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Text: I'd like to start by first congratulating Steve on being named ALLETE's CFO last week.
Steve is a familiar face to you all, and he is an integral member of ALLETE's executive leadership team.
With his breadth of experience and strategic and technical expertise always founded on strong integrity, Steve is the perfect person for this next era as ALLETE continues to advance the nation's clean energy transformation.
Steve succeeds Bob Adams as CFO.
As we announced earlier this year, Bob is retiring in June after more than 35 years at ALLETE.
We're all grateful Bob will be with us over the next several months.
These financial results were firmly within our 2021 earnings guidance range of $3 to $3.30 per share.
I couldn't be more proud of our entire team for these results and all of our accomplishments in 2021.
Our businesses had an incredibly strong fourth quarter, ending the year on a high note.
We delivered on many operational, positioning, and financial successes driven by ALLETE's amazing employees and strong culture, as together we advance sustainability in action.
These accomplishments are providing value to our customers and our shareholders today and will continue to do so for years to come.
In a few moments, Steve will provide details of the 2021 financial results and 2022 guidance, and Bob will provide his thoughts on our growth trajectory.
Before that, I would like to highlight just a few of the accomplishments we achieved during the year.
While we serve our customers with excellence and provide exciting opportunities for our employees, we take great pride in creating value for our shareholders, and ALLETE soundly executed in 2021, hitting our earnings target and paying an attractive dividend while strategically positioning all of our businesses for sustainable growth well into the future.
We're committed to ALLETE's long-term five-year objective of achieving consolidated average annual earnings per share growth within a range of 5% to 7%, and I'm confident in our ability to achieve this for our investors.
During 2021, a year we characterized early on as a transitional year for ALLETE.
We highlighted several initiatives we put in motion to improve returns on capital and to provide avenues for additional investments in clean energy infrastructure.
I'm pleased with our success on these key strategic initiatives.
First, regarding improving returns.
In late 2021, Minnesota Power received an interim rate order to begin charging new rates, which support the quality and reliability of electric services provided to our customers.
The interim rates were approved as filed and went into effect at the beginning of 2022.
Although there's more to play out during the year, we view this as a very constructive outcome that supports Minnesota Power's financial health and ability to continue our clean energy transformation while delivering safe, resilient, reliable, and affordable service to our customers.
Superior water, light, and power is also preparing to file a rate case later in 2022.
And this will support the company's ability to continue to upgrade infrastructure and maintain the resiliency, reliability, and high quality of services for its customers.
Onto new clean energy investments driven by our sustainability in action strategy.
We're making significant progress on Minnesota Power's vision to provide 100% carbon free energy to customers by 2050.
This bold vision reflects our commitment to the climate, our customers, and our communities through Minnesota Power's Energy Forward strategy.
Minnesota Power's clean energy transition, detailed in its Integrated Resource Plan, is moving forward in the process, including extensive engagement with a broad range of stakeholders, from customers to communities, to regulators, to employees, and many others, and we expect a decision in the second half of 2022.
Today, we're pleased to provide updated information regarding our capital expenditure plans to effectuate this transition, and Bob will share some additional comments on all of that in a moment.
And it has been great to see that Minnesota Power's taconite customers finished 2021 at full production of approximately 40 million tons.
We anticipate 2022 production to be closer to average at around 35 million tons as reflected in Minnesota Power's rate case.
But the ongoing investments by these customers in existing production and in product enhancements, including sustainability as well as the prospect of new customers, clearly support the long-term viability and attractiveness of the natural resource based economy of the region that Minnesota Power is privileged to serve.
ALLETE Clean Energy is also making significant progress in our sustainability in action strategy.
ALLETE's second largest business with operations that spanned from coast to coast is well positioned to drive additional clean energy sector growth.
With the recently completed 303 megawatt Caddo wind facility now in service, ALLETE Clean Energy's total wind capacity has increased to more than 1,300 megawatts.
We've also made significant progress in our work to expand ALLETE Clean Energy's focus beyond wind to provide additional growth engines in the clean energy space.
