Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated (PEG) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome to the virtual webcast of the 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders of Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated. Please note that this meeting is being recorded. However, participants are not permitted to use any recording device. The polls are open. To vote, please follow the instructions on the left-hand side of the screen. Stockholders may submit questions electronically during the meeting by clicking on the messaging icon at the top of the screen and typing their question in the box located at the bottom of the webcast screen. I would like to now introduce PSEG's Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Ralph Izzo, to begin the meeting.

Thank you, Chris. As Chris mentioned, I'm Ralph Izzo, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of your corporation. I extend to all of you a warm welcome to PSEG's first ever virtual annual meeting. I now call this Annual Meeting of Stockholders to order. Ordinarily, I would be joined on stage by members of our executive management team. While we are all participating today from remote locations, I nevertheless would like to introduce the team. They include Ralph LaRossa, Chief Operating Officer of PSEG and President and Chief Operating Officer of PSEG Power; Dave Daly, President of Public Service Electric and Gas Company; Dan Craig, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; Tammy Linde, Executive Vice President and General Counsel; and Michael Hyun, Deputy General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Also participating remotely today are the directors of your corporation, who will be introduced when the Secretary reads the first item of business. The agenda is shown at the right-hand side of the webcast screen. This meeting will be conducted in accordance with the Rules of Conduct provided by our Board and posted on the left-hand side of the webcast screen. The polls are open. If you have not already voted your shares or wish to change your vote, you may do so by following the instructions on the left-hand side of the webcast screen. Stockholders may submit questions electronically during the meeting by clicking on the messaging icon at the top of the screen and typing their question in the box located at the bottom of the webcast screen. These questions will not be visible to other participants. We will address questions in accordance with our Rules of Conduct at the end of this webcast. The inspector who will count the votes for this meeting has already taken her oath. She is Tracie Balach of EQ Shareowner Services. The oath of the inspector will be included in the meeting records. I will now ask the Secretary to report on the meeting notice and other requirements.

The Board of Directors has fixed the close of business on February 26, 2020, as the record date for the determination of stockholders entitled to notice of and to vote at the annual meeting. The inspector has reported that a quorum is present. A certified list of stockholders is available for viewing by request through the web page.

There are 3 principal items of business at this meeting. For the first item, 10 members of the Board of Directors will be elected to a 1-year term that will expire at the Annual Meeting of Stockholders in 2021. The Secretary will now read the names of the nominees for election to the Board of Directors.

As set forth in the proxy statement for this meeting, the nominees for election to the Board of Directors with a term expiring at the Annual Meeting of Stockholders in 2021 are: Dr. Ralph Izzo, Chairman, President and CEO of PSEG; Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, our Lead Director; Willie Deese, retired Executive Vice President of Merck and Co.; David Lilley, retired Chairman of the Board, President and CEO of Cytec Industries Inc.; Barry Ostrowsky, President and CEO of RWJ Barnabus Health; Scott Stephenson, Chairman, President and CEO of Verisk Analytics Incorporated; Laura Sugg, retired President of the Australasia Division of ConocoPhillips Corporation; John Surma, retired Chairman and CEO, United States Steel Corporation; Susan Tomasky, retired President, AEP Transmission of American Electric Power Corporation; and Alfred Zollar, retired General Manager of Tivoli Software division of IBM Corporation.

The next item of business is the advisory vote on executive compensation. This is sometimes referred to as Say on Pay. We intend to review the voting results and consider them when making future decisions regarding executive compensation. The Secretary will now read the resolution.

Resolved, that the stockholders hereby approve on an advisory basis the compensation of the named executive officers as disclosed in the company's proxy statement for the 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders pursuant to the applicable rules of the SEC, including the compensation discussion and analysis, compensation tables and narrative discussion.

The third and final item of business is to ratify the appointment of the independent auditor. The Audit Committee of the Board of Directors appointed Deloitte & Touché LLP, independent registered public accountants, as independent auditor for 2020, subject to stockholder ratification. Eileen Little, the lead client service partner from Deloitte, is participating remotely today. Deloitte audits the financial statements of PSEG and its major subsidiaries and performs other limited services as well. The Secretary will now read the resolution.

Resolved, that the stockholders of Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. hereby ratify the appointment of Deloitte & Touché LLP, independent registered public accountants of Parsippany, New Jersey, as independent auditor to make the annual audit of the books of accounts and supporting records of this corporation for the year 2020.

