Essential Utilities Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
May 9, 2023

There are 9 speakers on the call.

Operator

Please note, this conference is being recorded. And for the duration of the call, your lines will be listen only. However, you will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the call. I will now hand you over to your host, Renee Marquis, to begin today's conference. Thank you.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Melissa. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for the Essential Utilities' Q1 2023

Speaker 2

earnings call.

Speaker 1

Unfortunately, Brian Dinger just couldn't be here today because he's under the weather, so I'm filling in. I'm Renee Marquis, the Director of Investor Relations at Essential. If you do not receive a copy of the press release, you can find it by visiting the Investor Relations section of our website at essential.co. The slides that we will be referencing and the webcast of this event can also be found on our website. Here is our FLS.

Speaker 1

As a reminder, some of the matters discussed during this call may include forward looking statements that involve risks, Uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results to be materially different from any future results expressed or implied by such Please refer to our most recent 10 Q, 10 ks or other SEC filings for a description of such risks and uncertainties. During the course of this call, reference may be made to certain non GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of these non GAAP to GAAP financial measures is included at the end of the presentation and also posted on the Investor Relations section Here is our agenda for the call today. We will begin with Chris Franklin, our Chairman and CEO, who will provide an Update on the company. Next, Dan Schuller, Executive Vice President and CFO, will discuss our financial results.

Speaker 1

And lastly, Chris will then provide an update on our acquisition program and conclude the presentation portion with a summary of our guidance before opening the call for questions. With that, I'll turn the call over to Chris Ricks.

Speaker 3

Thanks, Renee. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining the call. Let's just start here with a quick mention that last week we held our Board meeting and our Annual Meeting of Shareholders And I'm very pleased to report that all of the items on the ballot were voted in accordance with management's recommendations. So we're very pleased with the outcome of our Annual Shareholders Meeting.

Speaker 3

All right. Let's take a quick look at the Q1. We reported earnings per share of $0.72 and that was despite the unusually warm weather and the challenges of inflation and interest rates. We mentioned in February that weather was warmer than normal and similar weather patterns continued through March. I'll remind you that we don't currently have weather normalization in our Pennsylvania tariff.

Speaker 3

Previous owners of the company ever filed for it. So We're going to do it in our upcoming rate case. We're going to file a Pennsylvania natural gas rate case end of the year of this year. And in that filing, we will include weather normalization. Now if the PUC follows its precedent Decisions on weather norm that we should expect to have it at the conclusion of our rate case And that would be, call it, spring of 2024.

Speaker 3

Again, this will be the 1st natural gas rate case we filed in Pennsylvania under our ownership. So we need to get that work underway. Now despite the unfavorable weather in Q1, I want to tell you that we remain confident in our ability to meet our full year earnings per share guidance of $1.85 to 1 $0.90 We will continue to evaluate our various options and initiatives that could help us make up for the Q1 weather. One of those initiatives is was already in the plan, but it's the current sale process for our energy projects at Peoples. So you may recall that we operate the Pittsburgh Airport Microgrid, another district energy project, which is downtown In a combined heat and power project at a hospital in Pittsburgh.

Speaker 3

This again was a planned process for this year and we expect to close the sale this year. This transaction is consistent with our long time Strategy of focusing on regulated growth opportunities. In this case, we hope to continue to work with the buyer of these assets To develop new projects in the future, given the residual benefits they have for our customers and for our gas utility. All right. Let's talk about capital work.

Speaker 3

In the 1st 3 months of 2023, we invested over 2 $243,700,000 in infrastructure improvements as compared to $183,000,000 in the same period last year. Currently, we have asset purchase agreements signed for 9 municipal acquisitions totaling over $380,000,000 in purchase price. Finally, as you may be aware, Earth Day was in April. So last month, We were excited to kick off our 2nd annual Essential Earth Day series of events throughout our 10 state footprint. Really proud to mention that we had hundreds of employees participate in over 30 local volunteer events again this year.

