Ameren Stock

Good day, everyone. My name is Ryan, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome you to the Ameren Corporation Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions]

At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Andrew Kirk. Senior Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Modeling.

Thank you, and good morning. On the call with me today are Marty Lyons, our Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer; Lenny Singh, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; and Michael Moehn, Group President of our Ameren Utilities as well as other members of the Ameren management team, including our new Ameren Missouri President, Aaron Melda, who joined the Ameren team in June.

This call contains time-sensitive data that is accurate only as of the date of today's live broadcast and redistribution of this broadcast is prohibited. We have posted a presentation on the amereninvestors.com homepage that will be referenced by our speakers.

As noted on Page 2 of the presentation, comments made during this conference call may contain statements about future expectations, plans, projections, financial performance and similar matters, which are commonly referred to as forward-looking statements. Please refer to the forward-looking statements section in the news release we issued yesterday as well as our SEC filings for more information about the various factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated.

Now here's Marty, who will start on Page 4.

Thank you, Andrew. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us to cover our second quarter performance and progress toward achieving our 2026 strategic objectives.

At Ameren, we serve 2.5 million electric and more than 900,000 natural gas customers across the 64,000 square mile territory in Missouri and Illinois. With nearly 10 gigawatts of generation and more than 110,000 miles of transmission and distribution lines across both states, our focus is always on providing safe and reliable service while keeping costs as low as possible for our customers who depend on us to power their homes, businesses and communities.

On this page, we outlined some of the exciting developments from the second quarter that we will cover during this call. Overall, our operating performance has been strong year-to-date and our earnings and strategic accomplishments provide a solid foundation for strong results for 2026 and beyond.

Turning to Page 5. Yesterday, we reported second quarter 2026 earnings of $1.13 per share compared to earnings of $1.01 per share in the second quarter of 2025. The year-over-year increase reflected earnings on infrastructure investments partially offset by the cost of increased tree trimming and energy center maintenance to improve system reliability and resiliency for our customers. Further, we reaffirmed our 2026 earnings per share guidance which is a range of $5.25 to $5.45, reflecting solid execution across our business during the first 6 months of the year.

Our strategy, as outlined on Page 6, is grounded in delivering value to the customers and communities we have the privilege to serve. By investing in and strengthening the energy infrastructure in our communities, advocating for constructive energy policies and continuously optimizing performance to improve service quality, we are safely delivering on what matters most to our customers, reliable energy at the lowest cost possible.

Turning to Page 7. Our strategy has served our customers well, improving Ameren's average reliability performance to top quartile, supporting tens of billions of dollars in annual economic impact, enhancing customer service satisfaction and keeping our average rates below national and Midwest averages.

Moving to Page 8. Here, we reiterate our strategic priorities for 2026. Of course, targeted and timely infrastructure investments are key to serving our customers well. As shown on the right, we invested more than $2.6 billion in energy infrastructure during the first 6 months of the year to maintain and enhance our quality of service. Importantly, our infrastructure investments continue to perform well, reducing customer outage frequency and duration during multiple instances of severe weather in the second quarter of 2026.

Turning to Page 9 for an update on our economic development pipeline. At Ameren, we're proud to provide the quality of service that is necessary to attract investment and economic growth to our region. The pipeline of economic development interest within our territory remains robust across Missouri and Illinois. In Missouri alone, we have executed 3.4 gigawatts of construction agreements, of which 2.8 gigawatts of projects now have ESAs. And there's an additional 4 gigawatts of projects in Missouri with completed interconnection studies.

Further, some customers with executed ESAs have also expressed interest in expanding their footprint. And across both states, a diversified pipeline of economic development opportunities continues to expand beyond the large load growth opportunities.

Our economic development teams remain focused on supporting long-term business investment and job growth in the regions we serve, earning accreditation from the International Economic Development Council as recognition of our effective leadership, responsiveness and strong community engagement, including robust partnerships with regional and local economic development organizations. That work is translating into tangible results across our service territory.

During the second quarter, Google and Amazon announced projects in our Missouri service territory, representing a combined planned investment of $25 billion. These projects are part of the 2.8 gigawatts of electric service agreements signed earlier this year. The official announcements and construction groundbreaking are important milestones and no time is being wasted on the start of construction.

Consistent with the requirements of Missouri Senate Bill 4, these customers will pay for 100% of the power and infrastructure costs driven by their operations. And once operational, large load customers will contribute to paying fixed costs of the energy grid, providing long-term cost benefits for our other customers. These projects are expected to create thousands of construction jobs for local contractors and small businesses and once built, will directly employ hundreds of people.

In addition, the projects are expected to generate billions of dollars in local tax revenues. And Google and Amazon have committed millions of dollars through community benefit agreements to support new workforce development, energy efficiency and community-focused programs both locally and across the state. We will continue to work closely with businesses interested in locating operations in our service territory to find the right solutions that meet their needs and ultimately support economic development in the region.

Turning to Page 10 for Ameren Missouri's sales growth expectations. Recall, our long-term earnings per share expectations outlined in February were based on a planning assumption of 1.2 gigawatts of additional sales by the end of 2030 or a compound annual sales growth rate of 6.2% from 2026 through 2030.

As we've said before, the 2.8 gigawatts of signed ESAs represent upside to our sales and earnings forecast to the extent customer load by 2030 ramps faster than sales included in our existing planning assumptions. Those ESAs call for sales to begin materializing in the second half of 2027 and we expect to see annual electricity sales increase by 60% from 2025 levels by the end of 2029.

Turning to Page 11 for an update on Ameren Missouri's generation portfolio. We are focused on maintaining a balanced mix of generation resources that meet the demands of our Missouri customers with an adequate reserve margin. Today, we are well on our way to increasing our existing generation capacity as our team executes on the generation plans outlined in our 2025 Integrated Resource Plan.

