WEC Energy (WEC) Q2 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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DATE

Wednesday, July 30, 2025 at 12:00 a.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

Chief Executive Officer — Scott Lauber

Chief Financial Officer — Xia Liu

Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications and Investor Relations — Beth Schroka

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TAKEAWAYS

Earnings Per Share (EPS):

2025 EPS Guidance: Full-year 2025 earnings guidance remains at $5.17 to $5.27 per share, assuming normal weather.

EPS Growth Rate Target: Company continues to target a 6.5% to 7% compound annual EPS growth rate over the long term.

Next Quarter EPS Outlook: Management forecasts Q3 2025 EPS of $0.74 to $0.80, driven by July weather and assuming normal conditions for the quarter.

Dividend: The annualized dividend is $3.57 per share, with a targeted payout ratio of 65%-70% of earnings.

Retail Electric Delivery Growth: Excluding the iron ore mine, retail electric deliveries grew 1.1% compared to Q2 2024, with large commercial and industrial customers up 1.9% compared to Q2 2024 and residential/small commercial segments up 0.41% quarter-over-quarter compared to Q2 2024.

Electric Sales Outlook: Management expects annual electric sales growth of 4.5%-5% for 2027 through 2029.

O&M Expense: O&M expense is expected to grow 8% to 10% for the full year compared to actual O&M in 2024.

Capital Plan: Five-year capital plan totals $28 billion, described as the largest in company history, focusing on low-risk and highly executable projects.

Major Generation Projects: Approved construction and investment in 1,100 MW simple cycle combustion turbines at Oak Creek ($1.2 billion) in May 2025, 128 MW RICE generation near Paris station ($300 million), and a 2 BCF LNG storage facility ($456 million), with the LNG facility expected to be completed by 2027.

Renewables Development: Paris Solar Battery Park’s battery storage (110 MW) entered service in June 2025, with WEC holding a 90% ownership stake.

Equity Issuance: Issued $425 million of common equity in the first half of 2025; The 2025 target remains $700-$800 million, as part of a larger $2.7-$3.2 billion planned common equity raise through 2029

Data Center Load Growth: Microsoft's data center and Vantage Data Centers developments drive a five-year demand forecast of 1.8 GW along the I-94 Corridor, with Vantage's site potentially reaching 3.5 GW of demand over time, not yet included in the current five-year demand growth forecast

Very Large Customer Tariff: This tariff, still under regulatory review, proposes a fixed return on equity of 10.48%, a 57% equity ratio, and 20-year terms for wind/solar customers.

Illinois Pipe Replacement Program: Retirement of approximately 1,100 miles of older pipe by 2035 is underway, with run rate capital needs expected to reach over $500 million annually by 2028, up from the current $90 million per year allocation in the capital plan

Coal Unit Life Extension: Announced extension of Oak Creek Units 7 and 8 operations through 2026 based on regional capacity needs, with minimal expected additional capital expenditure.

Storm Impact: Earnings at the energy infrastructure segment decreased 3¢ in 2025 compared to 2024, due in part to storm damage at Texas solar facilities

Safe Harboring Renewables: Approximately 40%-50% of planned renewable projects have achieved safe harbor status under current Treasury guidance as of Q2 2025; further compliance will be guided by upcoming federal regulations.

SUMMARY

Management reaffirmed EPS guidance and a long-term growth trajectory supported by the $28 billion five-year capital investment plan, emphasizing major new generation assets and continued region-wide economic and industrial expansion. Regulatory clarity is pending on both the Very Large Customer tariff aimed at attracting data center investment and on safe harboring of renewables under evolving federal rules. Large-scale data center projects from Microsoft and Vantage are materially influencing demand forecasts, although only partial expected loads are built into the current five-year plan.

Management emphasized minimal incremental capex for the Oak Creek coal unit extension into 2026, and indicated future growth may necessitate further combined cycle generation as demand continues to rise.

The equity funding strategy, expecting 50% equity content for incremental capital, will be detailed further in fall 2025 following capital plan updates.