We are ready to vote. If you have sent in a proxy, you do not need to vote unless, of course, you wish to change your vote. The polls are now open and the inspector is prepared to receive the votes. I'll pause for a moment while that's taking place and rejoin you in just a moment. [Voting]

So this concludes the review of the matters to be voted on. The polls are now closed. The inspector of election will collect and tabulate all of the proxies and ballots.

Mr. Chairman, subject to the final tabulation, we report the following preliminary results: all of the persons named in the proxy statement as nominees for election as directors have been elected for a 1 year term; the company's executive compensation program, as described in the proxy statement, has been approved on an advisory basis; and the appointment of Deloitte & Touché LLP as independent auditor for the year 2020 has been ratified.

Thank you, Ms. Balach. The certificate of the inspector will be filed with the meeting records. Thank you for this vote of confidence in the directors and management of your corporation. All items of business have now been completed, and the meeting is now adjourned. But I would like to take just a few minutes to report to you on the condition of your company. Ordinarily, this time would be spent providing highlights of PSEG's 2019 performance and a review of our vision for the future, but these are not ordinary times. In just a matter of weeks, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the day-to-day operations of our company as it has for virtually every business, household and individual around the world. I offer my genuine and sincere condolences to anybody who has been personally touched by COVID-19. I also extend my thanks to the doctors, nurses, police, ambulance crews and all of the first responders during this challenging time, along with all those essential workers who help sustain us, the delivery drivers, grocery clerks, transit workers and so many others we rely on. To navigate this unprecedented public health and economic emergency, PSEG has been guided by the same playbook that has served us throughout our 117-year history: to provide safe, reliable energy to homes and businesses, while safeguarding the health and well-being of our employees, our customers and the communities we serve. New York and New Jersey find themselves at the epicenter of the U.S. corona crisis. As a result, we are taking all necessary steps following the recommendations of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as other federal, state and local authorities, to establish protocols that protect the health and safety of our customers and our employees, while ensuring we continue to provide electricity and natural gas for the ongoing public health emergency. While we are focused on managing the crisis at hand, we are also continuing to work toward our powering progress vision for the future, a future in which people use less energy, the energy they use is cleaner and it is delivered more reliably than ever before. While it is too soon to draw conclusions about the long-term financial impact of COVID-19 on our business, we are confident it will not detract from our efforts to lead the transition to a low carbon energy future. For just as millions of customers rely on PSEG to continue to provide safe, reliable power to sustain them through a public health crisis, our company also has a leadership role to play in confronting the threat of climate change. PSEG remains committed, as always, to enabling a clean energy future as we deliver sustainable long-term value to our customers, our communities, our employees and our shareholders by focusing on the fundamental objectives of operational excellence, financial strength and disciplined investment. We thank you, our shareholders, for your loyalty and support. We will continue to work hard in order to maintain your confidence and trust. I'll turn it back over to Michael to start our question-and-answer session.

Thank you, Ralph. Questions may be submitted by clicking on the messaging icon at the top of the screen and typing in your question in the box located at the bottom of the webcast screen. We will address the questions that are, in a reasonable judgment, appropriate for this meeting in accordance with the Rules of Conduct. [Operator Instructions] We have received a question -- a couple of questions from [ Mr. Raden Sora ] that I would be happy to address. The question relates to what the quorum for this meeting is and how many shareholders are present for this meeting, and whether we would be disclosing our results. The quorum for this meeting is a majority of stock entitled to cast the vote, and our latest count has our quorum at 85% or higher. We expect that number to be higher by the time we get final results. So the number of shareholders present at this meeting is well over the quorum requirement. And on the question of the results of voting, we will be filing an 8-K with the results of the vote in due course. And I can say that all 3 proposals have passed with a very strong majority of votes in favor.