This year, a total of 350 megawatts of new solar generation has been placed in service, including the 300-megawatt Split Rail Renewable Energy Center, which began providing low-cost energy for our customers in June, 1 month ahead of schedule. Another 2,250 megawatts of simple cycle gas, solar and battery storage resources have been approved by regulators are under construction and will begin serving customers in 2027 and 2028. In May, we filed CCN request for nearly 1,000 additional megawatts of new solar and storage resources to begin serving customers in 2028 and 2029. And this month, we filed a CCN request for the 2.1 gigawatt West Alton natural gas combined cycle facility, which is expected to be in service in 2031.

With more than 5 gigawatts of new resources currently under development and more in the pipeline, I'm pleased to say that our teams are well positioned to deliver these projects on schedule for our customers. We have procured turbines for the 3 gas projects and have secured all critical long-lead components for all of the planned energy resources I just highlighted and detailed on this page. And we have executed gas supply contracts and awarded labor contracts for both simple cycle natural gas facilities. I should also note that we are acting on opportunities to enhance the reliability and performance of our existing energy centers, especially during peak periods, helping to keep customer costs as low as possible.

Before moving on, as we gain greater clarity on the new large load customer construction time lines and ramp rates and other economic development opportunities, we are sharpening our perspective on long-term sales trends and energy resource needs and costs. We remain on track to file an update to Ameren Missouri's Integrated Resource Plan in late September, incorporating these perspectives. And we plan to update our sales, capital investment forecast, financing plans and long-term earnings growth expectations on our third quarter earnings call.

As new large load electric demand evolves, our focus remains on serving all customers reliably and affordably by carefully planning and executing grid upgrades maintaining a balanced generation portfolio and ensuring cost to serve new large load customers are appropriately allocated to and paid by such customers.

Moving to Page 12 for a brief transmission update. We continue making robust investments in our region's transmission infrastructure to ensure reliability and efficiency. And we expect investment levels to remain strong over time to support new large load customers and to connect the generation resources required to serve our territory reliably as regional demand grows. At the same time, we remain focused on executing our assigned and awarded long-range transmission projects from the first 2 MISO LRTP tranches.

In the second quarter, MISO selected our joint proposals for the WIIL and STIW LRTP Tranche 2 competitive projects located in our Illinois service territory. We have now won the opportunity to develop all competitive long-range transmission projects in our service territory within both the Tranche 1 and Tranche 2 portfolios, reflecting our strong record of designing, building and operating high-quality transmission infrastructure at a competitive cost for our customers. We have also submitted joint bids for the 2 remaining Tranche 2.1 competitive projects each located in Iowa, and we expect the winning bids to be selected by November.

Turning to Page 13. We've outlined the investment pipeline across our businesses over the next decade. These investments will support the safety, reliability and resiliency of the energy grid while positioning our system to power the quality of life for all customers in our territory. The pipeline now includes more than $71 billion of investment opportunity through 2035, including planned investment associated with the competitive LRTP projects recently won and is subject to change later this year as we update guidance on our third quarter call following our Missouri Integrated Resource Plan filing.

Turning to Page 14. We expect effective execution of our strategy will continue to drive strong total shareholder return. In February, we updated our 5-year growth plan, which included our expectation to deliver annual earnings per share growth consistently near the upper end of our 6% to 8% compound annual earnings growth rate from 2026 through 2030. We expect this earnings growth will be primarily driven by strong compound annual rate base growth of 10.6%, reflecting strategic capital allocation across our constructive regulatory frameworks and conservative sales growth assumptions.

I'm excited by the milestones achieved year-to-date, consistent with our 2026 objectives outlined in February, and we remain well positioned to update our long-term growth expectations on our third quarter call in November. In the meantime, I'm confident in our team's ability to effectively execute our investment plans and other elements of our strategy across all 4 of our business segments in a way that benefits our customers, communities and shareholders.

Again, thank you all for joining us today. I will now turn the call over to Lenny.

Thanks, Marty, and good morning, everyone. Turning now to Page 16 of our presentation. Yesterday, we reported second quarter 2026 earnings of $1.13 per share compared to earnings of $1.01 per share for the second quarter of 2025. As Marty discussed, our ongoing infrastructure investments to strengthen the energy grid and expand generation resources continue to be the primary drivers of earnings growth across the company.

In addition, we continue to experience solid customer growth at Ameren Missouri, where total normalized retail sales over the trailing 12 months through June increased approximately 1%, primarily driven by the commercial customer class. Partially offsetting positive earnings drivers this year, we have increased our reliability-focused tree trimming and energy center maintenance efforts, which are reflected in the higher O&M expense at Ameren Missouri.

Moving to Page 17 for select considerations for the remainder of the year. We remain confident in our 2026 earnings per share guidance range of $5.25 to $5.45. As we sit here today, our results through June are right where we expect them to be. We will continue to make reliability improvements, such as increasing tree trimming and energy center maintenance over the balance of the year that strengthens service for our customers. And through continued execution of our strategy, we remain focused on delivering 2026 earnings at or above the midpoint of our guidance range.

Turning to Page 18. I'll provide an update on the Missouri electric rate review we filed with the Missouri PSC in late June. Our request for a $343 million revenue increase is designed to recover the cost of significant system reliability and resiliency investments. In addition to incorporating meaningful infrastructure improvements for our customers, this request also includes savings from projected data center revenues for our retail customers and establishes a new income-eligible discount rate to supplement our financial assistance programs already in place. If approved, as requested, the discount would offset the proposed rate adjustment for our most vulnerable customers, while customers' rates overall will remain below the national and Midwest averages.

Moving to Page 19. We expand upon the customer value reflected in our Missouri rate review. Since our last rate review in 2024, we have continued to invest in our electric infrastructure to strengthen the energy grid, including constructing new and enhanced existing power lines, poles and substations, upgrading and adding new generation resources and rebuilding sections of the grid after catastrophic storms blew through the states. Notably, we've utilized Missouri-based suppliers and contractors to help deliver these projects, supporting local jobs and economic growth. And as we've made these investments, we've maintained a strong focus on disciplined cost management throughout the business, allowing us to keep Ameren Missouri's residential rate growth less than inflation since 2017.

