expected in September of 2024.

工作人員將於 9 月 20 日就該案提供證詞，委員會定於 11 月 7 日舉行聽證會。我們預計最終決議要到 2025 年第二季才會出台。關於5月30日的SAVE和RNG車手，我們向RNG車手提交了更新； 6 月 28 日，我們向 RNG 車手提交了更新資訊。這兩起案件均正在等待委員會審理，預計 2024 年 9 月做出決議。

I'll now pass the presentation to Paul Nester to discuss our full year 2024 and expectations for 2025.

我現在將把簡報交給 Paul Nester，討論我們 2024 年的全年情況以及對 2025 年的期望。

Yes. Thank you, Tommy, and we're going to start by just reviewing our Roanoke Gas capital investment plan, which is on slide 13. We're holding firm to what we've been communicating on that at $21.7 million for this fiscal year. As discussed a few moments ago, it is lower than last year. We obviously had the onetime step-up in 2023 related to the RNG facility investment.

是的。謝謝你，湯米，我們首先回顧一下幻燈片 13 上的羅阿諾克天然氣資本投資計畫。我們堅持我們一直在傳達的本財年 2,170 萬美元的承諾。正如剛才所討論的，該數字低於去年。顯然，我們在 2023 年對 RNG 設施投資進行了一次性的升級。

We continue to focus on our growth strategies in the regulated utility of customer growth and infrastructure renewal, as you can see, SAVE spending this year is going to get close to $10 million, something we're very happy about, improving the safety and reliability -- or I should say continuing to improve the safety and reliability of our natural gas distribution system.

我們繼續專注於客戶成長和基礎設施更新的受監管效用方面的成長策略，如您所見，今年的 SAVE 支出將接近 1000 萬美元，我們對此感到非常高興，提高了安全性和可靠性——或者我應該說繼續提高我們天然氣分配系統的安全性和可靠性。

Moving to slide 14. And maybe before we talk about the EPS guidance, I just want to summarize Tommy and Tim's comments. Really, the first nine months of the year have been really strong. I'm very happy with the company's performance. I think all of our employees and our departments are firing on all cylinders, doing exactly what we asked, which is to focus on customer service and safety.

轉到投影片 14。也許在我們討論每股盈餘指引之前，我只想總結一下湯米和提姆的評論。確實，今年前九個月的表現非常強勁。我對公司的業績非常滿意。我認為我們所有的員工和部門都在全力以赴，完全按照我們的要求行事，即專注於客戶服務和安全。

Tommy and his team from a regulatory standpoint, as you can tell, have been very busy, working very closely with the commission staff on all of these proceedings. We're just, again, very pleased with where we are through the first nine months. I believe the $1.15 EPS is what Tim reported to us a moment ago. So as you can see, for our full fiscal year, which ends September 30, we kept the upper end of the range at $1.16 per share. We've moved the lower end up $0.02 to $1.12.

如您所知，從監管的角度來看，湯米和他的團隊一直非常忙碌，在所有這些程序中與委員會工作人員密切合作。我們再次對前九個月的表現感到非常滿意。我相信 1.15 美元的每股收益是蒂姆剛才向我們報告的。正如您所看到的，在截至 9 月 30 日的整個財年中，我們將區間上限保持在每股 1.16 美元。我們已將下端價格上調 0.02 美元至 1.12 美元。

We feel very, very comfortable with that right now. We think, again, the outstanding performance of the company and our employees and in fact, our customers too. Our customers economically have been hanging right in there so far this summer. Despite the fourth quarter being a lower revenue period, we're optimistic that this performance trend, it's going to continue for the next approximately 50 to 55 days towards the end of the fiscal year and push us towards the upper end of this EPS forecast.

我們現在對此感到非常非常舒服。我們再次想到公司和我們的員工以及我們的客戶的出色表現。今年夏天到目前為止，我們的客戶在經濟上一直處於困境。儘管第四季是收入較低的時期，但我們對這種業績趨勢感到樂觀，這種趨勢將在本財年結束時持續約 50 至 55 天，並將我們推向每股收益預測的上限。

With that, let's talk for a minute about 2025. Ordinarily, at this call, we would give some guidance for the next fiscal year. We've listed out several of what we're calling drivers or key variables to the next fiscal year. Obviously, the rate case, as Tommy just discussed, is still ongoing and the final outcome of that is pending. In this inflationary environment, as Tim has discussed, we see a lot of that continuing or persevering into fiscal 2025. We're going to do everything we can as a management team and as a company to manage expense and keep that as reasonable as we can.

