DTE Energy Company (NYSE:DTE) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Andrew Weisel: Appreciate the detailed answers to the previous questions. You covered a lot of what I wanted. Just 2 follow-ups maybe for me then. First, in terms of the sales forecast, obviously, that was a big difference of opinion in the last rate case. Does that change have any impact on the IRP and the long-term outlook for capacity resource needs?

Gerardo Norcia: We had built that in, Andrew, into IRP forecast. Now of course, what we do in an IRP is we provide for scenarios for demand increases, both the largest demand increase opportunity is really EV attachments and some of the economic development activity that we expect in the near term. But we try to build an IRP that not only addresses point estimates, but also a range and scenarios and forecast. And that’s something that is required by the IRP filing guidelines, and I think — we think it’s a very wise thing to do because, obviously, over a period of 20 years, there can be a significant amount of variability in demand forecast. So we provide low, medium and high type of forecast.

Andrew Weisel: Okay. And you’re still in that range, essentially?

Gerardo Norcia: Yes. Yes.

Andrew Weisel: Okay. Great. Then lastly, on equity, the sources and uses of cash page, Slide 17, shows zero or a little dash, I suppose, for new equity. But in one of your earlier slides, you talked about up to $100 million per year. How likely is that to remain zero? Is that a function of the timing of CapEx or the $1.3 billion convertible last year? Just trying to understand why that’s 0 and not something greater than zero.

David Ruud: Yes. Our goal there will be to keep that as low as possible, obviously, and how we generate cash and how we get cash through our plan will be one of the big drivers of that and how we use it in CapEx. So we see in our plan minimal equity issuances, hopefully in that around 0, but it could be in the 0 to 100 range as we go forward.

Andrew Weisel: Okay. So it’s zero for the entire 3-year period is a realistic possibility?

David Ruud: It’s a possibility. I would expect some internal equity issuances that we have through our internal sources, though.

Operator: Your next question is from the line of Anthony Crowdell with Mizuho.

Anthony Crowdell: Well, again, I hope the restoration efforts go quickly. I’m sure it’s a grind for all the workers out there. So fingers crossed.

Gerardo Norcia: We’re really proud of our people out there. They’re braving these elements, and we just hope for their safety and good health, and certainly the same for our customers.

Anthony Crowdell: Yes, I’m sure we all take for granted the service we get provided in our electric system and gas. Just 2 quick ones. One on the IRM filing or request. And I apologize if I had this wrong, has DTE requested that for the Electric segment before? And just what — if so, what gives you this optimism that this time, maybe it gets approved?

Gerardo Norcia: The last time we did it, Anthony, we requested a really large IRM amount. And this is like over a handful of years ago. And this time — and it was — I felt at that time the feedback we got that, maybe it was too big the request. And we were trying to make it big enough to stay out of rate cases immediately, so that there would be an immediate benefit to us and many other interested parties not having to have rate cases every year. Well, this time, we’ve taken a different approach. We’ve made it smaller in the early years, which may have us — may create a little more work as you’re in for both rate cases and reconciliations in the early years on the IRM. But over time, it will start to put distance between rate cases as we grow it.