This combination of our focus on affordability and the quality of our critical infrastructure has allowed us to provide top quartile reliability for our customers at rates approximately 25% below the national average. These factors have also contributed to Missouri's ability to attract new businesses to the region. Importantly, while Ameren Missouri is not currently serving any large load data center customers, the ESA signed earlier this year with large load customers reflect no discounts for these new customers, but rather a rate that is higher than our standard industrial rates.

Revenues from new large load customers are expected to lower residential customer bills from what they otherwise would have been in this rate review. Specifically, we estimate Ameren Missouri's customers will realize approximately $21 million in projected base rate savings over the 2 years following the rate review compared to what they otherwise would have paid. We expect a Missouri PSC order by May of 2027 with new rates effective by June 2027.

Moving to Page 20 for an update on Ameren Illinois regulatory matters. Earlier this month, we updated our request for a revenue adjustment as part of the annual performance base rate reconciliation under the electric multiyear rate plan. The $31 million adjustment we are requesting reflects 2025 actual cost, actual year-end rate base and the allowed return on equity and common equity ratio established in the multiyear rate plan. It also aligns with the ICC staff's recommendation.

An ICC decision is expected in December, with rates reflecting the approved reconciliation adjustment effective in January 2027. In addition, stakeholder engagement is ongoing with respect to the $2.75 billion electric distribution grid investment plan we have proposed for the 2028 through 2031 period. In July, staff and other intervenors filed testimony with individual proposed adjustments to prospective infrastructure projects ranging from $50 million to $220 million. We expect an ICC decision on the proposed investment plan by December with an associated rate review filing to follow in the first quarter of 2027.

Turning to Page 21, where we provide a financing update. We continue to feel good about our financial position. As we fund our robust infrastructure plan, we remain focused on maintaining a strong balance sheet and supporting our credit ratings. To that end, we continue to make progress towards addressing our expected equity needs of approximately $4 billion from 2026 through 2030. To satisfy our 2026 equity needs, in 2025 we sold forward approximately $600 million of equity, representing approximately 6.4 million shares, which we expect to issue near the end of this year.

So far this year, to address a portion of our prospective equity needs, we have sold forward approximately $1.2 billion of common stock under our at-the-market program. We will continue to be thoughtful about our approach to executing our equity plan.

This spring, we're pleased that S&P and Moody's reaffirmed our stable outlook and BBB+ and Baa1 credit ratings, respectively. As we've said before, we value our current ratings, and we remain committed to maintaining a strong balance sheet and strong credit metrics as we execute our growth plan.

In summary, turning to Page 22. We're making strong progress toward our strategic objectives in 2026, which we expect will continue to drive consistent superior value for our customers, communities and shareholders. Our financial outlook remains strong, supported by robust yet conservative sales growth assumption, solid rate base growth, disciplined cost management and a strong pipeline of customer value-driven investment opportunities.

We're excited about the future because the opportunities before us are grounded in providing strong service to our customers. By investing in our system, maintaining a sharp focus on affordability and supporting economic growth across Missouri and Illinois, we believe we are creating lasting value for the customers and communities that depend on us every day. As a result, we remain confident in our ability to deliver strong earnings and dividend growth and attractive long-term returns for our shareholders.

That concludes my prepared remarks. We now invite your questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Julien Dumoulin-Smith with Jefferies.

Hopefully you can hear me okay. Let me just kick it off here with the 4 gigawatt number that you guys threw out there. I mean, continued nice progress here. Just wanted to [ see here ], what does progress look like in terms of translating that back into a more formalized data point here. I mean, obviously, very strong momentum anecdotally from your customers, from your adjacent utilities. I mean -- just wanted to kind of ask you to elaborate a little bit on timing and also what some of the critical milestones might be in terms of transposing some of that incremental 4 gigawatts here. I feel like I'd be remiss to start anywhere else.

Yes, Julien, this is Marty. Thanks for the question. Yes, as it relates to the energy services agreements that we're signing, we feel like we're making really good progress and very much in line with where we had hoped to be at this time. We -- last quarter, we had talked about the expectation of soon signing additional gigawatts of ESAs. And in fact, signed 600 gigawatts of ESAs shortly after our last call. So we're up to 2.8 gigawatts of signed ESAs. As you note, we have 4 gigawatts of projects with completed interconnection studies beyond that. And we also have incremental about 600 gigawatts of construction agreements which haven't been converted yet to ESA. So there's greater potential out there.

I'll tell you, we're really excited about the progress we're seeing on the 2.8 gigawatts, though that we talked about. Some of the things we mentioned on this quarter, we saw both Google and Amazon have groundbreaking ceremonies and actually begin construction on large data center projects here in our service territory. So we're seeing some great milestones there, and we're excited about that. And on this call, as we talked about we're expecting that to generate sales increases here in just the next few years. So very excited about that progress.

When I talk about those 2.8 gigawatts of ESAs we've signed, some of the counterparties associated with those have certainly been expressing interest in expanding beyond the growth that we're already experiencing. And we're excited that there are 4 gigawatts of additional sites out there. potential projects that have completed interconnection studies. And I'll tell you that we have other land, et cetera, that's available for additional development.

So look, Julien, we know right now as it relates to data center growth, it's about land availability and speed to power. We think in our part of Missouri, we do have additional land as evidenced by some of these sites that have interconnection studies completed. And our team is working very hard to bring greater energy generation resources into our portfolio which I think is demonstrated by the great work our team has done this year and is outlined on Slide 11.

Julian, it's Michael. The only thing I might add to that is, I think it sort of manifests itself through the IRP process as well, right? So I think as we kind of march through time, we've indicated we're going to file this IRP in the October time frame. It's one of the things you obviously do through this process is a bunch of scenario planning, trying to really understand, look at the demand, put some greater probability around that. And so I think it feeds into that process and hopefully give greater clarity in the fall.

