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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 4 shows our quarterly and full-year financial results.
IDACORP's 2020 fourth quarter earnings per diluted share were $0.74, a decrease of $0.19 per share over the last year's record fourth quarter.
IDACORP's earnings per diluted share for the full year 2020 were $4.69, an increase of $0.08 per diluted share from 2019.
Today, we also issued our full year 2021 IDACORP earnings guidance estimate 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, of course, are our estimates as of today, and those estimates assume normal weather conditions over the balance of the year and includes 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.
The COVID-19 pandemic created unforeseen difficulties for our customers and our employees.
Economic uncertainty and interruptions to our daily lives became the norm.
Our nearly 2,000 employees were challenged daily as we continued to carry out our mission as an essential service provider.
And yet, through it all, IDACORP and Idaho Power continue to achieve tremendous results.
As noted on Slide 5, 2019 through 2020 were our two safest years in company's history.
I am so grateful for the continued focus of our employees on safety despite all the distractions surrounding their daily routine.
Turning to Slide 6.
We also saw some of our best third-party customer satisfaction rating being the top ranking utility among peers in the segments for overall customer satisfaction and fifth highest in the nation for business customer satisfaction.
And our reliability numbers remained among the best in the industry as we capitalized on 99.96% of the time.
The success we achieved in the continuation of our operations without significant interruption over the past year serve as testament to our great people.
Whether they were adapting to remote or hybrid work, finding innovative ways to serve our customers, meeting company goals or implementing additional measures to keep themselves, our customers and our community safe.
Our dedicated employees rose to the occasion and powered through it together.
In addition to outstanding operating results, I am happy to report that IDACORP marked its 13th consecutive year of growth in earnings per share, as detailed on Slide 7.
We believe this achievement is unparalleled among investor-owned utilities in the U.S. in recent history and it is particularly noteworthy in a year filled with economic headwinds and uncertainties.
We're pleased to continue to share the successes of the company with our owners by increasing IDACORP's quarterly common stock dividend again in 2020 from $0.67 to $0.71 per share, marking our 9th consecutive year with an increase to the dividend.
As noted on Slide 8, Idaho Power's service area continues to experience substantial customer growth.
According to U.S. News & World Report and the United States Census Bureau, Idaho was once again the fastest growing state in the country during 2020 and Idaho Power's customer base grew 2.7%.
A national study by United Van Lines also ranked Boise as the number 3 metropolitan area for inbound moves during 2020.
Idaho Power now serves more than 587,000 customers and we view the reliable, affordable, clean energy our company provides as an important factor in continuing to attract the business and residential customers to Southern Idaho and Eastern Oregon.
It does not seem that long ago that we crossed the 500,000 customer mark.
Looking ahead at future loads, increase for large load project came in at a strong pace during 2020.
On Slide 9, you'll see the highlighted notable milestones, including the announcement of a 240,000 square foot True West Beef facility, the opening of Amazon's 2.5 million square foot fulfillment center and the announcement of a 90,050,000 square foot expansion to an existing Lamb Weston potato processing plant.
Amidst the global pandemic, the economy within Idaho Power service areas continues to outperform national trend.
Moody's predicts sustained economic growth going forward after experiencing a GDP decrease of 1.7% in 2020 with Moody's forecast calls for growth of 6.1% in 2021 and 6.8% in 2022.
Unemployment within Idaho Power's service area is at 4.7%, an increase over recent years, but still well below the 6.7% reported at the national level.
As I mentioned earlier, IDACORP was pleased to announce a dividend increase of 6% this past fall.
Going forward, management expects to recommend the Board of Directors future annual increases in the dividend of 5% or more with the intent of keeping the company within our target payout ratio of between 60% and 70% of sustainable IDACORP earnings.
As outlined on Slide 10, IDACORP continues its strategy into 2021, starting toward our cornerstone goals of growing financial strength, improving the core business, enhancing Idaho Power's brand and keeping employees safe and engaged.
As we execute on these goals, we work to balance the interest of our owners, customers, employees and other stakeholders.
We are committed to working for sustainable financial results and strong credit ratings by continuing to provide safe, reliable, affordable service to customers from an already clean and increasingly cleaner reliable mix of generation resources.
Idaho Power's goal to achieve a 100% clean energy by 2045 fits well into our overall strategy as we expected to meet the new investment in system improvements that will enhance the customer experience.
