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Text: The slides that accompany today's call are also available on our website.
We'll refer to those slides by number throughout the call today.
This cautionary note is also included in more detail for your review in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
We also have other company representatives available for a Q&A session after Lisa and Steve provide updates.
Slide four shows our quarterly financial results.
IDACORP's 2021 first quarter earnings per diluted share were $0.89, an increase of $0.15 per share from last year's first quarter.
Today, we also affirmed our full year 2021 IDACORP earnings guidance to be in the range of $4.60 to $4.80 per diluted share, with our expectation that Idaho Power will not need to utilize in 2021 any of the additional tax credits that are available to support earnings in Idaho under its regulatory settlement stipulation.
These are our estimates as of today, and those estimates assume normal weather conditions over the balance of the year and include customer usage returning closer to pre-COVID-19 levels as we progress through the year.
However, as you would expect, it is difficult to predict the full impact of evolving economic conditions on Idaho Power's customers and suppliers and how that could affect the upper end of the earnings guidance range or the use of tax credits.
We have had a great start to 2021.
As our customers and employees move closer to a more normal work environment, we are looking forward to reconnecting with many of you in person over the next year when possible.
Our company has begun to resume some normal work operations in a phased, carefully planned manner, and we are hopeful health trends will continue to allow our working conditions to normalize in the coming months.
For Idaho Power, as noted on Slide 5, the first quarter of this year saw a continuation of the strong customer growth.
In March alone, we saw an annualized customer growth rate of 3.5%.
This accelerated growth rate is challenging as we keep up with service connections, but our employees continue to prove that they are up for the task.
Looking ahead, we expect robust growth to continue as Idaho's quality of life and business-friendly environment remain attractive.
Other factors such as inquiries for large load projects suggests demand for our energy in our service area remains strong.
On Slide 6, you'll see highlighted a few publicly announced large load expansions and projects.
The economy within Idaho Power's overall service area continues to outperform national trends.
Unemployment within Idaho Power's service area is now down to 3.7%, remaining well below the 6% rate reported at the national level, and total employment in our service area declined a modest 0.3% since March of last year.
Moody's has strengthened its predictions for our service area, now projecting robust economic growth going forward even after our service area experienced a modest GDP decline in 2020 relative to the national average.
The Moody's forecast now calls for growth of 8% in 2021, 8.1% in 2022 and continued strong growth of 6.8% in 2023.
We expect that existing and sustained future customer growth will cause the need for Idaho Power to continue to enhance and expand its distribution and transmission system infrastructure, including the Boardman to Hemingway project.
That growth may also result in the need for Idaho Power to procure other new sources of energy and capacity to serve growing loads as well as to maintain system reliability.
We are in the process of analyzing options for the potential energy and capacity resource procurement while, at the same time, working on our 2021 integrated resource plan.
We are seeing early model results in our 2021 IRP planning process showing declining length in our system in the near term.
It's a little too early to tell us -- to tell what that will mean for the timing of early exit of Jim Bridger coal-fired plant unit, the timing of the exit for the second unit at North Valmy, high-voltage transmission line expansion project and for other general system upgrades.
While there are many factors that can impact the ultimate results, there is a possibility that the capital expenditures that we shared in February could grow beyond the estimate to meet the required projected energy and capacity needs.
You'll see some of the items I mentioned highlighted on Slide 7.
We have many exciting challenges ahead as we work hard to ensure there is sufficient energy and capacity supply for our customers while balancing the critical need for reliability, resilience and affordability with our clean energy goals.
Last quarter, we stated Idaho Power does not plan to file a general rate case in Idaho or Oregon in the next 12 months.
That remains true today as we look at the next 12 months.
Customer growth, constructive regulatory outcomes, major project completion dates such as the relicensing of Hells Canyon, the timing of resource acquisitions and effective cost management all play significant roles as we look at the need and timing of a future general rate case.
As part of our overall regulatory strategy, I'll briefly highlight an update that Idaho Power received in its case with the Idaho Public Utilities Commission.
We requested authorization to defer the Idaho portion of O&M expenses, including vegetation management, specified insurance costs and depreciation expense for certain capital investments expected to be necessary to implement its recently enhanced Wildfire Mitigation Plan or WMP.
The comments published earlier this month were generally supportive of our efforts to enhance and protect our infrastructure from some of the devastation that has been prevalent in other Western states in the past few years.
As a reminder, we expect to spend approximately $47 million in incremental O&M and $35 million in incremental capital expenses for wildfire-related infrastructure work over the next five years.
The case is still pending at the IPUC, and we are currently awaiting a commission order.