Awesome. Just turning to some of the more details real quickly. First, just on the CPCN, there was talk about self-perform just more of a reflection of the state of the E&C market and EPC availability and the cost there in. Can you speak to that briefly here? I think it was also CPCN. And what risks are you effectively taking on versus are you effectively going to subcontract over time here, too? Just to elaborate a little bit on that one.

Julien, this is Michael again. Yes, I'll touch on that and others can chime in as well. Look, we feel good about where we sit today with respect to that 2.1 combined cycle plant that we just filed the CCN for. I think, as Marty indicated in his prepared remarks, we secured the long lead time material, the turbines. We've had great discussions with the OEM there. I feel good about the delivery dates working through the gas procurement piece of that because obviously, that's a big part of it, just given the overall size of that plant itself.

In terms of the labor piece, again, working through a lot of details here. We'll have more to share in the fall as we wrap up these final negotiations. But look, it will be a great partnership, local-based manufacturers, suppliers, developers, names that you will know that have worked on large industrial projects combined with an owner engineer that has developed several of these combined cycle plants. So we feel good about the combination of resources that we're putting together, spending a great deal of time just working through workforce issues, making sure we have the right skilled craft needed over that time frame.

But I think it's an exciting partnership. It's Missouri-based resources, building Missouri-based power. And so obviously, the structure is not a traditional EPC. But honestly, given where the market is today, it's difficult to get those. And so, there'll be appropriate risk sharing in there, but we feel good about where we are through the negotiations at this point, and we'll certainly share more of those details as we get to the final disclosure here in the fall.

Sorry, [indiscernible] quick intake. On the IRP process in Illinois, you don't really expect much resource development there on your side, right? Just I want to circle back to that. I know it's a novel process there. I just want to set expectations. Sorry, last question.

It's Michael again. I'll touch on it. Yes. Look, we feel good about the process, the fact that it's ongoing, correct? I mean I think we were excited to see the elements of this in Senate Bill 25. I think there's been some good resource adequacy studies, shining a light on some of the issues that we've talked about in the past just in terms of where the resource additions are versus where the demand is.

So I think it's working through the process, having some good meaningful conversations. Obviously, as you know, we just talked about them, we have a robust IRP process in Missouri. We're lending resources where appropriate to just have conversations with the Illinois folks just to make sure they understand it because it's been a long time since we've done it in Illinois.

But the fact that we're having the conversations and shining a light on what we need to do for the future so we continue to put, I think, the state in the most competitive position is exciting from my perspective. So we'll see where the ultimate process takes us.

Your next question will come from the line of Shar Pourreza with Wells Fargo.

It's Andrew Kadavy on for Shar. Can you give us a little more color on the nature of the $0.08 of investments in innovative energy technology? And can we expect this kind of tailwind to earnings to persist throughout the year?

Andrew, this is Marty. Yes, these are investments we've made over time, equity investments in innovative infrastructure funds and had an unrealized gain this year, which was beneficial in the first half. It's not something that we expect to be recurring in nature.

Okay. Great. And then just on the $21 million of savings for customers prior to data center loads being served. Can you walk me through the mechanics of how -- where that $21 million comes from? And will that number increase as the loads actually ramp?

Yes, this is Michael. Yes, I mean it's associated with those data center revenues that are ramping -- beginning to ramp modestly there in the first half of '27. So it's really trying to capture that piece of it. And then it certainly would continue to grow as we continue to ramp those projects throughout '28 and '29, depending on where you are in the overall rate review process.

Your next question comes from the line of Carly Davenport with Goldman Sachs.

Maybe to start, you highlighted in the materials, the potential to update the EPS growth guidance on the third quarter call. I guess, one, could you help us sort of frame potential range of outcomes and perhaps if there's any milestones that you need to see between now and then to govern a larger potential step-up in the outlook? And then the follow-up would just be anything you can share on whether you would look to differentiate a long-term growth rate versus that over a 5-year planning period?

Yes, Carly, great questions. This is Marty again. Look, when you look at the guidance that we provided in February and as outlined in the slides today, we've got sitting here today, 10.6% CAGR on rate base growth. We've got 6% to 8% earnings per share growth. And we talked about and reiterated that we expect that the base plan that we have today we consistently produce annual EPS growth near the upper end of that 6% to 8% guidance range. So that's kind of the starting point.

And then if you look at what we've talked about last quarter and this quarter, certainly, our sales trends as well as our CapEx trends, lean positive in terms of incremental growth. And we're seeing really good momentum, as we talked about today. This year, 2.8 gigawatts of ESA signed, we're seeing groundbreakings, we're seeing construction begin, we're really seeing some positive momentum in terms of that growth and the expectation of incremental sales.

As Michael just discussed, a big thing for us then is really taking those sales trends looking at what we expect them to be over the next 5 years and updating them Again, when we look at the sales trends that we've got and we talk about sales expected in Missouri to increase by 60% by the end of 2029, certainly, that's incremental to the base guidance that we had at the beginning of the year in our 5-year plan.

And as part of that IRP, as Michael said, too, we'll be giving thought to what incremental growth we might expect to see beyond this 2.8 gigawatts and what that would translate into, particularly in the 5- to 10-year portion of our plans and then updating our generation expectations to go along with that as well as our transmission expectations as we think about interconnecting some of these large load generation resources to the grid.

In any event, we'll be, as you know, filing the new integrated resource plan in September. We'll be incorporating our updated thoughts on sales and generation. I think that, along with updated financing assumptions, will really give us the opportunity to provide you a good update to our EPS growth outlook on that third quarter call. And I'm not going to front run what that update might look like. But again, when you think about what we've disclosed, it certainly leans positive in terms of our overall growth rate over the next 5 years.