You'll see highlighted on Slide 11 that the Boardman to Hemingway project or B2H continues to advance.
This project is a key energy pathway that will allow us to buy transport and sell more clean energy across the North West.
Last July, the Oregon Department of Energy issued a proposed order recommending authorization of the transmission line.
Idaho Power anticipates finalizing B2H permitting in 2022 with the line planned to be in service in 2026 or later.
Discussions are ongoing about the ownership structure of the line with the Idaho Power -- with Idaho Power exploring with the partners, both its planned share of ownership as well as the potential additional investment opportunity.
Our path toward a cleaner tomorrow continued in 2020 has been jointly on Boardman's coal-fired power plant in Oregon East operation in October.
Idaho Power has previously ended its participation in 1 unit at the North Valmy coal-fired plants in Nevada at the end of 2019.
And depending on further analysis on economics and system reliabilty, the remaining Valmy unit could follow with exit plan as early as next year, but no later than 2025.
We also continued to explore options with our partner for the appropriate end of life of the Jim Bridger coal-fired plant in Wyoming, which will be our final coal plant in the Idaho Power energy mix.
Our most recent integrated resource plant calls for a full exit from coal-fired generation by 2030.
Receiving a new long-term federal license for the three dam Hells Canyon Complex is another top priority to help ensure Idaho Power's clean energy future.
Significant steps in 2020 include filing a supplement to Idaho Power's final license application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission or FERC and preparing draft biological assessments in consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service that were also filed with the FERC.
The FERC can issue the license as early as 2022 but as of today, we believe issuance is more likely in 2023 or thereafter.
The FERC also recently formally initiated the relicensing proceeding for the American Falls hydropower facility, which is Idaho Power's largest hydropower facility outside of the Hells Canyon.
Idaho Power currently expects the first to issue a new license for this facility prior to the 2025 expiration.
Last quarter, we stated Idaho Power did 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 2021.
Customer growth, constructive regulatory outcomes, major project completion dates and effective cost management all play significant roles as we look at the need and timing of the future general rate case.
As part of our overall regulatory strategy, I'll highlight that Idaho Power filed an application last month with the Idaho Public Utilities Commission, requesting authorization to defer the Idaho portion of O&M expenses, including insurance cost and depreciation expense of certain capital investments expected to be necessary to implement its recently enhanced Wildfire Mitigation Plan or WMP.
This WMP outlines actions Idaho Power is taking or plans to implement in the future to reduce wildfire risk and to strengthen the resiliency of its transmission and distribution systems to wildfire.
These enhancements are in part the response to the degree of annual destruction from wildfires that the Western U.S. has experienced in recent years.
We expect to spend approximately $47 million in incremental WMP and wildfire-related O&M expenses and $35 million in incremental capital expenses over the next five years.
The case is now pending at the Idaho Public Utilities Commission.
Next, I'd like to highlight our newest Board member, Dr. Mark Peters, who was appointed last week.
Dr. Peters is currently the Executive Vice President for the laboratory operations at Battelle Memorial Institute with responsibilities for governance and oversight of U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Department of Homeland Security National Laboratory, for which Battelle has a significant lab management role.
Previously, he was the Director of the Idaho National Laboratory since 2015.
Mark is a highly respected leader in our Idaho community as well as an internationally recognized expert in his field, including energy and security.
I will close with a look at weather on Slide 12.
The most current projections from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration suggest normal conditions from March to May.
Our mountain regions have received some good precipitation in recent weeks and we are hopeful the resulting snowpack should provide decent conditions for generating low-cost hydropower and to provide irrigation customers with enough water to operate in 2021.
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.
With that, I will hand things over to Steve for an overview of last year's financial performance.
Let's now move to Slide 13 where you'll see our full year 2020 financial results as compared to the same period in 2019.
Overall, we had solid results during a challenging year driven by customer growth in our service area and continued successful efforts to control costs.
First up on the table is our strengthening customer growth of 2.7%, which added $14 million to operating income.
Higher usage per residential and irrigation customer of 1% and 11% respectively more than offset the negative used impacts of the pandemic, which contributed to decreased commercial and industrial sales volumes by a respective 4% and 1% during the year.
Irrigation sales volumes benefited from a return to more normal spring precipitation levels over 2019.
