And with that, just again concluding thoughts before we hand it over to Q&A. Certainly, Crystal shared her sentiments as well. And again, I think we feel very, very good about how our settlement was dealt with, but we still have a lot of execution we need to do on a going-forward basis. But feel very, very good about how we’re set up to perform in 2024, certainly not only for our shareholders on this earnings call, but certainly equally important, our customers and other stakeholders. So, with that, I’ll open it up for Q&A.
Travis Meyer:
A – Travis Meyer: Thank you, Brian and Crystal. [Operator Instructions] And we will take our first question from Jonathan Reeder at Wells Fargo, please. Jonathan, you should be unmuted.
Jonathan Reeder: All right, can you hear me okay then?
Travis Meyer: Sure, can.
Jonathan Reeder: Yeah, there was a new dialog box that popped up this time. So [indiscernible] Yeah, no, thanks for taking my questions, team. So, in terms of the equity, is it safe to assume that the new five-year plan that you’ll presumably rollout at EEI will be self-funded as well? In other words, no equity absent larger projects such as new generation or something coming into the fold?
Crystal Lail: Yeah. Hey, Jonathan, and happy Friday afternoon. I’ll take that one. And yes, it is safe to assume we’re sizing our capital plans consistent with no equity as we think about those current plans.
Jonathan Reeder: Okay. Figured that’d be the case that you wouldn’t say no equity today and then two weeks later change it. So…
Crystal Lail: I feel like that would not be a good move from an industry perspective, so no.
Jonathan Reeder: Great. So, moving on to some regulatory stuff, I think you’ve typically reached settlements in South Dakota. Do you expect that, that will be the case again this time around? Or is the size of the request large enough that the key parties will want to fully litigate it?
Crystal Lail: I would certainly expect that we will continue to work with staff from an advocacy perspective and would expect that we would reach a settlement there.
Jonathan Reeder: Great. And then, last one for me is, I know you just completed the Montana rate case and congratulations on that outcome, but just wanted to see if you’re still thinking that the rate case cadence could be every two years or does the one-time adjustment for Yellowstone County under the settlement allow you to push out the next Montana filing a little longer?
Brian Bird: Yeah, Jonathan, I think I’d say this. To me, we have to evaluate what’s the best way to start getting recovery of our costs of Yellowstone. Obviously, we’ll continue construction into 2024 with the hopes of having it done this before summer peak, certainly in the third quarter. But we have to look at the best way to recover our costs, and in fact, if that means filing a rate review with [known any measurable] (ph), that would have to come into play. I think one thing to keep in mind here what we just had an outcome on Wednesday was a 2021 test year, right, and we’re approaching 2024. Our investment continues to go up, our cost continues to go up, including interest expense And so, there is continued pressure here.
And as you heard Crystal mention earlier, we want to earn as to close to our authorized returns as we possibly can in essence to deliver what we’re committing here today, we need to stay on top of that. But we need to certainly think through that. There’s another alternative to try to collect costs on Yellowstone we can think about. But we have to consider all of that and in very short order to be quite frank.
Jonathan Reeder: Okay. No, great. Again, congrats on the outcome and look forward to seeing you guys at EEI.
Brian Bird: Thanks, Jonathan.
Travis Meyer: Thanks, Jonathan. We will take our next question from a telephone line with the last four digits of 5805. Hello?
Unidentified Analyst: Hi, good afternoon. This is [Tanner James] (ph) stepping in for Julien of Bank of America. How are you guys doing?
Travis Meyer: Good. Good to see, Tanner. Or good to hear you, I guess, Tanner.
