New Jersey Resources Corporation (NYSE:NJR) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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Roger Liddell: Last question. You mentioned gas-fired heat pumps and maybe its better handled offline, but is it useful for the call. I wasn’t really aware that there was a critical mass of technology in the gas-fired heat pump area. Could that be a meaningful opportunity?

Patrick Migliaccio : Roger, this is Patrick Migliaccio again. Yes. So gas heat pumps have been available at the commercial level for some time. There are a number of vendors and manufacturers that have, I’ll call them early stage, but commercially available residential gas heat pumps. Some are being used in the European market, not broadly here yet in North America. But those heat pumps get an equivalent efficiency of north of 130%, and so they represent an improvement over a high efficiency natural gas or furnace today. And so we do think that moving into the future, that represents an opportunity for us to continue to drive efficiency gains in natural gas heating appliances.

Roger Liddell: Great. And thank you, and thank you all for the execution that you deliver again and again.

Stephen Westhoven: Thanks Roger. Thanks for the questions.

Operator: [Operator Instructions]. And our next question comes from the line of Gabe Moreen with Mizuho. Gabe, please go ahead.

Gabe Moreen : Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Just had a question on the CEV backlog additions. It seems like you had success in adding to the backlog, and it skewed heavily towards out of New Jersey. I’m just wondering if anything happened in changing in the competitive landscape to make that happen this past quarter. And also just longer term, how you envision, I guess, the breakup between New Jersey and non-New Jersey projects kind of shaking down, if there’s an ideal target that you’re targeting?

Stephen Westhoven: So, we’ve talked for a long time, Gabe, about diversifying outside the state of New Jersey and heading towards jurisdictions that we believe have a similar risk profile. And what you see in that number is essentially just executing that plan. So, do we have a target on a percentage split? No, I don’t think so. At this point, it’s really where’s the jurisdiction that’s friendly towards solar, and where can we make the investments, and where does it fit best or the deals that we’re able to put together? But we’re happy to see that number growing, that project pipeline, and our available investments in that space continue and increase and support our continued investment in solar going forward.

Gabe Moreen : Thanks, Steve. And I think I ask it maybe every quarter, but any update on a potential Leaf River expansion? I’m also just curious with more winter weather under your belt in Adelphia, how that asset’s been performing and whether there’s any room to squeeze more capacity out?

Stephen Westhoven: So, I’ll take the first one. So, we’re continuing to look at Leaf River and like I keep saying, we’re working on transactions. We don’t have anything to update at this point in time, but certainly the market is supportive. And, Leaf River’s – Adelphia Gateway is doing well. I know throughput year-on-year is up by a significant percentage, and we’re continuing to watch that asset and see where we can pursue organic growth opportunities just like we are across the whole company.

Gabe Moreen : Okay. Thanks, Steve.

Stephen Westhoven: Alright. Thanks Gabe.

Operator: Thank you. That concludes our Q&A session for today. And with that, I will pass it back over to Adam for some closing remarks.

Adam Prior : Thanks, Jessica. Thanks everyone for joining us this morning. As a reminder, a recording of this call is available for replay on our website. And as always, we appreciate your interest and investment in NJR. Thanks everyone. Have a good morning.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today’s call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.

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