Xcel Energy Inc. (XEL) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and welcome to the 2021 Shareholder meeting of Xcel Energy. I would now like to introduce the first presenter Ben Fowke, Chairman and CEO of the company. Please go ahead.

Well, thank you, and good morning, and welcome to Xcel Energy's 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I would have loved to see all of you in person today, but due to the continued pandemic and for the safety of everyone involved, we determined it was in the best interest to hold this meeting virtually. So this will be our agenda today. First, Amy Schneider, our Corporate Secretary, will lead the business meeting. Following that, I will share brief comments on our 2020 results, our response to the coronavirus outbreak and then the execution of our strategic plans. After my prepared remarks, I will answer shareholder questions we received. I expect the entire meeting will last no more than a half an hour and we'll conclude at 11:30 Central, this morning. In addition to my leadership team, members of our Board of Directors are attending virtually today as well. I want to thank our Board members for their engagement. We've been holding updates regularly throughout the coronavirus outbreak and i appreciate their council. I would also like to welcome two new board members who joined us this year, Patricia Kampling and Charles Pardee. And finally, I'd like to thank David Owens and Joe Sheppard, who are rolling off our Board following this meeting. David has served on our Board for the last 3 years and Joe for the last decade. We appreciate their dedication and guidance to this organization. Now Amy Schneider will lead us in the business meeting. Amy?

Thank you, Ben. Good morning, everyone. Let me start with a few procedural matters. As noted in the proxy statement, the record date for voting at this meeting was the close of business on March 22, 2021. As of that date, there were 538,074,813 shares of common stock outstanding. Each share has one vote. More than 86% of the shares of our common stock are present by proxy at this meeting. So we do have a quorum. If you've already voted your proxy, your votes will be cast as you've instructed. Anthony Carideo from Broadridge Financial Solutions is our inspector of election. There are 4 proposals that will be voted on today, the details of which were provided in the proxy statement. Proposal #1 is the election of 14 directors to 1-year terms. The names of the nominees are listed in the proxy statement and on the screen. Proposal #2 seeks approval on an advisory basis of our executive compensation. Proposal #3 seeks the ratification of the appointment of Deloitte & Touche as Xcel Energy's independent registered public accounting firm for 2021. Proposal #4, a shareholder proposal, seeks approval for the company to create a report on the cost and benefits of its voluntary climate-related activities that exceed government regulatory requirements. This proposal, along with the company's response, was fully disclosed in the proxy statement. Steve Milloy, the shareholder who submitted the proposal, has joined us by phone today and will have up to 3 minutes to explain his proposal and the rationale behind it. Welcome, Mr. Milloy. Operator, please open the line for Mr. Milloy to present his proposal.

Mr. Milloy, your line is now open.