As you look out to that 5- to 10-year period, look, we'll update our 10-year investment pipeline that you're used to seeing. I think that will give you good insights into the durability of our growth over that 10-year period. You'll also -- as part of that IRP updated Missouri sales growth expectations out through 10 years, you'll see our generation investment plans out through 10 years. And you know how we finance our business, which we tend to finance it with a mix of debt and equity securities that end up producing a capital structure that's pretty steady over time. So you know what our financing assumptions ought to be. So I think we'll give you at minimum some really good foundational elements to build a model that goes out through 10 years.

Your next question comes from the line of Richard Sunderland with Truist Securities.

I'll pick it up with a follow-up on Carly's question. How are you thinking about the financing changes into this fall planned update with moving pieces like a lower Moody's downgrade threshold and the prospects of this significant load ramp starting in 2027 and the cash flow benefits out of that. I know you hit on some of the themes earlier, but just curious specific to those factors and any other moving pieces you'd highlight on balance in that part of the update.

Rich, Lenny Singh here. Marty talked a little bit about this before, and I covered, I think, a good part of it in my prepared remarks, right? Consistent with our approach, we'll look at a balanced approach in terms of debt and equity. Again, our focus really is around maintaining a strong balance sheet, strong credit metrics and having flexibility in our financing mechanisms within that capital structure. You heard in my prepared remarks, I talked about 2026. Again, most of that need was met in 2025 with the $600 million of forward sales agreement, which we expect to settle at the end of 2026. Year-to-date, we've got $1.2 billion of forward sales already covered.

In terms of future needs, really, we're focused on a couple of things. One is operating cash flows, really looking at long-term debt financing. And really, our annual equity issuance is really -- again, we've used the ATM over the years. It's served us well, and we expect to remain in that space in the foreseeable future in terms of our financial strategy. But I think we've also said earlier this year that a portion of that in the future could be met with hybrid securities.

So the bottom line is, Rich, we expect to remain flexible, leveraging all of the tools in the toolbox, but certainly a disciplined approach around how we approach financing, maintain that strong balance sheet, strong credit metrics and really think about what's the lowest reasonable cost of capital.

But also, as Marty mentioned, as we think about the next 5 years and we update the plan in the fall Q3 around the IRP sales assumption, et cetera, we will give a broader update on our financing needs and our plans and how we plan to address that for the balance of the year.

Understood. And then, I guess, sticking with the load piece, that acceleration implied under the new guidance at 60%, how does that tie in with the gas plants that are in your current resource plan? I guess I'm trying to think a little bit forward to the fall IRP filing, but is this about kind of a bridging resource need to those gas plants later this decade and into the next? Or what are some other considerations with meeting that faster ramp on the load?

Yes, Richard, this is Marty again. Good question. Look, at the beginning of the year when we laid out our sales expectations and frankly, when you go back to the IRP that we filed last year, we not only had an expectation of being able to serve up to that 6.2% sales CAGR, the 1.2 sort of gigs that we outlined by 2030. But if you recall that, and I think it's still today on Slide 10, you see that upper green shade, the generation resources that we've been building out did have and do have the capability to actually serve incremental to the baseline load growth expectation.

So what we've been doing and what you see outlined on Slide 11 is really developing, as we've talked about, a really good mix of assets, renewables, battery, gas assets that would go to serve that load that was outlined in our IRP last year, and we're continuing to develop further projects beyond that.

Now as you look at the 2.8 gigawatts of ESAs we have and the load ramp that we have, we're looking actively and have been throughout the year at additional resources that we can pull forward that were in that IRP as well as resources that would be additive to that mix, both during the 5-year period, but also in the 5- to 10-year period. And so as we identify those projects and develop those, we'll announce those. We'll also include in our IRP, the incremental expectations we have for both the 5- and the 10-year period. So again, look for a good update on that on our third quarter call.

Your next question comes from the line of Sophie Karp with KBCM.

So I just wanted to clarify a little bit on the 6.2 sales CAGR. Does that include the 2.8 gigawatts of recent ESAs and some kind of ramp schedule of those? So like accelerated ramp would be incremental? Or does this not include any of the 2.8 gigawatts?

Yes, Sophie, this is Marty. Look, the 6.2% sales CAGR was again a planning assumption that was included in our IRP last year. And so it did anticipate some increase in sales associated with large load customers. And again, if you look at the slide that we've got on Slide 10, it's about 1.2 gigawatts through 2030. And again, as I just said, the generation plans we had would allow us to serve up to the top of that graph in the green. If you look at the 2.8 gigawatts of ESAs that we have that does represent upside or an increase to sales relative to that baseline expectation that we had incorporated last year.

So bottom line, yes, our assumptions in the last IRP did have included some increase relative to large load customers. However, the 2.8 gigawatts that we've signed represents upside or an increase to those expectations. And so again, as we roll into the IRP this fall, we'll again be updating our sales growth expectations based upon signed ESAs plus expectations around growth beyond that.

Got it. It's super clear now. And my second question was on the Missouri rate case. I guess it's early innings still, but how would you frame the possibility of having a settlement here as opposed to going a full litigated track?

Sophie, it's Michael. You took the words right out of my mouth. It is early innings. But as I frame up the case, I mean, again, since our last case 2 years ago, I mean, this really is about capital investment. We've been investing in electric infrastructure to strengthen the grid. Marty and I think Lenny did a nice job indicating on the call, it's really around new poles, new generation. We've made some substantial upgrades to some existing generation to give us some dual fuel capability using Missouri-based suppliers, contractors to drive the economic growth.

My point in sharing all that, I mean, it really is a straightforward case in terms of capital investment there to benefit customers. I think we always go into this with a mind to try to settle as much as we possibly can. We'll get some indication from staff and others that first week of December. That really gives you the sense for sort of the puts and takes are at that point. And then if we have an opportunity to settle that would be late February, early March to really have those robust discussions and then go from there. But as you indicated, early innings but a pretty straightforward case.

