IDACORP 2026 Q2 Earnings Call

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. We appreciate you joining our call. The slides we'll reference during today's call are available on IDACORP's website. As noted on slide two, our discussion today includes forward-looking statements, including things like earnings guidance, spending forecasts, financing plans, regulatory plans and actions, and estimates and assumptions that reflect our current views on what the future holds. These are all subject to risks and uncertainties. Those risks and uncertainties may cause actual results to differ materially from statements made today. We caution against placing undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. We've included our cautionary note on forward-looking statements and various risk factors in more detail for your review in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As shown on slide three, also presenting today, we have Lisa Grow, President and CEO, Brian Buckham, EVP, CFO, and Treasurer, and John Wonderlich, Investor Relations Manager.

Slide four has a summary of our second quarter financial results. IDACORP's diluted earnings per share were $1.79, compared with $1.76 for last year's second quarter. I want to highlight we didn't record any additional tax credit amortization under the Idaho regulatory mechanism during the second quarter of this year, compared with recording $17.2 million in the second quarter of last year. For the first half of 2026, diluted earnings per share were $3 versus $2.87 in 2025. Those results only include additional tax credit amortization of $6.3 million in the first half of 2026 versus $36.5 million in the first half of last year, which showcases the strong performance so far for 2026.

Our key operating metrics, we're raising the lower end of our full-year IDACORP diluted earnings per share guidance range by $0.05 to the new range of $6.30 to $6.45. This increase is driven by our strong operational results in the second quarter. It includes our expectation that Idaho Power will use less than $15 million of additional tax credit amortization for the full year, which is a reduction from the less than $30 million in our prior guidance. These estimates also assume historically normal weather conditions for the rest of the year. Now I'll turn the call over to Lisa.

Thank you, Amy. Thanks to everyone for joining us today. I'll start my remarks with a look at customer growth. As you can see on slide five, we've seen a customer count increase of 2.3% since last year's second quarter, with growth across all customer segments. The customer and load growth that we've seen within our service area remains strong, and we're working hard to meet the increased energy demand. As one data point, industrial revenues, which include large contracts, were up a staggering 17% compared with the second quarter of last year. Thanks to years of thoughtful planning and project execution, we started seeing increased revenues from large contract customers in June, with more to come in the second half of 2026.

I've been providing updates on Micron's expansion and Meta's new data center during our earnings calls for years, it's great to see this hard work come to fruition as these projects ramp up. You can see photos of these massive projects on slide six, along with pictures of some of our other large contract customers like Chobani and INL. Looking at slides seven and eight, we're strong advocates that growth has to be sustainable and responsible so that service to our existing customers remains reliable and affordable. We expect that new agreements with large customers will include appropriate take or pay provisions, termination payments, and certain upfront payments, along with strong credit requirements, just as we've done in the most recent Energy Service Agreements.

These elements help ensure that growth pays for growth without shifting costs to other customers, they help de-risk large loads for both our customers and our owners. One of the main draws to Idaho Power service area is affordability, and keeping prices as low as possible remains a priority. Our retail prices are well below the national average, with our average residential price about 30% below national average. I'll also point out that the revenue growth from the large contract customers is a key driver that's helping us stay out of a 2026 general rate case. We'll continue to take this thoughtful approach with our large customer pipeline, which remains strong at multiple gigawatts as businesses across multiple industries look to operate in our region. Moving to slide nine, we're full speed ahead executing on projects to serve our customers and enhance our grids.

We recently brought 250 MW of new company-owned battery storage online as scheduled, marking our fourth straight year adding batteries to our system. Since 2023, we've added over 550 MW of company-owned batteries. We also completed the conversion of Valmy Unit 2 from coal to natural gas last month in time to help us meet peak summer loads. Additionally, a 125-MW third-party owned solar generation project was recently commissioned as part of our Clean Energy Your Way program. These resources support our efforts to add capacity, flexibility, and reliable, affordable energy to serve our growing regions. Turning to slide 10, I'll provide an update on our three major transmission projects. We expect all three to come online in the next several years, bringing with them critical system flexibility as well as access to diverse markets and transmission wheeling revenues.

