Good
morning.
My
name
is
Emma,
and
I
will
be
your
conference
operator
today.
At
this
time,
I
would
like
to
welcome
everyone
to
the
Algonquin
Power
&
Utilities
Corporation
2021
Fourth
Quarter
Earnings
Webcast
and
Conference
Call.
All
lines
have
been
placed
on
mute
to
prevent
any
background
noise.
After
the
speakers'
remarks,
there
will
be
a
question-and-answer
session.
[Operator Instructions]
Thank
you.
Amelia
Tsang,
VP
Investor
Relations.
You
may
begin
your
conference.
A
Amelia See Man Tsang
Good morning,
everyone.
Thanks
for
joining
us
this
morning
for
our
fourth
quarter
and
full
year
2021
earnings
conference
call.
Presenting
on
the
call
today
are
Arun
Banskota,
our
President
and
Chief
Executive
Officer;
and
Arthur
Kacprzak,
our
Chief
Financial
Officer.
Also
joining
us
this
morning
for
the
Q&A
part
of
the
call will
be
Jeff
Norman,
our
Chief
Development
Officer;
and
Johnny
Johnston,
our
Chief
Operating
Officer.
To
accompany
our
earnings
call
today,
we
have
a
supplemental
webcast
presentation
available
on
our
website,
algonquinpowerandutilities.com.
Our
financial
statements, management
discussion
and
analysis
and
annual
information
form
are
also
available
on
the
website
as
well
as
on
SEDAR
and
EDGAR.
Before
continuing
the
call, we
would
like
to
remind
you
that
our
discussion
during
the
call
will
include
certain
forward-looking
information,
including,
but
not
limited
to,
our
expectations
regarding
future
earnings,
capital
expenditures
and
pending
acquisitions.
At
the
end
of
the
call,
I
will
read
a
notice
regarding
both
forward-looking
information
and
non-GAAP
measures.
Please also
refer
to
our
most
recent
MD&A
filed
on
SEDAR
and
EDGAR
and
available
on
our
website
for
additional
important
information
on
these
items.
On
our
call
this
morning,
Arun
will
provide
an
overview
of
our
Q4
and
annual
performance.
Arthur
will
follow
with
the
financial
results,
and
then
Arun
will
conclude
with
an
update
on
our
strategic
plan
for
the
business.
We
will
then
open
the
lines
for
questions.
I
ask
that
you
restrict
your
questions
to
two
and
then
re-queue
if
you
have any
additional
questions
to
allow
others
the
opportunity
to
participate.
And
with
that,
I'll
turn
it over
to
Arun.
A
Arun Banskota
Thank you,
Amelia,
and
a
very
good
morning
to
those
who
have
been
able
to
join
us
on
the
call
and
online.
Given
that
this
is
our
year-end
earnings
call,
I
want
to
provide
some
highlights
and
speak
to
performance,
both
financial
and
operational
for
Q4
and
full
year
2021.
Firstly,
on
financials,
I'm pleased
to
report
steady
year-over-year
growth
in
the
following
key
financial
metrics:
2021
Adjusted
EBITDA
of
nearly
$1.1
billion
increased
24%
year-over-year
from
$869.5
million,
largely
from
new
facilities
that
came
online
in
2021
on
the
Renewable
side,
including
Maverick
Creek
Wind
and
Altavista,
as
well
as
contribution
of
new
facilities
on
the
Regulated
side,
including
Empire
Wind
and
a
full
year
of
contribution
from BELCO
and ESSAL.
Our
2021
Adjusted
Net
Earnings
per
share
of
$0.71
was
up
11%
from
the
$0.64
reported
in
the
prior
year
and
came
in
line
with
our
expectations.
Last
year,
we
reported
annual
dividends
per
share
of
$0.67,
representing
our
10th
consecutive
year
of
dividend
increases.
We
also
exited
the
year
with
approximately
$16.8
billion
in
assets,
a
27%
increase
over
the
$13.2
billion
reported
in
the
prior
year.
Secondly, on
execution,
the
company undertook
a
number
of
successful
growth
initiatives
and
continued
to
execute
on
strategic
priorities
in
2021,
which
are
positioning
us
well
for
the
future.
We
continue to
focus
our
efforts
on
Algonquin's
three
strategic
pillars;
growth,
operational
excellence,
and
sustainability.
And
I
will
provide
more
details
on
each
of
these
pillars.
Earlier
this
year,
we
closed on
the
acquisition
of
New
York
American
Water,
which
services
over
125,000
customer
connections
across
seven
counties
in
Southeastern
New
York,
and
we
officially
welcome
the
New
York
American
Water
employees
into
Liberty.
The
transition has
gone
very
well
as
planned.
Staying
on
the
topic
of
growth,
I
want
to
provide
you
an
update
on
our
pending
$2.8
billion
acquisition
of
Kentucky
Power
Company
and
AEP
Kentucky
Transmission
Company.
We
remain
excited
and
firmly
committed
to
this
transaction
and
look
forward
to
bringing
the
benefits
of
our
local
operating
model
to
Eastern
Kentucky.
As
we
previously
mentioned,
our
expectation
of
enhancing
Kentucky
Power's
local
operating
model,
bringing
benefits
to
customers
by
exploring
opportunities
to
reduce
customer
rates
through
investing
in
green
energy
and
creating
increased
local
employment
are
all
attributes
that
are
expected
to
help
customers
and
the local
communities,
while
driving
value
for
our
shareholders.
To
that
end,
you
are
likely
aware
that
we
jointly
filed
with
AEP
an
application
with
the
Kentucky
Commission
on
January
4 for
the
approval
of
the
acquisition
of
Kentucky
Power.
By
statute, the
Commission
must issue
an
order
on
the
application
within
120
days.
We
expect
to
close
the
transaction
in
mid-2022
after
receipt
of
state
and
first
level
approvals
and
satisfaction
of
all
other
closing
conditions.
To-date,
we
have
already
received
Hart-Scott-Rodino
and CFIUS approvals.
Staying
on
the regulatory
front, our
rate
review
at
Empire
Electric
continues
to
progress
well.
On
February
4, 2022,
a
stipulation
was
reached
among
Empire
Electric,
Office
of
the
Public
Council,
Staff
of
the
Missouri
Public
Service
Commission
and
other
interveners.
Hearings
were
held
on
February
7
on
rate
design,
and
a
hearing
on
the
stipulation
was
held
on
February
10,
with
new
rates
expected
to
be
implemented
in
May
of
2022.
We
believe
the
settlement
represents
a
fair
outcome
for
customers
and
the
company.
We
continue
to
invest in
our
network
to
deliver
mission-critical
services
to
our
communities,
while
keeping
customer
affordability
top
of
mind.
Another
growth pillar
in
our
Regulated
business
is
focused
on
deploying
capital
to
benefit
our
customers.
In 2021,
the
Regulated
Services
Group
invested
over
$1.9
billion,
including
the completion
of
our
Midwest
greening
(sic) [greening the fleet] (00:07:47) initiative,
where
we
brought
600
megawatts
of
wind
generation
online.
In
the
coming years,
we
expect
to
invest
between $800
million
and
$1.2
billion
annually
into
our
rate
base
to
improve
safety,
security,
reliability,
resiliency
and
customer
experience.
Turning
to
the growth
levers
on
our
Renewable
business.
In
this
business,
our
ability
to
originate
and
execute
projects
is
a
critical
growth
lever. 2021
has
been
a
record
year
for
Algonquin,
with
nearly
1,200 megawatts
of
new
Renewable
projects
either
closing
or
reaching
commercial
operations.
In
December
2021,
we
completed
our
latest
project
to
achieve
commercial
operations,
the
24-megawatt
EBR
wind
facility
in
Québec,
with
all
of the
energy
being
sold
to
Hydro-Québec.
The
175-megawatt
Blue Hill
facility
in
Saskatchewan,
with
all
of
the energy
under
contract
with
SaskPower,
is
on
track
to
achieve
commercial
operations
in
March
2021.
Our
construction program
continues
with
the
expected
start
of
construction
in
Q2
2022
of
the
Deerfield
2
and
Sandy
Ridge
2
wind
projects.
Also,
we
continue
to
progress
our
partnership
with
Chevron
and
expect
to
start
construction
on
the
first
two
of
these
solar
projects
in
mid-year.
The
fact
that
we
continue
to
successfully
execute
on
construction
in
the
midst
of
the
COVID
pandemic
and
supply
chain
challenges
is
a
testament
to
the
hard
work,
entrepreneurial
culture
and
experience
base
of
our
employees.
At
our
Investor Day,
we
discussed
our
strong
development
platform,
where
our
ongoing
development
has
resulted
in
growing
our
greenfield
pipeline
of
prospective
generation
projects
to
3,800
megawatts
by
the
end
of
2021.
This
growth
is
net
of
projects
totaling
640
megawatts,
which
advanced
from
our greenfield
pipeline
into
our
five-year
capital
plan. The
640
megawatts
that
advanced
includes
the
Riverbend
Wind
Project
in
Michigan,
the
Blue
Violet
combined
wind/solar
project
in
Illinois,
and
four
projects
being
developed
in
partnership
with
Chevron
in
New
Mexico
and
Texas.
Two
other
important
initiatives
in
2021
to
establish
a
strong
foundation
for
future
growth
include
building a
1,700
megawatt
hour
pipeline
of
prospective
energy
storage
projects
and
entry
into
renewable
natural
gas
with
the
agreement
to
acquire
Sandhill,
a
developer
of
RNG
projects. Sandhill
represents
an
attractive
platform,
giving
us
immediate
entry
via
its
portfolio of
four
projects
in
the
state
of
Wisconsin,
two
of
which
are
currently
under
construction
with
first
production
expected
around
the
end
of
Q1
and
two
projects
which
are
in
late-stage
development.
According
to
a
US
Environmental
Protection
Agency
report,
Wisconsin
represents
the
state
with
the
second
largest
universe
of
renewable
natural
gas
opportunities,
and
we
are
excited
to
utilize
Sandhill
as
an
RNG
growth
platform.
This
acquisition
is
expected
to
close
in
the
first
half
of
2022.
Moving
on
now
to
operational
excellence.
In
a
mission-critical
industry,
safety
and
reliability
are
always
key
areas
of
focus. I'm
very
pleased
to
share
that
we
have
passed
the
impressive
milestone
of
over
750
days.
That
is
nearly
11
million
work
hours
without
a
single
lost
time
injury
across
our
North
American
business,
while
keeping
our
customers
and
communities
safe
and
maintaining
our
system
reliability
and
resiliency.
I
want
to
thank
all
of
our
employees
for
their
ongoing
focus
on
safety
and
preparedness
for
weather
events.
I
want to
particularly
call
out
and
thank
the
electric
team
in
Tahoe
as
that
area
received
record
breaking
snowfall
over
the
Christmas
holidays. Liberty
crews
worked
hard
throughout
the
holiday
weekend
to
restore
power
to
our
customers
and
communities
as
quickly
and
safely
as
possible
during
harsh
weather
conditions.
The
hard
work
and dedication
of
our
employees
did
not
go
unnoticed
by
the
customers
and
local
communities
we
serve.
And
finally,
we
remain
firmly committed
to
sustainability
through
the
inclusion
of
environmental,
social
and
governance
values
in
our
broader
corporate
strategy
and
day-to-day
operations.
In
2021, we
announced
our
target
for
net
zero
for
Scope
1
and
2
emissions
by
2050
with
a
credible
path
supported
by
our
strong
decarbonization
track
record,
extensive
experience
in
regulated
utility
management,
and
deep
expertise
in
renewables
development.
On
the governance
side,
we
successfully
embedded
sustainability
into
our
management's
compensation
model,
continuing
to
enhance
how
ESG
factors
are
embedded
throughout
the
organization's
business
goals. And
finally,
in
2021, AQN's ESG
ratings
continued
to
improve
in
the
aggregate,
positioning
the
company
as
a
sustainability
leader.
