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Text: Before we get started, I'll draw your attention to Slide 2 and a brief cautionary statement.
We appreciate you joining us for our first-quarter earnings call.
Moving to the agenda for today's call on Slide 3.
I'll share a few operational highlights as well as an update on the two strategic transactions we announced in March.
Joe will provide a more detailed overview of first-quarter financial results.
Turning to Slide 4.
Today, we announced the first-quarter reported net loss of $2.39 per share.
This reflects special item net losses of $2.67 per share, primarily related to reporting WPD's discontinued operations this quarter.
Adjusting for special items, first-quarter earnings from ongoing operations were $0.28 per share, compared with $0.27 per share a year ago.
These results were in line with our expectations for the quarter.
Compared to last year, improved margins were the most significant driver of the increase, primarily due to more favorable weather compared to the mild winter we experienced in 2020.
Shifting to a few operational highlights.
Now over a year into the pandemic, I'm pleased to report that operationally, all seven of our utilities continue to perform extremely well with no operational issues to report.
We continue to operate in a very similar manner to last year with many of our team members continuing to work from home.
We continue to stress the importance of social distancing and mask wearing within our facilities and at our work site.
With vaccinations in full swing, we are beginning to turn our attention to return-to-office planning and protocols.
However, we are not expecting to deviate from our current mode of operations for at least a few more months and perhaps until the end of summer for some of our locations.
We've been able to operate extremely well during this virtual working environment, as evidenced not only by our strong operational performance, but also our ability to execute two significant strategic transactions simultaneously in a fully virtual manner.
Our number one priority has been and will continue to be the safety of our employees and our customers, so we will be very diligent in our return-to-office planning.
Moving to an update on the Kentucky rate case proceedings.
We reached unanimous settlement agreements subject to Kentucky Public Service Commission approval with all parties in our rate reviews for both LG&E and KU.
The agreements cover all matters in the review except for net metering.
We have a long track record of working constructively with the parties to our rate reviews to achieve positive outcomes that balance the interest of all our stakeholders, and this time was no exception.
The settlement agreements were filed with the KPSC on April 19, and hearings were held last week.
We expect KPSC orders on all settled matters by June 30 with new rates effective July 1.
I'll review the terms of the settlement agreements in a bit more detail on the next slide.
Moving to Pennsylvania, PPL Electric Utilities recently received the 2021 Energy Star Partner of the Year award from the EPA and Department of Energy.
This award recognizes outstanding corporate energy management programs and is the EPA's highest level of recognition.
It reflects PPL's commitment to protecting the environment and helping customers save energy and money.
In April, we also made a number of leadership changes to help further position the company for long-term success, especially as we plan for the integration of Narragansett Electric into the PPL family of regulated utilities.
Greg Dudkin was promoted to chief operating officer of PPL from his prior role as president of PPL Electric Utilities.
Under Greg's leadership over the past decade, PPL Electric Utilities has been focused squarely on creating the utility of the future.
The business has developed one of the nation's most advanced electricity networks, has consistently delivered award-winning customer satisfaction, and has firmly established itself as an industry leader in reliability.
This advanced grid that we've built at PPL Electric Utilities uniquely positions us to partner with the state of Rhode Island in support of their ambitious decarbonization goals of net zero by 2050, and potentially driving toward 100% renewable energy by 2030.
We continue to be very excited about the opportunity to bring our experience and expertise to an already very strong utility in Narragansett Electric.
Greg will also focus on driving continuous improvement and best practices across our already strong regulated utility operations.
Stephanie Raymond is succeeding Greg as the President of PPL Electric Utilities.
Stephanie has been a key member of PPL Electric Utilities leadership team for nearly a decade and has led both the transmission and distribution functions.
Our Pennsylvania customers are in very good hands with Stephanie now at the helm of PPL Electric Utilities.
We also hired Wendy Stark as our new senior vice president and general counsel.
Wendy replaces Joanne Raphael, who announced her retirement from the company effective June 1 after an impressive and distinguished 35-year career with our company.
Wendy joins PPL from Pepco Holdings, where she served as senior vice president, legal and regulatory strategy, and general counsel.
Wendy is an excellent addition to our team, and she's already making her presence known as we prepare for the regulatory approval process for the Narragansett acquisition.
She brings to PPL significant experience in leading legal teams and extensive background in regulatory matters and a deep knowledge of our industry.
I'm very excited about the strong leadership team that we've assembled here at PPL.
I believe it's the right team at the right time as we strategically reposition PPL for long-term growth and success.
Finally, I'll note that we continue to make good progress on the regulatory approval processes related to both the WPD sale and the Narragansett acquisition.
In the U.K., we remain on track to close the WPD sale by the end of July.
On April 22, National Grid shareowners voted overwhelmingly to approve the transaction.
And on May 4, we received the Guernsey approval, leaving just the Financial Conduct Authority approval outstanding in the U.K. While we have no assurance as to the timing of this final approval, the WPD sale could close as early as this month.
In the U.S., we've made all the required regulatory filings to secure approval for the Narragansett Electric acquisition.
We've requested the Rhode Island Division of Public Utilities and Carriers to decide on our petition by November 1, 2021.
While we cannot be assured the division will decide on our petition in that time frame, we remain confident in our ability to close on the acquisition by March of next year.
