CMS Energy Corporation (NYSE:CMS) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Page 4 of 10

I think, obviously, there’s — it’s early days. But we certainly think what we’re showing on the page and that Slide 20 offers at least a representative or is at least indicative as to where prices may go if we see continued tightening. Again, those light blue bars, that upside opportunity is not incorporated in our plan to be very clear.

Garrick Rochow: And just to add to that, that old seasonal construct is out there to address resource adequacy. And when you — the capacity that has been applied over units has the potential to actually reduce some capacity of units. And so that the need grows, certainly in the short to midterm across all of MISO, including Zone 7. So the value of a place like in a facility like DIG should only improve for Rejji’s comments.

Unidentified Analyst: Great. That’s helpful. And switching gears a bit here. Can you quantify the aggregate voluntary regulatory mechanisms in 2022? And as we think about the updated 2023 guidance range, do you have any voluntary mechanism embedded in the range at this time?

Rejji Hayes: Yes. So to answer your last question first, Heidi, we do not presuppose any VRM for the 2023 waterfall, or sorry, for our 2023 guidance, and none of that’s incorporated in the waterfall, I should say. With respect to the components of the refill mechanism, we just filed that earlier this year, to be clear, it’s $22 million and we’re going to allocate a portion of that towards excess capital investments over the course of ’22 attributable to emerging capital work like asset relocations demand failures on new business. And so that’s a portion of it on the electric side. And then we allocated a good — the balance of it towards our gas customers, particularly those who are most vulnerable, and we think that’s a very prudent use of those resources during these challenging times for customers. And so that’s really the spirit of it. Were you also getting at the electric rate case settlement commitments as well?

Unidentified Analyst: Yes, yes, correct. And the donations as well as how we should think about kind of what informs the guidance?

Rejji Hayes: Yes. And so there’s none of that incorporated into the 2023 guide either and just to round out the numbers here. So in the electric rate case settlement, we committed to a $15 million bill credit that will benefit customers in 2023. And again, we recognize the expense of that in 2022, and then there was a $10 million again of low-income customer support, again, recognized in 2022 and customers will benefit from that over the course of this year. And so that’s really how it works. And none of that is presupposed in our 2023 guide.

Garrick Rochow: And so if I pull up and look at the big picture here, this is why the Michigan regulatory construct is so strong. You have these mechanisms, whether it’s the settlement or whether it’s a voluntary refund means that allow us to derisk the future year and offer additional customer benefit. And that’s exactly what this $47 million is. And so this gives us — this is why I’m so confident, we’re so confident in our ability and the outlook for 2023.

Unidentified Analyst: Great. Thank you so much. And congrats again on the results.

Garrick Rochow: Thank you, Heidi.

Operator: The next question is from Michael Sullivan of Wolfe Research. Michael, please go ahead. Your line is open.

Michael Sullivan: Good morning. One thing I picked up on in your comments of front Garrick was I think you said improved approach on the regulatory side as kind of being key to some of the settlements last year. Can you just give a little more color on what you meant by that and what that means going forward in terms of like being able to consistently settle?

Page 4 of 10