Conference Transcript - POR 2026-05-01

Operator

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to today's conference call with Portland General Electric. Today is Friday, May 1st, 2026. This call has been recorded, and all lines have been placed on mute to prevent background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer period. If you would like to ask a question during this period, press star, then the number's 1-1 on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. If you do intend to ask the question, please avoid the use of speaker phones. For opening remarks, I will turn the conference over to Portland General Electric Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Ern Swartz. You may begin.

Ern Swartz, Head of Investor Relations

Thank you, Tawanda. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that we issued a press release this morning and have prepared a presentation to supplement our discussion, which we will be referencing throughout the call. The press release and slides are available on our website at investors.portlandgeneral.com. Referring to slide two, 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 press release and our most recent periodic reports on Forms 10-K and 10Q, which are available on our website. Turning to slide three, leading our discussion today are Maria Pope, President and CEO, and Joe Terpik, Senior Vice President of Finance and CFO. Following their prepared remarks, we will open the line for your questions. Now, I will turn things over to Maria. Good morning. Thank you, Aaron. Thank you all for joining us today. The first quarter delivered another stretch of warm winter weather, 10% year-over-year industrial customer demand growth, and continued maturity of our cost management initiatives. Beginning with slide four, I'll speak to our financial results and key drivers. For the first quarter, we reported GAAP net income of $45 million or $0.38 per diluted share and non-GAAP net income of $68 million or $0.58 per share. Our non-GAAP results exclude the previously disclosed deferral adjustments related to the January 2024 storm restoration and reliability contingency event, and business transformation, optimization, and acquisition expenses. Our results reflect extremely mild weather, particularly in February and March, and lower seasonal usage from residential and small commercial customers, which Joe will cover in more detail. We will be engaging with our regulator to explore frameworks to help mitigate weather and other volatility impacting both revenue and power costs. Greater predictability is good for both customers and shareholders, and we recognize that this will be multi-year work. Despite weather and usage impacts, our team delivered a quarter of strong operational execution, including overcoming inflationary pressure and advancing our cost management program, adopting to power market conditions, positioning our portfolio and generation suite to deliver optimal value, and executing on our robust capital investment plan to support customer growth, clean energy, and long-term reliability. On recent calls, you have heard us highlight the company-wide work to optimize our cost structure. We are using our operational strength, which we've built over multiple years, to mitigate the impact of recent weather challenges by accelerating our cost management work. Our teams are squarely undertaking the challenge, and we are committed to delivering strong results. As such, we are reiterating our full-year earnings guidance of $3.33 to $3.53 per diluted share, and our long-term earnings and dividend growth guidance of 5% to 7%. Turning to slide 5 for updates on our five key strategic priorities. First, our teams made progress on the Washington acquisition and other key regulatory filings. In late March and early April, we filed applications with the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission and the Oregon Public Utility Commission for approval of the Washington transaction. We anticipate the regulatory approval process to take about a year and continue to target a mid-2027 close. PGE's holding company proposal continues to advance. The docket's procedural schedule has been modestly extended. To prioritize timely resolution of the holding company, we have paused the transmission company. That said, formation of a transmission company remains part of our long-term strategy. We appreciate the

Operator

ongoing collaboration and expect to engage with parties in the near future having just received reply testimony late yesterday. Many issues have been

Ern Swartz, Head of Investor Relations

resolved with a few key items remaining. The process is on course with a target final order date probably in August. Second, building upon our 2025 O&M cost management work, we continued driving efficiencies and improving productivity. We are accelerating this work even the very warm winter weather and first quarter results. Importantly, our large load tariff proposal, UM 2377, is in the final stages of review with the OPUC, and we expect an order in the next several weeks. A transparent, predictable tariff for new and existing data centers strengthens protections for existing customers while supporting economic development in our region. Our proposed rate structure under consideration, enabled by Oregon's recent legislation, includes a 26% increase in data center prices, which will help reduce the costs borne by residential and small business customers. Third, as I noted, industrial demand growth is accelerating in our service area. We foresee robust energy usage from data centers and high-tech customers, with large customer capacity growing by about 10% compounded annually through 2030. This growth forecast is driven by existing customers and contracts already executed with new customers, companies that own property and have civil work underway. Compared to Q1 last year, our data center customer load growth grew by 10 percent. Fourth, progress towards additional clean energy resource procurement. We filed our 2025 RFP final shortlist with the OPUC in February as we aim to procure approximately 2,500 megawatts. The shortlist is composed of a diverse mix of projects and and technologies to support our existing portfolio and growing customer demand. We look forward to working collaboratively with stakeholders to achieve commission acknowledgement in the coming months. And fifth, our year-round risk-based wildfire mitigation work remains on track as we prepare for the summer months. In parallel, regulators and policy makers are engaged in this critical topic. The OPUC, in coordination with the Oregon Department of Energy, has hired experts on wildfire liability policy options that balance customer needs for essential services, support for wildfire victims, and financial health of utilities. We expect the study's findings will help inform policymakers in advance of the 2027 legislative session. In December, we filed our 2026 through 2028 wildfire mitigation plan, which represents a significant evolution, moving from an annual update to a forward-looking three-year strategic framework. As we progress through 2026, Our focus continues to be on executing on our core priorities, solid operational performance, meeting growing energy demands, expanding into Washington State, and advancing customer-driven clean energy investments. With the first quarter behind us, opportunities are significant. We are focused on achieving solid financial results and delivering value for customers, communities, and shareholders.