Storm damage at Texas facilities impacted Q2 2025 results, and efforts to recover losses through insurance and operational restoration are ongoing.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

Safe Harboring: Securing eligibility for federal tax credits by procuring or commencing construction of renewable energy assets before regulatory deadlines, in compliance with Treasury Department guidance.

RICE Generation: Reciprocating Internal Combustion Engine generation, used for peaking power applications due to flexibility and rapid start capabilities.

VLC Tariff: Very Large Customer tariff, a specialized rate structure with fixed returns and terms designed to attract and retain large commercial/industrial power users.

MISO: Midcontinent Independent System Operator, a regional transmission organization managing electric grid reliability and wholesale electricity markets across large parts of the central US.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Scott Lauber: Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today as we review our results for 2025. Here with me are Xia Liu, our Chief Financial Officer, and Beth Schroka, Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations. As you saw from our news release this morning, we reported earnings of 76¢ a share for 2025. We remain on track to deliver another year of strong results in line with our 2025 earnings guidance of $5.17 to $5.27 a share. This, of course, assumes normal weather for the remainder of the year. We continue to target a 6.5% to 7% long-term compound annual earnings growth rate supported by a robust capital plan and strong economic growth in our region.

In Wisconsin, the unemployment rate stands at 3.2%, continuing a long-running trend below the national average. And as we've discussed, we're continuing to see strong and significant economic development in our region, especially along the I-94 Corridor between Milwaukee and Chicago. Just last month, Yaskawa, one of the world's largest manufacturers of industrial products and robotics, announced its moving from the company's US headquarters to Wisconsin and consolidating manufacturing operations here. The company stated it plans to invest approximately $180 million to build this new campus, which is expected to create 700 jobs. Work continues on Microsoft's data center campus south of Milwaukee. We remain confident in our five-year demand growth forecast of 1.8 gigawatts to serve the I-94 Corridor.

In addition, we're seeing progress for a large data center development just north of Milwaukee. Vantage Data Centers signed on to develop approximately 1,900 acres. While the project is in the early stages, the site has the potential to reach 3.5 gigawatts of demand over time. As a reminder, this project is not included in our current demand forecast. These are just samples of the economic growth that we are seeing in our region. And just recently, The Wall Street Journal reported that ADP ranked Milwaukee second among metro areas in the US for college graduates landing jobs. Turning to our capital plan, during the second quarter, we continued to move forward on major projects.

As you know, it's the largest five-year investment plan in our history, totaling $28 billion and supporting economic growth and reliability. It's based on projects that are low risk and highly executable. Many of you have asked about the potential impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. On the wind and solar front, we are actively working on completing the safe harboring of the renewable projects in our five-year capital plan under the current treasury guidance. We are awaiting further guidance from the Treasury Department to reflect the executive order issued in early July. As these rules become available, we will, of course, continue to work with our developers to achieve safe harbor.

Now let me give you an update on projects currently underway. In May, the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin unanimously approved our applications to build modern, efficient natural gas generation and storage. We have started construction on 1,100 megawatts simple cycle combustion turbines with an expected investment of $1.2 billion. These are located at our Oak Creek Power Plant site. Also, near our existing Paris generation station, we plan to invest approximately $300 million for 128 megawatts of RICE generation. Support the Oak Creek site, just this month, we received verbal approval to build a 2 BCF storage facility for liquefied natural gas. We expect the investment is approximately $456 million to complete this LNG facility by 2027.

These are critical projects as part of our all-of-the-above approach to support reliable and affordable energy for our customers. To that end, we announced in June that we plan to extend the operating lives of Units 7 and 8 of our Oak Creek plant through 2026. These are coal units that continue to provide essential capacity at times of high energy demand on the hottest and coldest days of the year. In addition, we expect it'll be needed to meet tightened energy supply requirements in the Midwest power market. Progress continues on our renewable projects as well. In June, the battery portion of the Paris Solar Battery Park came online providing 110 megawatts of storage.