The transition teams for both PPL and National Grid have been formed and have actively begun planning to ensure a seamless transition for both employees and Rhode Island customers upon the approval and closing of the transaction.
The PPL transition team is being led by Greg Dudkin, with strong executive presence and experienced leaders on the team, who will oversee the eventual integration of Narragansett Electric into PPL.
I'll also note that we've had very constructive discussions with public officials in Rhode Island since our announcement.
These interactions have only strengthened my belief that PPL is well-positioned to drive real value for Rhode Island customers in their communities and to play a key role in helping the state achieve its ambitious decarbonization goals.
Turning to Slide 5 in a bit more detail on the settlement agreements in Kentucky.
We believe the agreements, which again require approval of the KPSC, represent constructive outcomes for all stakeholders and that they minimize the near-term rate impact on customers while still providing LG&E and KU the opportunity to recover their costs while providing safe and reliable service.
The settlements proposed a combined revenue increase of $217 million for LG&E and KU with an allowed base ROE of 9.55%.
These revenue increases enable LG&E and KU to continue modernizing the grid, strengthening grid resilience, and upgrading LG&E's natural gas system to enhance safety and reliability.
They include LG&E and KU'S proposed $53 million economic release store credit to help mitigate the impact of the rate adjustments until mid-2022.
The stipulation reflects the continuation of the currently approved depreciation rates for Mill Creek Units one and two and Brown Unit three for rate-making purposes, rather than using the depreciation rates proposed in our original applications.
We had initially requested the depreciation rates for these units to be updated with their expected retirement over the next decade as they reach the end of their economic useful lives.
This adjustment reduces the requested revenue increases by approximately $70 million.
In a related provision, the settlement agreements also proposed the establishment of a retired asset recovery rider to provide recovery of and on the remaining net book values of retired generation assets as well as associated inventory and decommissioning costs.
The rider would provide recovery over a 10-year period upon retirement as well as a return on those investments at the utilities than weighted average cost of capital.
As we announced in January, Mill Creek Unit 1 is expected to retire in 2024.
And Mill Creek Unit two and E.W. Brown Unit three are expected to be retired in 2028 as they reach the end of their economic useful lives.
These units represent a combined 1,000 megawatts of coal-fired generating capacity.
The settlements also proposed full deployment of advanced metering infrastructure.
I'll note that the capital cost of the proposed AMI investment is not included in the revenue requirements in these rate cases.
We'll record our investment in the AMI project as CWIP and accrue AFUDC during the AMI implementation period.
And finally, the settlement agreements include commitments that LG&E and KU will not increase base rates for at least four years, subject to certain exceptions.
I'll cover our first-quarter segment results on Slide 6.
regulated segment from our quarterly earnings walk.
First, we have adjusted the 2020 corporate and other amount to reflect certain costs previously reflected in the U.K. regulated segment, which was primarily interest expense.
The total amount of these costs was about $0.01 per share for the quarter.
In addition, beginning with our 2021 results, corporate-level financing costs will no longer be allocated for segment reporting purposes.
Those costs were primarily related to the acquisition financing of the Kentucky regulated segment and will also be reflected in corporate and other moving forward.
Now turning to the domestic segment drivers.
Our Pennsylvania regulated segment results were flat compared to a year ago.
During the first quarter, we experienced higher distribution, adjusted gross margins resulting primarily from higher sales volumes due to favorable weather compared to the prior year, a year in which we experienced a mild winter.
Weather in Pennsylvania was essentially flat to our forecast for Q1 2021, with quarterly heating degree days slightly below normal conditions.
Adjusted gross margins related to transmission were slightly lower for the first quarter.
Returns on additional capital investments were offset by lower peak transmission demand and a reserve recorded as a result of a challenge to the transmission formula rate return on equity.
Settlement negotiations related to the challenge are currently proceeding, but there can be no assurance that they will result in a final settlement.
Finally, we experienced lower O&M expense of about $0.01 per share in Pennsylvania during the first quarter compared to 2020.
Turning to our Kentucky regulated segment.
Results were $0.02 per share higher than our comparable results in Q1 2020.
The increase was primarily driven by higher sales volumes, primarily due to favorable weather.
And similar to Pennsylvania, weather was flat compared to our forecast.
Partially offsetting the increase from higher sales was higher operation and maintenance expense, primarily at our generation plants.
Results at corporate and other were $0.01 lower compared to a year ago, driven primarily by higher interest expense from the additional debt we issued at the start of the pandemic to ensure we had adequate liquidity to navigate the uncertainty.
We expect our interest expense to be reduced significantly after we complete the liability management following the closing of the WPD sale.
In summary, we continue to deliver electricity and natural gas safely and reliably for our customers during the pandemic.
We're on pace to close our strategic transactions within the expected time frames while making good progress on the integration and transition planning for Narragansett Electric.
And we remain very excited about the opportunity we have in front of us to reposition PPL for future growth and success.
With that, operator, let's open the call for Q&A.

user
compname reports qtrly loss per share $2.39.
qtrly loss per share $2.39.
adjusting for special items, q1 2021 earnings from ongoing operations (non-gaap) were $0.28 per share.
continues to advance strategic repositioning of company; transactions remain on track to close.

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