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Operator · Operator
Jonathan Arnold
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for PG&E's First Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. With us today are Patti Poppe, Chief Executive Officer; and Carolyn Burke, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. We also have other members of the leadership team here with us in our Oakland headquarters. First, I should remind you that today's discussion will include forward-looking statements about our outlook for future financial results.
These statements are based on information currently available to management. Some of the important factors which could affect our actual financial results are described on the second page of today's earnings presentation. The presentation also includes a reconciliation between non-GAAP and GAAP financial measures. The slides, along with other relevant information, can be found online at investor.pgecorp.com. We'd also encourage you to review our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2025. And with that, it's my pleasure to hand the call over to our CEO, Patty Poppe. Thank you, Jonathan.
Questions & answers
Patty Poppe · Operator
Nicholas Campanella
Q1
Good morning. Hope everyone's doing well. Good morning, Nick. Morning. So a lot of questions on legislation. Patty, you said you expect a constructive outcome this legislative session and this year. You know, can you maybe expand on why you're you're confident that that's indeed happening this year just given the various things in front of the state legislature? And is there any chance that this is still kind of a multiyear effort maybe you can kinda give us a flavor of what you're working towards know, whether it's an extension, and or an increase in the fund size or clarity in the liability cap, just what should we kind of be expecting here? Thanks.
Patty Poppe · Operator
Nicholas Campanella
Q2
Absolutely. And and and understood on that. And then, you know, we're excited to see the rate case be filed here in the middle of May. Know, when we look at some of your peers and the rate cases that they filed to the south of you, the outcomes that they've kinda received there or the ones that are still progressing, just maybe you can kinda talk about what you see as kinda the key differentiator in your upcoming case, whether it's kinda the level of the ask, or the amount of O and M that you're gonna be able and efficiencies that you're gonna be able to kinda flow back to customers, How does this kinda compare to other cases that we've seen in the state?
Patty Poppe · Operator
Nicholas Campanella
Q3
Thanks so much.
Patty Poppe · Operator
Operator · Operator
Constantine
Q4
Hi. Good morning, team. It's actually Constantine here for Shar.
Patty Poppe · Operator
Constantine
Q5
Good morning. So continuing the discussion on the GRC, how should we be thinking about the $5 billion upside CapEx in the context of the upcoming filing? We anticipate that the upside categories will be included in the filing or do you see more incremental CapEx as part of separate recovery?
Patty Poppe · Operator
Constantine
Q6
Understood. And that leads into the second question, which is the data center pipeline update. How quickly do you believe that preliminary engineering can convert into construction projects and maybe in other words, you see that incremental data center related CapEx moving into the 2030 CapEx plan once the GRC is filed? Is that the right time frame for an update?
Patty Poppe · Operator
Constantine
Q7
And and more specific to the to the preliminary engineering volume, the 7.25 gigawatts would that kind of start moving into the final engineering phase? And essentially into that 2030 time frame?
Patty Poppe · Operator
Constantine
Q8
Excellent. Hope that helps. Appreciate the call. Very helpful. Thanks, Constantine. Thanks for taking the question.
Operator · Operator
Richard Sunderland
Q9
Hey. Good morning.
Patty Poppe · Operator
Richard Sunderland
Q10
Just following up on the data center questions. This is a significant jump in the application and preliminary engineering phase Curious if you can share any feedback on what you're seeing on the ground really thinking up how I guess, the cluster study approach last year. And if this is an acceleration of of activity overall, or some response to those initial cluster study efforts.
Patty Poppe · Operator
Richard Sunderland
Q11
Great. Thanks for the color there. And then shifting gears to the ten-year undergrounding plan filing later this year. Know it's been a little bit of a process and a journey to get to that point. Can you speak a little bit to what you're focused on in the run-up to that application? Maybe some recent learnings over the past year to in work across your system, and just how you think about that process going forward relative to expectations, you know, maybe at the start of all this?