More
recently,
I'm
pleased to
report
the
company's
inclusion
in
the
2022
Bloomberg
Gender-Equality
Index
for
the
third
year
in
a
row.
Our
inclusion into
their
Index
is
a
testament
to
our
continued
efforts
for
continued
gender
equality
– improved
gender
equality
and
transparency
as
we
target
above-market
gender
representation
at
our
board
and
executive
levels.
With
that, I'll
pass
it
over
to
Arthur,
who
will
speak
to
our
fourth
quarter
and
full year
2021
financial
results.
Arthur?
A
Arthur Kacprzak
Thank
you,
Arun,
and
good
morning,
everyone.
I'm
pleased
to
report
that
Algonquin
has
reported
steady
fourth
quarter
and
full year
results,
reflecting
the
benefits
of
our
diversified
and
resilient
business
model
and
proven
track
record
of
disciplined
growth.
Our
fourth
quarter
2021
consolidated
Adjusted
EBITDA
was
$297.6
million,
which
is
up
approximately
18%
from
the
$253.1
million
we
reported
for
the
same
period
last
year.
The
Regulated
Services
Group
delivered
$191.4
million
in
operating
profit
in
the
current
quarter,
which
compares
to
$162.4
million
in
the
same
quarter
last
year,
an
increase
of
about
18%.
This
improvement reflects
contributions
from
our
Midwest
wind
facilities,
which
were
placed
in
service
in
2021,
as
well
as
contributions
from
BELCO,
our
Bermuda
electric
utility;
and
ESSAL,
our
Chilean
water
utility
as
both
acquisitions
closed
during
Q4
of
2020.
Results
also
benefited
from
new
rates
implemented at
CalPeco
and
Granite
State
Electric
Systems
as
well
as
Park
Water
and
Apple
Valley
Water
systems
in
California.
This
was offset
by
lower
consumption
driven
by
milder
weather. Results
were
also
impacted
by
higher
non-pass
through
fuel
costs
at
Empire
Electric
as
well
as
higher
operating
costs
at
Granite
State
and CalPeco.
The
Renewable Energy
Group
reported
fourth
quarter
divisional
operating
profit
of
$123.9
million,
which
compares
to
$97.9
million
in
the
same
quarter
last
year,
an
increase
of
about
27%.
The
addition
of
the Sugar
Creek
and
Maverick
Creek
wind
generation
facilities
contributed
to
the
year-over-year
increase
in
operating
profit.
Our
investment
in
Atlantica
also
continued
to
provide
benefits
with
dividends
received
increasing
by
$4.4
million
over
the
prior
year.
Q4
also
benefited
from
the
sale
of
our
New
Market
Solar
facility
to
a
joint
venture
with
our
renewable
construction
partner
Ares,
resulting
in
a
recognized
gain
reflecting
a
step-up
in
the
value
created
through
the
development
process.
However, this
increase
was
partially
offset
by
lower
overall
production
on
some
of
our
wind
and
solar
generation
facilities
and
higher
operating
costs,
while
performance
at
our Sanger facility
was
negatively
impacted
this
quarter
by
higher
compliance
costs
and
lower
capacity
payments.
Our
investment
in
the Texas
Coastal
Wind
Facilities
was
also
negatively
impacted
by
higher
than
expected
basis
cost,
lower
than
expected
production
and
an
acceleration
of
HLBV
losses
of
$9
million
related
to
Q1
hedge
settlements
caused
by
winter
storm
Uri
that
were
expected
to
largely
reverse
in
the
future.
Fourth
quarter
corporate
expenses were higher
by
approximately
$10.5
million
as
compared
to
last
year,
driven
primarily
by
higher
administrative
expenses
and
higher
overall
net
development
expenses
as
compared
to
last
year.
In
total,
our
Q4
Adjusted
Net
Earnings
per
share
came
in
at
$0.21,
which
is
in
line
with
last
year.
In
addition
to the
drivers
discussed,
our
results
were
negatively
impacted
by
financing
costs
associated
with
the
capital
deployed
in
2021
and
an
increase
in
the
weighted
average
shares
related
to
the
Kentucky
Power
acquisition
funding.
For
the
full
year,
Adjusted
Net
EPS
came
in
at
$0.71
and
compares
to
$0.64
reported
in
the
prior
year,
representing
an
annual
growth
in
Adjusted
Net
EPS
of
11%,
showing
solid
year-over-year
growth.
Although
we delivered
strong
results,
we
did
encounter
various
headwinds
throughout
the
year.
As
a
result
of
record
load
wind
resources
experienced
throughout
the
early
part
of
the
year,
which
was
an
industry-wide
phenomenon,
generation
on
our
wind
facilities
was
down
approximately
10%
from
long-term
averages.
Also, much
warmer-than-normal
weather
in
the
Midwest
negatively
affected
customer
usage
in
the
early
and
latter
parts
of
the
year.
Compared
to
normalized
weather
patterns,
this
represents
an
impact
of
approximately
$48
million
on
our
2021
operating
profit,
or
about
$0.055
on
our
Adjusted
EPS.
Moving
on
to the
balance
sheet
and
financing
activities.
First,
I
wanted
to
spend
a
few
minutes
to
provide
an
update
on
our
progress
towards
the
financing
of
the
Kentucky
Power
acquisition.
On
announcement of
the
deal
back
in
October
of
last
year,
we
executed
a
Canadian
dollar
bought
deal
offering
of
common
shares,
raising
a
US
dollar
equivalent
of
approximately
$640
million
in
proceeds.
Early
this
year,
we
issued
approximately
$1.1
billion
of
hybrid
debt
and
a
concurrent
public
offerings
in
the
US
and
Canada.
Recall
that
hybrid
debt
receives
50%
equity
credit
from
S&P
and
Fitch
and
never
converts
to
common
shares.
We
have
issued
this
financing
on
an
attractive
expected
10-year
rate
of
approximately
4.95%
after
factoring
hedging.
That brings
the
total raise
for
the
transaction
to
just
over
$1.7
billion
towards
the
$2.8
billion
purchase
price. On
closing,
we
expect
to
assume
approximately
$1.2
billion
of
Kentucky
Power
company
debt
of
which
approximately
$500 million
is
targeted
to
be
refinanced
using
Liberty
Utilities'
established
144A
debt
platform,
which
we
would
expect
would
benefit
our
future
Kentucky
customers.
We
continue to
see
this
acquisition
as
providing
compelling
value
and
look
forward
to
closing
later
this
year.
Moving
on
to
the
broader
capital
and
financing
plan.
In
2021,
Algonquin
deployed
$3.7
billion
of
capital
on
our
organic
initiatives
relating
to
the
safety,
reliability
of our
electric,
water
and
gas
systems,
as
well
as
delivering
new
renewable
generation
from
our
projects,
including
Maverick
Creek
Wind,
Altavista
Solar
and
our
Midwest
Greening.
For
2022,
Algonquin
is
targeting
to
spend
over
$4.3
billion
in
capital,
with
the
majority
related
to
the
acquisitions
of
New
York
American
Water,
which
closed
earlier
this
year
and
Kentucky
Power,
which
is
expected
to close
in
the
middle
of
this
year.
Our
funding plan
for
the
remainder
of
the
year
is
predicated
on
maintaining
a
strong
and
resilient
balance
sheet,
targeting
a
BBB
investment-grade
credit
rating.
I
spoke to
the
funding
associated
with
the
Kentucky
Power
acquisition
already.
The
remaining
funding
requirements
can
be
solved
by
a
combination
of
various
funding
sources
available
to
us,
including
retain
cash,
some
more
hybrid
debt,
proceeds
from
securitization
of
certain
regulatory
assets
and
as
well
as
issuance
of
long-term
debt.
As
we
discussed
during
our
Investor
Day,
asset
recycling
or
selling
down
a
portion
of
our
non-regulated
renewables
can
also
be
viewed
as
another
source
of
potential
value-accretive
capital
for
us
this
year.
Considering
the
various
funding
sources
available,
we
do
not
expect
to
raise
additional
capital,
but
we
have
issuance
of
discrete
common
equity
for
the
remainder
of
this
year.
Our
funding plan
is
supported
by
a
strong
liquidity
position.
At
the
end
of
2021,
we
had approximately
$2
billion
of
committed
capital
in
reserves
available,
not
counting
the
acquisition
facility
that
was
arranged
in
connection
with
the
Kentucky
Power
transaction.
Before turning
things
over
to
Arun,
I'd
like
to
provide
a
brief
update
on
our
2022's
Adjusted
Net
EPS
guidance.
We
continue
to
expect
our
2022
Adjusted
Net
EPS
per
share
to
be
within
a
range
of
$0.72
to
$0.77,
which
was
communicated
previously
at our
Investor
Day.
We
continue
to
assume
in
our
earnings
guidance,
normalized
weather
patterns
and
rate
decisions
in
line
with
expectations,
as
well
as
resource
production
and
realized
pricing
at our
renewable-generating
facilities
consistent
with
long-term
averages.
We
also
assume
that
there
are
no
impacts
from
COVID-19
on
our
operations.
We
look
forward to
continuing
to
deliver
solid
earnings
from
our
diversified
and
growth-oriented
business
model,
which
along
with
our
history
of
superior
dividend
growth,
we
believe,
will
continue
to
drive
strong
shareholder
return.
With
that,
I
will
now
hand
it
back
to
Arun
to
outline
our
strategic
plans.
A
Arun Banskota
Thanks,
Arthur.
Before
we
close
out
our
prepared
comments
this
morning,
I
want
to give
an
update
on
our
strategic
initiatives.
At
our
December
Investor
Day,
we
updated
our
five year
capital
investment
program,
which
projects
$12.4
billion
from
2022
through
the
end
of
2026
with
a
very
visible
capital
plan.
Of
that,
we
have already
closed
on
New
York
American
Water
earlier
this
year,
executing
on
approximately
$600
million
of
the
capital
plan
in
January.
On
the Regulated
side
of the
business,
the
additions
of
New
York American
Water
and
Kentucky
Power
are
expected to
drive
long-term
Adjusted
Net
EPS
growth,
while
a
large
portion
of
the
capital
plan
is
being
spent
on
organic
investments
to
improve
the
safety,
reliability
and
resiliency
of
our
network.
On
the
Renewable side,
we
are
excited
about
the
growth
potential
and
believe
that
we
have
a
once
in
a
generation
opportunity
to
accelerate
renewables
growth
and
add
shareholder
value.
In
just
over
a
period
of
one
year,
we
have
made
investments
and have
grown
our
prospective
greenfield
pipeline
from
3,400
megawatt
to
3,800
megawatts,
while
converting
640
megawatts
from
that
greenfield
pipeline
into
our
new
five year
capital
plan.
We
also introduced
our
new prospective
pipeline
of
storage
opportunities
of
1,700
megawatt
hours
at
our
December
Investor
Day.
We
believe
this
validates
the
strength
of
our
development
platform.
We
now
have
scale
across
both
our
development
platform
as
discussed,
and
we
own
and
have
investments
in
over
4,000
megawatts
of
renewable
generation.
At
our
Investor
Day,
we
spoke
of
accelerating
renewables
growth
and
adding
shareholder
value
as
we
plan
to
increase
our
investments
in
greenfield
development,
which
we
expect will
allow
us
to
capture
the
higher
development
margins
and
take
a
number
of
those
projects
through
construction.
Once
in
construction, we
see
an
opportunity
to
partner
with
institutional
investors
wishing
to
make
alternate,
sustainable
investments
with
our
ability
to
develop
and
deliver
on
long-term
contracted
sustainable
assets.
In
particular,
we
should
be
able
to
sell
down
to
the
investors,
while
earning
an
operating
fee.
