Shawn Anderson: We’ve not disclosed the specific percentage associated with that, but we reiterate that we believe it would be a modest change to the Slide 14 that we laid out today. And the main reason for that really is the execution of the minority interest sale process in 2023 and really all financing in 2023, which has strengthened our balance sheet such that incremental capital expenditures can flow through more accretively than when we had otherwise not had a strengthened balance sheet. All of the incremental capital expenditures are 100% regulated investments. That means they will grow cash from operations. So on the left-hand side of that slide, you’ll see cash from operations flow in that will help to support some of the financing costs otherwise.
And then also a portion of these investments will hopefully continue to benefit from the provisions established in the IRA as we develop more solar assets and provide additional favorable tax treatment for NiSource and its customers.
Paul Fremont: And for 2024, where within sort of the 14% to 16% FFO to debt, would you land without incremental sort of CapEx?
Shawn Anderson: Well, two quick points on that. First off, we don’t see any material incremental CapEx in 2024 from the upside plan at this time, which also means that our 2024 financing plan is materially unchanged in all scenarios. Which again assumes no equity issued in 2024 after closing the NIPSCO minority sale transaction as well as the equity units for marketing transaction, both here and fourth quarter of 2023. Further from that, we’ve not indicated a point estimate. However, I’d say that all years of our plan are within the 14% to 16% FFO to debt range inclusive of 2023 at the conclusion of those transactions.
Paul Fremont: Okay, great. That’s it. Thank you very much.
Shawn Anderson: Thank you. Appreciate your questions.
Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Travis Miller with Morningstar. Please go ahead.
Travis Miller: Thank you. Good morning.
Shawn Anderson: Good morning, Travis.
Travis Miller: You just answered several of my questions on the CapEx, but I’ll put one more out there that adding that 2028 at the same level as 2027. Does that still support the 8% to 10% when we get out to that year-over-year 2027, 2028? Or do you need some of that $2 billion to get to that 8% to 10% rate base? Growth in 2028.
Shawn Anderson: Yes, at this point, it does the base plan still supports the 8% to 10% annual rate base growth. And certainly, we’ll continue to evaluate potential for more investment if it’s out there.
Travis Miller: Okay. So there’s enough growth in that 2.9% to 3.2 to support there.
Shawn Anderson: That is — correct.
Travis Miller: Okay. As part of that financing plan, you have that 10% to 12% total shareholder return. What are your thoughts within that in terms of dividend growth? I know you haven’t put it explicitly like you have before, but still at 6% to 7% that growth number?
Shawn Anderson: We’ll continue to stay within the 60% to 70% payout ratio, and that’s how I would mark the dividend within the 10% to 12% as well as we’ve assumed a flat PE in our plan just in terms of financing assumptions, we’ve basically marked our PE in the financing side of things here in October and kept it flat for the duration of the plan.
Travis Miller: Okay. Okay. And then one more. In terms of the financing, we’ve seen a couple across the industry, a couple of sales, gas sales, utility sales comps here since you guys last were out in the market. What are your thoughts on the valuations there? It appears they might be more attractive than issuing your straight market equity? Is that something you’ll consider as part of the financing plan?
Lloyd Yates: So right now, when we look at our financing plan, we look at our investment windows down the road. We don’t think we need to exercise any sales with LDCs. We think we can stay within our 14% to 16% FFO to debt. We think we can grow the business 6% to 8% a year and pay a dividend at 67% payout ratio. So we don’t see a knee to sell LDCs. We like the scale of the LDCs. We like our jurisdiction. We think they’re really constructive, and we think we have a great organic growth plan.
Shawn Anderson: I’ll just add to that real briefly that we still believe in this inflationary environment that stakeholders benefit from the scale of the NiSource assets as constructed today. When you look at robust capital visionary environments, we’re able to hold O&M flat and take advantage of a lot of investment opportunity, translating that across the scale of our business. And by getting smaller, it does have an impact to customer affordability that we watch and are considerate of.
Travis Miller: Okay, got it. And then one real quick one, is there storage opportunities at the other solar sites that you could add?
Lloyd Yates: So we are actually going through a refresh of the IRP in 2024 and we are evaluating, we know that the IRP indicates that storage would be beneficial to the system and are looking at that within the future plan. And yes, we will evaluate whether or not at the other solar site would be beneficial to ask from.
Travis Miller: Okay, great. Thanks so much. Appreciate the answers.
Lloyd Yates: Thank you.
Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Aditya Gandhi with Wolfe Research. Please go ahead.
Aditya Gandhi: Hi, good morning, Lloyd, Shawn, Michael. Can you hear me?
Lloyd Yates: Good morning. Loud and clear.