We've identified several promising opportunities for investment that would augment ALLETE's existing clean energy solutions and expand our capabilities into solar and storage.
We anticipate sharing more on this effort this year.
Along with creative solutions for our customers and great opportunities for our employees, ALLETE's mix of businesses offers differentiated value to investors with earnings growth, an attractive dividend, and strong positioning to thrive in the clean energy future.
Today ALLETE reported 2021 earnings of $3.23 per share or net income of $169.2 million.
Earnings for 2020 were $3.35 per share or net income of $174.2 million.
As Bethany mentioned, we finished the year well within our guidance range with both our regulated operations and ALLETE Clean Energy and corporate and other near the upper end of their respective original guidance range.
A few significant highlights impacting the full year ended 2021.
Earnings in 2021 reflected a $0.16 per share gain recorded in the fourth quarter for the sale of a portion of the Nemadji Trail Energy Center by South Shore Energy, ALLETE's non-rate regulated Wisconsin subsidiary.
Earnings in 2021 reflected a $0.07 per share charge resulting from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission decision to order refunds in Minnesota Power's fuel adjustment clause filing, covering the periods of July 2018 through December 2019.
Net income in 2021 also included a $0.10 per share negative impact of ALLETE Clean Energy's Diamond Spring wind energy facility related to the extreme weather in the first quarter of 2021.
Turning to the fourth quarter of 2021.
Overall, ALLETE's consolidated results for the fourth quarter exceeded our expectations with earnings at $1.18 per share, compared to $0.90 per share for the same quarter in 2020.
At least regulated operations segment recorded net income of $29.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2021, as compared to $25.3 million in 2020.
Earnings reflected higher net income at Minnesota Power, primarily due to higher megawatt hour sales to retail and municipal customers, including a 10% increase from taconite customers and positive income tax expense timing differences.
The fourth quarter did include a reserve for the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission decision to order refunds in Minnesota Power's fuel adjustment clause filing related to prior years.
ALLETE Clean Energy recorded fourth quarter 2021 net income of $14.6 million, compared to $13.1 million in 2020.
And income in 2021 include a full quarter contribution from the Diamond Spring wind energy facility, which commenced operations in December of 2020, and earnings from the new Caddo wind energy facility, which was in service in December.
Offsetting these increases was an anticipated loss on the Northern Wind power project due to higher than expected total estimated cost to complete this project.
I will provide additional details on this in a moment.
Our corporate and other businesses recorded net income of $17.6 million in 2021, compared to net income of $8.7 million in 2020.
2021 included an $8.5 million after-tax gain from South Shore Energy sale of a portion of its interest in the Nemadji Trail Energy Center.
Also positively impacting 2021 results are higher earnings from our investment in the Nobles 2 energy facility, which commenced operations in December 2020, and higher net income from land sales at ALLETE properties.
I'll now turn to our 2022 earnings guidance.
Today, we initiated 2022 earnings guidance of $3.60 to $3.90 per share, a net income of $195 million to $210 million.
The midpoint of our guidance range represents a 16% increase over 2021 results and reflects our expectations of improving returns and positive momentum around our clean energy investments.
This guidance range is comprised of our regulated operations within a range of $2.60 to $2.80 per share in ALLETE Clean Energy and our Corp. and other businesses within a range of $1 to $1.10 per share.
Recall in February 2021, we shared at a high level that 2021 was expected to be a transition year with continued economic impacts from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and preparations for a much-needed Minnesota Power rate case.
To provide visibility into 2022, ALLETE provided a preliminary estimated earnings guidance range of $3.70 to $4 per share.
The reason for the approximately $0.10 difference between our preliminary guidance estimate and our 2022 guidance issued today relates primarily to ALLETE Clean Energy's expectation of lower megawatt hour generation from its legacy wind energy facilities.
At a high level, our actual megawatt hour generation at these facilities has been lower than our recent projections.
And to better reflect recent historical results and updated models, we have refined our estimates and expectations.
A few comments on a regulated operations outlook for 2022.
Our guidance reflects interim rates for the Minnesota Power retail rate case of approximately $87 million.
Interim rates are subject to refund.