We
could
then
deploy
some
or
all
of
the
capital
gains
in
further
greenfield
development,
creating
a
potential
new
recurring
source
of
earnings
for
our
investors.
With
scale,
we
expect
to get
incremental
benefits,
including
improved
negotiating
power,
lower
transaction
costs
and
access
to
greater
opportunities.
We
are
on
our
way
to
completing
planning
and
plan
to
execute
this
strategy
in
2022.
I'm
excited
about
the
prospects
for
Algonquin's
Regulated
and
Renewables
businesses,
which
are
both
well-positioned
to
contribute
to
and
benefit
from
the
decarbonization
transformation
that
is
currently
underway
and
which
will
only
accelerate
over
the
coming
years.
In
summary,
our
three
strategic
pillars
of
operational
excellence,
growth
and
sustainability
would
be
a
key
foundation
as
we
continue
to
build
the
business
and
strive
to
bring
long-term
value
to
our
shareholders.
We
remain
well-positioned
to
continue
to
execute
on
our
growth
strategies,
while
pursuing
our
sustainability
goals.
With
that,
I
will
turn
the
call over
to
the
operator
for
any
questions
from
those
on
the
line.
[Operator Instructions]
Operator
Your
first
question
today
comes
from
the
line
of
Sean
Steuart
with
TD
Securities.
Your
line
is
now
open.
S
Sean Steuart
Analyst, TD Securities, Inc.
Thank
you.
Good
morning,
everyone.
A
Arun Banskota
Good
morning,
Sean.
S
Sean Steuart
Analyst, TD Securities, Inc.
Good
morning.
A
couple of
questions,
the
New
Market
Solar
Project
sale
to
the
joint
venture
with
Ares,
how
should
we
think
about
that
project
pipeline
going
forward
for
future
sales
into
that
vehicle?
A
Arun Banskota
Sure, Sean.
So,
look,
we
have
been
talking
a
few
times
now
about
the
ability
for
us
to
provide
recurring
shareholder
value
through
the
growth
of
our
development
and
construction
pipeline.
And
so
what
I
talked
about
towards the
end
of
my
presentation
was
really
how
that
New
Market
Solar
also
fits
into
our
strategy
of
producing
recurring
shareholder
value
through
such
sell-downs.
So
because
of
the
fact
that
we
believe
it's
going
to be
a
recurring
source,
we
thought –
believe
it
is
prudent
to
knot
just
that
out
of
our
earnings.
S
Sean Steuart
Analyst, TD Securities, Inc.
Okay.
Understood.
The
pace
going
forward,
though,
for
future
projects
to
be
sold
into
that
vehicle,
any
context
you
can
provide
there?
A
Arun Banskota
Well,
we're
about
done
with
our
planning
process,
I mean
starting
our
execution
process
on
that,
Sean.
So,
we'll
probably
be
able
to
give
a
lot
more
detail
at
that at the
next
quarterly
call.
S
Sean Steuart
Analyst, TD Securities, Inc.
Okay.
Thanks
for
that.
The
Sandhill
acquisition
and
I
guess
context
on
the
amount
of
capital
you
expect
to
invest
into
those
projects,
and more
broadly
speaking,
larger
investment
opportunities
for
whether
it's
RNG
or
other
energy
transition-type
investments.
Any
details
you
can
provide
on
that
front?
J
Jeffery Todd Norman
Hey, Sean,
it's
Jeff.
Yeah,
I
think
the
Sandhill
acquisition
and
the
four
projects
are
anaerobic
digesters.
And
so,
they're
relatively
small
in
terms
of
CapEx.
It's
important
to
us
because
of
the
benefits
of
advancing
RNG
and
improving
our
knowledge
in
that
area,
more
so
than
an
absolute
capital
play.
That
being
said,
we
do
see
RNG
expanding.
RNG
includes
hydrogen.
And
so,
as
we
start
to
build
our
knowledge,
start
to
build
how
we
trade
and
expand
more,
we
do
see
that
as
an
important
area.
But
there's
still a
lot
of
information
to
unfold.
S
Sean Steuart
Analyst, TD Securities, Inc.
Okay.
Thanks,
Jeff.
That's
all
I
have
for
now.
Thanks,
guys.
A
Arun Banskota
Thanks,
Sean.
Operator
Your
next
question
comes
from
the
line
of
David
Quezada
with
Raymond
James.
Your
line
is
now
open.
D
David Quezada
Analyst, Raymond James Ltd.
Thanks.
Morning,
everyone.
My
first
question
here,
just
on
New
York
American
Water,
now
that
that's
closed,
I'm
curious
what
kind
of
potential
you
see
there,
I
guess
for
spending
CapEx
either
organic
or
otherwise.
I
think
at
the
time
of
the
acquisition, there
were
some
talk
about
opportunities
for
consolidation
there. So,
any
thoughts
around
that
would
be
appreciated.
A
Arun Banskota
Look,
I
mean, we
are
very
much
in
the
planning
process
for
continued
investments
in
New
York
American
Water.
Our
next
rate
case
is
not
due
for
some
time.
But,
as
with
all
of our
other
utilities,
we
continue
to
invest
in
the
safety
and
reliability
and
resiliency
of
that
water
system
as
with
anything
else.
Now,
given
our
unique
positioning
in
terms
of
renewable
energy,
as
you
know, there's
quite
a
bit
of
energy
required
to
transport
water.
One
of
the
unique
things
we
do
do
is
look at
opportunities
to
see
how
we
can
substitute
the
current
energy
profile
with
our
renewable
energy
generation
to
serve
our
water
utilities
also,
which
I
think
is
a
unique
capability
that
we
have.
And
we
have
utilized
that
already.
So
that's
something
we're
taking
a
close
look
at
as
well.
D
David Quezada
Analyst, Raymond James Ltd.
Excellent.
Thanks,
Arun.
Maybe
just
one
more
from
me
just
on
the
topic
of
cost
inflation,
and I'm
thinking
specifically
about
your
Regulated
business.
Curious
if
you've
had
any
discussions
with
regulators,
especially
on
your
active
regulatory
dockets,
if
inflation
has
been
raised
as
a
concern
there
at
all
and
how
are
those
discussions
going.
A
Arun Banskota
Sure.
Look,
David,
I
mean,
inflation
is
the
current
topic
du jour,
right?
So
obviously
we're
seeing
more
inflation
than
we
have
seen
in
the
past,
probably,
what,
10, 15
years
at
least,
I
think.
On
the
Regulated
side
of
the
business,
look,
I
mean,
inflation
is
largely
a
pass-through.
But
at
the
same
time,
we
are
acutely
aware
of
the
potential
impact
on
customer
affordability,
so
we
track
that
extremely
closely.
And
that's
a
continuing
source
of
discussion
we
have
with
the
regulators
on
how
to
balance
all
the
cost
increases
vis-à-vis
the
right
level
of
customer
rate.
On
the
renewable
energy
side,
it's
largely
a
function,
in
our
minds,
of
you have
three
significant
contracts
on
the
renewable
energy
side,
right?
You've
got
your
large
equipment
contracts, you've
got
your EPC
contracts,
you've
got
your
offtake
contracts.
Once
you
sign
those
three
agreements,
all
of
them
are
fixed
price
contracts.
And
so,
in
our
mind,
the
strategy
that we
employ
is
trying
to
sign
those
three
contracts
as
closely
concurrently
as
possible,
so
that
we
are
not
left
holding
the
inflation
risk.
So –
and
that's
the
way
we've
been
able
to
protect
our
return
margins.
D
David Quezada
Analyst, Raymond James Ltd.
Excellent.
Appreciate
the
color.
Thanks,
Arun.
That's
all
I
had.
A
Arun Banskota
Thank
you,
David.
Operator
Your
next
question
comes
from
the
line
of
Rob
Hope
with
Scotiabank.
Your
line
is
now
open.
R
Robert Hope
Analyst, Scotia Capital, Inc.
Good
morning,
everyone.
First
question
is just
on
the –
it
looks
like
a
little
bit
of
a
pivot
on
the
renewable
power
strategy
to
a
bit
more
of
a
capital
light
strategy.
Is
this
what's
driving
the
investment
in capital
projects
in
the
Renewable
Energy
Group
of
$5
million
to
$30 million
in
2022?
Because,
if
I
look
at
slide
7,
it
looks
like
it
should
be
a
relatively
busy
year.
So
is
the
assumption
that
you're
going to
be
kind
of
bending
down
more
than
half
of these
projects,
equity
count
for
them
and
kind
of
recoup
your
capital
here
pretty
quick?
A
Arthur Kacprzak
That's
basically
it,
Rob.
What
you're
seeing
there
is
basically
the
spend
that's
really
beyond
balance
sheet
spend,
but
obviously,
a
lot
of
activity
going
on
in
the
year
and
certainly,
a
lot
of
development
spend
and
continuing
construction
spend,
but
that
spend
is
mostly
reflected
in
our
construction
JVs.
A
Arun Banskota
And
that
activity
is only
likely
to
keep
on
increasing,
Rob.
And
that's
why,
if
you
notice,
we've
started
including
a
slide
that
shows
you
the
level
of
construction
activities,
which
is
fairly
significant.
So
we
have
not
slowed
down
in
terms
of
continue
to
advance
our
greenfield
projects
through
the
development
process,
through
construction
and
into
operations.
R
Robert Hope
Analyst, Scotia Capital, Inc.
All
right, that's
helpful.
And
then,
I
guess
the
question
is,
how
should we
think
about
the
$3.6
billion
of
CapEx
that
you
put
forward
at
your
Investor
Day?
Is
that
then
more
of
a
100%
number
and
then
net
to
AQN
could
be
significantly
smaller,
then
we'll
add
on
more
projects
as
they
come?
A
Arthur Kacprzak
Yeah.
You
could
think
of
that
as
the
gross
number.
I
mean,
obviously,
as
we
think
about
how
much
is
actually
retained
versus
monetized
and
so
forth
would
be
determined
in
the
future.
R
Robert Hope
Analyst, Scotia Capital, Inc.
All
right. Thank
you.
A
Arun Banskota
Thanks,
Rob.
Operator
Your
next
question
comes
from
the
line
of
Nelson
Ng
with
RBC
Capital.
Your
line
is
now
open.
N
Nelson Ng
Analyst, RBC Capital Markets
Great.
Thanks
and
good
morning,
everyone.
Just
a
quick
follow-up
to
that
question
in
terms
of
the
JV.
So
can
you
give
a
bit
more
color
on
your
relationship
with
the
Ares
Management?
Are
they
a
long-term
buyer
of
your
assets?
Is
that
part
of
the
plan?
J
Jeffery Todd Norman
Yeah.
Nelson,
it's
Jeff.
I
wouldn't
characterize
it
as
a
long-term
buyer, so
we've
got
a
strong
relationship
with
Ares,
and
we
expect
to
do
more
than
one
transaction
with
them.
But
it's
not
an
exclusive
relationship.
And
I
think
there's
a
very
robust
market
out
there
and
we
want
to
keep
our
options
open.
N
Nelson Ng
Analyst, RBC Capital Markets
Okay.
So,
I
know
in
the
past
you
would
move
assets
into
a JV,
have
it
constructed.
And
then
at
the
end,
you
would
usually kind
of
buy
it
back
at
a
nominal
price.
But
this
isn't
the
case,
right?
Ares
will
be
a
long-term
equity
shareholder
in
New
Market
and
the
other
assets.
Is
that
right?
J
Jeffery Todd Norman
Yeah.
There's
two
elements
to
think
of
– on
that.
The
first
one
is
on
the
development
side,
where
we
are
moving
projects
through
and
are
participating
in
the
risk
on
those
projects.
And
then
there's
the
construction
type
JVs.