Patty Poppe · Operator
Richard Sunderland
Q12
Great. Thank you for the time today.
Operator · Operator
Julien Dumoulin-Smith
Q13
Hey. Good morning. Patty. It's Ian. Thanks very much for the time. I appreciate it. Hey. Maybe picking back up on the wildfire mitigate. Hey. Good morning. Ticking back up on the wildfire mitigation conversation, maybe just a little nuance here, but you added some statistics on idled and abandoned line activity. You elaborate a little bit more on what you all have been doing on that in more specifically, as you think about some of the recent events here, how does that change your anticipated filing when you think about the safety certification review process? And and your future filings. How do you think about that all?
Patty Poppe · Operator
Julien Dumoulin-Smith
Q14
Excellent. Thank you for the nuance there. Appreciate it. And then just coming back a little bit to the conversation on data centers and kudos on on making progress here. You talk a little bit more about linking that back to affordability? I mean, you know, you've put some meaningful move on the board against your earlier targets. Right? This one gigawatt of demand. How does that put your bill increase target? Right?
You talked about this 2% to 4%. You talk about data centers, helping ameliorate that number. Any sense as it stands today, maybe even tentatively, or as a sensitivity against that 2% to 4% based on what you're on track to do on data centers? To push down bill numbers. Know you've alluded to it, but I just wanna ask you more directly.
Patty Poppe · Operator
Julien Dumoulin-Smith
Q15
Alright. Fair enough. Thank you, guys. All the best. I will see you shortly.
Patty Poppe · Operator
Operator · Operator
Anthony Crowdell
Q16
Hey. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Tough act to follow there with Julian. I I I just have one question, and I think maybe to Nick's question, you talked about maybe all the things going on the legislature maybe working for a solution for the you know, wildfire fund. Do you think it's helping the process or, like, helping out showing the urgency to the legislature legislators on a cost of capital filing and also a rate case filing I know it's a busy plate there. But clearly, they're all intertwined. Is that, you think, helping out the process and maybe showing your sense of urgency to the legislators?
Patty Poppe · Operator
Anthony Crowdell
Q17
Great. Thanks for taking the question, and I'll see you guys at AGA.
Patty Poppe · Operator
Operator · Operator
Carly Davenport
Q18
Hey. Good morning. Thanks for taking the questions. Maybe just one clarifying question for me. You had mentioned the tariff exposure in the prepared remarks. Is there any quantification on those impacts on the capital plan that that you can provide?
Carolyn Burke
Yeah. Carly, it's Carolyn. So when we looked at our our sourcing company our sourcing group, first of all, has done a a really good scrub of the impact on tariffs. When we look at our total materials and supply spend, over 90% is domestic. And the main categories in that spend tend better tariff exposed tend to be actually computer hardware, smart grid equipment, and electric equipment like transformers. I'll just remind you, a third of our transformers are sourced internationally from South Korea, and that's at a I think it's a 12% tariff at this point in time.
So that's $100 million of our total spend. So not really significant. On top of that, both our sourcing group believes that the tariffs exposure is very manageable. But I'll just remind you, that over the last three years with our lean operating system in play and our O and M reduction those reductions were on top of absorbing inflation. And 2022, in particular, was a high inflationary year, and we absorbed that inflation and saw those savings So we think our biggest tool in our toolkit right now is is our lean operating system and our O and M savings.
Carly Davenport
Q18
Great. Thank you so much for that. I'll leave it there.
Carolyn Burke
Thanks, Carly.
Operator · Operator
Ryan Levine
Q19
Good morning. Some of the prepared remarks focused on potential legislative solution but outside of legislations legislative solution do you see any progress in the conversation to revisit or change the attachment rate for the wildfire fund.
Patty Poppe · Operator
Ryan Levine
Q20
Okay. I appreciate that. And then just one follow-up to an earlier comment you had made around a 90% assumption around some of the data center projects that have already reached engineering study. How do you have or where is the 90% number coming from and kinda one of the drivers and how you're coming to these forecasts.