Our guidance assumes we will achieve reasonable outcomes in regulatory proceedings.
Minnesota Power's investor sales are expected to range between 6 million to 6.5 million megawatt hours, which reflects anticipated production from our taconite customers of approximately 35 million tons.
Our taconite customers started the year with full production.
However, recent customer announcements signaled some curtailments during the year, which would result in production in line with our estimates.
As you might recall, Minnesota Power has asked for a large power sales true-up mechanism in its recently filed rate case to fairly balance this type of variation in sales between customers and investors.
A few highlights from ALLETE Clean Energy outlook for 2022.
ALLETE Clean Energy expects total wind generation of approximately 4 million megawatt hours this year, compared to 3 million megawatt hours last year with the expectation of normal wind resources.
The increase in megawatt hours is primarily related to the Caddo wind energy facility in service for the full year.
Our guidance reflects the downward adjusted megawatt hour generation from ALLETE Clean Energy's legacy wind energy facilities, which is more in line with 2021 actual megawatt hour generation.
For our Corp. and other businesses, we expect slightly higher earnings from our investment in the Nobles 2 wind energy facility and earnings from a new Minnesota solar project expected to be completed later this year.
Earnings per share reflects $50 million of additional equity issuances to fund the Caddo project and other growth initiatives.
A further update on ALLETE Clean Energy projects, which is detailed on Slide 9.
As previously disclosed, we plan to repower and sell the now 100 megawatt Northern Wind project, which consists of the existing Chanarambie and Viking facilities to a subsidiary of Xcel Energy.
This transaction remains on track for completion in late 2022 and will provide a significant cash contribution for redeployment.
ALLETE Clean energy has experienced inflationary increases and significant cost pressures related to this project, and as a result, now anticipates a slight loss on the eventual sale of this project, which resulted in an approximately $2 million after-tax charge in the fourth quarter of 2021.
We will be working to maximize the value of this project and minimize costs as we further navigate supply chain options and work with vendors to make this project profitable.
The 20 megawatt Rock Aetna portion of this project is positioned to move forward in tandem with the Northern wind power as a shovel-ready project with attractive future profit potential.
We are finalizing development plans to begin and complete construction of the 92 megawatt Red Barn build-on transfer project, the closing expected in early 2023.
This project will utilize some of our safe harbor turbines while expanding our customer base and presence in another geographic region of the country.
The extension of this project, and a testament to our strong relationships with optionality to serve C&I customers or regional utilities, the 68 megawatt whitetail development project is also advancing with its advanced transmission Q position and landowner relationships for either a long-term PPA or build-on transfer project.
Leveraging ALLETE Clean Energy safe harbor turbines, we continue to advance the 200 megawatt Ruso wind project in North Dakota and are working with various regulators on permitting and citing for this facility.
First of all, I too would like to begin by congratulating Steve on his promotion to senior VP and CFO of ALLETE.
I have worked with Steve for over 20 years, and I found him to be an individual of very high integrity and rock solid in terms of his financial expertise, leadership qualities, and strategic mindset.
He has worked closely with me in recent years on numerous major initiatives aimed at improving our overall returns, growth profile and competitiveness on behalf of our investors and customers alike.
Steve is supported by one of the strongest teams in the industry, and I have no doubt that Bethany, Steve, and the rest of the management team will continue to succeed as the company prosecutes its clean energy vision and strategy.
As Steve just shared with you, 2021 was a highly successful year, evident not just by the strong financial results, but the advancement of many key sustainability-in-action initiatives on both the regulated and non-regulated parts of our business that will pay dividends in future years.
These results came even despite ongoing challenges from the pandemic, as well as significant volatility in weather and lower-than-expected wind production levels at ALLETE Clean Energy.
We begin 2022 with a strong balance sheet, conservative capital structure at approximately 40% total debt, and an excess of $260 million in operating cash flow.
A notable achievement on the financing side was our ability to secure approximately $240 million in tax equity financing of the $450 million project under very competitive terms.
Of the $200 million in total equity investment, $50 million will be raised through our ATM program, as Steve noted earlier in his 2022 guidance overview.