This is Wisconsin's first large-scale battery storage project. As a reminder, we are the 90% owner. Overall, we are confident in our ability to execute on our capital plan. Now turning to the regulatory front. We currently have no active rate cases. In Wisconsin, our very large customer or VLC tariff remains with the Public Service Commission for review. As we discussed last quarter, the tariff is designed to meet the needs of our very large load customers while protecting all of our other customers. The tariff would provide for a fixed return on equity of 10.48% and an equity ratio of 57%.

The terms of the agreement are twenty years for wind and solar, and the depreciable lives for natural gas and battery storage assets. We work with our very large customers in designing the tariff, including the financial parameters. And we believe the tariff is a key component to help make Wisconsin a prime spot for data center investments. We expect a commission decision by the second quarter of next year. In Chicago, we are actively mapping out engineering and permitting plans and coordinating with the city for our pipe replacement program. Recall that the Illinois Commerce Commission directed us to focus on retiring all cast iron and ductile iron pipe with a diameter under 36 inches by 01/01/2035.

We expect that approximately 1,100 miles of older pipe will be needed to be replaced. While planning is underway, our work continues. In fact, this April, we retired the oldest pipe in the system. A gas main that had been in service since 1861. Next up, Shah will provide you with more details on our financials.

Xia Liu: Thank you, Scott. Our second quarter 2025 earnings of $76 per share reflect a $0.09 increase compared to 2024. Our earnings packet includes a comparison of second quarter results on page 15. I'll walk through the significant drivers. Starting with our utility operation, earnings were 16¢ higher versus 2024. Weather positively impacted quarter-over-quarter earnings by approximately 4¢. Compared to normal conditions, we estimate that weather had a 2¢ favorable impact in 2025 compared to a 2¢ negative impact in 2024. Rate-based growth contributed 12¢ more to earnings. Additionally, timing of fuel expense tax, and other items added another 7¢. These positive drivers were partially offset by 5¢ from higher depreciation and amortization expense and 2¢ from higher day-to-day O&M.

As shared before, we still expect for O&M expense to grow 8% to 10% for the full year when compared to actual O&M in 2024. As a reminder, this year-over-year growth is largely driven by a few factors, including our continued focus on commission-approved vegetation management, new assets placed in service, and measures we took last year to offset the mild weather impact. And let me also give you some color on our weather-normal retail electric delivery. Excluding the iron ore mine, compared to 2024, we saw a 1.1% growth in retail electric deliveries, led by the large commercial and industrial segment which grew 1.9% quarter-over-quarter.

The residential and small commercial and industrial segments grew 0.41%, respectively, when compared to the second quarter of last year. Overall, we're on track for our annual growth forecast. Remember, we expect our annual electric sales growth to be 4.5% to 5% for the period 2027 through 2029. Turning to American Transmission Company, capital investment growth contributed an incremental penny to Q2 earnings compared to 2024. And at our energy infrastructure segment, earnings decreased 3¢ in 2025 compared to 2024. Higher production tax credits were more than offset by other factors including a loss from storm damage recognized in 2025. Next, you'll see that earnings from the corporate and other segment decreased 3¢, driven by higher interest expense.

In terms of common equity, we issued about $425 million through the first half of this year via our ATM program as well as the dividend reinvestment and employee benefit plans. We're on track to issue a total of $700 to $800 million for this year. This is part of the $2.7 billion to $3.2 billion total common equity we expect to issue through 2029 to finance the capital investment. Consistent with what we shared before, as we refresh our capital plan this fall, we continue to expect any incremental capital will be funded with 50% equity content. Finally, let me comment on guidance.

As Scott mentioned earlier, we are reaffirming our 2025 earnings guidance of $5.17 to $5.27 per share, assuming normal weather for the rest of the year. We're also reaffirming our long-term EPS CAGR of 6.5% to 7%. For the third quarter, we're expecting a range of $0.74 to $0.80 per share. This accounts for July weather and assumes normal weather for the rest of the quarter. We look forward to updating you in the fall as we refresh our capital and financing plan. With that, I'll turn it back to Scott.

Scott Lauber: Thank you, Shah. Finally, a quick reminder about the dividend. Our annualized dividend stands at $3.57 per share. We continue to target a payout ratio of 65% to 70% of earnings. We're tracking in that range now and expect the dividend growth will continue to be in line with the growth in our earnings per share. Overall, we're optimistic about continued growth in our region and our company's future. Operator, we are now ready for the question and answer portion of the call.