We'll just keep the vote open for another moment or so. We are getting some constructive feedback from some shareholders about the sound quality and the preference for video. Thank you for that feedback. Recognize this is our first time doing this. And quite candidly, we would not be doing it, if it were not the rules in effect related to social distancing. So we do have another question that's just appeared. It's from a [ Mr. Herman Ramig ]. I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly. And the question reads, does PSEG expect a significant decrease in utility usage during this current coronavirus situation. And we -- it's too soon to say what will happen over the long term. First brief period of data that we have, we're seeing about a 5% to 6% reduction in energy usage. So while there appears to have been a decline in usage by commercial customers, some of that has shifted over to the residential customer base. Another question has just come in from [ Mr. Frederick Huber ]. Where do we see nuclear power as part of PSEG going forward? We see nuclear power as a vital component of PSEG and a vital component of the nation's energy mix. I'm delighted to report to you that New Jersey published its latest energy master plan in January of this year. And in pursuit of its aspirations for carbon-free energy future, that master plan recognized that the only way to achieve that carbon-free future with -- without having major impacts on customer bills would necessitate the preservation of nuclear power. So I do think that nuclear is an important part of PSEG and New Jersey going forward. Next question is coming from [ Mr. Steven Rinaldi ]. Will the drop in crude oil prices have a significant effect on PSE&G, either positive or negative? So to the extent that the drop in oil prices results in less production of oil in certain parts of the U.S., that also result in the production of what's called associated natural gas. That associated natural gas tends to drive down the price of natural gas in certain markets and eventually in our market here. And lower cost natural gas tends to make life very challenging for our nuclear plants, which are responsible for 60% of our output. So low oil prices could conceivably result in higher gas prices over the short term. Oil being a global market and gas being more of a regional market, so the correlation is not always as simple as I just suggested it would be. [ Mr. Dennis Rear ] is asking, what is PSEG's vision for the electric car charging stations in New Jersey? So [ Mr. Rear ], we're trying to jump-start the electric vehicle adaptation in New Jersey through a request that we have made at the Board of Public Utilities to be able to invest. I believe it's $300 million or close to that amount. It may be -- yes, I believe it is $300 million. And the thinking there is that if we are allowed to build out some of the charging infrastructure, this will give customers greater confidence to purchase electric vehicles and overcome their range phobia, which would then allow other participants to build charging stations as more people buy electric vehicles. And we could or need not be a long-term provider of these infrastructure services depending upon what policymakers want to see happen over the long term. However, we do think we can play a vital role in getting it started. [ Ms. Gwendolyn Bacchi ] has asked, help me understand why shares have decreased in value. And [ Ms. Bacchi ], I'd say that it's a function of several factors: number one, the entire market has seen a reduction in value, including utility stocks. We currently have a few regulatory matters that are pending resolution. I won't go into great detail about them. I would direct you to our website, and specifically our Investor Relations presentations, we do describe them in fairly great detail there. Having said that, I have a high degree of confidence that we will make progress on these regulatory matters. But right now, they are dominating the consideration of our stock specifically. And then, of course, just general market conditions are affecting all equity holdings. [ Ms. Margaret Pellegrino ] is asking how much electricity is being generated by the small solar panels being placed locally in New Jersey towns. And the answer to that, [ Ms. Pellegrino ], is it depends. Typical rooftop systems can be anywhere from 1 to 3 kilowatts. The panels that you see on our utility poles are typically about 100 watts, and larger installations that you see typically on major commercial warehouses or in fields could be on the order of a couple of megawatts. All of these are much, much smaller installations than you would see in some of the larger locations of, for example, the U.S. Southwest, where you would see installations ordering 100 or more megawatts. Ours are necessarily much smaller here in New Jersey. [ Mr. Sharp ] asked, has the pole-mounted solar collectors proven to be effective and will the program continue? And Mr. Sharp, the answer to that question is it depends on how you define the word effective. They certainly have been effective from the point of view of producing solar energy. They are rather expensive. So further expansion of that program is not anticipated nor being proposed. [ Mr. Salmon ] -- [ Mr. Joseph Salmon ] asked, is our dividend safe? And of course, Mr. Salmon, I cannot guarantee the future. However, at this point in time, as we articulate in our Investor Relations portion of our website, we believe the balance sheet of your company is strong. And we do think that shareholders have the opportunity for continued sustainable growth in that dividend into the future. But that is something that the Board of Directors revisits every 3 months depending upon conditions as they warrant them. The line did not go dead. We were just giving people a few more seconds to post questions. Okay. All righty. Well, I think we've come to a lull, and I thank you for your participation and joining us today. This does conclude the question-and-answer session. And most importantly, I thank you for your continued support and your interest in PSEG. This does conclude today's webcast.