Good morning. My name is Steve Milloy. Fellow shareholders, my proposal is about honesty and accountability for management. Honesty and accountability are the key legal duties management owes us, but we are not getting either. I am asking that management report to us on what is being accomplished by spending money on emissions cuts that are not mandated by the government. For example, management is committed to 0 emissions by 2050. Meeting that goal is impossible, if not just foolish, and it certainly will never actually be enforced unless we are to live without electricity. The grid cannot be operated without the reliable and affordable baseload power provided by coal, natural gas and nuclear power. Claims to the contrary are sheer nonsense and management knows this. So management is lying to us. Just why has scheming management put off the 0 emissions date to 2050. They know, they won't be at Xcel 30 years from now to be accountable when the plan inevitably fails. In the meantime, management is happy to virtue signal and a profit here by ripping off our customers with pointlessly higher electricity prices. Even if you believe the science fraud that towers the climate hooks, here is the indisputable reality. Xcel currently emits about 8/100th of a percent of global emissions, that's 0.08% of global emissions. Xcel could stop emitting today and forever, and it would make no difference to climate. In fact, the entire United States can stop emitting today and forever, and it would make no difference to global climate. But don't take my word for it, listen to Joe Biden, who said in his recent address to Congress, even if we go to 0 emissions, "it's ultimately not going to matter." Biden climate on -- Climate Envoy, John Kerry, said that both the U.S. and China could go to 0 emissions tomorrow and the climate problem is not solved, Kerry then added that the whole world could go to 0 emissions by 2050, and the imaginary problem would still not be solved. The underlying math is simple, and it doesn't matter on your view of what passes today as climate science. So Xcel can achieve nothing on climate. Absolutely nothing, except cynical virtue signaling and in roll profiteering. And to further underscore the pointlessness of Xcel's extracurricular climate activities, consider that China is currently building an amount of coal power equal to the entire U.S. coal fleet. China has no actual plan to cut emissions. India plans to double its coal production by 2024, an amount that is twice the current U.S. production. And the continent of Africa still has 600 million people without affordable and reliable electricity. They will be burning coal, too. It's no wonder the United Nations reports that emissions are increasing with no end in sight. Management's 0 emissions goal is a total joke. Money spent on climate is a total waste. Management discussions of its climate-related activities is totally false and misleading. Management is totally violating its legal fiduciary duties to us. Perhaps management could prove me wrong by producing the requested report, but our dishonest management doesn't want to admit that emissions cuts are giant hopes and fraud. Instead, management wants to serve the climate scam and using a view of shareholders and rip off customers. This is gross. Vote yes on proposal #4. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Milloy. I now declare the polls closed. Official results, which include the votes cast at this meeting will be disclosed in an 8-K filing and posted on Xcel Energy's website. Meanwhile, the inspector of election has provided us preliminary results showing that all director nominees were elected, and all management proposals were approved. The shareholder proposal did not pass. The formal business portion of the meeting is now officially adjourned. Let me remind you that we may make some forward-looking statements during this meeting. You should refer to our SEC filings for the risk factors related to our business. We may also refer to non-GAAP measures during the presentation. The nearest GAAP measure and reconciliation to the non-GAAP measure can be found in our 2020 year-end earnings release located on the Investor Relations page of our website. Ben will now discuss the company's 2020 performance in our response to the coronavirus pandemic. Following his remarks, Ben will answer questions that have been submitted through the virtual meeting site. If we are not able to answer all questions, we will provide a response on our Investor Relations page as noted in our proxy statement. We expect to adjourn this, this morning, no later than 11:30 Central Time. Thank you for attending our business meeting. And now I will turn it back to Ben.