I
think
the
primary
difference
is
Ares
–
the
primary
difference
between
the
original
construction
projects
and
this
would
be, we
may
not
take
them
back
at
the
end,
but
it
may
not
be
Ares that
has
the
long-term
hold.
There
may
be
a
third-party
that
picks
up
thereafter
as
well.
So,
that's
not
absolutely
certain
at
this
time.
N
Nelson Ng
Analyst, RBC Capital Markets
Okay.
Thanks. And
then just
one
last
follow-up
question,
in
terms
of
timing,
so
is
it
the
plan
to
have
things
sold
down
and
move
to
a
JV,
I
guess,
on
financial
close
or
just
prior
to
construction
or
during
construction,
rather
than
on
or
after
completion?
I
presume
there's
still
a
bit
of
extra
value
to
be
had
if
after
you
hit
COD.
A
Arun Banskota
The
plan
is
that
we're
in
the
best
position
to
de-risk
these
projects
through
development
and
through
construction.
But
those
are
clearly
areas
of
expertise
we
have
and
take
them
through
a
certain
period
of
operation,
take
care
of
all
the
initial
bidding
down
issues
[indiscernible]
(00:38:40) and
then
sell
them.
[indiscernible]
(00:38:45)
N
Nelson Ng
Analyst, RBC Capital Markets
Okay.
Thanks
for
that. Yeah. Sorry go
on.
A
Arthur Kacprzak
No.
I was
just
going
to
add,
and
I
mean –
so,
with
the
construction
JVs,
Algonquin
still
looks
to
retain
the
full
obviously
outside
value
throughout
the
construction
cycle.
N
Nelson Ng
Analyst, RBC Capital Markets
Okay.
Got
it. All
right,
I'll
get
back
in
the
queue.
Thanks,
everyone.
A
Arun Banskota
Thanks,
Nelson.
Operator
Your
next
question
comes
from
the
line
of
Ryan
Greenwald
with
Bank
of
America.
Your
line
is
now
open.
R
Ryan Greenwald
Analyst, BofA Securities, Inc.
Hey.
Good morning,
everyone.
Maybe
starting
with
any
additional
color
how
you're
thinking
about
the
dividend
growth
going
forward?
Looks
like
excluding
the
gain
on
the
sale
here,
you
guys
were
tracking
at
approximately
100%
payout
ratio.
So
any
way
to
help
frame
how
you're
thinking
about
that
ahead
of
the
annual
cadence
in which
you
would typically
revisit
it?
A
Arthur Kacprzak
Yeah. I'd
say
it's
– our
stance
really
hasn't
changed
what
we
communicated
previously.
Look,
our
dividends,
we
certainly
want it
to
be
a
sustainable
dividend.
And
I
think
we've
communicated
in
the
past
an
80%
to
90%
payout
ratio
target.
I
mean,
it's
a
long-term
target
that
we're
targeting
between
80%
to
90%,
so
there
is
going to
be
a
lumpiness
in
certain
years.
But
from
an
overall
long-term
perspective
that
that's
where
we
end
up
seeing
and
certainly
do
see
some
further
dividend
growth
as
well.
R
Ryan Greenwald
Analyst, BofA Securities, Inc.
Got
it. That's
helpful.
And
then
in
terms
of
the
sale
to Ares
instead
of AY, can
you
just
talk
about
that
and
how
you're
thinking
about
the AY relationship
going
forward?
A
Arun Banskota
Look,
the AY relationship
remains
strong,
right?
I mean,
you
saw
we
have
dropped
down
some
other
assets
into AY
as
well.
Like
I've
told
multiple
times,
I
mean,
we
like
the
ESG
profile
of
Atlantica,
so
the
relationship
remains
strong.
And
I
just
want
to remind
folks
that
in
the
whole
construct
around –
with AY
and
the
dropdowns
were
that
it
is
going
to
be
around
non-regulated,
non-North
American
assets,
right?
So
this
does not
obviously
necessarily
fall
into
that
category.
So
I
think
as
a
company,
as
we
grow
our
Renewables
portfolio,
we
find
ourselves
in
a
good
position
that
we
have
multiple
options.
R
Ryan Greenwald
Analyst, BofA Securities, Inc.
Yeah. Understood.
And
then
maybe
just
one
more, if
I
may.
In
terms
of your
appetite
for
further
M&A
and
the
market
environment, can
you
touch
on
that
a
bit?
And
then
perhaps
separately,
given
where
LDCs
have
been
transacting
from
a
private
valuation
perspective,
would
a
regulated
divestment
be
on
the
table
or
is
any
asset
recycling
going to
be
more
on
the
Renewable
side?
A
Arun Banskota
Look,
I
mean, Ryan
and I
will
tell
you
that
we're
always
looking
to
increase
shareholder
value.
And
then
we're
never
closing
any
doors
and
saying,
there
are
no
sacred
cows
here,
right?
Having
said
that,
from
a
strategic
perspective,
when we
look
at
all
of
our
assets
in
our
portfolio
and
given
the
external
market
as
well,
we
believe
that
the
fourth
phase
is
really
the
sell-down
on
the
Renewable
side
of
the
business
because
we
see
our ability
to
be
able
to
control
more
that
development
pipeline,
the
construction
pipeline,
the
flow
of
the
number
of
projects
into
operations.
So,
it's
a
much
more
recurring
and
it's
a
much
more
controllable
piece
of
recurring
shareholder
value
rather
than
one-offs
right
now.
Having
said
that,
we're
not
against
doing
one-offs
either
and
so,
one
of
the
ways
we
look
at
that
is,
is
any
particular
asset
more
valuable
under
our
ownership
versus
in
somebody
else's
ownership.
So,
that's something
we're
always
looking
at.
R
Ryan Greenwald
Analyst, BofA Securities, Inc.
Great.
I'll leave
it
there.
Thanks
so
much
for
the
time.
A
Arun Banskota
Thanks,
Ryan.
Operator
Your
next
question
comes
from
the
line
of
Ben
Pham
with
BMO.
Your
line
is
now
open.
B
Ben Pham
Analyst, BMO Capital Markets Corp. (Canada)
Hi.
Thanks. Maybe
I
want
to
start
off
–
to
follow
up
on
I mean
some
of
the
questions
you
had
on
Ares
and
some
of
the
structures
that
you
utilize.
And
I'm
wondering
when
you
look
at
asset
dropdowns
or
asset
sales,
like
how
do
you
position
where
it
fits?
Is
Ares
many
development
construction,
AY,
operating
assets
and
then
you
compare
that
to
third-party?
How
do
you
– there's
a
bunch
of
different
structures
going
so
it
would
be
interesting
to see
how
you
think
about
where
things
fit?
A
Arun Banskota
So
basically,
when
we
look
at
development
and
construction, one
of
the
options
we
have,
obviously,
is
to
utilize
this
joint
venture
with Ares,
right?
So
we
do
not
have
any
other
–
but
we
could
develop
it
totally
ourselves
as
well,
so
we
have
that
flexibility
of
doing
either
or. We
are
not
normally
developing
projects
or
going
through
construction
with
Atlantica.
On
the
operational
side,
by
and
large,
we
are
the
operating
entity
on
our
asset
base
and
Atlantica
is the
operator
on
their
set
of
assets.
I
mean,
we
obviously
try
to
learn
from
each
other,
but
those
are
two
separate
operation
platforms.
B
Ben Pham
Analyst, BMO Capital Markets Corp. (Canada)
Okay.
And
then
your
2022
guidance
or
even
thinking
the
7%
to
9%,
I
would
assume,
correct
me
if I'm
wrong,
there's
a
dropdown
element
baked
into
those
numbers?
A
Arthur Kacprzak
Yeah.
We
do
certainly
look
at
extracting
value
out
of
our
greenfield
development
pipeline, and
we
have
baked
that
into
the
guidance.
Now,
whether
it's
a
pure
dropdown
or
a
pure
gain
or
whether
it's
to
extract
it
through
different
ways
such
as
management
fees
and
so
forth,
that's
to
be
still
worked
through. But
there
is
certainly –
and
we
are
looking
at
it is
obviously
some
of
the
value
created
through
our
current
growth
pipeline.
B
Ben Pham
Analyst, BMO Capital Markets Corp. (Canada)
Okay.
I
understand.
And
then
my
last
one,
you
mentioned
some
of
the
bridges
on
the
funding
for
Kentucky
Power.
I
wasn't
sure,
Arthur,
were
you
suggesting
that
you're
now
fully
funded
for
Kentucky
Power
or
there's
still
a
slice
left?
A
Arthur Kacprzak
Yeah,
we're
basically
done
in
terms
of
the
notional
amounts
for
Kentucky
Power
with
our
hybrid
debt
of
$1.1
billion,
which
we
funded
the
cash
purchase
price.
Now,
we
obviously
need
to
kind
of
put
everything
into
the
mix
and
make
sure
our
credit
metrics
come
out
right
on
the
other
side
of
all
of
this.
So
the
rest
of
our
funding
plan
certainly
considers
that.
B
Ben Pham
Analyst, BMO Capital Markets Corp. (Canada)
Okay.
Got
it.
Okay.
Thank
you.
Operator
Your
next question
comes from
the
line
of
Andrew
Kuske
with
Credit
Suisse.
Your
line
is
now
open.
A
Andrew M. Kuske
Analyst, Credit Suisse Securities (Canada), Inc
Thanks.
Good
morning.
I
guess
the
first
question
is
really
around
the
ability
to
monetize
certain
assets,
portions
or
entirely
and
then
use
those
proceeds
to
effectively
accelerate
growth.
All
that
can
be
pretty
compelling.
But
how
do
you
balance
just
a
more
complicated
structure
versus
being
more
simple,
and
how
do
you
think
about
that,
whether
the
financial
term
sort
of
warm
or
fuzzy
kinds
of
feelings?
A
Arun Banskota
Andrew,
great
question.
Thank
you.
So,
fundamentally,
if
you
really
look
at
it,
what
we're
trying
to
do
is
leverage
two
specialized
skill
sets
we
have,
right,
one
on
the
development
side
and
one
on
the
operational
side.
And
I
think
over
the
years
now,
we
have
a
certain
level
of
skill
on
both
sides
of
the
business,
and
we
believe that
we
should
be
able
to
just
accelerate
that
growth
by
utilizing
and
leveraging
those
specialized
skill
sets
even
more
in
a
given
external
environment
and
the
whole
decarbonization
thesis
that's
out
there,
right?
So
that's
really
the
fundamental
thesis.
Now,
obviously, to
grow
significantly
along
that
renewable
energy
portfolio,
you
obviously
need
to
access
a
lot
of
capital.
And
our
view
is
that,
again,
looking
at
the
external
market
with
the
amount
and
number
of
sustainable
investors
out
there,
we
believe
that
we
should
be
able
to
sell
down
to
those
sustainable
investors
at
a
point
where
we
can
provide
recurring
value
to
our
shareholders,
right?
So
that's
really
the
thesis
of
that
flywheel,
if
you
will,
continue
to
expand
our
renewables
greenfield
pipeline,
taking
those,
de-risking
those
through
development,
construction
and
operations,
selling
down,
redeploying
that
capital
back
into
more
renewables
growth.
A
Andrew M. Kuske
Analyst, Credit Suisse Securities (Canada), Inc
That's helpful.
Appreciate
that.
And
then
maybe
just thinking
about
that
flywheel
and
your
businesses
and
the
transactional
marks
we've
seen
in
the
US
more
recently
on
the
LDC side.
Is
there
an
opportunity
to
really
focus
your
expertise
in
both
the renewables
business
and
the
utilities
business
more
broadly
through
the
Caribbean
because you've
got
the exposure
in
Bermuda?
But
there's
other
assets
there
that
do
have
good
decarbonization
stories,
renewable
needs
and
offer
just
more
compelling
value
from
an
investment
standpoint.