Speaker 3

These activities included opportunities for customer education, employee volunteerism, community engagement And we make contributions from our company foundation to many of the environmental initiatives, all of which was centered around Finally, another announcement with big impact Was made recently on PFAS. The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency finally proposed a maximum contaminant level or MCL For PFAS Chemicals, we recognize that EPA's proposed maximum contaminant level for PFAS Chemicals, You remember these are also called Forever Chemicals is an important step in protecting human health. Now remember in 2020 in order to better protect the health of our customers and communities we serve, We set an industry leading commitment to ensure all of our finished water across our entire footprint would not exceed 13 parts per trillion for multiple PFOS Chemicals.

Speaker 3

And also at that time, the EPA had a health advisory level of 70 parts For Trillium for PFAS Chemicals, we chose to adopt a much more stringent standard to protect the health of our customers and communities. To my knowledge, we're the only multistate company that made such a commitment. The following year in 2021, we cut the ribbon on our new state of the art environmental laboratory, which was just one of the 2 accredited labs And the only utility certified to test for PFAS Chemicals in Pennsylvania. We believe our commitment to operational excellence along with the Excellent, along with the experience and expertise we've gained in our PFAS mitigation work will not only help us facilitate our compliance With the new EPA standards, we'll also be an important part of our value proposition to municipal leaders struggling with PFAS issues. Now I will remind you at the same time, we're also going to continue to advance our litigation strategy to force the polluters To pay the cleanup costs so that our customers don't bear the total cost, total burden of these costs.

Speaker 3

And of course, we will continue to cooperate and support the EPA in their efforts to ensure all Americans have safe, quality drinking water. As the national focus on water quality and safety continues to gain momentum, The technical and operational expertise of our people at Essential Utilities continues to be recognized. We understand our responsibilities as a provider of utility services and it's also our responsibility to keep our customers And our community is well informed regarding their access to life sustaining resources we provide. We were reminded of this recently When a pipe ruptured at a chemical plant, which spewed chemicals into the Delaware River less than a half mile Downstream from one of our water plants. Fortunately, our employees' quick decision to close the plant intake ensured there was no impact To our customers, we were able to disseminate timely information, provide reassurance of the safety of our water And lend a hand to neighboring systems.

Speaker 3

I continue to be impressed with the professionalism of our team and their ability to respond So quickly to ensure there was no interruption to our customers. If you look at that photo in the center on this slide, You can see that latex type material floating down that left side of the picture, close to intakes along the river and that went on for miles. This was an important operational catch by our team. And with that, let me hand it over to Dan to review the financial results.

Speaker 4

Thanks, Chris, and good morning, everyone. I'll start off with some of the Q1 highlights. We had revenues for the quarter of $726,500,000 Up 3.9 percent from $699,300,000 last year. Our Regulated Water segment contributed $7,300,000 and our regulated natural gas segment contributed $441,300,000 The largest contributor to the increase in revenues for the quarter was the recovery of higher natural gas commodity prices, And therefore, purchased gas costs increased by $28,600,000 year over year for the Q1. Additional revenues from regulatory recoveries, water and wastewater customer growth and other items also contributed positively Or offset materially by decreased volumes in the natural gas segment due to the warmer than normal temperatures that Chris mentioned a moment ago.

Speaker 4

O and M expenses decreased to $138,000,000 for the quarter, down from $142,600,000 in the Q1 of last year. Higher water production costs and growth from added water customers were offset by lower employee related costs, Recoverable costs related to our natural gas segment customer assistance program, improved bad debt and other items for the quarter. Net income was down year over year from $199,400,000 to $191,400,000 and GAAP EPS was $0.72 for the quarter. Next, we'll walk through the waterfall slides, starting with revenue. In the Q1 of 2023, Revenues increased $27,200,000 or 3.9 percent on a GAAP basis.