Maria Pope, CEO

With that, I'll turn it over to Joe. Thank you, Maria, and good morning, everyone. Turning to slide six, our Q1 results reflect strong energy demand from our industrial customers and ongoing system investments. Total Q1 2026 loads were flat as compared to Q1 2025 and changes in demand between our customer classes were largely offsetting. Industrial demand increased 10 percent on a nominal and weather adjusted basis. The industrial customer class is expected to continue growing at a strong pace, highlighting the strength of our large customer pipeline and the attractiveness of our service area to data centers and high-tech customers. Commercial load decreased 2.9% or 2.3% weather-adjusted, and residential load decreased 6.2% or 4.6% weather-adjusted. TGE has seen seasonal shifts in residential and small commercial average uses in recent years with rooftop solar adoption and energy efficiency growth. While not considered in our 2026 plan, deviations of this magnitude are not unprecedented, and we are adapting to manage through this. Historically, demand has been winter peaking, but our region has been transitioning to a dual peaking profile with customers increasing their cooling demand as air conditioning becomes more widespread in our region. After considering the recent trends in customer usage, we now anticipate weather-adjusted load growth of 1.5% to 2.5% this year. In the last 12 months, our organization has evolved tremendously in the ability to adapt through cost management. We have a well-defined plan in place for the balance of the year to solve for the load impacts experienced this quarter, which I will discuss shortly. Now I will cover our quarter-over-quarter earnings drivers. We experienced a $0.07 increase in retail revenues, including a $0.09 increase from additional cost recovery, largely from the inclusion of our Seaside battery asset in customer rates beginning in November 2025, a $0.09 increase driven by higher industrial demand, offset by $0.11 due to lower residential demand, A decrease from power cost of $0.15, driven by $0.09 from power cost performance in 2025 that reverses for this comparison, and $0.06 from current year power cost performance driven by less favorable wholesale and environmental credit market conditions. A $0.16 decrease from other capital and financing costs in support of our ongoing rate-based investments made up of $0.10 of higher depreciation and amortization, $0.05 of dilution, and $0.01 of additional interest costs. A $0.09 decrease from other items, primarily the timing of tax credits and O&M costs. $0.10 from deferral reductions related to the January 2024 Storm and Reliability Contingency event, reflecting the outcome of the final OPUC order received in March. A $0.10 decrease from business transformation, optimization expenses, and acquisition costs. This brings us to our GAAP EPS of $0.38 per diluted share. After adjusting for the 2024 regulatory disallowance and our business transformation expense, we reach our Q1-2026 non-GAAP EPS of $0.58 per diluted share. On to slide 7 for our five-year capital forecast, which includes 2026 and 2027 spend for the incoming 2023 RFP projects. I will note this view does not contemplate CapEx from the ongoing 2025 RFP for the Washington utility business. Given our ongoing investment in critical systems and assets serving our customers and other policy priorities. We remain engaged with stakeholders as we consider our next regulatory steps. We will keep you informed as this progresses in line with our usual practice. On to slide eight for liquidity and financing summary. Total liquidity at the end of the quarter was $954 million. Our investment grade credit ratings remain unchanged. We will continue to maintain strong cash flow metrics with an estimated 2026 CFO to debt metric above 19%. In the first quarter, we executed a $550 million equity forward to address our 2026 base equity needs and fund the 2023 RFP project. This quarter, we also entered into two unsecured credit agreements. A $350 million term loan facility maturing in March 2028 to fund capital expenditures, including those related to our 2023 RFP and general corporate needs, and a $680 million delayed draw term loan intended to finance the Washington acquisition-related costs. The loan is available until specific milestones tied to the acquisition are achieved and matures 364 days after funding. Lastly, in April, the Board of Directors declared a quarterly common stock dividend of $0.55.125 5 cents per share representing an increase of 5% on an annualized basis. We remain committed to paying a competitive dividend in line with our 60% to 70% payout target while balancing overall financing needs. Our plan focuses on maintaining strong operating cash flows while supporting continued investment in customer-focused capital projects, all while advancing us towards our authorized capital structure as maria and i have mentioned our teams remain focused on advancing key priorities for the balance of the year most notable is our on 2026 earnings to date relative to our plan q1 was 25 cents below our expectations while nine cents is driven by timing we will address the remainder through refining our capital and maintenance work streams optimizing our team equipment and facilities management and positioning our power portfolio and generation fleet to deliver optimal value we are confident that these cost savings measures are achievable especially when considering the 25 million we saved last year our existing momentum built into our 2026 plan and the opportunity to accelerate what was planned for 2027 into this year. As such, we are reaffirming our long-term earnings and dividend growth guidance of 5 to 7 percent and our full-year adjusted earnings guidance of $3.33 to $3.53 per diluted share. We remain focused on safe, reliable, and efficient operations, advancing our strategic priorities, and achieving our commitments to deliver value to our customers, communities, and shareholders. And now, operator, we are ready for questions. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen,

