Chesapeake Utilities Corporation (NYSE:CPK) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

So, we’ve tried to lay out that impact. And then I think the remaining factor will be the weather and what happens. The fourth quarter is our second highest from a weather contribution quarter. And so, weather will be warmer, colder or normal will have a significant impact on our results for the year.

Brian Russo: And then, you mentioned FPU — you mentioned, the residential customer growth both at FPU and Delmarva, how does that compare with Florida City Gas’ customer growth?

Jeff Householder: We’ve seen customer growth rates at City Gas that are generally comparable to what we’ve experienced at FPU, and we’ve been near close to 4% or lower 4% typically at Florida Public Utilities. I continue to mention that one of the things that NextEra did while they owned the system, and obviously, they still do, is they doubled the rate base in the five years that they owned it. And those dollars were spent on hooking up new customers primarily, certainly some pipeline replacement activities there. But a lot of that investment went to expanding their systems and serving new customers. So, we think that it folds right into what we’ve been doing at Florida Public Utilities for the last several years.

Brian Russo: And then with the understanding with the permanent financing for Florida City Gas is still pending to be determined. Your $118 million of short term debt balance, $50 million is hedged, right? But is $118 million is that kind of what we should considered normalized going forward until the FCG transaction is the permanent financing is complete?

Beth Cooper: Well, I think from a financing perspective for Chesapeake’s legacy business, We’ve put, Brian, out our guidance in regards to CapEx for the year, and where we’ve reaffirmed that for ourselves, ignoring the FCG transaction to be about $200 million to $230 million. So, that’s the biggest piece that would have an impact on our legacy business as you think about the rest of the year and where we would land there.

Brian Russo: And then just lastly, bigger picture strategically. Obviously, FCG significantly enhances your scale in Florida and just your overall utility footprint approaching 90% of the business. Could you just talk about outside of the LNG project? You announced maybe some longer hydrogen opportunities. Can you just talk more about any growth projects that might be in the pipeline? And then maybe just as important is, your strategy around propane? You’ve done several very accretive acquisitions over the last several years. And I’m wondering, is expansion through bolt-on still part of the strategy? Or we’re going to focus on integrating FCG over the next 12 to 18 months?

Jeff Householder: Well, let’s start with the propane question. I think, as Beth has indicated a moment ago, we’re still pretty bullish on the propane business. We see opportunities to continue to grow and expand that business. Some of those certainly could come through relatively small scale acquisitions. I don’t think we’re interested in the large acquisition opportunities that might come down the pipe, but trying to bolt-on, as you say, another propane opportunity in any of our existing service areas is certainly something that’s appealing to us. And so, we’ll continue to look to grow that business. There’s not a specific business mix split between non-regulated and regulated that we’re striving to achieve. We look for opportunities that make sense, and we execute on the ones that are strategically viable and that are financially attractive to us.

And so, we’ll continue to do that for the propane operations as well as our other non-regulated operations. The larger question on, I think, on the opportunities related to City Gas and other capital opportunities across the enterprise, we’ve indicated that as part of the Florida City Gas acquisition, we see an additional $500 million in capital in City Gas and their core operational areas and surrounding City Gas. I mentioned a moment ago opportunities to deliver additional pipeline capacity into South Florida to expand to serve underserved and unserved areas. All those things create, we think, some very real opportunities for Peninsula Pipeline intrastate transmission business in Florida, and so we’re pretty excited about that. I would also mention that City Gas has expansion of their pipeline replacement regulated program in front of the Public First Commission, and we’re anticipating resolution of that, an order coming out of the commission sometime earlier this month, I believe.