Speaker 4

You'll notice the primary drivers were the recovery of higher purchased gas costs $28,600,000 due to the significant increase in natural gas commodity prices and regulatory recoveries of 22,900,000 Customer growth from our Regulated Water segment, which includes both acquisitions and organic growth and other items Providing an additional $6,400,000 towards the revenue increase. The primary offset to these increases was decreased gas volumes of $30,500,000 from our regulated natural gas segment due to the warmer than normal winter weather. And with that, let's review the Q1 weather on the next slide. As you know, there's a strong correlation between weather and gas consumption and thus associated revenue. And typically, the majority of gas is consumed by our customers in the 1st and 4th quarters With the largest portion of gas being sold in the Q1 in Pennsylvania.

Speaker 4

This winter for our regulated natural gas segment, the weather in the first Quarter was dramatically warmer than normal with 2,330 heating degree days. This metric compares unfavorably Not only in the Q1 of last year, which was colder than normal, but it also falls short of the 20 year first quarter average in Western Pennsylvania of 2,814 heating degree days. In fact, this was the warmest Q1 in the last decade And the 4th warmest Q1 since 1955. Next, let's move on to operations and maintenance expenses. Operations and maintenance expenses were $138,000,000 for the Q1, a decrease of 3.2% Compared to $142,600,000 for the same period in 2022.

Speaker 4

Increased production costs, Including inflationary increases in chemicals, purchased water and sludge hauling and expenses related to newly acquired water and wastewater customers Added a combined $4,500,000 These were offset by lower employee related costs of $2,700,000 Decreased Gas Customer Assistance Program expenses of $2,500,000 and a decrease in other items of $2,500,000 mainly related to lower maintenance expenses and a non recurring charge in 2022. And finally, bad debt was lower by 1,500,000 Next, we'll spend a minute on the earnings per share waterfall. Beginning on the left side of the slide, GAAP EPS for the Q1 of 2022 was $0.76 Regulatory recoveries contributed $0.06 Growth from our regulated water segment added $0.01 and reduced expenses added 0.07 dollars These were offset by decreased volume from our regulated natural gas segment of over $0.08 other items of $0.03 And decreased volume from our regulated water segment of $0.01 The $0.03 impact in other includes increases in interest costs And depreciation offset by income taxes. The result is GAAP EPS of $0.72 for the Q1 of 2023. As Chris mentioned earlier, we continue to expect to meet our annual earnings per share guidance for the year.

Speaker 4

Moving on to regulatory activity and other matters. So far in 2023, we completed rate cases or surcharge filings in 4 of our regulated water states for the total annualized revenue increase of 3,600,000 Also, we currently have base rate cases or surcharge filings underway in North Carolina, Ohio and Texas for a regulated water segment And a surcharge filing in Kentucky for our regulated natural gas business. As we previously indicated, We expect to raise approximately $500,000,000 in equity or equity linked securities this year to maintain our credit metrics where we invest capital and close municipal acquisitions. And with that, I'll hand it back over to Chris. Chris?

Speaker 3

Thanks, Dan. Good segue. Let's talk a little bit about municipal transactions. Matt Rhodes and his team have been busy. As of this call, We have 8 signed asset purchase agreements for 9 systems across 4 states in which we have existing water operations.

Speaker 3

So this includes the recently announced Greenville Wastewater System that has over 2,300 customer connections. It also serves over 1700 additional customers through 2 wholesale customers in the neighboring townships of West Salem And Hempfield. Collectively, these acquisitions are expected to add nearly 219,000 customers or customer equivalents In total over $380,000,000 in purchase price. 5, and I count 2 in Frankfurt, right? Five transactions on this slide are on track to close in Q2 or Q3 of this year, includes Shenandoah, Southern Oaks, Union Rome and Frankfurt with other acquisitions expected to close in Q4 2023 and of course some in Q1 of next year.