As Bethany stated, we are committed and confident in our ability to achieve ALLETE's longer-term average annual growth objective within a range of 5% to 7%.
As a reminder, this is comprised of 4% to 5% from the regulated utility businesses and at least 15% for the non-regulated businesses.
The favorable growth outlook is being fueled by historic clean energy transformation that we are leading regionally at our utility business, as well as our growing non-regulated clean energy platform, which is expanding both its geographic footprint and product service offerings.
As promised in recent quarters, we have updated our five year capital expenditure table in the 10-K, as well as provided -- the supporting schedules to provide added granularity to assist you with your financial modeling.
As promised, Slide 10 represents our traditional capex table, and Slide 12 is the financing and support of this $1.8 billion capex plan, highlighting significant clean energy investments in the next five years.
In conjunction with Minnesota Power's outstanding IRP process currently under consideration by the MPUC, our projected spend in this updated capex table is approximately $1.8 billion over the next five years and is predominantly for regulated or utility-like clean energy infrastructure, representing a 19% compounded annual growth rate over 2021 levels, and translate into rate base growth of over 5%.
As you can see, the primary driver of investment growth is further transformation to clean energy, particularly in the transmission area, to address large transmission constraints currently limiting Mysore region power movement on the grid.
As renewable generation continues to expand, our planned expansion of our 550 megawatt DC transmission line by 65% to -- or 900 megawatts is a key component in the solution to address this issue.
On Slide 11, you can see we have additional clean energy project opportunities also in the pipeline, and we expect that more will materialize into actionable projects as the IRP process plays out.
Minnesota Power's mission to deliver 100% carpentry energy by 2050 will require significant investment in renewable generation and in transmission and distribution over the next decade or so.
We will continue to navigate this clean energy transition that we have, as we have in the past with customer rates and overall competitiveness in mind.
Our non-regulated business segment, which is comprised primarily of ALLETE Clean Energy, is expected to continue to exceed our 15% growth objective in the foreseeable future.
And we are confident that this highly successful platform will soon advance us into new, complementary, and higher returning segments of the clean energy market, such as solar and storage.
As I begin my transition into retirement, I want to pause and express my sincere gratitude to ALLETE, my team, and the investor community more broadly, for your support and confidence in me, especially over the past five-plus years as the CFO of the organization.
I will surely miss our many conversations and proactive input as we navigated the challenges and opportunities facing the industry and our company.
Stepping back, I feel extremely proud in what the ALLETE team has accomplished thus far in terms of positioning the company for future success and have every confidence the company will continue to do well as it continues to be a leader in the exciting and historic clean energy transition.
I will now hand it back to Bethany.
We're obviously very pleased with all that our team has accomplished in 2021, and we're already making significant strides here in the early weeks of 2022.
This is truly an exciting time for ALLETE, and we look forward to sharing more with you in the near future, and of course, delivering another year of value to our shareholders.
Demands for cleaner energy are increasing, providing new and diverse opportunities for investment for ALLETE.
We believe ALLETE's reputation as a leader in this environment will continue to attract capital and we're committed to deliver value to our investors.
On Slide 13 is a list of ESG-related information you can find on our website at allete.com.
I'm particularly proud of our internal team, who put together our Corporate Sustainability Report, which is well aligned with SASB and TCFD reporting requirements.
We'll evolve, expand, and improve on our CSR as we continue to execute our sustainability-in-action strategy.
The very foundation of ALLETE's growth strategy is sustainability in all of its forms, people, planet, and prosperity.
And as always, we are committed to doing all of this in the absolutely right way.
We've taken significant steps already and will continue not only to mitigate climate change risks, but to build a clean energy future through just, equitable, and meaningful change, making a difference and doing our part to make the world a better place for everyone.
ALLETE's family of businesses is well positioned for an even brighter future.

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compname reports 2021 earnings of $3.23 per share.
compname reports 2021 earnings of $3.23 per share; initiates 2022 earnings guidance range of $3.60 to 3.90 per share.
allete inc - qtrly earnings per share $1.18.

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