How
do
you
think
about
that
region
more
broadly?
A
Arun Banskota
Well,
we're
attracted
to
Bermuda
from
a
lot
of
different
factors,
including
the
– we
even
looked
at
things
like
hurricane
profiles,
things
of
the
sort.
Bermuda
does experience
fear
of
hurricanes
and
then
the
other
parts
of
the
Caribbean.
So
there's
obviously
a
lot
of
things
we
look
at
when
we
look
at
any
acquisitions.
Scale
is
important,
we
believe
in
terms
of
being
able
to
do
a
lot
more
with
less.
So
building
scale
across
any
one
of
our
three
modalities,
especially
electric
and
water
are
things
that
we
look
at
very
closely.
But
again,
we
end
up
looking
at
a
lot
more
opportunities
than
in
terms
of
executing
against
those
just
because
we
continue
to
be
extremely
disciplined
around
which
assets
we
bring
under
our
fold.
We
just
have
a
lot
of
financial
metrics,
risk
metrics
that
we
need
to
[indiscernible]
(00:50:08).
But
again,
I
hope
I'm
answering
your question,
Andrew.
It's
a
longwinded answer.
A
Andrew M. Kuske
Analyst, Credit Suisse Securities (Canada), Inc
It
wasn't a
concise
question
either,
so
I
appreciate
the
time.
A
Arun Banskota
Sure.
Operator
Your
next
question
comes
from the
line
of
Naji
Baydoun
with
Industrial
Alliance.
Your
line
is
now
open.
N
Naji Baydoun
Analyst, iA Capital Markets
Hi.
Good
morning.
Just
wanted
to
start
off
with
I
guess
a
clarification
on
the
balance
of
funding
for
this
year,
so
the
large
debt
offering.
And
in
terms
of
the
priorities
for
asset
recycling,
can
you
just
clarify
if
you're
thinking
about
existing
asset
monetizations
or
non-core
asset
sales
or
is
it
really
just
more
focused
on
developmental
loans
for
this
year?
A
Arthur Kacprzak
Hey,
Naji, It's –
so
for
this
year,
I
mean,
as
we
think
about
our
funding
plan,
look,
we've
got –
I
would say,
first
of
all,
we
got
optionality.
As
always,
we've
got
a
lot
of
different
funding
sources
that
we
can
look at
the
top.
I
mean,
asset
recycling
is
certainly
one
of
those
funding
sources
and
that
would
potentially
come
from
existing
assets
that
are
in
our
fleet.
But
again,
it's –
we've
got
quite
a
lot
of
funding
sources
to
potentially
satisfy
what
we
needed to
do
this
year.
N
Naji Baydoun
Analyst, iA Capital Markets
Okay.
So there's now
I
guess,
a
necessity
in
terms
of
accelerating
some
of
that
here
in
the
short-term.
A
Arthur Kacprzak
Yeah.
N
Naji Baydoun
Analyst, iA Capital Markets
Okay.
Just
the
other
question
I
have
was
about
the
accelerating
renewables
growth
that
you
mentioned.
I
know
they
have
a
lot
of
projects
in
the
pipeline
for
this
year,
but
maybe
just
beyond
2022 and
2023.
Can
you
just
give
us
an
update
on
how
the
new
development
projects
are
going
that
could
potentially
extend
that
runway
over
time?
J
Jeffery Todd Norman
Naji,
it's
as
Jeff
and
I
think
everyone
referred
to
our
greenfield
pipeline,
the
3,800
megawatts
which
we
rolled
out
at
Investor
Day.
That
is
what
we
see
feeding
our
five year
capital
plan.
And
we
continue
to
add
to
that
pipeline,
as
well
as
advance
the
projects
in
that
pipeline
for
pulled
down
into
the
capital
plan.
So
we
feel
like
we've
got
the
pump
well
primed
or
the
flywheel
turning
here.
And
we're
making
good
progress
across
the
spectrum
from
new
entrants
into
that
greenfield
pipeline,
pulling
stuff
out
into
the
capital
plan.
And
so 2022, 2023, 2024,
we
won't
be
able
to
say
anything
concrete
until
we
have
names
ready
to
share
with
you.
But
the
process
is
certainly
working
well.
A
Arun Banskota
And
on
top
of
that,
we
also
showed
you
the
1,700
megawatt
hours
of
storage
pipeline,
which
we're
pretty
bullish
about.
N
Naji Baydoun
Analyst, iA Capital Markets
Of
course,
and
again,
just
to
be
clear,
I
think you
said
you
are
looking
to
add
about
1
gigawatt
of
new
projects
in
the
next
five
years.
So,
are
you
– do you
feel
that
you're
still
on
track
to
do,
at
least 200
megawatts
this
year
of
new
development?
A
Arun Banskota
Yes,
in
terms
of
new
development
that
would
fall
under
the
capital
plan
that
we
share
at
Investor
Day,
we
would
expect
that
at
least
200 megawatts.
N
Naji Baydoun
Analyst, iA Capital Markets
Yeah. Okay.
Got
it. Thank you.
A
Arun Banskota
Yeah.
Thank
you,
Naji.
Operator
Your
final
question
today
comes
from the
line
of
Rupert
Merer
with
National
Bank.
Your
line
is
now
open.
R
Rupert Mark Merer
Analyst, National Bank Financial, Inc.
Hi,
good
morning,
everyone.
And
another
question
on
asset
recycling,
I'm
afraid.
Can
you
talk
about
the
potential
to
sell
your
existing
assets?
Are
you
only
looking
to
do
sell-downs
on
development
assets
or
could
you
do
sell-downs
on
existing
assets
as well?
J
Jeffery Todd Norman
Hey,
Rupert,
it's
Jeff.
Yeah,
existing
assets
are
certainly
on
the
table,
and
we
believe
they've got
good
value,
given
the
transactions
we're
seeing
in
the
market.
And
to
the
extent
that
we're
looking
to
monetize
anything
in
the
shorter
term,
that's
where
the
more
material
amount
would
be.
R
Rupert Mark Merer
Analyst, National Bank Financial, Inc.
And
then
would
you
look
to
aim
or
look
to,
say,
control
51%
of
assets
in
the
future,
so
you
are
going
to maintain
control
and
then
you
have
a
joint
venture
accounting
somewhat
like
you
have
with
your
Texas
assets?
A
Arun Banskota
Not
necessarily, Rupert.
I
mean,
we
have
not
decided
exactly
what
level
of
ownership
we're
going
to
take.
I
believe
what
is
more
important
for
us
is
to
make
sure
we
are
operating
an
asset
management
entity,
because
again,
creating
and
furthering
skill
on
that
side
of
the
business
also
continue
to
be
important
for
us.
So, that's
what
we're
focused
on,
exactly
what
percent
is
we sell
down,
that's
still in
the
planning
stages.
R
Rupert Mark Merer
Analyst, National Bank Financial, Inc.
Great.
And
then
just
finally
on
Texas,
you
saw
some
headwinds
at
the
Coastal
Wind
assets.
I
know
you
gave
us
some
color
on
that
situation
back
in
December,
just
wondering
if
you
could
walk
us
through
what
you
saw
in
Q4
and
what
the
outlook
is
for
these
assets
going
forward.
I
understand
you're
looking
at
improved
transmission
there
over
time.
But
what
does the
outlook
look
like
for
the
remainder
of
this
year?
A
Arun Banskota
Sure.
So,
Rupert,
so
there
are
really
a
combination
of
factors,
right,
on
those
Coastal
Wind
Facilities.
First
of
all,
there
was
lower
wind
resource,
which
again,
I
believe
is
an
industry-wide
phenomenon
that
affected
quite
a
number
of
our
North
American
wind
assets
in
2021.
On
top
of
that
and
during
periods
of
oversupply,
the
prices
were
obviously
lower
than
anticipated
in
the
market.
And
third,
one
of
the
projects
actually
got
to
COD
later
than
anticipated.
And
finally,
as
you
saw
that
was
late
of
the
year,
there
was
general
in transfer
income
stream
that
was
announced
by ERCOT.
So,
it
really
was
a
combination
of
factors.
We
believe
that
the
first
–
three
of
those
should
be
transitory.
The
fourth
one,
we
believe,
is
going
to
go
away
with
time
because
of
the
announcement
of
a
general
transfer
income
stream,
that
means
that
both ERCOT and
the
commission
have
already
approved
transition
upgrades
at
–
around
that
region
and
that
facility.
So,
we
believe
that
over
time,
starting
2024,
that
basis
risk
is
going
to
be
– should
significantly
go
away.
So
of
those
– the
four
factors
I
talked
about, three
of
them
are
transitory.
One,
we
believe
will
continue
until
2024.
R
Rupert Mark Merer
Analyst, National Bank Financial, Inc.
Okay.
Very
good.
I'll leave
it
there.
Thank
you.
A
Arun Banskota
Okay.
Thank
you,
Rupert.
Operator
There
are no
further
questions
at
this
time. Arun,
I
turn
the
call
back
over
to
you.
A
Arun Banskota
Thank
you,
operator,
and
thank
you
everyone
for
taking
the
time
on
our
call
today.
With
that,
please
stay
on
the
line
for
our
disclaimer.
A
Amelia See Man Tsang
Our
discussion
during
this
call
contains
certain
forward-looking
information,
including,
but
not
limited
to
our
expectations
regarding
earnings,
capital
expenditures,
pending
acquisition,
capital
recycling
and
future
growth.
This
forward-looking
information
is
based
on
certain
assumptions,
including
those
described
in
our
most
recent
MD&A
filed
on
SEDAR
and
EDGAR
and
available
on
our
website,
and
is
subject
to
risks
and
uncertainties
that
could
cause
actual
results
to
differ
materially
from
historical
results
or
results
anticipated
by
the
forward-looking
information.
Forward-looking
information
provided
during
this
call
speaks
only
as
of
the
date
of
this
call
and
is
based
on
the
plans,
beliefs,
estimates,
projections,
expectations,
opinions
and
assumptions
of
management
as
of
today's
date.
There
can
be
no
assurance
that
forward-looking
information
will
prove
to
be
accurate,
and
you
should
not
place
undue
reliance
on
forward-looking
information.
We
disclaim
any
obligation
to
update
any
forward-looking
information
or
to
explain
why
material
difference
between
subsequent
actual
events
and
such
forward-looking
information,
except
as
required
by
applicable
law.
In
addition,
during
the
course
of
this
call,
we
may
have
referred
to
certain
non-GAAP
measures
and
ratios,
including,
but
not
limited
to,
Adjusted
Net
Earnings,
Adjusted
Net
Earnings
per
share
or
Adjusted
Net
EPS,
Adjusted
EBITDA,
adjusted
funds
from
operations
and
divisional
operating
profit.
There
is
no
standardized
measure
of
such
non-GAAP
measures
and
consequently
AQN's
method
of
calculating
these
measures
may
differ
from
methods
used
by
other
companies
and,
therefore,
they
may
not
be
comparable
to
similar
measures
presented
by
other
companies.
For
more
information
about
forward-looking
information
and
non-GAAP
measures,
including
reconciliation
of
non-GAAP
financial
measures
to
the
corresponding
GAAP
measures,
please
refer
to
our
most
recent
MD&A
filed
on
SEDAR
in
Canada
or
EDGAR
in
the
United
States
and
available
on
our
website.
Good morning. My name is Emma, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Algonquin Power & Utilities Corporation 2021 Fourth Quarter Earnings Webcast and Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Thank you.
Amelia Tsang, VP Investor Relations. You may begin your conference.
Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us this morning for our fourth quarter and full year 2021 earnings conference call. Presenting on the call today are Arun Banskota, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Arthur Kacprzak, our Chief Financial Officer.