Speaker 3

As many of you know, progress on the DelCorra regulatory process is under a stay by the Federal Bankruptcy Court handling the bankruptcy of the City of Chester. The next hearing of the bankruptcy court is next week, May 15. Settlement discussions do continue, albeit at a slow pace, But we remain optimistic that a settlement can ultimately be reached. Importantly, our rate projections Along with the last rate projections I've seen from DelCora continue to indicate that customer rates will be lower under our ownership When compared with DelCora remaining independent, so this transaction remains to be good for the customers. It's probably important to reiterate again that Despite the delay in DelCora process, we still plan to meet our current earnings for the year.

Speaker 3

I should also note that our Sale of our small West Virginia gas operation remains on track in the regulatory process And we expect to close the transaction in the Q3 of this year. So in addition to the signed municipal act of transactions On the previous slide, we continue to see a strong and healthy pipeline of opportunities for growth. As illustrated on this slide, we are Currently engaged in active discussions with municipalities pursuing over 400,000 potential water and wastewater customers. Our teams in each of our 8 water states focus on potential acquisitions that have between 2,500 and 25,000 customers. We continue to offer many benefits beyond just the competitive purchase price, including our technical and operational expertise, commitment to spend the needed capital and make improvements And to provide long term clean, safe, reliable utility service to the communities we serve.

Speaker 3

So let me wrap up with a reminder of our 2023 guidance that we had previously published. As we've said throughout the call, We continue to expect to meet guidance for the year. Earnings is expected to be between $1.85 $1.90 per share With 3 year earnings per share growth of 5% to 7% through 2025. Our capital plans, including investing approximately $1,100,000,000 annually to rehabilitate and strengthen our water, Wastewater and Natural Gas Systems through 2025. We continue to expect that rate based growth will be between 6% to 7% for water And between 8% 10% for natural gas and the customer growth will be between 2% 3% on average for water And stable for natural gas.

Speaker 3

Finally, we remain committed to environmental stewardship, sustainable business practices, Employee safety, diversity and inclusion, enhanced customer experience and a strong community engagement. We're supportive of the EPA's proposed new regulations on PFAS and we'll continue to pursue our legal action against those polluters to offset Our overall cost of mitigation on the PFOS side. So with that, let me conclude our formal remarks and open the line for questions. I'll turn it back to you, Melissa.

Operator

Thank you, sir. And our first question comes from Ryan Connors of Northcoast Research. Sir, please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Good morning, Ryan. Great. Thank you. Good morning.

Speaker 4

Hey, Ryan.

Speaker 5

Good morning, Dan. Three things for me this morning. The first is pretty quick and straightforward. Nothing in Pennsylvania right now on the rate pipeline side. A D6 filing in Pennsylvania, is that something that's contemplated for 23 or is that you think it will be a little further out?

Speaker 4

Ryan, I'd anticipate that we would have D SIC filings For both water and gas in Pennsylvania later this year.

Speaker 5

Okay. Okay. Secondly, Chris, you mentioned the gas rate case and the weather normalization component of that. Conceptually, if you're being asked, you're taking a risk like you took in the quarter where Sometimes you get hit on lower volumes conceptually, you get paid for taking that risk maybe with a better return on equity. So what's your thought process on the balance between asking for the weather normalization, but trying to make sure that that doesn't End of biting you on the back end if there's going to be an argument that less risk should come and less return in terms of an ROE.

Speaker 3

Yes. I think what we found is as you look at other utilities who currently have weather normalization in Pennsylvania, there has been no discounted return on equity. I think we would expect if the commission stays with their precedent decisions that we would see something similar In a case that we'd requested. So listen, I think as you realize as it's constructed, You will give away the upside as well as the downside. But I think when you think about water utility investors, typically people want Certainty, steadiness, right.

Speaker 3

And so we think weather normalization is a better outcome than taking the downswings and the upswings.

Speaker 5

Yes. Okay. And then, yes, lastly, wanted to chat just a little bit about this Delaware River spill and cleanup and congrats To the team there on a great job managing that issue, we're very close to that here in terms of location and it really The way Aqua handled that really stood in contrast to a lot of the neighboring communities. I mean, there was outright panic, in a lot of the communities, not only Philadelphia, but some of the Bucks County Communities as well. And you just didn't see that because I did think Aqua's communication and remediation was really tight.