Well, thanks, Amy. 2020 was a year like no other, and I'm proud to say the Xcel Energy team rose to the challenge. In the face of a global pandemic, a severe economic downturn and widespread civil unrest, we kept our employees safe and delivered on our financial and operational objectives while simultaneously mitigating the impacts of COVID-19 and supporting our communities like never before. Let me start with a brief overview of our financial accomplishments. Once again, we enjoyed a very strong financial year. We delivered earnings of $2.79 per share despite the economic slowdown caused by the pandemic. Now this was the 16th consecutive year that we have met or exceeded earnings guidance. We increased your dividend 6.2% or $0.10 annually in 2020, the 17th consecutive year of raising your dividend. Our shareholder return was 7.8%. Once again, we outpaced our peer groups on all measures, whether it's a 1-year, 3-year, 5-year or 10-year return basis. Investors appreciate the value and consistency of our financial performance and our story of leading the clean energy transition while enhancing reliability and keeping bills low. I'm proud to say that carbon emissions from electricity used to serve our customers are down 51% from 2005 levels, positioning us halfway to our goal of producing 100% carbon-free electricity by 2050 and are ahead of the pace of our industry-leading goal to achieve an 80% carbon reduction by 2030. We added nearly 1,500 megawatts of company-owned wind energy to our system in 2020, including large self-build projects in Colorado, Minnesota and New Mexico. We also became one of the handful of companies in the world to exceed 10,000 megawatts of wind energy on our system. This month, we completed the largest multistate wind investment in the country, more than a dozen wind farms in 7 states. That's a journey that started in 2017. We're also excited about our efforts to use our increasingly green product to reduce carbon emissions in other sectors of the economy, starting by electrifying the transportation industry. In August, we announced a bold vision to power 1.5 million electric vehicles in our service areas by 2030. That means approximately 20% of all the cars on the road in our service territory would be electric. It would save customers an estimated $1 billion a year, an annual fuel cost, by 2030 and remove approximately 5 million tons of carbon annually by the same year. Despite the progress we made last year to lead the clean energy transition, 2020 will always be remembered as the year our employees delivered for our customers and communities in extraordinary times. We met or exceeded goals on our 2020 corporate scorecard metrics despite almost half of our employee population were working remotely. Providing natural gas and electricity took an even greater prominence during the pandemic and our frontline workers delivered while adjusting to enhance safety precautions, including expanded personal protective equipment, daily temperature checks and enhanced cleaning procedures. We also implemented new procedures such as staggered schedules. A one employee per vehicle limit and safety meetings held at job studies instead of service centers, and we began the pivotal evolution of our safety approach that focuses on eliminating serious injuries. We never lose sight of the important role we play in the community. At the request of the Minnesota Commission, we filed a $3 billion proposal to help jump-start the economy of the upper Midwest by repowering older wind farms with newer technology and are proposing the largest solar facility in the region. It's also important to lead in other ways. Ensuring Xcel Energy is a positive force for racial justice and reconciliation is a high priority for me, we are deeply committed to supporting our communities and advancing racial equity, rebuilding, following civil unrest, and addressing COVID-19 impacts, which continued to disproportionately affect black communities. We earmarked $20 million from the Mankato Energy sale last year to short and long-term corporate giving, including support for COVID-19 recovery and racial justice. I am proud our company is engaged in community dialogue and we are investing in organizations having a real impact. We have more work to do as a company, community and country towards creating a more just society, but by working together, we can all be part of the solution. Now looking ahead to the rest of the year, we filed resource plans in Colorado and Minnesota, that, if approved, will add 10,000 megawatts of renewable energy to our system and position us to reach our interim goal of reducing carbon emissions by 80% from 2005 levels by 2030. Meanwhile, our carbon-free technology initiative was adopted by EEI and a number of environmental groups to create federal programs that will promote the development of promising technologies that will be needed to eliminate the last 20% of carbon from our system. I truly think we have the best team in the business, which is one of the reasons that Fortune magazine named us to its world's most admired companies list for the 8th consecutive year, and Ethisphere named us among the 2021 World's Most Ethical Companies. That's the second consecutive year we received that recognition. It's truly an honor to lead this organization, and it's why my announcement last week that I would be retiring as CEO in August has been bittersweet. Of course, I will remain on as Executive Chair of the Board of Directors, which means I don't have to say goodbye just yet. I'm proud of all the -- we've accomplished as a team over the last decade, and I'm so grateful I've had the opportunity to lead this organization during such a pivotal time for the company and the industry. I'm also proud of the work we've done on succession planning over the last several years. We have outstanding senior leaders in place with Bob Frenzel, leading the charge as our incoming CEO. I have all the confidence that this is the right team to lead our company going forward. So with that, I want to thank you again for your virtual participation in our annual meeting of shareholders, and I thank you for your ongoing support. And I'd like to now get to your questions. So Amy?

Thanks, Ben. Our first question is about system reliability, relating to the winter storm down in Texas in ERCOT's transmission area. What are the lessons we learned from that situation?

Well, it's a great question. And I want to start out thanking our employees for their outstanding work to ensure that our customers did not experience any material outages during winter Storm Uri. I'm really proud of the strong performance of our power plants and our electric and natural gas systems during that serious event. I think there are a lot of lessons learned, but I will tell you, at Xcel Energy, we know how important energy is to our customers. And we take reliability very seriously, and we invest in it. So we have winterized all of our fleet, whether it's nuclear or thermal generation, that includes our wind farms that all are equipped with winterization packages. That are generally effective down to minus 22 degrees. We test our plants when we have a cold spell running. We start them up, so they're available. We have dual fuel capability. So I think we have a lot of resiliency in place, and we recognize that while wind and solar are low-cost energy sources on our grid, we need to back them up with dispatchable generation, and we do. As a result of that, again, our customers experienced very minimal outages. So I do think there's a lot of lessons learned from Uri. One, we need to be willing to invest in resiliency. I think it's a low-cost insurance policy, but there is a cost to resiliency. And I think we have to recognize the increased interdependency between the gas and electric sectors. That's so important as we move away from coal and the backup generation is increasingly gas. And I think it's important to always recognize that you need 24/7 dispatchable generation so that when wind and solar isn't working, you can back it up. You put all that together, as we have, and you can do this in a low-cost manner. So it can be done. There's a lot of lessons learned. And hopefully, we'll take those lessons, learn from them and make changes going forward. Great question.