Also joining us this morning for the Q&A part of the call will be Jeff Norman, our Chief Development Officer; and Johnny Johnston, our Chief Operating Officer. To accompany our earnings call today, we have a supplemental webcast presentation available on our website, algonquinpowerandutilities.com. Our financial statements, management discussion and analysis and annual information form are also available on the website as well as on SEDAR and EDGAR.
Before continuing the call, we would like to remind you that our discussion during the call will include certain forward-looking information, including, but not limited to, our expectations regarding future earnings, capital expenditures and pending acquisitions. At the end of the call, I will read a notice regarding both forward-looking information and non-GAAP measures. Please also refer to our most recent MD&A filed on SEDAR and EDGAR and available on our website for additional important information on these items.
On our call this morning, Arun will provide an overview of our Q4 and annual performance. Arthur will follow with the financial results, and then Arun will conclude with an update on our strategic plan for the business. We will then open the lines for questions. I ask that you restrict your questions to two and then re-queue if you have any additional questions to allow others the opportunity to participate.
And with that, I'll turn it over to Arun.
Thank you, Amelia, and a very good morning to those who have been able to join us on the call and online. Given that this is our year-end earnings call, I want to provide some highlights and speak to performance, both financial and operational for Q4 and full year 2021.
Firstly, on financials, I'm pleased to report steady year-over-year growth in the following key financial metrics: 2021 Adjusted EBITDA of nearly $1.1 billion increased 24% year-over-year from $869.5 million, largely from new facilities that came online in 2021 on the Renewable side, including Maverick Creek Wind and Altavista, as well as contribution of new facilities on the Regulated side, including Empire Wind and a full year of contribution from BELCO and ESSAL.
Our 2021 Adjusted Net Earnings per share of $0.71 was up 11% from the $0.64 reported in the prior year and came in line with our expectations. Last year, we reported annual dividends per share of $0.67, representing our 10th consecutive year of dividend increases. We also exited the year with approximately $16.8 billion in assets, a 27% increase over the $13.2 billion reported in the prior year.
Secondly, on execution, the company undertook a number of successful growth initiatives and continued to execute on strategic priorities in 2021, which are positioning us well for the future. We continue to focus our efforts on Algonquin's three strategic pillars; growth, operational excellence, and sustainability. And I will provide more details on each of these pillars.
Earlier this year, we closed on the acquisition of New York American Water, which services over 125,000 customer connections across seven counties in Southeastern New York, and we officially welcome the New York American Water employees into Liberty. The transition has gone very well as planned.
Staying on the topic of growth, I want to provide you an update on our pending $2.8 billion acquisition of Kentucky Power Company and AEP Kentucky Transmission Company. We remain excited and firmly committed to this transaction and look forward to bringing the benefits of our local operating model to Eastern Kentucky. As we previously mentioned, our expectation of enhancing Kentucky Power's local operating model, bringing benefits to customers by exploring opportunities to reduce customer rates through investing in green energy and creating increased local employment are all attributes that are expected to help customers and the local communities, while driving value for our shareholders.
To that end, you are likely aware that we jointly filed with AEP an application with the Kentucky Commission on January 4 for the approval of the acquisition of Kentucky Power. By statute, the Commission must issue an order on the application within 120 days. We expect to close the transaction in mid-2022 after receipt of state and first level approvals and satisfaction of all other closing conditions. To-date, we have already received Hart-Scott-Rodino and CFIUS approvals.
Staying on the regulatory front, our rate review at Empire Electric continues to progress well. On February 4, 2022, a stipulation was reached among Empire Electric, Office of the Public Council, Staff of the Missouri Public Service Commission and other interveners. Hearings were held on February 7 on rate design, and a hearing on the stipulation was held on February 10, with new rates expected to be implemented in May of 2022.
We believe the settlement represents a fair outcome for customers and the company. We continue to invest in our network to deliver mission-critical services to our communities, while keeping customer affordability top of mind.
Another growth pillar in our Regulated business is focused on deploying capital to benefit our customers. In 2021, the Regulated Services Group invested over $1.9 billion, including the completion of our Midwest greening (sic) [greening the fleet] (00:07:47) initiative, where we brought 600 megawatts of wind generation online. In the coming years, we expect to invest between $800 million and $1.2 billion annually into our rate base to improve safety, security, reliability, resiliency and customer experience.
Turning to the growth levers on our Renewable business. In this business, our ability to originate and execute projects is a critical growth lever. 2021 has been a record year for Algonquin, with nearly 1,200 megawatts of new Renewable projects either closing or reaching commercial operations. In December 2021, we completed our latest project to achieve commercial operations, the 24-megawatt EBR wind facility in Québec, with all of the energy being sold to Hydro-Québec.
The 175-megawatt Blue Hill facility in Saskatchewan, with all of the energy under contract with SaskPower, is on track to achieve commercial operations in March 2021. Our construction program continues with the expected start of construction in Q2 2022 of the Deerfield 2 and Sandy Ridge 2 wind projects. Also, we continue to progress our partnership with Chevron and expect to start construction on the first two of these solar projects in mid-year.
The fact that we continue to successfully execute on construction in the midst of the COVID pandemic and supply chain challenges is a testament to the hard work, entrepreneurial culture and experience base of our employees.
At our Investor Day, we discussed our strong development platform, where our ongoing development has resulted in growing our greenfield pipeline of prospective generation projects to 3,800 megawatts by the end of 2021. This growth is net of projects totaling 640 megawatts, which advanced from our greenfield pipeline into our five-year capital plan. The 640 megawatts that advanced includes the Riverbend Wind Project in Michigan, the Blue Violet combined wind/solar project in Illinois, and four projects being developed in partnership with Chevron in New Mexico and Texas.
Two other important initiatives in 2021 to establish a strong foundation for future growth include building a 1,700 megawatt hour pipeline of prospective energy storage projects and entry into renewable natural gas with the agreement to acquire Sandhill, a developer of RNG projects. Sandhill represents an attractive platform, giving us immediate entry via its portfolio of four projects in the state of Wisconsin, two of which are currently under construction with first production expected around the end of Q1 and two projects which are in late-stage development.
According to a US Environmental Protection Agency report, Wisconsin represents the state with the second largest universe of renewable natural gas opportunities, and we are excited to utilize Sandhill as an RNG growth platform. This acquisition is expected to close in the first half of 2022.
Moving on now to operational excellence. In a mission-critical industry, safety and reliability are always key areas of focus. I'm very pleased to share that we have passed the impressive milestone of over 750 days. That is nearly 11 million work hours without a single lost time injury across our North American business, while keeping our customers and communities safe and maintaining our system reliability and resiliency.
I want to thank all of our employees for their ongoing focus on safety and preparedness for weather events. I want to particularly call out and thank the electric team in Tahoe as that area received record breaking snowfall over the Christmas holidays. Liberty crews worked hard throughout the holiday weekend to restore power to our customers and communities as quickly and safely as possible during harsh weather conditions. The hard work and dedication of our employees did not go unnoticed by the customers and local communities we serve.
And finally, we remain firmly committed to sustainability through the inclusion of environmental, social and governance values in our broader corporate strategy and day-to-day operations. In 2021, we announced our target for net zero for Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2050 with a credible path supported by our strong decarbonization track record, extensive experience in regulated utility management, and deep expertise in renewables development.
On the governance side, we successfully embedded sustainability into our management's compensation model, continuing to enhance how ESG factors are embedded throughout the organization's business goals. And finally, in 2021, AQN's ESG ratings continued to improve in the aggregate, positioning the company as a sustainability leader.
More recently, I'm pleased to report the company's inclusion in the 2022 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index for the third year in a row. Our inclusion into their Index is a testament to our continued efforts for continued gender equality – improved gender equality and transparency as we target above-market gender representation at our board and executive levels.
With that, I'll pass it over to Arthur, who will speak to our fourth quarter and full year 2021 financial results. Arthur?
Thank you, Arun, and good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to report that Algonquin has reported steady fourth quarter and full year results, reflecting the benefits of our diversified and resilient business model and proven track record of disciplined growth. Our fourth quarter 2021 consolidated Adjusted EBITDA was $297.6 million, which is up approximately 18% from the $253.1 million we reported for the same period last year.
The Regulated Services Group delivered $191.4 million in operating profit in the current quarter, which compares to $162.4 million in the same quarter last year, an increase of about 18%. This improvement reflects contributions from our Midwest wind facilities, which were placed in service in 2021, as well as contributions from BELCO, our Bermuda electric utility; and ESSAL, our Chilean water utility as both acquisitions closed during Q4 of 2020. Results also benefited from new rates implemented at CalPeco and Granite State Electric Systems as well as Park Water and Apple Valley Water systems in California. This was offset by lower consumption driven by milder weather. Results were also impacted by higher non-pass through fuel costs at Empire Electric as well as higher operating costs at Granite State and CalPeco.
The Renewable Energy Group reported fourth quarter divisional operating profit of $123.9 million, which compares to $97.9 million in the same quarter last year, an increase of about 27%.
The addition of the Sugar Creek and Maverick Creek wind generation facilities contributed to the year-over-year increase in operating profit. Our investment in Atlantica also continued to provide benefits with dividends received increasing by $4.4 million over the prior year.
Q4 also benefited from the sale of our New Market Solar facility to a joint venture with our renewable construction partner Ares, resulting in a recognized gain reflecting a step-up in the value created through the development process. However, this increase was partially offset by lower overall production on some of our wind and solar generation facilities and higher operating costs, while performance at our Sanger facility was negatively impacted this quarter by higher compliance costs and lower capacity payments.
Our investment in the Texas Coastal Wind Facilities was also negatively impacted by higher than expected basis cost, lower than expected production and an acceleration of HLBV losses of $9 million related to Q1 hedge settlements caused by winter storm Uri that were expected to largely reverse in the future.
Fourth quarter corporate expenses were higher by approximately $10.5 million as compared to last year, driven primarily by higher administrative expenses and higher overall net development expenses as compared to last year.
In total, our Q4 Adjusted Net Earnings per share came in at $0.21, which is in line with last year. In addition to the drivers discussed, our results were negatively impacted by financing costs associated with the capital deployed in 2021 and an increase in the weighted average shares related to the Kentucky Power acquisition funding.
For the full year, Adjusted Net EPS came in at $0.71 and compares to $0.64 reported in the prior year, representing an annual growth in Adjusted Net EPS of 11%, showing solid year-over-year growth.
Although we delivered strong results, we did encounter various headwinds throughout the year. As a result of record load wind resources experienced throughout the early part of the year, which was an industry-wide phenomenon, generation on our wind facilities was down approximately 10% from long-term averages. Also, much warmer-than-normal weather in the Midwest negatively affected customer usage in the early and latter parts of the year. Compared to normalized weather patterns, this represents an impact of approximately $48 million on our 2021 operating profit, or about $0.055 on our Adjusted EPS.
Moving on to the balance sheet and financing activities. First, I wanted to spend a few minutes to provide an update on our progress towards the financing of the Kentucky Power acquisition. On announcement of the deal back in October of last year, we executed a Canadian dollar bought deal offering of common shares, raising a US dollar equivalent of approximately $640 million in proceeds. Early this year, we issued approximately $1.1 billion of hybrid debt and a concurrent public offerings in the US and Canada. Recall that hybrid debt receives 50% equity credit from S&P and Fitch and never converts to common shares.
We have issued this financing on an attractive expected 10-year rate of approximately 4.95% after factoring hedging. That brings the total raise for the transaction to just over $1.7 billion towards the $2.8 billion purchase price. On closing, we expect to assume approximately $1.2 billion of Kentucky Power company debt of which approximately $500 million is targeted to be refinanced using Liberty Utilities' established 144A debt platform, which we would expect would benefit our future Kentucky customers. We continue to see this acquisition as providing compelling value and look forward to closing later this year.