Speaker 5

And so my question is, obviously, your name gets dragged through the mud a lot locally, especially in Bucks County With the whole acquisition attempt last year, how do you use something like this to get the message out? And have you done anything locally to try to get that word out about what a great job the company does relative to not all, but to some of The local government owned systems out there?

Speaker 3

Yes, it's a good question. And I would say just for clarity sake, Ryan, you live here, some others may not. When we say get dragged through the mud, it's really only with regard to acquisitions. The company's operational record is stellar and our general reputation in In all the communities, including Southeastern Pennsylvania is really strong. So but where we get into these scuffles on acquisitions, We're always looking for opportunities to tell our story.

Speaker 3

And I think a couple of things. Number 1, We started to get much, much more favorable press. It's a really, design strategy And I give credit to our new Vice President of Communications, Gene Russo, who's done a beautiful job in telling our story in a fashion That is that I think people really resonates with people. But in this case in particular, We had pushed down authority to the plant level. In years past, they may have had to go through the chain of command in order to shut down a plant intake.

Speaker 3

That doesn't happen anymore. Those plant operators and management teams are really, really on top of it and that's where the decision should be made and was made in this case. So we kept that contaminant from coming into the plant and then further, to be able to put the communication out there that was strong and steady. As you mentioned, and in fact, you made national news, city of Philadelphia came out and suggested people may need to be in bottled water. So there was A huge run on bottled water in the city of Philadelphia and probably unnecessarily so in hindsight.

Speaker 3

But I think People have grown accustomed to our style of operational response, including communications and it was just something I'm very, very proud of in this instance.

Speaker 5

Got it. Thanks for your time.

Speaker 3

You bet. Thank you. Take care, Ryan.

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from Paul Zimbardo of Bank of America. Sir, please go ahead.

Speaker 6

Hey, Paul. Good morning, Paul.

Speaker 2

Hi, good morning team. Could you just give a little more quantification on some of the offsets to the very warm weather, Again, DelCora timing. I think you mentioned that there's an asset monetization in plan. Just if you could quantify that and help build up the bridge a little bit to the full year guidance.

Operator

Thank you.

Speaker 3

Yes. Listen, it's a process that is taking place right now. And so, I can't give a whole lot of detail on the Process, but there is a process to sell the CHP as well as the micro grid at the airport And as well as the steam system in the city. So it's 3 projects, we think about them as a unit, But they're not interconnected and there is an ongoing process. So I can't give you a great deal of detail.

Speaker 3

Dan, do you have anything to add to that?

Speaker 4

I guess the only thing I'd add Chris is Paul as you would expect we're taking a really close look at our O and M expenses this year To see if there are areas where we should be optimizing and then also being exceptionally diligent with regard to regulatory filings, whether that's a pass through or a sick filing being diligent with respect to those. And frankly, we've been helped by a little bit of Colder than normal weather in the April timeframe and into May, which has helped a little bit when we think about the significant Shortfall in the 1st 3 months.

Speaker 2

Okay. Understand that on the cost flex. And then shifting over to the credit side, what FFO to debt do you expect now for 2023? And if I read the materials right, it looks like You went to the top end of that $400,000,000 to $500,000,000 range and now it's all in 2023. If you could just help explain that evolution there?

Speaker 3

Well, I think when you think about FFO to debt, you also have to keep in mind, we're in the middle of repair at Peoples too. You're seeing a lot of our income Come from the tax line. So I just want you to keep that in mind as we think about how the credit agencies don't always see exactly how we see it. But our what we will say is our in our 5 year plan our FFO to debt continues to move northward in a positive fashion.