The next question is, what is Xcel Energy's plan with respect to nuclear? Will Xcel Energy be building any nuclear power plant?

Well, right now, we don't have any plans to build any new nuclear plants. In fact, in some of our states like in Minnesota, we're currently prohibited by law by building them. But I think it's a really good question. And we are -- I understand the importance of nuclear to our country. It provides about 20% of the energy in our nation, but it's more than 50% of the carbon free energy. So at Xcel, we're working very hard with our regulators to extend the life of our nuclear plants and continue to provide that 24/7 carbon-free energy to our customers. And I'm really proud and pleased of the performance of our nuclear fleet. It's one of the best fleets in the nation now. So we stand ready to serve our customers for years to come with carbon-free nuclear energy. Now going forward, I believe that the next generation of nuclear, the small modular reactors, for example, could play a very significant role in getting that last 20% of carbon off the grid. More to come on that. But today, we're focused on preserving our existing fleet.

We received questions regarding why Xcel Energy has 14 directors serving on its Board and whether the size of the Board could be reduced.

Yes. Well, we do have flexibility. So under our by laws, we can be as low as 7 directors or as high as 15. Now we have flexed up in the last couple of years and are currently at 14 directors that's because we've been -- we actually were 15 last year, we were preparing for retirements on the Board. I mentioned the couple that we had, and we have some more pending. So we thought it was important from a continuity standpoint that we flex up. I suspect that we'll get closer to that peer average, which is 12 over time. And I would just step back and just say, I'm really proud of our Board. They bring a lot of expertise. They're very important to me. And as we go through our strategic decision-making process, it's a diverse board in terms of business experience, in terms of gender and in terms of ethnicity. So I'm quite proud of the Board, and I think we'll continue to have a great board going forward.

We received questions regarding the CEO compensation. Will you please explain the level of CEO compensation at Xcel Energy?

Well, let me just start out by saying CEOs are well paid. I recognize that. As a CEO, I do make a lot of money. But I do think you should take some comfort in the fact that my pay, my compensation is set independently, and it's set to market. And most of my pay is tied to short and long-term goals that are very advantageous for our shareholders, and I'm pleased to say we've been hitting those goals. So it's set independently. We've been achieving goals. And I think it's that market, and those are the key principles and takeaways, I hope you can understand from that question.

Then the next question is why doesn't Xcel Energy pay taxes?

Well, it's a great question, and I'm glad that came up because there's been some news articles around that. So here's the bottom line. We are the largest wind provider in the country, and we have large solar facilities as well. All of those come with renewable credits, tax credits. And so the federal government has -- wants to incent us to build these farms and to make them more affordable for our customers, and we do. So those tax credits are the primary reason why we're not paying taxes. Now it's important to note 2 things. One, those tax credits flow directly to our customers. So they benefit from that and lower energy bills. Second, while we haven't paid cash income taxes, we do pay a significant amount of property taxes, $500 million annually, by the way. And that puts us in most of our states, as the top property taxpayer in our states, and we pay about $100 million in payroll taxes. So I do think we are paying what we should be paying.

This question is on Community Solar Gardens. A customer is asking why the credit they receive from a developer has declined.

Okay. I think you're referring to the solar garden program, which is here in Minnesota. It's important to note that we don't have control over that level of solar credit. That credit is determined by the Minnesota Commission. It's either based on the value of solar methodology or a formulaic calculation based upon prior revenues and sales. I think it's also important if you're considering entering into one of these programs that some of the assumptions used by solar developers often overstate the amount of growth we expect to see in our rates, which can make their solar project look more attractive. So just something to keep in mind as you're looking at these projects.

Next are questions on our capital investments and renewable energy. How much of our capital investment is for wind and solar? What type of return do you earn on renewables? And how our capital investments are aligned with our carbon reduction goals?

Well, it's a great question, but I think it's probably a question that, it would be great to have Bob Frenzel, our current COO and incoming CEO answer. Bob?