[Operator Instructions] Your next question will come from the line of Steve D’Ambrisi with RBC.

Just had a quick one. As a follow-up to kind of some of what you talked about the -- I think talking about the lighter-shaded green and the base plan being able to serve that higher level load is very helpful. But just to level set in terms of potential resources to pull forward or other factors that you could flex. When I look at Slide 28, it really only looks like the large dispatchable item that you have that's kind of maybe outside the 30 plan would be the 2.1 gas combined cycle.

So really 2 questions. One is, is that potentially something that can be accelerated forward? And then two, to the extent you need additional dispatchable gen beyond that, like what's the lead time to get a turbine or getting a slot for additional dispatchable gen to serve some of this higher load.

Yes, Steve, maybe I'll start and then Michael can certainly tack on to this. But as it relates to that combined cycle, we just filed, frankly, the CCN request within the past week. There's really not an opportunity to accelerate that, as you mentioned. That's something we plan to have go in service by the end of 2031. And as Michael said, we feel like we're on a very good path to accomplish that.

So the things that we've been looking to pull forward are in the mix of other things we've talked about, which includes solar batteries, which are dispatchable, fuel cells are another area of technology that we're looking at. Longer term, beyond the 5 years, we have wind in there, but it doesn't really fit into that category of things that we think we could pull forward in the near term but are also looking at other types of dispatchable assets that we might be able to incorporate into our 5-year plans that may be more helpful at peak. So not combined cycle assets but things that could help us with peak generation needs.

Michael, what do you want to add to that, if anything?

Not much, Marty. I think those are really the resources. I mean, I think the team does a really nice job scouring what the opportunities are. There's some small kind of peaking assets that we're seeing on the market that are becoming available. So we're looking at those. We have lots of sites -- existing sites that we have that we're trying to make sure we just fully maximize because there's benefits, obviously, the speed there and the cost and using some of the existing infrastructure. So just really trying to avail ourselves of all options. And we certainly do have some few.

I think Marty is right, on the -- and you know this, too, just on the large-scale generation, they're not going to really accelerate those today, just given where things are. And so it really is about filling it in with these smaller resources. Fuel cells is an interesting technology, spending a lot of time on that, and there's certainly some possibilities there.

And Steve, the last thing I want to make mention of is just my compliments to our generation teams because we are really looking at all of our existing generation assets. And what additional investments we can make in those assets to make sure that they're available when needed and that to the extent that they can be modified to provide us greater availability at winter peak, summer peak, that type of thing, we're really turning over every stone there because, obviously, that's a good -- provides good cost-effective resources for our customers. So I want to compliment them on that work.

We have now reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I'd now like to turn the call over to Marty Lyons for closing remarks.

Thank you all for joining us today. We're going to remain focused here at Ameren on delivering value for our customers and meeting the growing energy needs of our region. We're going to look to maintain reliability, manage costs and position our company and the communities we serve for long-term success. So I really appreciate your support and look forward to talking to you all over the coming weeks. Bye-bye.

Good day, everyone. My name is Ryan, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome you to the Ameren Corporation First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Andrew Kirk, Senior Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Modeling.

Thank you, and good morning. On the call with me today are Marty Lyons, our Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer; Lenny Singh, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; and Michael Moehn, Group President of our Ameren Utilities as well as other members of the Ameren management team.

This call contains time-sensitive data that is accurate only as of the date of today's live broadcast, and redistribution of this broadcast is prohibited. We have posted a presentation on the amereninvestors.com homepage that will be referenced by our speakers. As noted on Page 2 of the presentation, comments made during this conference call may contain statements about future expectations, plans, projections, financial performance and similar matters, which are commonly referred to as forward-looking statements. Please refer to the forward-looking statements section in the news release we issued yesterday as well as our SEC filings for more information about the various factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated.

Now here's Marty, who will start on Page 4.

Thanks, Andrew. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us to cover our first quarter performance and progress toward achieving our 2026 strategic objectives. Yesterday, we reported first quarter 2026 earnings of $1.28 per share compared to earnings of $1.07 per share in the first quarter of 2025. The year-over-year increase of $0.21 per share reflected increased infrastructure investments across all operating segments that will drive significant long-term benefits for our customers. The other key drivers of our results are summarized on this slide.

Further, we reaffirmed our 2026 earnings per share growth guidance range of $5.25 to $5.45, reflecting solid execution across our business. Turning to Page 5. At Ameren, we remain committed to the customers and communities we are privileged to serve, the 2.5 million electric and 900,000 natural gas customers who count on us every day. Our infrastructure investment decisions are made with that responsibility in mind, focused on strengthening the system, delivering reliable, cost-effective service and positioning our communities for long-term growth.

Through execution of our three-pillar strategy, investing in rate-regulated infrastructure, advocating for constructive regulatory and legislative frameworks and optimizing our business, we strive to provide exceptional value for our customers, communities and shareholders. Turning to Page 6. Here, we outlined our strategic priorities for 2026, which we provided in February. To date, we've made meaningful progress, which Lenny and I will discuss as we cover the pages that follow.

Of course, key to serving customers well and driving growth are targeted and timely infrastructure investments. As shown on the right, you see that we made more than $1.5 billion of infrastructure investments during the first quarter to maintain and enhance our quality of service. Importantly, our infrastructure investments continue to strengthen the reliability and resiliency of the grid, minimizing customer outages during multiple instances of severe weather during the first quarter of 2026.

For example, in January, during the multi-day winter storm Fern, Ameren's diverse generation fleet performed exceptionally well, ensuring our customers had access to power under extreme conditions. At the same time, our Ameren Illinois gas storage portfolio helped shield customers from extreme market prices, saving about $63 million, while ongoing upgrades to our underground storage fields continue to lower long-term operating costs and support winter reliability.