說到這裡，我們來談談 2025 年。通常，在這次電話會議上，我們會為下一財年提供一些指導。我們列出了下一個財年的幾個驅動因素或關鍵變數。顯然，正如湯米剛剛討論的那樣，利率案件仍在進行中，最終結果尚待確定。正如蒂姆所討論的，在這種通膨環境下，我們看到很多這種情況將持續或持續到 2025 財年。作為管理團隊和公司，我們將盡一切努力管理費用並盡可能保持合理。

We've got a great history of doing that. I think we're practiced in that. So it's not a new experience for us, and that's something again, I'm expecting good results from. Interest rates, we think, are going to hopefully trend favorably in 2025. There's prevailing literature on that, particularly with what the Fed may do over the next three to six months. So we're optimistic that we may see, with our floating rate debt, some favorable interest rate activity.

我們在這方面有著悠久的歷史。我想我們在這方面已經有所練習了。所以這對我們來說並不是什麼新鮮事，而且這又是一樣的事情，我期待著好的結果。我們認為，2025 年利率可望呈有利趨勢。關於這一點的主流文獻，特別是聯準會在未來三到六個月內可能採取的行動。因此，我們樂觀地認為，透過我們的浮動利率債務，我們可能會看到一些有利的利率活動。

Tim talked about the Mountain Valley investment and what that means to RGC Midstream. There is a change there as he discussed from the AFUDC related to the construction and now our operational earnings. Year-over-year, we'll see a decline in the book earnings related to that. But again, the cash flows are going to start in 2025. So we're excited about cash finally coming back to us from that investment. We're still working on our capital spending plans for next fiscal year, but we think it should be very similar to this year in that $20 million to $22 million range.

Tim 談到了 Mountain Valley 的投資以及這對 RGC Midstream 的意義。當他在 AFUDC 討論有關建設和現在我們的營運收益時，情況發生了變化。與去年同期相比，我們將看到與此相關的帳面收益下降。但同樣，現金流將於 2025 年開始。因此，我們對最終從該投資中收回現金感到興奮。我們仍在製定下一財年的資本支出計劃，但我們認為應該與今年非常相似，範圍為 2000 萬美元至 2200 萬美元。

And as always, we're in discussion with our Board about our shareholder dividend, and we're, again, setting expectations for that relative to next year's earnings. We're seeking to maintain a fairly consistent payout ratio relative to those earnings.

像往常一樣，我們正在與董事會討論股東股息，並且我們再次設定相對於明年收益的預期。我們正在尋求相對於這些收益保持相當一致的派息率。

So with that, we're not providing any EPS guidance right now for 2025. Again, we're still working on that vigorously. We hope to be able to share that before the end of the fiscal year.

因此，我們目前不提供任何 2025 年每股盈餘指引。再說一遍，我們仍在積極努力。我們希望能夠在本財年結束之前分享這一點。

So that concludes our prepared remarks. (Event Instructions)

我們準備好的發言就到此結束。（活動須知）

Glad earnings season is winding down. It seems to have been longer one this quarter. Congrats on Mountain Valley getting the flows finally into your service territory. Paul, you'd mentioned you'd get ready to connect your first customer there. Is that in that industrial park in Franklin?

令人高興的財報季節即將結束。本季似乎更長了。恭喜 Mountain Valley 最終讓流量進入您的服務區域。保羅，您提到您已準備好與那裡的第一個客戶建立聯繫。是在富蘭克林的那個工業園區嗎？

It is, Mike. It's approximately 1,500 feet from our gas station within the park, and we're just excited about that, in fact, working closely with the county to bring that to fruition. And we hope to have a little sort of ribbon cutting and ceremony around that when it's ready, but it is within the Summit View Business Park.

是的，麥克。它距離我們公園內的加油站大約 1,500 英尺，我們對此感到非常興奮，事實上，我們正​​在與縣政府密切合作，以實現這一目標。我們希望在準備好後能舉辦一些剪綵和儀式，但它位於 Summit View 商業園區內。

I've asked this before, but now with Mountain Valley open, it's probably a better question today. What's the level of inquiries you're seeing now that gas is flowing? Has that gone up? Does it remain static? Is there a lot in that pipeline that looks now like it's actually going to come to realization?

我以前問過這個問題，但現在山谷開放了，今天這可能是一個更好的問題。現在天然氣正在流通，您看到的詢問程度如何？那漲了嗎？它保持靜態嗎？現在看來，這條管道中是否有很多東西實際上即將實現？

Yes. It continues to be a good question and thank you for asking it again. This region has continued to have steady inquiries, what I would say, Mike, from economic development prospects. I don't know that it's increased now that Mountain Valley's finished, but it certainly has changed the tone and tenor of some of those inquiries.

是的。這仍然是一個好問題，感謝您再次提出這個問題。麥克，我想說的是，該地區的經濟發展前景一直有穩定的詢問。我不知道山谷竣工後它是否有所增加，但它確實改變了其中一些詢問的基調和基調。

In other words, prior to completion, and certainly, if you went back in time when there were still magnificent legal challenges, it was when do you think it will be done and when could we expect it to be done. Now that it is done, it just provides so much certainty to that prospect about what their opportunity is to receive gas, potentially, directly, from Mountain Valley at Summit View or as a blended product in our existing Roanoke Gas System.