Operator

as a reminder to ask a question, please press Start 1-1 on your telephone, then wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press Start 1-1 again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Julian DeMoulin-Smith with Jeffries. Your line is open. Good morning, Julian. Hey, good morning, Maria. Thanks,

Joe Terpik, CFO

operator. Thanks, everyone. It's nice to chat. If we can start off here a little bit more on the negotiations and conversations on the Holtco side. I mean, what are the key areas of contention that prevented a settlement? It's difficult, but it seems impossible to elucidate a little bit around that. And particularly now that you've removed the Transco from the filing, how do you think about prospects from here, given how perhaps the two became at times a little overly

Ern Swartz, Head of Investor Relations

intertwined? Sure. First of all, thanks, Julian. And with regards to the holding company, we're really encouraged that parties have been meeting together to align thinking and to further the process. We just received a testimony yesterday, and we've agreed upon some of the general provisions around ring fencing including Commission's oversight, access to books and records, and other things. Obviously we still remain pretty far apart with regards to credit, the use of leverage, and other such things and we look forward to engaging with stakeholders as well as Commission staff. This is all part of the process and as you can see there are a lot of different concepts and history brought up in the filing that was just published yesterday.

Joe Terpik, CFO

Yep, absolutely. And then if I can follow up real quickly here, just around the year itself, and I know you guys were just talking here, but, you know, obviously there's been some gyrations here, especially with the start of the year. Can you talk about the levers a little bit more? Joe's question here in the context of the remainder of the year and the offsets, if you will, against the full year number here. Again, I know the load number was moving at the start of the year here with 1Q, and obviously cognizant ultimately of the 26th being reaffirmed here. But can you speak a little bit to the levers going into that, if you will?

Maria Pope, CEO

Sure. Good morning as well. As we mentioned, our cost management program that we had in place has always been designed as a multi-year plan. We achieved and slightly exceeded our goals last year. So it really gave us a foundation to build off of, to have, you know, levers, tools, items in place to react to situations like this. You know, part of the plan overall was to mature the organization, to give us flexibility when situations like this occur. So, you know, one of the things we're doing is really taking advantage of this. It's a multi-year plan. This plan was, you know, intended to, you know, exceed beyond 2026. So we had already been working and identifying levers, you know, and benefits that were for this year, but also items for next year. So we've had the ability to, you know, just look into what is our toolkit here of items and actions. In addition, you know, we're realigning based on what we're now seeing as the pattern of performance to set the portfolio up to really optimize itself based on this design. So, you know, I look at this as two-pronged. We have the ability of, you know, both being in our control, you know, how we plan and adapt our energy portfolio and then how we, you know, how we plan and adapt to our cost, you know, working throughout the whole management team and organization, right? this process has already been in place we've we've already been working this because the goal of all this has always been transformation so we we feel pretty confident that you know as we we look to our you know our toolkit as as we identified this this gap that we have you know the ability to execute and do things you know well within our control to to react and you know and because this work had already been underway and it's really just you know steering it a little