Operator: Now we will take your questions. The question and session will be conducted electronically. To ask a question, please press the star key followed by the digit one on your phone. If you are using a speakerphone, turn off your mute function to allow your signal to reach our equipment. We will take as many questions as time permits. Once again, press star and the number one on your phone to ask a question. Our first question comes from the line of Nicholas Campanella with Barclays. Please go ahead.

Nicholas Campanella: Hey. Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for taking my question.

Scott Lauber: Absolutely, Nick. How are you?

Nicholas Campanella: So I'm good. I'm good. Hope you're doing well. So great to see the economic development activity, especially with Vantage and I was just wondering if you can maybe talk about the three and a half gigs of demand and how you're thinking about procuring generation for that? Just where does the system stand today in terms of being long or short, capacity and energy, and you know, just given the lead time to build new assets, just how are you kinda thinking about being able to supplement that demand with either a bilateral contract or maybe a new build asset? Thanks.

Scott Lauber: Sure. No. Great question. And we are actively working with our large customers as that demand looks. And Vantage, that site longer term is three and a half gigawatts. That site capacity can be there. Looking now, what is the short term and working with them with our plans. And they've said they're trying to get to about a 1.3 gigawatt by 2027. So we're actively working with them. And what we mean by that is, you know, working on purchase cancellation agreements with them and how do we get orders in place. So we're looking at a variety of items here. Because the system here is very tight.

As you can see, we extended the coal units for another year. Because of the take capacity. And those coal units will be retired as we bring on those new CTs. But you know, we're looking at all of the above, but our generation planning team is actively working with all our large customers to make sure we meet their demand needs.

Nicholas Campanella: Okay. So still TBD. We're looking forward to giving you an update there.

Scott Lauber: Yeah. We'll have more on our third quarter call on our capital plan.

Nicholas Campanella: Fantastic. Fantastic. And then maybe as we kinda think through on that capital update, you know, we all love the precision, but it is probably one of the thinner ones out across the sector and just you know, there is an upward bias to capital. I know that you get to finance that, but how are you just thinking about whether that puts you higher in the plan or not? And how you're thinking about the growth rate, as we get to the next quarter update?

Scott Lauber: Well, that's a great question and very like you said, really excited about the economic development we're having in the region. And it's not just the large very large customers. It's also what we're seeing throughout the region with housing and other development. So pulling all that together right now. And Shah and I and the rest of the team will be looking at our growth pattern along with this fall as we present our updates to the board, and we'll roll it out on our third quarter call. But we're feeling good with what the region is providing us.

Nicholas Campanella: One last one if I can. Just the large load tariff docket. Is there any just based on the timeline for that proceeding, would you have clarity on that ahead of the third quarter call? Like, I guess, could you settle that proceeding? Or do you expect because it's a new tariff that it you know, goes through kind of a fully litigated outcome at the commission.

Scott Lauber: Well, I'll answer it twofold. We kinda settled it because we walked in with all the large customers, and all agreed that this is a proper tariff. And I think the commission's gonna take time as they should as long as all the interveners to make sure the processes and how we plan on allocating costs so that make sure that the very large customers are paying their fair share. So I don't know if it's really contested or just being actively reviewed. I'd say we pretty much have a settlement at this point with our very large customers that it's reasonable and appropriately paying their fair share of the cost.

So it's more of a process now to go through and people have the opportunity to ask questions on the processes and how we look at things. And the commission has a lot in front of their plate that we've asked them to approve as we continue to build out the infrastructure here in Wisconsin.

Nicholas Campanella: Alright. Well, thanks much. Have a great rest of your summer.

Scott Lauber: Sounds good. Thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Julien Dumoulin-Smith with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Brian Russo: Hi. It's Brian Russo on for Julian.

Scott Lauber: Hey, Brian. How are you doing?