Thanks, Ben, and good morning or good afternoon, everybody. Look, I'm really excited about the investment opportunities that Xcel Energy has in front of us. And I think we're really putting our money where our mouth is in terms of strategy. Our strategic priorities are to lead a clean energy transition to enhance our customers' experience and to keep bills low for our customers. And our investment philosophy and profile are exactly in keeping with those strategic priorities. We're investing heavily in renewable generation and then transmission that enables that generation to make it to the marketplace. We're investing in distribution and business systems that allow us to interface with our customers, maybe in ways they haven't experienced before and offer products and services that they desire, and that takes investment opportunity. And then we're investing in automation and keeping our product affordable for our customers. Direct answer to the question, Amy. I think in the next 5 years, almost 10% of our direct capital investments on renewable energy, that's down a little bit from the past. As Ben mentioned, we are just completing a major build-out of wind. We expect over the next decade, though, Ben mentioned, we had 10,000 megawatts of wind and one of the few companies in the world that have that level of renewable penetration. We're going to double that over the next decade in our companies, and it's going to come with a significant capital investment opportunity for us as a company and on behalf of our customers. So I'm really excited about that profile. I look forward to working with all of our stakeholders over the next many years as Ben and I transition and just appreciate the question and the involvement today.

The next question is, does Xcel Energy plan to build more electric towers in South Dakota?

Yes. I mean, I hope so, because this nation needs more transmission, needs more transmission for the resiliency I mentioned in a prior question to improve reliability and to enable renewables. And transmission, as you probably know, it takes a long time. We had our CapEx 2020 plan that we started talking about, I think, way back in 2004, and we wrapped it up, I think, at the end of 2018. So I hope the next bit of transmission that needs to get built, won't take that long. But we understand it's a long process. It involves many, many different stakeholders. Of course, where we locate transmission as a result of some of those stakeholder conversations. But it's also based upon system requirements and the best place that we can get these towers and this transmission built to serve our customers. It's a very complicated, long process, but the reality is, we need to invest in infrastructure, not only at Xcel Energy, but across the nation. So more to come on that, and it's a big focus of ours. It's a great question.

The next question is whether you anticipate a stock split in 2021?

Well, I'm pleased that our stock has had a great run, and that's to be, I think, applauded, but we don't plan any stock split at this time.

The next question is, when is the company going to grant a dividend increase?

Well, as I mentioned, I think in my remarks, we did grant a 6.4% dividend increase in February, and we've got a track record, I think I said in my remarks, of 17 consecutive years of dividend increases. So I think that's a big part of our value proposition to our shareholders. We recognize how important it is. I think it's important to recognize, too, that our payout ratio is relatively modest compared to our peers, which gives us more flexibility going forward. We've done a good job, I think, of balancing robust capital spend, maintaining our credit metrics and rewarding our shareholders with dividends. So I think you can count on us to deliver for the long haul.

And I think we have time for just one final question. Xcel Energy headquarters are in Minneapolis, near the heart of urban riots and unrest that took place this past year. What precautions and steps has management taken to protect the employees who must work downtown?

Well, I mean, the reality is most of our workers are working remotely and not downtown. And although there are some, and we've beefed up the upper security, we continue to work with local authorities. One of the decisions we've been wrestling with is with the improvements we've seen in vaccinations and the drop-off in COVID-19 cases is, when can we go back to the office. And we made the decision that we'd go back to the office right after Labor Day, and I did that -- made that decision in part because we wanted to give employees time. We understand the summer schedules and that sort of thing are tough to manage, and we wanted to give them that time. But the other reason, quite frankly, is because we wanted to coordinate with other large businesses downtown and try to come back roughly around the same time. If you think about it, there's safety in numbers, will see restaurants and supporting organizations open up around the same time frame. So I think the idea of coming back right after the Labor Day is very helpful when it comes to downtown safety. It is an issue. I will also tell you, I'm working with business leaders to try to improve downtown safety, not only Minneapolis, but St. Paul. It's a big issue. I think we can make a difference as a business community, and we're working hard to do just that. Okay. So is that it? Well, listen, normally, I would say, safe travels back, but we're meeting virtually. So I'm not sure how you say safe travels back virtually other than I really do look forward, hopefully, next year to have this meeting in person. And I want to thank you, and have a great rest of your day.

The Annual Shareholder Meeting for Xcel Energy has now come to an end. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.