Speaker 4

Yes, that's absolutely right, Chris. And I think maybe just for clarity, what we've been told is that and this is widely communicated that our Downgrade threshold is 12% FFO to debt and if we're below that on a sustained basis, we would be having conversations with the agencies. Given what Chris mentioned about repair, we tend to have conversations with the agencies where we calculate FFO to debt on kind of a straight basis And then we also add in adjustments for the fact that we've been out of rates in Pennsylvania due to repairs. So rather than seeing a pickup NFFO and having the revenue associated with those earnings with that rate base, we're picking up those earnings on the tax line. So We do an adjustment for that and we have conversations with respect to weather as well.

Speaker 4

So I think It's fair to say that we have an impact here relative to weather as well as interest rates and so we're working to I'll offset that and

Speaker 3

Dan, I think importantly and this is something to think about Paul, as we come through the Peoples rate case, right, which was File at the end of this year that FFO calculation becomes much more straightforward and I think alignment with how the Credit agencies see it and how we see it, becomes very clear. So that's only another this time next year, Things should return to what we would call normal, but in the meantime, there is a little bit difference in how we think about those numbers versus some of the credit agencies.

Speaker 2

Okay. I appreciate that. And I can follow-up offline as well. But it sounds like that change is going to end response to kind of preserve against that The rating agency trigger, is that fair?

Speaker 4

Yes. I think it's fair that We're always looking at what's the right way to finance the business, and these things evolve over time, and they evolve from quarter to quarter. And so We've put a little more a little finer point on what we said today in terms of the amount of equity that we would look to raise.

Speaker 2

Okay, great. And then following up since you mentioned it, I know there is that new IRS guidance on natural gas repairs tax. Just Any implications or impacts on whether earnings, cash flow or anything of the like? Thank you very much. Yes.

Speaker 4

So Paul, that literally just came out a few weeks ago and obviously been anticipated for a long time. Everyone's just trying to get their hands around it Today to see what does this possibly mean and working with the various big four accounting firms. So Let us do our work on that and we'll get back to you at a later date when we know more. But it's, as we say, really early days. Okay.

Speaker 2

Appreciate it. Thanks a lot team.

Speaker 4

Yes. Thanks, Paul.

Operator

And our next question comes from Travis Miller of Morningstar. Please go ahead.

Speaker 7

Good morning, everyone. Thank you.

Speaker 3

Hey, Travis.

Speaker 4

Hi, Travis.

Speaker 7

Back on that Pennsylvania Gas Potential filing here later this year. Apart from the stuff you already discussed with ROE, the tax issue, the weather normalization, the core part of The rate case, what are you thinking or what are the trends been since the last filing, since the acquisition on stuff like O and M, capital investment, Some of the other core items.

Speaker 4

Yes. So as you can imagine, Travis, we've made significant capital investments since the prior rate case. And As Chris noted, the prior rate case was really done before our ownership of the company. So yes, we would see this and the other thing that, I guess it was included in the last one, but we obviously will include it here is fully projected future test year. So In this case, look for this to recover the capital that we've invested so far, the capital and expenses through that fully projected future test year, To incorporate the repair benefit into the case so that, that repair is part of the I should say it this way.

Speaker 4

The tax the lower effective tax rate from repair becomes part of the revenue requirement and thus the benefit of repair It's going to the customers and then as Chris noted weather normalization. So those are the points I guess I would make in terms of

Speaker 3

And obviously, any of the inflation that we've experienced, we start to pick up. Absolutely.

Speaker 7

Yes, Yes. Okay. That makes sense. And then more of a high level conceptual question. Talking about that 2% to 3% customer growth for water, flat for gas, again, just high level, it seems like when you build a house, You need water and gas.

Speaker 3

So wondering if

Speaker 7

you could square the difference. Are you seeing More houses electrify, is there some kind of efficiency? I don't know. What are the thoughts there? What's the big delta?

Speaker 4

Travis, I think it's mainly geography. So if we talk about where we have larger organic growth, We probably have more of that organic growth in Southeast Pennsylvania than Southwest and we see that large organic growth in North Carolina, Texas, Indiana around the Indianapolis area. So we do tend to see more building, if you will, in our service territories And those states that I just walked through.