Then we saw the benefits of our investments again in March, avoiding 4.3 million outage minutes for nearly 20,000 Ameren Missouri customers and again, during late April storms, where system automation helped avoid an additional 43,000 customer outages and 12 million outage minutes each over a two-day period, effectively reducing the overall customer impact of these severe weather events by nearly half. To enhance the performance of our existing generation fleet for summer and winter peak demand periods and as overall demand grows, we are investing in projects designed to maximize capacity and availability.

For example, optimization efforts underway at our Audrain Energy Center will improve winter reliability by adding up to 700 megawatts of capacity on the coldest days. And at our Labadie Energy Center, significant boiler enhancements this year are designed to reduce the number and length of prospective outages. Alongside these enhancements, we continue to execute our Missouri Integrated Resource Plan to add new generation resources.

In total, the work we're doing across our generation fleet is designed to ensure customers can continue to rely on us to operate a safe, diverse, dependable and cost-effective mix of energy centers today and well into the future. We're mindful that reliability and affordability are both important for customers. That's why we continue to operate with financial discipline and work to optimize our business processes in part through deployment of new tools and technology. In addition, during the first quarter, we helped connect customers with more than $40 million in energy assistance and weatherization resources through Ameren programs and federal, state and local partnerships.

Turning to Page 7. Looking ahead, we see the opportunity for strong growth with businesses making significant long-term commitments to locate and expand in our region. Our long-term earnings per share expectations outlined in February were based upon a compounded annual sales growth assumption of 6.2% from 2026 through 2030. We continue to expect that the 2.2 gigawatts of ESAs we signed in February represent upside to our sales and earnings forecast to the extent the sales from the ESAs ramp faster than our existing plan assumption of 1.2 gigawatts by 2030.

As we've said, we expect to update our sales forecast for these agreements as other project milestones are achieved, including the customer project announcements, groundbreaking and construction progress. In addition, we are optimistic about converting a portion of our remaining 1.2 gigawatts of construction agreements to additional ESAs in the near term. We're excited to support these data center projects as their construction is expected to bring in thousands of jobs and the projects are expected to generate millions of dollars in tax revenue for local communities.

In addition, serving these customers will require acceleration of significant infrastructure investments on our part, supporting additional jobs and tax revenue, all paid for by the counterparties to our ESAs. As new large load electric demand evolves, our focus remains on serving all customers reliably by carefully planning and executing grid upgrades and maintaining a balanced generation portfolio, while ensuring cost to serve new large load customers are appropriately allocated to and borne by them.

Turning to Page 8. We are well on our way to delivering the more than 5 gigawatts of new energy and capacity resources currently planned to go into service through 2030 as our team continues to execute on a robust generation plan. The 50-megawatt Bowling Green Energy Center was placed in service in March, and we recently began final commissioning activities on the second project, the 300-megawatt Split Rail Energy Center.

These projects have the ability to deliver enough combined energy to power more than 63,000 homes. In addition, we continue to advance two 800-megawatt simple cycle natural gas energy centers, Castle Bluff and Big Hollow, which are expected to begin serving customers in 2027 and 2028, respectively, along with 400 megawatts of battery storage at Big Hollow.

For Castle Bluff, construction is underway, and we received the first of four gas turbines ahead of schedule. And for Big Hollow, our contractors have begun mobilizing and preparing the site for construction, which is expected to begin this quarter. In the meantime, we continue to pursue regulatory approvals required for additional generation resources. In March, we reached a stipulation and agreement with interveners for the CCN we are seeking for the Reform Energy Center, a 250-megawatt facility expected to be in service in 2028. This agreement is subject to Missouri PSC approval.

Further, we expect to file additional CCN request by the third quarter for approximately 3 gigawatts of new generation, primarily including the 2.1 gigawatt West Alton combined cycle facility as well as additional battery storage. At the same time, we continue to carefully analyze future sales expectations and assess the timing and mix of new generation resources in advance of our next Missouri IRP targeted for late September, which will provide an updated 20-year view of our generation strategy.

Moving to Page 9 for a brief transmission update. We expect significant transmission investment will be needed over time to support new large load customers and connect the new generation resources required to serve our territory reliably as regional demand grows. We expect these potential investments to be incorporated into our plans as opportunities further mature. At the same time, we remain focused on executing our awarded long-range transmission projects from the first two MISO tranches and on advancing competitive opportunities under Tranche 2.1.

In January, we submitted bids for two competitive projects based in Illinois with MISO expected to select developers for the projects by mid-2026. We're also evaluating two additional competitive opportunities with bid submissions due by the end of May. Turning to Page 10. We've outlined the investment pipeline across our businesses over the next decade. These investments will support the safety, reliability and resiliency of the energy grid while positioning our system to power the quality of life for all customers in our territory. This pipeline stands at more than $70 billion through 2035 and is expected to continue supporting strong growth opportunities for our customers, communities and shareholders.

Turning to Page 11. We expect effective execution of our strategy to continue to drive strong total shareholder return. In February, we updated our 5-year growth plan, which included our expectation to deliver annual earnings per share growth consistently near the upper end of our 6% to 8% compound annual earnings growth rate from 2026 through 2030. This earnings growth is primarily driven by strong compound annual rate base growth of 10.6%, reflecting strategic capital allocation across our constructive regulatory frameworks and conservative sales growth assumptions.

I'm excited by the milestones achieved year-to-date with new large load customers and anticipated additional positive developments in 2026. Over the course of the year, as we get greater clarity on the timing and amount of these new customer service ramp-up, we will update our sales growth assumptions and incorporate them into our updated Missouri Integrated Resource Plan as well as incorporate any additional transmission investment needed into our 5-year plan.

Last, I'm confident in our team's ability to effectively execute our investment plans and other elements of our strategy across all four of our business segments in a way that benefits our customers, shareholders and communities. Again, thank you all for joining us today. I will now turn the call over to Lenny.

