NextEra Energy, Inc. 2026 Q3 Earnings Call

Please go ahead. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our third quarter 2026 financial results conference call for NextEra Energy.

With me this morning are John Ketchum, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of NextEra Energy; Mike Dunne, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of NextEra Energy; Armando Pimentel, Vice Chairman of NextEra Energy; Scott Bores, President and Chief Executive Officer of Florida Power & Light Company; Brian Bolster, President and Chief Executive Officer of NextEra Energy Resources; and Mark Hickson, Executive Vice President of NextEra Energy. John will start with opening remarks, and then Mike will provide an overview of our results. Our executive team will then be available to answer your questions. We will be making forward-looking statements during this call based on current expectations and assumptions, which are subject to risks and uncertainties.

Actual results could differ materially from our forward-looking statements if any of our key assumptions are incorrect or because of other factors discussed in today's earnings news release, in the comments made during this conference call, in the Risk Factors section of the accompanying presentation, or in our latest reports and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, each of which can be found on our website, www.nexteraenergy.com. We do not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statements. Today's presentation also includes references to non-GAAP financial measures. You should refer to the information contained in the slides accompanying today's presentation for definitional information and reconciliations of historical non-GAAP measures to the closest GAAP financial measure. With that, I will turn the call over to John.

Thanks, Michael, and good morning, everyone. NextEra Energy delivered strong third-quarter results with adjusted earnings per share increasing 9.7% year over year. Through the first nine months of the year, our adjusted earnings per share has increased 9.5% year over year. The continued strong financial and operational performance at both FPL and Energy Resources positions our company well to meet its overall objectives for the year. Before I turn to the progress we have made executing against our broader strategy, I want to spend a moment on Hurricane Isaias. FPL continues to stand shoulder to shoulder with our communities throughout Northwest Florida devastated by this high-end Category 2 storm. While we have restored power to all customers able to safely accept service, it will undoubtedly take months for life to truly recover from the destructive wind, torrential rain, and toppled trees that ravaged many homes and businesses.

In preparation for the storm, FPL assembled a restoration workforce of approximately 17,000 men and women from 29 states, pre-positioning crews, equipment, and supplies ahead of the storm so that restoration could begin as soon as conditions were safe. I want to recognize our employees and the thousands of contractors, mutual assistance crews, first responders, and community partners who worked around the clock for our customers. Their preparation, dedication, commitment, and selflessness allowed us to restore power safely and quickly. The hurricane exited our service area early Saturday morning, and by Tuesday, we restored power to more than 97% of customers affected. Early forensic analysis shows investing in a stronger, smarter, and more storm-resilient grid benefited our customers. Not a single hardened transmission or distribution pole failed during Isaias. Underground neighborhood power lines performed approximately 14 times better than overhead lines, and smart grid technology avoided approximately 140,000 outages.

To be clear, these investments do not make the grid hurricane-proof, but together with our preparation and coordinated response, they have reduced both the number and duration of outages and enable us to get our customers' lives back to normal faster. It is our people who make the biggest difference, and I again want to say thank you to our teams and the thousands of mutual assistance crews who worked tirelessly to support our communities when they needed us most. A year ago, we laid out a clear plan for NextEra Energy with more than 12 ways to deliver value for our customers across our regulated and long-term contracted businesses. The backdrop then is the same as it is today. America needs more electrons on the grid. Affordability, reliability, scale, and speed to market are more important than ever. Here is what is materially different between then and now.

Today, we are not just talking about a plan. We have executed and continue to execute against that plan. In many areas, we have exceeded our own expectations. In a complex environment where power demand continues to accelerate, customers cannot afford to wait. They need a partner who can deliver now and do it affordably. That is exactly what we continue to do all across America. It is why we believe NextEra Energy remains one of the best-positioned companies in the sector. No company does more to build generation and energy infrastructure necessary to keep pace with the demand for power across this country. We have the scale, the balance sheet, the supply chain, the technology, the customer relationships, and the development and operating expertise to build what our customers need, when and where they need it.