Residential customer usage was partly impacted by weather variations but many customers also spent more time at home due to the public health crisis.
The net result was a relatively modest $0.9 million increase in overall usage per customer.
Also on the table you will see that the increase in residential sales was offset by a $1 million decrease in fixed cost adjustment revenues.
Next, changes in net power supply expenses led to a $2.6 million decrease in retail revenues per megawatt hour largely due to fewer opportunities processed in sales than in the prior year.
Transmission wheeling-related revenues also decreased $2.2 million primarily due to a 13% decline in Idaho Power's open access transmission tariff rate in October of 2019.
This decrease was partially offset by an increase in wheeling volumes this past summer related to warmer weather in the Southwest, U.S. and California as well as roughly 10% increase in tariff rate beginning October 1 of 2020.
Next on the table, other operating and maintenance expenses decreased by $3.7 million.
A portion of this decrease was expected due to Idaho Power's exit from either one of the North Valmy plant last year.
But much of the decrease resulted from lower costs related to discretionary maintenance projects at the jointly owned coal plant as well as lower performance-based variable compensation accruals.
In prior quarters, we mentioned a small deferral of expenses related to COVID-19.
As of year end, the current amount is nominal.
However, Idaho Power plans to continue to monitor these -- those related ongoing costs.
Finally, our higher pre-tax earnings led to an increase in income tax expense of $2.1 million this quarter.
The changes collectively resulted in an increase to Idaho Power's net income of $8.8 million.
Other IDACORP net income changes were lower primarily because distributions from the sale of low income housing properties in 2018 did not recur in 2020.
IDACORP's full year net income for 2020 was a net $4.5 million higher than 2019.
IDACORP and Idaho Power continue to maintain strong balance sheets, including investment grade credit ratings and sound liquidity, which enable us to fund ongoing capital expenditures and distribute dividend to shareowners.
IDACORP's operating cash flows along with our liquidity positions as of the end of 2020 are included on Slide 14.
Cash flows from operations were about $22 million higher than the prior year.
The increase was mostly related to working capital and deferred tax fluctuations offset partially by 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 14.
At this time, we do not anticipate issuing additional equity in 2000 -- or in 2021 other than nominal amounts under our compensation plans.
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 backup -- backed up to our expected capital and operating needs.
As we did last year, Idaho Power contributed $40 million to its pension plan during 2021, which would be above its required contribution.
Slide 15 shows our initiated full year 2021 earnings guidance and our key financial and operating metrics estimates.
We currently expect IDACORP's 2021 earnings to be in the range of $4.60 and $4.80 per diluted share.
At or above the midpoint of this guidance range, IDACORP would achieve its 14th consecutive year of growth in earnings per share, which approaches a 5% cumulative average growth over the past five years.
Our guidance assumes Idaho Power would use no additional tax credits and assumes normal weather condition.
Of course, our guidance could also be negatively impacted if the economy or the pandemic worsens significantly.
And such scenarios could require us to use additional tax credits.
Our strong, consistent financial results and sustained cost management efforts during the past decade have preserved the full $45 million of tax credits available to support our current Idaho jurisdictional return on equity support level of 9.4% under our regulatory stipulation and we plan to continue our efforts to preserve as many of those credits as we can going forward.
Our full year O&M expense guidance is expected to be in the range of $345 million to $355 million.
This will be the ninth straight year of nearly flat O&M expense, which represents the sustained commendable effort of our entire team over those years.
It's fair to say this goal is being impacted by the level of growth we are experiencing and depending on how this year progresses, it could be challenging to meet.
Our capex spending is expected to increase to the range of $320 million to $330 million, and our expectation of hydropower generation is expected to be in the range of 6 to 8 million megawatt hours, the upper end of which could be close to our normal annual generation over the past 30 years.
On the subject of capex, turning to Slide 16, you'll note that the current five-year capital plan reflects significant increases relative to our prior five-year plan.
As a portion of the construction cost for some of the larger projects Lisa discussed like B2H have been folded into the outlook along with other anticipated capital improvement.
We now expect our capital expenditures over the next five years to approach $2 billion and it shows roughly at 7% compound average growth over our previous five-year plan.

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sees fy 2021 earnings per share $4.60 to $4.80.
q4 earnings per share $0.74.

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