IDACORP, Inc. (NYSE:IDA) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Brian Russo: Okay. Great. And then just maybe lastly the Boardman to Hemingway. I think you mentioned earlier that you looked to break ground or start construction in the first half of 2024. I think that’s being pushed back from maybe a prior target by year end 2023. And I’m just curious are you running up against any deadlines of further delays in this project with what type of capacity that can be brought into your service territory to serve your customers included in the IRP?

Adam Richins: Yes. This is Adam. We hope you’re right to break ground in October. At the end of the day what we’re seeing is a little bit of delays. We have the permits. But along the way you have to get notice received and you have to get those from both the Department of Energy in Oregon and the BLM. And we’ve seen a little bit of delays in terms of their review of those items. And so we’re meeting with them weekly trying to get that to move ahead. We’ve been pushing for this June 2026 deadline to have it in service. Right now that’s optimistic for sure. We’re working towards that goal. It is possible that it could be pushed out to the kind of more of the November time frame based on some of these changes. At the end of the day, we have a 2026 RFP, 2027 RFP that we’re evaluating and that we feel like that push from June to November is a possibility that we will increase what we need in 2026, 2027.

The other thing that’s beneficial is the conversion of volume is right around that same timeframe. So that will give us some help in terms of needed make lots there.

Brian Russo: Okay. Got it. Great. Thank you very much.

Brian Buckham: Thanks Brian.

Lisa Grow: Thanks Brian.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Ross Fowler with UBS. Ross, go ahead.

Brian Buckham: Hello Ross.

Lisa Grow: Hey Ross.

Ross Fowler: Hi. Afternoon. So I just wanted to poke at this, 2025 to 2027 CapEx increasing a little bit more. Just on the base plan increase and then if you have a lot of success in the RFP process and you get a lot of owned generation in the plan out there, how do I think about the balance sheet? And how do I think about funding that CapEx increase?

Lisa Grow: Do you take Brian?

Brian Buckham: Yeah. So, some of that depends on the nature of the awards that we would receive if we were to get some of those RFP wins. If they were BTA for example sometimes the payments are lump sum near the back end or have smaller milestones along the way. If they’re self-builds we’re funding it along the way. So that’s going to impact the type of capital and timing of the capital that we’ll need for those projects. And frankly even just the larger CapEx that we have out there now we’re going to have to finance. And what we’re looking to do is you see that our debt equity ratio is down to about 50%. We want to keep it in that zone maybe 51% equity. So we’re just going to have to blend that and equity going forward to stay there, into that range. And I think that’s where we’ll just have to keep credit ratings in check with some of those issuances.

Ross Fowler: And then, you’ll give an update sort of around RFPs and those ones come in and then sort of implying that financing plan as the CapEx comes by is that, right?