We are executing across the full set of growth opportunities we laid out 12 months ago by staying focused on affordability, reliability, and delivering every day for our customers. I could not be prouder of the team's execution this year, and I could not be more excited about what we have left to accomplish in 2026 and beyond. At FPL, we continue to support Florida's strong and growing economy. Florida remains one of the fastest-growing states in the nation, supported by continued net in-migration, job creation, and business investment. Florida's $1.9 trillion annual economy is the 14th largest in the world. Florida's growth continues to drive the need for new energy infrastructure across the state. We are making smart capital investments to meet those customer needs. We also continue to demonstrate that serving growth can be done affordably and reliably.

FPL's typical residential bill is approximately 37% below the national average and is only projected to increase 2% annually on average through the end of the decade. We drive consistently low bills through exceptional operating efficiency. FPL's non-fuel O&M is more than 70% lower than the industry average on a dollar per megawatt hour basis. Customers also continue to benefit from top decile reliability that's more than 60% better than the national average. This performance is a direct result of a proven long-term strategy centered on sustained, disciplined capital investment scale, a strong balance sheet and credit rating, a highly efficient operating model, and a diverse generation fleet. FPL's customer service is also ranked top decile nationally for residential customer satisfaction while maintaining the lowest billing cost per customer. We've worked hard to extend this customer value proposition in Northwest Florida over the last eight years.

In addition to reliability investments, we've focused on customer affordability. When adjusting for inflation, FPL's typical residential bill in that part of the state is now approximately 25% lower than it was in 2018 before we acquired Gulf Power. We have also put into place a large load framework that allows us to serve new demand while ensuring existing customers are protected from the incremental costs required to serve that growth. FPL's large load tariff is not only one of the most customer protective in America, its protections and provisions have also been largely codified into Florida law. Needless to say, hyperscalers know exactly how we plan to serve them in Florida. As we discussed throughout the year, the interest is high.

It's why we raised our large load expectations from 6 gigawatts to 8 gigawatts by 2032, and we remain confident in our ability to announce a large load transaction by the end of the year. At Energy Resources, we have turned an extraordinary opportunity set into real execution across the board in both our regulated and long-term contracted businesses. Our regulated and invested capital, along with our secured capital expenditures across electric and gas transmission, have increased roughly 25% to approximately $12.7 billion since December 2025. In the first quarter, Lone Star Transmission received ERCOT approval to build portions of two new transmission lines in North Central Texas to improve reliability in the region. In the second quarter, MISO selected NextEra Energy Transmission to build two large-scale 765 kV transmission projects in Illinois to help deliver safe, reliable, and cost-competitive energy for decades.

In addition, our gas transmission business formed a joint venture during the quarter with Chesapeake Utilities Corporation to build a $1.2 billion 97-mile intrastate gas pipeline in South Florida. We continue to add renewables and storage to our backlog at a pace that underscores the strength of our customer demand and the value of our speed-to-power development platform. For the quarter, Energy Resources added 3.7 gigawatts of renewables and storage projects to its backlog. This includes another strong quarter of battery storage origination at 2.4 gigawatts. Importantly, we have multiple growth avenues for battery storage. We build standalone battery storage, co-locate storage at existing sites, develop storage as a grid solution, and expand batteries from four hours to eight hours at existing projects. In a market driven by a significant need for quick capacity solutions, Energy Resources remains well positioned to serve customers with battery storage. Here's what's important. With these new additions to our backlog and projects that reach commercial operation, we have now achieved greater than two-thirds of the midpoint of our 2026 through 2029 development expectations, and we added approximately 15 gigawatts to the backlog in the last 12 months.

We also continue to make significant progress across our large load opportunity set. To date, we have advanced more than 20 gigawatts of large load projects, over 18 gigawatts of which are gas-fired generation. We expect these opportunities to derive value in two different ways. The first is our federal hubs, where Energy Resources expects to develop, build, and operate projects for fees without investing capital. The second includes projects that we expect to develop, own, and operate ourselves.