Speaker 3

We I've just seen recently a couple of housing developments That we're all gas in the Pittsburgh region, which says it's still growing, but not enough to really move the needle. That's why We call it

Speaker 4

steady. Yes. And even Chris, maybe we have pulled some data recently and it's hard to get exact data in terms Housing construction and gas connections out in Western Pennsylvania. But we are seeing there's still that desire to have natural gas In new construction, and so we think that pretty well correlated out there that as you see new construction around Pittsburgh, they are gas connections.

Speaker 7

Okay. Very good. So no material kind of electrification type of trends that you're seeing?

Speaker 3

Not seeing any trends in the areas where we serve, right?

Speaker 7

No, you sir. Okay. Very good. That's all I had. Thanks so much.

Speaker 3

Appreciate it. Take care, Travis.

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from Greg Orrill of UBS. Please go ahead.

Speaker 3

Hey, Greg.

Speaker 4

Good morning, Greg.

Speaker 5

Yes. Hi. Good morning. Just wondering what sort of updates on PFAS we should be looking for around The May 30 filings with the EPA?

Speaker 3

Listen, I think Couple of things. 1, the current reg, suggests that we would have our work complete on mitigation by 2027. I think that's going to be a stretch. And I think hopefully that gets extended a little bit, But we're running as fast as we can. It's just a big effort.

Speaker 3

Secondly, I would say, this is a much bigger project or set of projects Then, I think EPA is talking about I think they're probably coming to terms with it, They've estimated that the cost for this is nationally is somewhere around $2,000,000,000 And I would say that's a gross underestimate. And I think that will come out as time goes along here. So we look at the projects across our areas, if there's concentrations, So it's not focused on systems across the platform, it's focused on key areas, Areas like North Carolina, New Jersey, and it's a little spotty. So it's not like you take this and spread it over the whole customer base. But when you think about where we were at 13 parts per trillion and the costs associated with that and now where we are at 4 parts per trillion, the MCL that The EPA has announced, it's fairly dramatically different.

Speaker 3

4 parts per trillion is almost a non detect. And so, the costs are vastly different. But listen, we're going to be supportive. I think The administration is going to press this one. So we don't anticipate seeing any changes.

Speaker 3

We think the 4 parts probably goes And we'll do our part to get there.

Speaker 5

Okay, thanks.

Speaker 7

You bet.

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from David Sunderland of Baird. Please go ahead.

Speaker 3

Good morning, David. Good morning,

Speaker 8

Thanks for taking my question. Yes, good morning. Good to see some updates on the pending uni transactions and the 5 that are going to close in the next two quarters roughly. Just wanted to ask high level thoughts on any changes that have been in the pipeline, whether there have been difficulties or opportunities related to the worst in macro environments, banking stress or Any difficulties you guys are seeing with maybe competitors having financing challenges or just any opportunities that may be coming in that pipeline?

Speaker 3

Yes. I guess the news over the last several months has been the exit of what could have been a fairly large player In the space, right, NextEra decided to exit the space. So that's probably one of the interesting pieces of news. I haven't heard particular financing challenges of peers, but I think what you probably start to see is some challenges Materializing in the municipal sector. And certainly, PFOS will contribute, right?

Speaker 3

We believe the PFOS issue is much larger again than EPA is estimating. And once the municipals find these challenges, Again, assuming that enforcement will be a key element here, then there will be a lot of municipals looking for help on PFAS. And whether that's help implementing their own solution where we might be able to help or, oh my gosh, this is so expensive, we need to exit. And so that could be a key contributor toward our acquisition program as we offer our set of solutions.

Speaker 8

That's helpful. Appreciate the time guys. Thanks.

Speaker 3

You bet. Take care.

Operator

And we have our next question comes from Jonathan Reeder of Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

Speaker 3

Hey, Jonathan. Good morning, Jonathan.