As you all know, weather is an important factor in wildfire risk as well as in other aspects of Idaho Power's overall operations.
We rely on a healthy snowpack to meet our customers' needs reliably and affordably.
This winter, our mountains accumulated below-average precipitation.
However, we entered the upcoming spring and summer seasons with strong reservoir storage so we expect relatively healthy water conditions for irrigation customers, though it is likely that hydropower generation will be lower than our 30-year average.
You will see on Slide eight that the most recent projections from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration suggest dry and hot conditions from May through July.
Preparations for summer readiness, when our system is most stretched, are under way, and we expect to be able to balance the reliable system and to meet customer demands.
As a reminder, our power cost adjustment mechanisms in Idaho and Oregon significantly reduce earnings volatility related to changes in our resource mix and associated power supply costs that can fluctuate greatly due to weather.
And with that, I will hand things over to Steve for an overview of the first quarter's financial performance.
Let's now move to Slide 9, where you'll see our first quarter 2021 financial results as compared to the same period in 2020.
Overall, we had a strong start to the year with accelerating customer growth and positive impacts from transmission revenues.
Altogether, IDACORP's first quarter 2021 net income was higher by $7.3 million.
On the table of quarter-over-quarter changes, you'll see customer growth added $3.7 million to operating income.
Lower usage per commercial customer down 2%, partly due to COVID-19 impact, was largely offset by higher residential usage due to colder weather this year versus last.
The net result was a relatively modest $1.3 million decrease in overall usage per customer.
The next change on the table shows that transmission wheeling-related revenues increased $4.1 million.
This was partly due to a 20% increase in wheeling volumes as well as a 10% increase in Idaho Power's open access transmission tariff rate last October to reflect higher transmission costs.
Colder winter weather in the Southwest U.S. contributed to the increased wheeling volumes this quarter.
Next on the table, other operating and maintenance expenses decreased by $4.2 million.
This was primarily due to the timing of cloud-seeding activities and cost-saving initiatives at our jointly owned coal plant.
A portion of the savings also related to Idaho Power's exit from the Boardman plant in 2020 as both O&M costs and corresponding revenues were reduced due to the regulatory mechanism in place that's associated with its shutdown.
We continue to see decreases in employee travel and training costs related to COVID-19 while our allowance for bad debt remains above recent levels and will likely take longer to collect.
Our net deferral impact, however, remained nominal.
We will continue to monitor the impacts by state to determine whether we ultimately seek recovery for any net increased cost.
Finally, our higher pre-tax earnings led to an increase in income tax expense of $1.5 million this quarter.
The changes collectively resulted in an increase to Idaho Power's net income of $7.6 million.
IDACORP and Idaho Power continue to maintain strong balance sheets, including investment-grade credit ratings and sound liquidity, which enables us to fund ongoing capital expenditures and distribute dividends to share owners.
IDACORP's operating cash flows along with our liquidity positions as of the end of March are included on Slide 10.
Cash flows from operations were about $50 million higher than last year's first quarter.
The increase was mostly related to working capital fluctuations, the timing of pension contributions and the timing of net collections of regulatory assets and liabilities.
The liquidity available under IDACORP's and Idaho Power's credit facilities is shown on the middle of Slide 10.
At this time, we do not anticipate raising any equity capital in 2021.
While cash flows have been minimally affected by the pandemic thus far, our combined liquidity, along with expected regulatory support from our annual adjustment mechanisms, is a substantial backstop to our expected capital and operating needs.
Slide 11 shows our affirmed full year 2021 earnings guidance and our current year financial and operating metrics estimates.
We continue to expect IDACORP's 2021 earnings to be in the range of $4.60 to $4.80 per diluted share as we assume normal weather and operating conditions for the remaining nine months of the year.
We also assume pandemic impact continue to moderate as the year progresses.
Our guidance still assumes Idaho Power will use no additional tax credits in 2021.
Of course, our guidance could be negatively impacted if the economy or the pandemic worsens significantly or for other reason.
Our expected full year O&M expense guidance remains in the range of the $345 million to $355 million, so we're off to a good start.
It's fair to say that this goal to keep O&M relatively flat for the ninth straight year is being challenged by the level of growth we are expecting.
We also affirm our capital expenditures forecast for this year, which we increased a bit in February to the range of $320 million to $330 million.
Our expectation of hydro generation has softened somewhat given the conditions Lisa presented earlier and is now expected to be in the range of 5.5 million to 7.5 million megawatt hours.

user
sees fy earnings per share $4.60 to $4.80.
q1 earnings per share $0.89.

assistant