換句話說，在完成之前，當然，如果你回到過去，當時仍然存在巨大的法律挑戰，那就是你認為它什麼時候會完成以及我們預計什麼時候可以完成。現在它已經完成，它為潛在客戶提供了很大的確定性，讓他們知道他們有機會直接從 Summit View 的山谷接收天然氣，或作為我們現有的羅阿諾克天然氣系統中的混合產品。

And then just one final one. Looking forward to 2025 and the drivers. The one thing I didn't see on the slide is, and, perhaps, maybe you can add some color to it here, what was the negative weather impact to earnings for '24 through your winter heating season? Because I'm just trying to get a feel for what earnings could be if we have normal weather conditions this year.

然後只有最後一件事。期待 2025 年和車手。我在幻燈片上沒有看到的一件事是，也許您可以在這裡添加一些顏色，24 年整個冬季供暖季天氣對收入的負面影響是什麼？因為我只是想了解一下如果今年天氣條件正常的話收入會是多少。

Yes, that's a great question, too. We're still fortunate here in Virginia to have weather normalization, and weather normalization allows us, Mike, to adjust back to normal weather. So I think our sort of 30,000-foot level answer to that question is we really didn't in our firm load see negative earnings impact. Tommy or Tim, anything you want to add to that relative to the WNA.

是的，這也是一個很好的問題。我們在維吉尼亞州仍然很幸運，天氣已經正常化，麥克，天氣正常化使我們能夠調整回正常天氣。因此，我認為我們在 30,000 英尺高度上對這個問題的回答是，我們確實沒有在公司負載中看到負面的獲利影響。湯米或蒂姆，任何你想添加到 WNA 的內容。

I think you captured it pretty well, Paul. Yes. Again, the industrial customers, and I think it was alluded to in the remarks and in fact, in our 10-Q, they've been steady too, which we're pleased about. Certainly, there's uncertainty in the economy going forward. But so far, they've been steady. So I hope that answered your question.

我認為你捕捉得很好，保羅。是的。再說一次，工業客戶，我認為在我們的 10-Q 中，我們已經提到了這一點，他們也一直保持穩定，我們對此感到很高興。當然，未來經濟存在不確定性。但到目前為止，他們一直很穩定。所以我希望這回答了你的問題。

It does. With most of my gas utilities coverage, even those that have weather normalization riders, there's usually a little bit of upside that they can realize if it's a colder winter. And I'm just asking because I know this was extremely warm this year and just trying to get a feel from a forecasting perspective of where numbers might be if we get a cold one.

確實如此。在我的大部分天然氣公用事業覆蓋範圍內，即使是那些有天氣正常化附加條款的人，如果冬天較冷，他們通常也能意識到一些好處。我之所以這麼問，是因為我知道今年天氣非常溫暖，我只是想從預測的角度來了解一下，如果我們遇到寒冷的天氣，數字可能會是多少。

Yes. Certainly, Tim or Tom, you may remember the exact statistic. This was one of the warmer winter seasons on record. My memory was we were greater than 20% warmer than normal over the winter period. But certainly, we would see increased volume lift in delivery, Mike, if we return to a normal winter. The other side of our WNA mechanism, if it's colder than normal, we're going to return to customers and happy to do that. We think that's the appropriate way, again, when you're adjusting back to pure normal, 30-year normal for that to work.

是的。當然，提姆或湯姆，你可能還記得確切的統計數據。這是有記錄以來最溫暖的冬季之一。我的記憶是，冬季我們的氣溫比平常高出 20% 以上。但麥克，如果我們回到正常的冬季，我們肯定會看到交貨量的增加。我們 WNA 機制的另一面，如果天氣比平常冷，我們將返回客戶並樂意這樣做。我們認為，當你調整回純粹的正常狀態、30 年的正常狀態使其發揮作用時，這是適當的方式。

All right. Thank you, gentlemen.

好的。謝謝你們，先生們。

Thank you so much. Do we have any other questions? (Event Instructions)

太感謝了。我們還有其他問題嗎？（活動須知）

Okay. Well, hearing none, this concludes our fourth quarter earnings call and again, thank you so much for taking time out of your morning to join us, and we really look forward to speaking with you, again, in early December as we review our full year fiscal results. We hope you all have a safe and pleasant day and rest of the week. Thank you.

好的。好吧，沒有聽到任何消息，我們的第四季度財報電話會議到此結束，再次非常感謝您在早上抽出時間加入我們，我們真的很期待在12 月初再次與您交談，因為我們會審查我們的完整報告。我們希望大家度過安全愉快的一天以及本週剩下的時間。謝謝。