Brian Savoy: I would add, Steve, North Carolina residential has contributed a significant amount to the weakness this year, over half. So going to decoupling is something we need to really emphasize, it’s going to mitigate risk and volatility going forward. And our Florida jurisdiction has seen strong growth in the residential space. It’s been a hot year in Florida, but we’ve also had strong population migration, strongest in the state of Florida. So, we see positive shoots coming out, and we do see this industrial load in the Carolinas turning as we talk to customers kind of mid to late next year.
Steve Fleishman: Great. That’s helpful. One other separate question. Just on when you’re doing your plan and your growth rate from the standpoint of interest rates, are you generally just kind of using whatever the forward curve is of rates for what — for financings or refinancings and the like?
Lynn Good: We are generally — yes, absolutely, absolutely. And as you know, that’s a dynamic area. So we look at a range, a range of outcomes. We did that in ’23, we’ll do it again in ’24. And as we talked about all of the work we’re doing on cost structure, our objective is to offset the impact of interest rates in 2024.
Operator: The next question is from the line of Nick Campanella with Barclays. Your line is now open.
Nick Campanella: I just wanted to ask, there’s been some pretty significant changes in the Carolinas in terms of just rate structure with these NYRP and I know that you’re a little lower in the range for fiscal ’23, but could you just help frame EPS volatility ’23 versus ’24? And the residential decoupling just stands out to us, if you could just frame how that informs your confidence to hit the 5% to 7% implied EPS growth for ’24 specifically?
Lynn Good: So Nick, I would confirm that it does underpin our confidence in 5% to 7% growth. This modernized construct in the Carolinas is consequential. It’s kind of a first in the history of the utility that we will have multiyear rate plans, the ability to set price as we go forward, of course, delivering value to customers every step of the way, but also more closely matching the expenditure of capital with return. And I would add to that, our confidence in the capital underpinning that 5% to 7% growth, very transparent, integrated resource plans, the outline what it’s going to be necessary to serve this growing state. So the Carolinas are very well positioned for the future. And as Brian mentioned a moment ago, continue to see extraordinary growth in Florida.
And we have strong capital in Florida and grid and solar will be updating our multiyear rate plan, and our investment in the Midwest continues well along both generation and grid in Ohio, for example. So, I feel like we’ve got all of the elements to underpin our confidence in the growth and the jurisdictions are constructive jurisdictions that find the right balance between benefits to customers and investors, and we’re confident in the future.
Nick Campanella: Okay. Great. And what about just on O&M, I know in slides where you kind of talked about 50% sustainable after ’23. But just looking back to prior calls, I think we’ve kind of talked about 75%. So just maybe that’s just different buckets and I’m mischaracterizing it, but could you help reconcile that view? And then how do you just think about ’24?
Lynn Good: Yes. And Nick, I really appreciate that question because we have two different $300 million that I think as I look at some of the commentary has been confusing to you all. So let me step through it for you. You may recall that we entered ’23 with a cost initiative identified at driving out $300 million of cost, primarily in the corporate center. And we said to you at that time we thought 75% of that $300 million would be sustainable. We have executed on that throughout 2023 and have been confident that the 75% is going to 100% that we’ll be able to sustain all of it into 2024. And then further, we have developed mitigation plans based on weak weather and volume in 2023, which is including not only O&M, but other levers, including tax ideas, those total $300 million as well.