Moving on to the broader capital and financing plan. In 2021, Algonquin deployed $3.7 billion of capital on our organic initiatives relating to the safety, reliability of our electric, water and gas systems, as well as delivering new renewable generation from our projects, including Maverick Creek Wind, Altavista Solar and our Midwest Greening.
For 2022, Algonquin is targeting to spend over $4.3 billion in capital, with the majority related to the acquisitions of New York American Water, which closed earlier this year and Kentucky Power, which is expected to close in the middle of this year. Our funding plan for the remainder of the year is predicated on maintaining a strong and resilient balance sheet, targeting a BBB investment-grade credit rating. I spoke to the funding associated with the Kentucky Power acquisition already. The remaining funding requirements can be solved by a combination of various funding sources available to us, including retain cash, some more hybrid debt, proceeds from securitization of certain regulatory assets and as well as issuance of long-term debt. As we discussed during our Investor Day, asset recycling or selling down a portion of our non-regulated renewables can also be viewed as another source of potential value-accretive capital for us this year.
Considering the various funding sources available, we do not expect to raise additional capital, but we have issuance of discrete common equity for the remainder of this year. Our funding plan is supported by a strong liquidity position. At the end of 2021, we had approximately $2 billion of committed capital in reserves available, not counting the acquisition facility that was arranged in connection with the Kentucky Power transaction.
Before turning things over to Arun, I'd like to provide a brief update on our 2022's Adjusted Net EPS guidance. We continue to expect our 2022 Adjusted Net EPS per share to be within a range of $0.72 to $0.77, which was communicated previously at our Investor Day. We continue to assume in our earnings guidance, normalized weather patterns and rate decisions in line with expectations, as well as resource production and realized pricing at our renewable-generating facilities consistent with long-term averages.
We also assume that there are no impacts from COVID-19 on our operations. We look forward to continuing to deliver solid earnings from our diversified and growth-oriented business model, which along with our history of superior dividend growth, we believe, will continue to drive strong shareholder return.
With that, I will now hand it back to Arun to outline our strategic plans.
Thanks, Arthur. Before we close out our prepared comments this morning, I want to give an update on our strategic initiatives. At our December Investor Day, we updated our five year capital investment program, which projects $12.4 billion from 2022 through the end of 2026 with a very visible capital plan. Of that, we have already closed on New York American Water earlier this year, executing on approximately $600 million of the capital plan in January.
On the Regulated side of the business, the additions of New York American Water and Kentucky Power are expected to drive long-term Adjusted Net EPS growth, while a large portion of the capital plan is being spent on organic investments to improve the safety, reliability and resiliency of our network.
On the Renewable side, we are excited about the growth potential and believe that we have a once in a generation opportunity to accelerate renewables growth and add shareholder value. In just over a period of one year, we have made investments and have grown our prospective greenfield pipeline from 3,400 megawatt to 3,800 megawatts, while converting 640 megawatts from that greenfield pipeline into our new five year capital plan.
We also introduced our new prospective pipeline of storage opportunities of 1,700 megawatt hours at our December Investor Day. We believe this validates the strength of our development platform. We now have scale across both our development platform as discussed, and we own and have investments in over 4,000 megawatts of renewable generation.
At our Investor Day, we spoke of accelerating renewables growth and adding shareholder value as we plan to increase our investments in greenfield development, which we expect will allow us to capture the higher development margins and take a number of those projects through construction. Once in construction, we see an opportunity to partner with institutional investors wishing to make alternate, sustainable investments with our ability to develop and deliver on long-term contracted sustainable assets.
In particular, we should be able to sell down to the investors, while earning an operating fee. We could then deploy some or all of the capital gains in further greenfield development, creating a potential new recurring source of earnings for our investors. With scale, we expect to get incremental benefits, including improved negotiating power, lower transaction costs and access to greater opportunities.
We are on our way to completing planning and plan to execute this strategy in 2022. I'm excited about the prospects for Algonquin's Regulated and Renewables businesses, which are both well-positioned to contribute to and benefit from the decarbonization transformation that is currently underway and which will only accelerate over the coming years.
In summary, our three strategic pillars of operational excellence, growth and sustainability would be a key foundation as we continue to build the business and strive to bring long-term value to our shareholders. We remain well-positioned to continue to execute on our growth strategies, while pursuing our sustainability goals.
With that, I will turn the call over to the operator for any questions from those on the line. [Operator Instructions]
Your first question today comes from the line of Sean Steuart with TD Securities. Your line is now open.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone.
Good morning, Sean.
Good morning. A couple of questions, the New Market Solar Project sale to the joint venture with Ares, how should we think about that project pipeline going forward for future sales into that vehicle?
Sure, Sean. So, look, we have been talking a few times now about the ability for us to provide recurring shareholder value through the growth of our development and construction pipeline. And so what I talked about towards the end of my presentation was really how that New Market Solar also fits into our strategy of producing recurring shareholder value through such sell-downs. So because of the fact that we believe it's going to be a recurring source, we thought – believe it is prudent to knot just that out of our earnings.
Okay. Understood. The pace going forward, though, for future projects to be sold into that vehicle, any context you can provide there?
Well, we're about done with our planning process, I mean starting our execution process on that, Sean. So, we'll probably be able to give a lot more detail at that at the next quarterly call.
Okay. Thanks for that. The Sandhill acquisition and I guess context on the amount of capital you expect to invest into those projects, and more broadly speaking, larger investment opportunities for whether it's RNG or other energy transition-type investments. Any details you can provide on that front?
Hey, Sean, it's Jeff. Yeah, I think the Sandhill acquisition and the four projects are anaerobic digesters. And so, they're relatively small in terms of CapEx. It's important to us because of the benefits of advancing RNG and improving our knowledge in that area, more so than an absolute capital play. That being said, we do see RNG expanding. RNG includes hydrogen. And so, as we start to build our knowledge, start to build how we trade and expand more, we do see that as an important area. But there's still a lot of information to unfold.
Okay. Thanks, Jeff. That's all I have for now. Thanks, guys.
Thanks, Sean.
Your next question comes from the line of David Quezada with Raymond James. Your line is now open.
Thanks. Morning, everyone. My first question here, just on New York American Water, now that that's closed, I'm curious what kind of potential you see there, I guess for spending CapEx either organic or otherwise. I think at the time of the acquisition, there were some talk about opportunities for consolidation there. So, any thoughts around that would be appreciated.
Look, I mean, we are very much in the planning process for continued investments in New York American Water. Our next rate case is not due for some time. But, as with all of our other utilities, we continue to invest in the safety and reliability and resiliency of that water system as with anything else. Now, given our unique positioning in terms of renewable energy, as you know, there's quite a bit of energy required to transport water. One of the unique things we do do is look at opportunities to see how we can substitute the current energy profile with our renewable energy generation to serve our water utilities also, which I think is a unique capability that we have. And we have utilized that already. So that's something we're taking a close look at as well.
Excellent. Thanks, Arun. Maybe just one more from me just on the topic of cost inflation, and I'm thinking specifically about your Regulated business. Curious if you've had any discussions with regulators, especially on your active regulatory dockets, if inflation has been raised as a concern there at all and how are those discussions going.
Sure. Look, David, I mean, inflation is the current topic du jour, right? So obviously we're seeing more inflation than we have seen in the past, probably, what, 10, 15 years at least, I think. On the Regulated side of the business, look, I mean, inflation is largely a pass-through. But at the same time, we are acutely aware of the potential impact on customer affordability, so we track that extremely closely. And that's a continuing source of discussion we have with the regulators on how to balance all the cost increases vis-à-vis the right level of customer rate.
On the renewable energy side, it's largely a function, in our minds, of you have three significant contracts on the renewable energy side, right? You've got your large equipment contracts, you've got your EPC contracts, you've got your offtake contracts. Once you sign those three agreements, all of them are fixed price contracts. And so, in our mind, the strategy that we employ is trying to sign those three contracts as closely concurrently as possible, so that we are not left holding the inflation risk. So – and that's the way we've been able to protect our return margins.
Excellent. Appreciate the color. Thanks, Arun. That's all I had.
Thank you, David.
Your next question comes from the line of Rob Hope with Scotiabank. Your line is now open.
Good morning, everyone. First question is just on the – it looks like a little bit of a pivot on the renewable power strategy to a bit more of a capital light strategy. Is this what's driving the investment in capital projects in the Renewable Energy Group of $5 million to $30 million in 2022? Because, if I look at slide 7, it looks like it should be a relatively busy year. So is the assumption that you're going to be kind of bending down more than half of these projects, equity count for them and kind of recoup your capital here pretty quick?
That's basically it, Rob. What you're seeing there is basically the spend that's really beyond balance sheet spend, but obviously, a lot of activity going on in the year and certainly, a lot of development spend and continuing construction spend, but that spend is mostly reflected in our construction JVs.
And that activity is only likely to keep on increasing, Rob. And that's why, if you notice, we've started including a slide that shows you the level of construction activities, which is fairly significant. So we have not slowed down in terms of continue to advance our greenfield projects through the development process, through construction and into operations.
All right, that's helpful. And then, I guess the question is, how should we think about the $3.6 billion of CapEx that you put forward at your Investor Day? Is that then more of a 100% number and then net to AQN could be significantly smaller, then we'll add on more projects as they come?
Yeah. You could think of that as the gross number. I mean, obviously, as we think about how much is actually retained versus monetized and so forth would be determined in the future.
All right. Thank you.
Thanks, Rob.
Your next question comes from the line of Nelson Ng with RBC Capital. Your line is now open.
Great. Thanks and good morning, everyone. Just a quick follow-up to that question in terms of the JV. So can you give a bit more color on your relationship with the Ares Management? Are they a long-term buyer of your assets? Is that part of the plan?
Yeah. Nelson, it's Jeff. I wouldn't characterize it as a long-term buyer, so we've got a strong relationship with Ares, and we expect to do more than one transaction with them. But it's not an exclusive relationship. And I think there's a very robust market out there and we want to keep our options open.
Okay. So, I know in the past you would move assets into a JV, have it constructed. And then at the end, you would usually kind of buy it back at a nominal price. But this isn't the case, right? Ares will be a long-term equity shareholder in New Market and the other assets. Is that right?
Yeah. There's two elements to think of – on that. The first one is on the development side, where we are moving projects through and are participating in the risk on those projects. And then there's the construction type JVs. I think the primary difference is Ares – the primary difference between the original construction projects and this would be, we may not take them back at the end, but it may not be Ares that has the long-term hold. There may be a third-party that picks up thereafter as well. So, that's not absolutely certain at this time.
Okay. Thanks. And then just one last follow-up question, in terms of timing, so is it the plan to have things sold down and move to a JV, I guess, on financial close or just prior to construction or during construction, rather than on or after completion? I presume there's still a bit of extra value to be had if after you hit COD.
The plan is that we're in the best position to de-risk these projects through development and through construction. But those are clearly areas of expertise we have and take them through a certain period of operation, take care of all the initial bidding down issues [indiscernible] (00:38:40) and then sell them. [indiscernible]
(00:38:45)
Okay. Thanks for that. Yeah. Sorry go on.
No. I was just going to add, and I mean – so, with the construction JVs, Algonquin still looks to retain the full obviously outside value throughout the construction cycle.
Okay. Got it. All right, I'll get back in the queue. Thanks, everyone.
Thanks, Nelson.
Your next question comes from the line of Ryan Greenwald with Bank of America. Your line is now open.
Hey. Good morning, everyone. Maybe starting with any additional color how you're thinking about the dividend growth going forward? Looks like excluding the gain on the sale here, you guys were tracking at approximately 100% payout ratio. So any way to help frame how you're thinking about that ahead of the annual cadence in which you would typically revisit it?