Brian Russo: Good, thanks. Hey, just to follow-up on the CapEx update. So I think the early indications are 1.3 gigawatts for Vantage in 2027. I suppose that could, you know, ramp up closer to that three and a half gigawatts, maybe towards the latter half of that plan? Or is that still too early in the development process?

Scott Lauber: I'd say it's really early in the development process yet before we can work with that. We're working with them right now every week on providing their first load and working with them for the rest of the time frame here. So early yet in that process, but we'll have some good numbers in our five-year plan as we pull it together.

Brian Russo: Okay. Great. And can we talk about some of the other CapEx opportunities you have as you roll forward or update in the fall? First, on Peoples Gas PRP, and then also on the ATC upside CapEx, I think it would be tied to MISO tranche 2.1, and you could have some early CapEx on that in 2030.

Scott Lauber: Sure. So, initially, you asked about Peoples Gas, and you saw we retired a pipe from 1861. So there's a lot of pipe there that they asked us to retire by 12/31/2034, about 1,100 miles of that older pipe. We're going through a process, and we're starting to retire some, as you saw in our prepared remarks. That's gonna take a while to ramp up. Till we get to about a run rate, I think in about 2028, it'll be about a little over $500 million in order to be completed in that time frame. Based on our assumptions today. And we're fine-tuning those assumptions as we roll out the fall capital plan.

So right now, as you recall, we only put $90 million a year in our capital plan. So this will take a couple of years to ramp up, but it may be up to that $500 million a year. So there's some definite additional capital in the five-year plan coming related to that. And then as you look at American Transmission Company, there's a couple of items. We will be factoring in the remainder of that tranche one. They'll be looking at tranche two, as you said, it's a big capital plan in tranche two.

The other drivers you think of the capital plan is the economic development when you think of substations, and other growth that's going on and hooking up the generation and renewables. So I haven't seen where that capital plan will go, but I imagine it'll be slightly higher than what we saw before. So we'll see some growth in the ATC capital plan along with the gas side of the business. And then, of course, we'll look at our generation needs to meet this build-out in Wisconsin.

Brian Russo: Okay. Great. And just one more question. I'm curious. Will the Point Beach PPA and also, I believe it's Port Washington Unit 1, expires in July 2030. Will those two items need to be contemplated and assessed in this upcoming CapEx update?

Scott Lauber: It's on the Port Washington, we are actively looking at the lease in that item and how we look at that. In fact, we are looking at opportunities. Is there even an opportunity to get more power out of the Port Washington site? So we're in the analysis of that. That'll be updated in our five-year plan. And then on the Point Beach, you know, we've had good discussions with NextEra. They've been really productive. I expect we'll have something here by the end of the year. So we'll see if we'll get it. Hopefully, we get it in our five-year plan or by the end of the year, things have been moving along really well.

So more to come on that.

Brian Russo: Okay. Great. Thank you very much.

Scott Lauber: Yeah. Thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Michael Sullivan with Wolfe Research. Please go ahead.

Michael Sullivan: Hey. Good afternoon.

Scott Lauber: Hi, Michael. Hi, Michael.

Michael Sullivan: Hey, Scott. Wanted to just unpack the load growth a little bit more. So you spoke to what you're seeing on the Vantage side. I guess, how do we assess what you need tangibly to include it formally in your plan, and then is there anything else, that's kinda crept into the plan on top of the 1.8 gigawatts, that you've got embedded currently.

Scott Lauber: So when you look at Advantage, we will I mean, I feel pretty comfortable we will be factoring something in our five-year plan as it relates to Vantage what they're moving, and from Cloverleaf now to Vantage. So I feel good we'll put something in our five-year plan as it relates to Vantage. And anything else in the economic development like we said, we've got a lot of industries that have come into Wisconsin. In our prepared remarks, we had a couple there was an article in the paper the other day about three or four other companies adding two to 500 jobs.

So a bit of growth in Wisconsin, but I think when you look at it, we're also seeing good residential growth. I saw housing starts, starting construction in 2024 and 2025, about 4,000 of them in just two counties here. So good growth that we're seeing in Southeastern Wisconsin. So all that will be factored into our load forecast.

