Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. (NYSE:AQN) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

And if I think about it from a gas generation perspective, if the asset is more flexible, then it doesn’t have to run as much of the time and therefore has less emissions and is more cost effective for customers. So it’s that kind of thing. The fuel budget is always one of the best places to look to, on the one hand, reduce cost, but also create opportunity for investment. And in the places where we have that opportunity, that’s where we’ll be investing.

Jeffery Norman: And, Rupert, maybe I’ll just add, I mean, we see good opportunities across, across the whole network. And I think one of the positives is that a lot of our capital, majority of their project’s under $50 million. So we’ve got a fair amount of flexibility across many parts of our jurisdictions in order to be able to invest in them, in projects that are digestible.

Rupert Merer: Very good. I’ll leave it there. Thank you.

Jeffery Norman: Yep. Thanks, Rupert.

Operator: Your next question comes from Jessica Hoyle with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Jessica Hoyle: Thanks so much for taking my question. I just wanted to ask about some of your comments on getting an appropriate valuation for the renewable sale. So would you be willing to either change or maybe alter the process to maximize value, including not fully selling the whole portfolio or just selling parts of it?

Darren Myers: Well, at this point, we think that the greatest opportunity will be for selling it as a platform, and because as a full business. And if you think about this business, it’s one that has been doing this business for 30 years, and so has a tremendous amount of capacity and capability to develop assets and to do that in a — in an on-time, on-budget, cost-effective manner. And so we think that there are buyers out there who will be looking for it in whole. And so that’s — that would be our approach to the business as we sit today. And, Jeff, I don’t know, is there anything you want to add?

Jeffery Norman: No. Chris, I think I’d just echo that the, the input that we’ve received so far is that there seems to be lots of interest in the whole business because of that platform and the 30 years of successful track record.

Christopher Huskilson: Yeah.

Jessica Hoyle: Okay, thanks for that. And then just in this quarter, I think it was highlighted that about two-thirds of the higher interest cost was attributed to your variable rate borrowings. So just wanted to see how you’re thinking currently just about your floating rate exposure?

Christopher Huskilson: Yeah. We have one of the metrics that we closely monitor is our fixed to, our fixed to variable, our fixed to variable rate, and 85% is the target on that, that we have internally as a, as a guardrail, and we’re at 86% this quarter. So, we’re in a, we’re in a decent place on that at this time, and we’ll continue to manage that.

Jessica Hoyle: Thanks. Appreciate the color.

Christopher Huskilson: Yep. Thanks, Jessica.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from David Quezada with Raymond James. Please go ahead.

David Quezada: Thanks. Good morning, everyone. My first question just on the renewables side of the business, appreciate the sale process is ongoing, but I’m just curious what you’re seeing today, or if you can comment at all, on availability of tax equity financing for some of those projects. Some committees have mentioned that it’s a bit less available than it has been, and what kind of scenarios could you see to fund growth projects, or could a potential acquirer, how could they look to fund those projects if tax equity wasn’t there?