Yeah. I'd say it's – our stance really hasn't changed what we communicated previously. Look, our dividends, we certainly want it to be a sustainable dividend. And I think we've communicated in the past an 80% to 90% payout ratio target. I mean, it's a long-term target that we're targeting between 80% to 90%, so there is going to be a lumpiness in certain years. But from an overall long-term perspective that that's where we end up seeing and certainly do see some further dividend growth as well.
Got it. That's helpful. And then in terms of the sale to Ares instead of AY, can you just talk about that and how you're thinking about the AY relationship going forward?
Look, the AY relationship remains strong, right? I mean, you saw we have dropped down some other assets into AY as well. Like I've told multiple times, I mean, we like the ESG profile of Atlantica, so the relationship remains strong. And I just want to remind folks that in the whole construct around – with AY and the dropdowns were that it is going to be around non-regulated, non-North American assets, right? So this does not obviously necessarily fall into that category. So I think as a company, as we grow our Renewables portfolio, we find ourselves in a good position that we have multiple options.
Yeah. Understood. And then maybe just one more, if I may. In terms of your appetite for further M&A and the market environment, can you touch on that a bit? And then perhaps separately, given where LDCs have been transacting from a private valuation perspective, would a regulated divestment be on the table or is any asset recycling going to be more on the Renewable side?
Look, I mean, Ryan and I will tell you that we're always looking to increase shareholder value. And then we're never closing any doors and saying, there are no sacred cows here, right? Having said that, from a strategic perspective, when we look at all of our assets in our portfolio and given the external market as well, we believe that the fourth phase is really the sell-down on the Renewable side of the business because we see our ability to be able to control more that development pipeline, the construction pipeline, the flow of the number of projects into operations.
So, it's a much more recurring and it's a much more controllable piece of recurring shareholder value rather than one-offs right now. Having said that, we're not against doing one-offs either and so, one of the ways we look at that is, is any particular asset more valuable under our ownership versus in somebody else's ownership. So, that's something we're always looking at.
Great. I'll leave it there. Thanks so much for the time.
Thanks, Ryan.
Your next question comes from the line of Ben Pham with BMO. Your line is now open.
Hi. Thanks. Maybe I want to start off – to follow up on I mean some of the questions you had on Ares and some of the structures that you utilize. And I'm wondering when you look at asset dropdowns or asset sales, like how do you position where it fits? Is Ares many development construction, AY, operating assets and then you compare that to third-party? How do you – there's a bunch of different structures going so it would be interesting to see how you think about where things fit?
So basically, when we look at development and construction, one of the options we have, obviously, is to utilize this joint venture with Ares, right? So we do not have any other – but we could develop it totally ourselves as well, so we have that flexibility of doing either or. We are not normally developing projects or going through construction with Atlantica.
On the operational side, by and large, we are the operating entity on our asset base and Atlantica is the operator on their set of assets. I mean, we obviously try to learn from each other, but those are two separate operation platforms.
Okay. And then your 2022 guidance or even thinking the 7% to 9%, I would assume, correct me if I'm wrong, there's a dropdown element baked into those numbers?
Yeah. We do certainly look at extracting value out of our greenfield development pipeline, and we have baked that into the guidance. Now, whether it's a pure dropdown or a pure gain or whether it's to extract it through different ways such as management fees and so forth, that's to be still worked through. But there is certainly – and we are looking at it is obviously some of the value created through our current growth pipeline.
Okay. I understand. And then my last one, you mentioned some of the bridges on the funding for Kentucky Power. I wasn't sure, Arthur, were you suggesting that you're now fully funded for Kentucky Power or there's still a slice left?
Yeah, we're basically done in terms of the notional amounts for Kentucky Power with our hybrid debt of $1.1 billion, which we funded the cash purchase price. Now, we obviously need to kind of put everything into the mix and make sure our credit metrics come out right on the other side of all of this. So the rest of our funding plan certainly considers that.
Okay. Got it. Okay. Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Kuske with Credit Suisse. Your line is now open.
Thanks. Good morning. I guess the first question is really around the ability to monetize certain assets, portions or entirely and then use those proceeds to effectively accelerate growth. All that can be pretty compelling. But how do you balance just a more complicated structure versus being more simple, and how do you think about that, whether the financial term sort of warm or fuzzy kinds of feelings?
Andrew, great question. Thank you. So, fundamentally, if you really look at it, what we're trying to do is leverage two specialized skill sets we have, right, one on the development side and one on the operational side. And I think over the years now, we have a certain level of skill on both sides of the business, and we believe that we should be able to just accelerate that growth by utilizing and leveraging those specialized skill sets even more in a given external environment and the whole decarbonization thesis that's out there, right? So that's really the fundamental thesis.
Now, obviously, to grow significantly along that renewable energy portfolio, you obviously need to access a lot of capital. And our view is that, again, looking at the external market with the amount and number of sustainable investors out there, we believe that we should be able to sell down to those sustainable investors at a point where we can provide recurring value to our shareholders, right? So that's really the thesis of that flywheel, if you will, continue to expand our renewables greenfield pipeline, taking those, de-risking those through development, construction and operations, selling down, redeploying that capital back into more renewables growth.
That's helpful. Appreciate that. And then maybe just thinking about that flywheel and your businesses and the transactional marks we've seen in the US more recently on the LDC side. Is there an opportunity to really focus your expertise in both the renewables business and the utilities business more broadly through the Caribbean because you've got the exposure in Bermuda? But there's other assets there that do have good decarbonization stories, renewable needs and offer just more compelling value from an investment standpoint. How do you think about that region more broadly?
Well, we're attracted to Bermuda from a lot of different factors, including the – we even looked at things like hurricane profiles, things of the sort. Bermuda does experience fear of hurricanes and then the other parts of the Caribbean. So there's obviously a lot of things we look at when we look at any acquisitions. Scale is important, we believe in terms of being able to do a lot more with less.
So building scale across any one of our three modalities, especially electric and water are things that we look at very closely. But again, we end up looking at a lot more opportunities than in terms of executing against those just because we continue to be extremely disciplined around which assets we bring under our fold. We just have a lot of financial metrics, risk metrics that we need to [indiscernible] (00:50:08). But again, I hope I'm answering your question, Andrew. It's a longwinded answer.
It wasn't a concise question either, so I appreciate the time.
Sure.
Your next question comes from the line of Naji Baydoun with Industrial Alliance. Your line is now open.
Hi. Good morning. Just wanted to start off with I guess a clarification on the balance of funding for this year, so the large debt offering. And in terms of the priorities for asset recycling, can you just clarify if you're thinking about existing asset monetizations or non-core asset sales or is it really just more focused on developmental loans for this year?
Hey, Naji, It's – so for this year, I mean, as we think about our funding plan, look, we've got – I would say, first of all, we got optionality. As always, we've got a lot of different funding sources that we can look at the top. I mean, asset recycling is certainly one of those funding sources and that would potentially come from existing assets that are in our fleet. But again, it's – we've got quite a lot of funding sources to potentially satisfy what we needed to do this year.
Okay. So there's now I guess, a necessity in terms of accelerating some of that here in the short-term.
Yeah.
Okay. Just the other question I have was about the accelerating renewables growth that you mentioned. I know they have a lot of projects in the pipeline for this year, but maybe just beyond 2022 and 2023. Can you just give us an update on how the new development projects are going that could potentially extend that runway over time?
Naji, it's as Jeff and I think everyone referred to our greenfield pipeline, the 3,800 megawatts which we rolled out at Investor Day. That is what we see feeding our five year capital plan. And we continue to add to that pipeline, as well as advance the projects in that pipeline for pulled down into the capital plan. So we feel like we've got the pump well primed or the flywheel turning here. And we're making good progress across the spectrum from new entrants into that greenfield pipeline, pulling stuff out into the capital plan. And so 2022, 2023, 2024, we won't be able to say anything concrete until we have names ready to share with you. But the process is certainly working well.
And on top of that, we also showed you the 1,700 megawatt hours of storage pipeline, which we're pretty bullish about.
Of course, and again, just to be clear, I think you said you are looking to add about 1 gigawatt of new projects in the next five years. So, are you – do you feel that you're still on track to do, at least 200 megawatts this year of new development?
Yes, in terms of new development that would fall under the capital plan that we share at Investor Day, we would expect that at least 200 megawatts.
Yeah. Okay. Got it. Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you, Naji.
Your final question today comes from the line of Rupert Merer with National Bank. Your line is now open.
Hi, good morning, everyone. And another question on asset recycling, I'm afraid. Can you talk about the potential to sell your existing assets? Are you only looking to do sell-downs on development assets or could you do sell-downs on existing assets as well?
Hey, Rupert, it's Jeff. Yeah, existing assets are certainly on the table, and we believe they've got good value, given the transactions we're seeing in the market. And to the extent that we're looking to monetize anything in the shorter term, that's where the more material amount would be.
And then would you look to aim or look to, say, control 51% of assets in the future, so you are going to maintain control and then you have a joint venture accounting somewhat like you have with your Texas assets?
Not necessarily, Rupert. I mean, we have not decided exactly what level of ownership we're going to take. I believe what is more important for us is to make sure we are operating an asset management entity, because again, creating and furthering skill on that side of the business also continue to be important for us. So, that's what we're focused on, exactly what percent is we sell down, that's still in the planning stages.
Great. And then just finally on Texas, you saw some headwinds at the Coastal Wind assets. I know you gave us some color on that situation back in December, just wondering if you could walk us through what you saw in Q4 and what the outlook is for these assets going forward. I understand you're looking at improved transmission there over time. But what does the outlook look like for the remainder of this year?
Sure. So, Rupert, so there are really a combination of factors, right, on those Coastal Wind Facilities. First of all, there was lower wind resource, which again, I believe is an industry-wide phenomenon that affected quite a number of our North American wind assets in 2021. On top of that and during periods of oversupply, the prices were obviously lower than anticipated in the market. And third, one of the projects actually got to COD later than anticipated. And finally, as you saw that was late of the year, there was general in transfer income stream that was announced by ERCOT. So, it really was a combination of factors.
We believe that the first – three of those should be transitory. The fourth one, we believe, is going to go away with time because of the announcement of a general transfer income stream, that means that both ERCOT and the commission have already approved transition upgrades at – around that region and that facility. So, we believe that over time, starting 2024, that basis risk is going to be – should significantly go away. So of those – the four factors I talked about, three of them are transitory. One, we believe will continue until 2024.
Okay. Very good. I'll leave it there. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you, Rupert.
There are no further questions at this time. Arun, I turn the call back over to you.
Thank you, operator, and thank you everyone for taking the time on our call today. With that, please stay on the line for our disclaimer.
Our discussion during this call contains certain forward-looking information, including, but not limited to our expectations regarding earnings, capital expenditures, pending acquisition, capital recycling and future growth. This forward-looking information is based on certain assumptions, including those described in our most recent MD&A filed on SEDAR and EDGAR and available on our website, and is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from historical results or results anticipated by the forward-looking information.
Forward-looking information provided during this call speaks only as of the date of this call and is based on the plans, beliefs, estimates, projections, expectations, opinions and assumptions of management as of today's date. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, and you should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. We disclaim any obligation to update any forward-looking information or to explain why material difference between subsequent actual events and such forward-looking information, except as required by applicable law.
In addition, during the course of this call, we may have referred to certain non-GAAP measures and ratios, including, but not limited to, Adjusted Net Earnings, Adjusted Net Earnings per share or Adjusted Net EPS, Adjusted EBITDA, adjusted funds from operations and divisional operating profit. There is no standardized measure of such non-GAAP measures and consequently AQN's method of calculating these measures may differ from methods used by other companies and, therefore, they may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. For more information about forward-looking information and non-GAAP measures, including reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to the corresponding GAAP measures, please refer to our most recent MD&A filed on SEDAR in Canada or EDGAR in the United States and available on our website.
And that concludes our call.