Michael Sullivan: Okay. Great. And then, sorry, just another one on the supply side. Do you have the ability to push out any of your plans coal shutdowns any further? Then on the new build side, are you still thinking mostly CTs or at some point, are you gonna have to add a new CCGT?

Scott Lauber: Sure. And right now, we have CTs in the plan. We probably looking at a combined cycle as we continue to evolve here with the additional demand. So that's more to come potentially in our five-year plan here. On the coal, I mean, we extended Oak Creek, six and or seven and eight those two plants, in fact, have to be because we're using the same interconnect for the new CTs. And actually, we really couldn't extend them much longer we really took the time and spent looking at the plants to see if we would build a limp of along for another year without making major capital investments.

If you want to extend the longer it would need a lot of capital investments. So you know, that one, we're not gonna be able to extend anymore. And then when you think about the other plants, we really have them kinda running only a couple of them, like, 2030, 2031. So we'll evaluate where the EPA rules go. But remember, our big workhorse is the Elleba Road generating station, the power of the future units, We're in the process of converting those to natural gas. So those are designed that eventually we'll be able to run them on coal or gas. The key is we don't have any you know, we're not losing any capacity with that.

And we're also looking at gas for the Weston four units, so we're not losing any capacity. It's just running it in a little cleaner fuel. So more to come this fall, but that's of our thought process when you think about the big coal units.

Michael Sullivan: Okay. That's really helpful. And just a quick one for Shah. The Q2 storm damage. That you booked, just more color on that. Thank you.

Xia Liu: Sure. We've had several windstorms impacting the Texas solar facilities in the past several years. So in the quarter, we came to the conclusion that we couldn't just rely on insurance recovery for the storm damage, so we needed to take some accounting entry. But we're working actively with the insurance providers, contractors, and parts manufacturers to fully restore the lost capacity. So as we continue to make progress there, we could recover some of the damage, the loss we recognized in the quarter. So more to come.

Michael Sullivan: Thanks again.

Scott Lauber: Sounds good. Thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Weisel with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Andrew Weisel: Hi, thanks everybody. Scott, I think you said in your opening remarks you're still working to safe harbor equipment to qualify for renewable tax credits under the OBDD. Much of your plan is already safe harbored? And to whatever degree you might not qualify, whether because you're unable to safe harbor equipment or maybe potential challenges related to the executive order, what would be your backup plan? And then as a follow-up, does anything about the OBDD change your thinking about WEC infrastructure or the opportunity to build renewables outside the utility?

Scott Lauber: Sure. Good question. And we've got several vintages of safe harboring in our plan. We've got some all the way back to 2023, some in '24, We're actively there in '25. We probably have 40 to 50% under the, you know, already safe harbored and working on the rest. We really wanna see what those new treasury requirements are. Make sure we're in compliance so we don't have any surprises in the future. Now when you think of that in the future, you know, this is really saving money for customers but we really need the energy and a lot of capacity and energy to supply the demand growth that we're seeing on the system.

So we'll evaluate does combined cycle make sense? Is there other ways to provide it? Batteries, of course. In fact, batteries provide ITT even longer into the plan. And batteries the first battery we got up and running that we talked about was very beneficial during the hot spill we saw in June. So more to come as we analyze it, and, of course, we'll look at every piece of information that comes in. On the WECI side, you saw we have so much growth in utilities. So we put our last WEX infrastructure project in earlier in the year.

And now we're really concentrating on all the growth and generation of renewables and natural gas and LNG we need in Wisconsin to support the Wisconsin economic development.

Andrew Weisel: Okay. Very good. Then lastly, can you elaborate on the extending useful lives of the Oak Creek coal units? Was that a function of stronger than expected near-term demand or any delays in construction of the new coming online or possibly any political pressure or involvement like some of your neighbors is team? Just hoping you can elaborate on that. Is there any CapEx related to that? I imagine that would be coming either this year or next year. But if you could comment on that, please.