Speaker 6

Hey, good morning. Thanks for the time. A lot of my questions have been asked, but just a few follow ups. So I guess given the offsetting efforts already made and the favorable Q2 weather that you kind of mentioned, how much additional work Do you think you have to do to fully offset what I think was the roughly $0.08 headwind from the Q1 gas volumes?

Speaker 4

Yes. Let me just clarify because I don't want you to overthink the impact of or overestimate the impact Of a warm cold, I should say, April. Think about an $0.08 weather impact in the first 3 months of the year, we might have a sort of a $0.01 of that coming back in the Q4, maybe a little bit more, But it was just 1 month. And as you know, when you get into April, your heater just kicks on less. So it's not Days as we go further toward summer don't have as much impact as they do in January, February March.

Speaker 4

So we have work to do here. As Chris mentioned, obviously, though, the sale of the energy projects and the O and M The diligence around regulatory filings that I mentioned all contribute to that work in terms of making up for that shortfall.

Speaker 6

Okay. But like the O and M decrease that we saw in Q1, was that related to you guys starting to kind of flex that muscle already or has As that stuff not really kicked in yet.

Speaker 4

I would say it's a mix. There were some other things that helped in Q1, certainly weather being warmer, you do have Fewer main breaks, lower maintenance expenses. I'd say the some of that focus you would have seen in the Q1, but More of that focus is to play out through the next 9 months of the year.

Speaker 6

Okay. Got you. And then, I think you kind of did allude to it that you put a finer point on the amount of equity you need. I think you $500,000,000 in 2023. So kind of two questions on that.

Speaker 6

Does that $500,000,000 I guess, does that include The like $50,000,000 to $75,000,000 that you issued in late 2022 under the ATM and then also what would that total look like If DelCora slips into 2024 from a close perspective.

Speaker 4

Yes, there's a lot of some specificity there, Ryan. Let me talk Jonathan, let me talk about that a little bit. So we think about kind of approximately $500,000,000 more incremental to what we did under the ATM. So that's the first part of that. And then as we continue to evaluate our credit metrics relative to acquisitions, We'll give more clarity beyond this point.

Speaker 4

So this is what we're going to talk about, I think, leave it at that today. I I mean for the year so far too, under the AT and T, if you think about the raise, we did some last December, we did a little bit in January, but It's less than $20,000,000 worth. It wasn't a big number.

Speaker 6

But as we think about like, I guess, DelCor, I mean, Should we still be thinking like the M and A deals are fifty-fifty or because of this thought around the credit metrics, Is it capitalizing at or the equity portion being greater than 50% now?

Speaker 4

No, I think fifty-fifty is the right way to think about acquisitions. But I also would remind you, We have a significant CapEx program that we're running today too. So it's capital, It's acquisitions. Think of the big dividends, big cash users, all demand that, we continue to look at How we finance the business.

Speaker 3

Okay.

Speaker 6

Okay. And then lastly, did you give an estimate of what the expected proceeds from The sale of those kind of 3 people's projects are, is it like anything meaningful from an equity offsetting perspective?

Speaker 4

Well, we're in the midst of a process there, so we really can't comment on the either what we think that That top line price could be or what kind of gain might be built into that?

Speaker 6

Okay. The gain would flow through to help, I guess, the hitting guidance this year and that's one of the proceeds Yes.

Speaker 4

Yes. Think of it as twofold, right? There's a gain that helps from an income perspective and there are proceeds that help in terms of financing the business In lieu of capital phase via another means.

Speaker 6

Okay, awesome. Appreciate you taking the time today. Thanks.

Speaker 3

All

Speaker 4

right. Thanks, Jonathan. Take

Operator

care. Thank you. At this time, we have no further questions. So I'd like to hand it back over to Chris Franklin for any closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Speaker 3

Great. Thank you, everybody, and thanks for your time today. As always, we'll remain available for questions, follow ups At any time, Renee is standing in today for Brian. Brian will be back in action soon though. And I appreciate you being with us today.

Speaker 3

Take care.

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Earnings Conference Call
Essential Utilities Q1 2023
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