Patty Poppe · Operator
Ryan Levine
Q21
Great. Thanks for the time.
Patty Poppe · Operator
Operator · Operator
David Arcaro
Q22
Hey. Good morning. Thanks so much.
Patty Poppe · Operator
David Arcaro
Q23
Hey. Let me see. Oh, I was wondering, where does the conversation with rating agencies stand at this point in terms of the path and timing potentially to get to investment grade?
Carolyn Burke
Yeah. Thanks, David, for your question. So it's Caroline here. We were really pleased this year that we last year, really, that we've reached our FFO to debt target of mid-teens. And I'll just say we remain very focused on maintaining an IT balance sheet. Now we recognize the agencies are taking a measured approach with rating agencies. We were very pleased to see that made Moody's upgraded the PG&E's utility rating.
It was a great outcome acknowledging our progress. But as you know, we're still below IgA at the hold count. The rating agencies are looking for the same signals from policymakers that you are. We remain confident that once ABT 1054 uncertainty is addressed by the state, the rating agencies are gonna take favorable action on our ratings. All our financial metrics are are in line with IG, and we continue to make good progress on wildfire mitigation.
So I think it's that AB 1054 uncertainty that as we've expressed confidence that we're gonna see action this year, and we think that rating agencies will then follow.
David Arcaro
Q23
Okay. Excellent. Thanks for that. And I was just curious if there's anything you'd be able to add on whether shareholder contributions would be a part of the future discussion around the AB 1054 framework. And whether there's been any conversation or indications on on that front.
Patty Poppe · Operator
David Arcaro
Q24
Okay. Understood. Thanks so much. Appreciate it.
Patty Poppe · Operator
Operator · Operator
David Paz
Q25
Hi. Good morning.
Patty Poppe · Operator
David Paz
Q26
I know a lot has been covered, so really maybe just one on IRA Can you just remind me please on any IRA related items in your outlook such as any transferability assumptions, tax rate deductions, and so forth?
Carolyn Burke
No, David. This is Caroline. Thank you for the question. We really don't have significant exposure to the IRA. The way we think a way to think about this first, we PG&E currently does not have any utility-owned solar or storage projects under construction. So we really don't have any exposure there. We do, of course, have energy procurement costs and have a number of executed PPAs for solar and battery projects. Currently under development.
And so we're in the market right now as well as in terms of of buying some of that procurement. It remains seen how the pricing may be impacted by tariffs and the availability of those tax credits on those, but we're following the competitive solicitation process very closely. And we're very mindful of securing the very best commercial terms on behalf of our cost customers. But that that's our exposure to the direct exposure to the TextExpression is limited.
David Paz
Q26
Great. Thank you.
Operator · Operator
Michael Lonegan
Q27
Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. So as we think about the cost of capital application, what is embedded for your ROE and equity ratio and your current long-term EPS growth forecast? And know, are you looking for this application in the upcoming GRC filing know, as an opportunity to extend this growth rate or potentially raise it?
Carolyn Burke
In terms of our of our I know in terms of our plan, I will just reiterate that we always plan conservatively. So we have a cost of capital application out there at 11.3. We would not call that conservative in terms of what we're planning, but we haven't necessarily shared exactly the number that's in our plan. At this point in time. And our aren't sharing that at this time.
Michael Lonegan
Q27
Okay. Great. And then secondly, talked about incremental capital know, making your base plan better or, you know, reprioritizing spend with it or extending the duration of rate base growth, Just wondering as it pertains to the S P 410 filing specifically, the $2.8 billion of capital. Do you have a narrower view of your approach to that?
Patty Poppe · Operator
Michael Lonegan
Q28
Great. Thanks for taking my question.
Patty Poppe · Operator
Operator · Operator
Patty Poppe · Operator
Operator · Operator
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