Scott Lauber: Sure. And we were looking at this quite a bit. As we look at how do we run the units during the year and could we get some more hours out of them without significant CapEx. So we don't anticipate significant additional CapEx to run those. And what really you know, with the final decision, we saw the MISO prices come out in the summer. The summer demand, they were a little higher, so we decided, let's really pull the trigger here and extend those lives. You know, we did it on our own. There was no political questions or discussions at all.

On what we should do we looked at what makes sense in the region here, specifically when we saw those bicycle demand for the summer. Just to make sure everyone understands, we had these in our rate case through 2025, Now we're extending them into 2026. So going forward in '26, the rate order kinda contemplated this. That you know, if we had showed them early for some reason or extend the lives, we have escrow accounting for the O&M expenses and, of course, the fuel we're working with our fuel team and our annual fuel filing to factor in these coal units into that. For that added capacity.

So it was really a decision we've been very closely, and with the warm spell in June and the MISO prices, it came to an easy decision.

Andrew Weisel: Okay. Very good. Thank you.

Scott Lauber: Thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Carly Davenport with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Carly Davenport: Hey, good afternoon. Thanks so much for taking the questions. Maybe just wanted to get the latest pulse check on the Microsoft ramp-up of activity at the data center site and just how you're thinking about the opportunity with them above and beyond, what is baked into the current five-year plan.

Scott Lauber: Sure. And I you know, we talked to Microsoft quite a bit. I can't reveal the details you know, of our discussions, but you know, that's why we're really comfortable with what we currently have in that Southeastern Wisconsin region with what Microsoft's doing plus the other economic development that supports that 1.8 gigawatt. I drive by the site oh, couple times a month because I'm real close there. I mean, a lot of activities going on. Lot of movements going on. So they're still developing and growing.

And when you think about the potential, you know, there's dirt and land being moved at about 1,360 acres, and then they own another 500 acres just north of that site and another 200 acres, oh, a couple miles away in Kenosha. So think there's a lot of future opportunities there. As they continue or as they bought that additional land earlier in the year. So looking forward to it. And we'll update our plans this fall and continue to work with them to develop what the site and those other sites can provide.

Carly Davenport: Great. Thank you for that. And then I just wanted to follow-up on some of the questions earlier on the Vantage site. Just with the tightness that you mentioned in the market currently, and as we think about the supply chain cues for gas units, for example, being quite lengthy, do you think that 2027 time frame for their power needs, you know, is achievable? And then kinda just help us think about what levers you know, WACC has available to pull to sort of meet that demand in what seems like a fairly short time frame relative to some of the other projects that we're seeing across the US.

Scott Lauber: Sure. And we've been working with Cloverleaf, Valvantage for quite a while here at our planning team are pulling together multiple ideas on what to do. I, you know, I don't wanna really reveal anything yet until we get to our five-year plan. But we do have a plan, and we're actively engaged in executing on that plan. More to come on it, but we feel we can deliver the load.

Carly Davenport: Great. We'll keep in tune there. Thank you.

Scott Lauber: Sounds good. Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Paul Fremont with Ladenburg. Please go ahead.

Paul Fremont: Thank you very much and congratulations on a great quarter. Wanted to follow-up a little bit on Carly's question. The I guess Mount Washington site one for Microsoft is under construction. Are any of the other three identified sites, have they begun construction? And has Microsoft updated at all with respect to the pause that it announced in January.

Scott Lauber: Sure. And the other two sites, I have not I haven't seen any construction on those starting yet. They're really mainly concentrated at 1,300 acres. So there may be some work that's happening behind the scenes, but I haven't physically seen it. We've been working with them. They haven't talked at all about a pause or not a pause. I know dirt's being moved on all 1,300 and some acres, and I really pay attention to the forecast that they give us, and I have confidence that they're gonna deliver, and they're moving dirt to make it happen.

So I haven't they haven't told us specifically about a pause or unpausing something, but I can tell you that activity is happening on the site.

Paul Fremont: Right. Thank you very much.

Scott Lauber: Thank you. All right. Well, thank you, everyone. That concludes our conference call for today. Thank you for participating. If you have any more questions, please feel free to contact Vestraka at (414) 221-4639.

Operator: Thank you again for joining us today. This does conclude today's conference call. You may now disconnect.

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