Starting with Boardman to Hemingway, work is progressing nicely. As of today, about 70% of the 1,300 structure pads have been completed. Over 400 towers are built, and we've started stringing wire. It's a huge undertaking, and we're pleased with the progress. We continue to expect B2H to be in service by late 2027. On the Swift North Transmission Project, we received our CPCN from the Idaho Commission in December, and project construction recently started in Nevada. With such good progress on the project, we expect the line to be completed in 2028. We're also continuing our work with PacifiCorp on the Gateway West Transmission Project. As we mentioned last quarter, we filed a joint request for a CPCN with the IPUC, and we anticipate a portion of the segment described in that filing will come online as soon as 2028.

As seen on slide 11, progress continues toward the construction of three company-owned natural gas-fueled projects that I've mentioned on previous calls. Construction is underway on the first, a 167 MW resource next to our existing Bennett Mountain Power Plant. We've secured a CPCN, an air permit, and an EPC contract has a scheduled in-service date of 2028. We've also filed CPCNs for the 222 MW South Hills Project, which is scheduled for operation in 2029, and the 430 MW Peregrine Project, which is slated for 2030. We continue to work toward procuring the necessary materials and construction services to build these gas plants. These dispatchable projects will help us meet our near-term capacity deficits. Turning to slide 12, we're in the process of evaluating bids from our 2032 RFP. All bids have been submitted, including several of our own.

At this stage of the process, several of our self-bid projects remain competitive, and the review team is beginning to narrow the field of contenders. We expect to have a final shortlist in the third quarter and begin contract negotiations soon thereafter. I'll close my remarks with an update on the proposed sale of our Oregon distribution system. Over the last few months, we filed applications with the Oregon Commission, the Idaho Commission, and FERC, requesting approval of our sale agreement with OTEC. These filings are being processed, and we expect the sale to close in the spring of 2022, pending successful regulatory outcomes. We've been very busy, as you can see. With that, I'll turn the time over to Brian.

Hey, thanks, Lisa. Hi, everybody. Thanks for joining us today. It's exciting to see all the projects going on right now. Recent project execution's been particularly important because it helps serve an 8% quarter-over-quarter increase in industrial loads and it'll do that going forward. That load increase helped drive the 17% increase in industrial revenues that Lisa mentioned. Financial success is linked with operational success, and I think the financial side is just as exciting, with strong results for the quarter and the year to date. Benefits from the January 1st rate change and customer growth were certainly evident during the quarter. I'll also mention that irrigation sales were up for the quarter, which is impressive given that Q2 of last year also had favorable weather conditions for irrigation sales. This year's relatively heavy April rain didn't dampen quarterly irrigation sales because we later experienced the dry May and June.

Aside from the amount, the timing of precipitation can also notably impact irrigation sales volumes. Before I get into the details, I wanted to point out that we added a new line to our quarterly reconciliation table. It shows the financial impact from large contract customers, which I think will be helpful going forward as we see the growing impact of these customer contracts. When I quote changes from rates or customer growth generally, these exclude large contract customers because those will land on their own new line. Getting more into the details, let's go to the recon on slide 13. From that, you can see that the biggest movement was from higher retail revenues from the January rate increase and from customer growth. Combined, those were a $32 million benefit for the quarter, and year to date it was over $52 million.

Per customer usage was essentially flat for the quarter. Residential usage declined due to milder temperatures, higher irrigation usage mostly offset that decline. The fixed cost adjustment mechanism also benefited retail revenues, which resulted from the lower sale to the residential and small commercial customer classes. On our new line, revenues from our large contract customers increased operating income by $6.5 million for the quarter. As expected, we're now seeing with greater prominence the revenue and load ramp-up from some of our large contract customers taking shape, we expect to see more of that benefit in the second half of the year. As we expected, O&M expense was almost $12 million higher in the second quarter. Primary drivers were the amortization of previously deferred costs associated with the Jim Bridger Plant and our Wildfire Mitigation Plan.