Thanks, Marty, and good morning, everyone. Turning now to Page 13 of our presentation. Yesterday, we reported first quarter 2026 earnings of $1.28 per share compared to earnings of $1.07 per share for the first quarter of 2025. As Marty discussed, our ongoing infrastructure investments to strengthen the energy grid and expand generation resources continue to be the primary drivers of earnings growth across the company. Partially offsetting the benefits of these investments, Ameren Missouri's first quarter electric retail sales in 2026 were negatively impacted by warmer-than-normal winter temperatures in the current period compared to the colder-than-normal winter temperatures in the first quarter of 2025. Additional key drivers of the increase in earnings are highlighted by segment on this page.

Moving to Page 14 for select considerations for the remainder of the year. We remain confident in our 2026 earnings per share guidance range of $5.25 to $5.45. We continue to maintain disciplined cost management throughout the company. Recall that in the second half of 2025, we increased energy center and discretionary tree trimming expenditures to enhance our customer experience, especially during severe weather events.

We are continuing these reliability-focused efforts and would expect higher tree trimming costs in 2026, particularly in the second quarter of this year as compared to 2025. As you think about quarterly results for the balance of the year, I encourage you to consider the supplemental earnings drivers outlined on this page. Turning to Page 15. I'll provide an update on Ameren Illinois and Ameren Missouri regulatory matters. In April, Ameren Illinois requested a $65 million revenue adjustment as part of the annual performance-based rate reconciliation under the electric distribution multiyear rate plan. This adjustment reflects 2025 actual costs, actual year-end rate base and return on equity and common equity ratio established in the multiyear rate plan.

An ICC decision is expected in December with rates reflecting the approved reconciliation adjustment effective in January 2027. In addition, over the course of the year, we will engage with stakeholders on our proposed electric distribution grid investment plan for the 2028 through 2031 period. Proposed investments in the plan are designed to further enhance the reliability and resiliency of the grid. We expect an ICC decision on the proposed investment plan by December with an associated rate filing to follow in the first quarter of 2027.

Finally, we expect to file our next Ameren Missouri electric rate review in mid-2026 to recover costs for significant infrastructure investments made to the grid to ensure the system remains reliable and resilient for all customers. Turning to Page 16, where we provide a financing update. We continue to feel good about our financial position. In the first quarter, we successfully completed our planned debt issuances at Ameren Missouri and Ameren Parent. As we fund our robust infrastructure plan, we remain focused on maintaining a strong balance sheet and supporting our credit ratings.

To that end, we continue to make progress against our expected equity issuances of approximately $4 billion from 2026 through 2030. To satisfy our 2026 equity needs, last May, we sold forward approximately $600 million of equity, representing approximately 6.4 million shares, which we expect to issue near the end of this year. For 2027 and beyond, so far in 2026, we have sold forward approximately $600 million of common stock under our at-the-market program. We will continue to be thoughtful about our approach to executing our equity plan.

With respect to the balance sheet, last month, we held our annual ratings agency meetings with S&P and Moody's. In April, S&P affirmed our BBB+ credit rating and stable outlook, and we expect Moody's to issue their annual credit opinion updates in the coming weeks. As we've said before, we value our current ratings, and we remain committed to maintaining a strong balance sheet and strong credit metrics as we execute our growth plan. In summary, turning to Page 17. We're making strong progress towards our strategic objectives in 2026, which we expect will continue to drive consistent superior value for all our stakeholders.

We're excited about the future. Our outlook remains supported by robust yet conservative sales assumptions, solid rate base growth, disciplined cost management and a strong pipeline of customer value-driven investment opportunities. As a result, we continue to expect strong earnings and dividend growth, supporting an attractive total shareholder return. That concludes our prepared remarks. We now invite your questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Jeremy Tonet from JPMorgan.

Just wanted to start off here. I was wondering if we could talk a bit more about your conversations with large load data centers here. Wondering if you are having conversations and do you see potential interest beyond the 3.4 gigawatts in Missouri and 850 megawatts in Illinois. Just want to get a sense for those type of conversations, what that could look like over time. And then at the same time, how does community engagement stand as far as dealing with local stakeholders and receptivity to this type of development?

Yes. Sure, Jeremy. This is Marty. Good to hear it from you. I'd say broadly, in both states, both in Missouri and Illinois, we have several gigawatts in each state of other projects with engineering studies underway. So in addition to these places where we have construction agreements beyond that. There are several gigawatts of interest in both states and again, have matured to the engineering study stage.

And we'll see whether those come to fruition or not. And I would say some of the conversations that we're having are with hyperscalers that have already signed ESAs, specifically in Missouri, about expansion opportunities beyond what they've already signed up for. So some very encouraging conversations that speak to the long-term growth prospects associated with these data centers and hyperscalers.

More specifically, if you look at though, what we've just talked about this year that I think is most encouraging is -- as you mentioned, we've got in Missouri, 3.4 gigawatts of construction agreements. In Illinois, we've got 850 megawatts of construction agreements. Drilling down on Missouri, that 3.4 gigawatts of construction agreements, back in February, we moved 2.2 of that to energy services agreements. So ESAs that were signed. And with respect to those, we're looking forward to, hopefully, in the second quarter, some public announcements and groundbreaking and starting to get construction underway. So that's that 2.2.

And then as I said in my prepared remarks, of the remaining 1.2 of construction agreements, we're optimistic that in the very near term, we can see additional ESAs signed with respect to a portion of that 1.2 that's under construction agreement. So I think overall, my answer to your question, Jeremy, we're seeing good progress with respect to the ESAs we've signed. We're seeing good progress in Missouri with respect to converting some of those construction agreements to further ESAs.

We're hopeful to have those completed in the near term. And we're optimistic here in the second quarter, we're going to see some of those ESAs move to groundbreakings and beginning the construction activity. And as I've said at the outset, a fairly good pipeline of interest, both in Missouri and Illinois that speaks to the long-term growth of data centers and sales across our two states. With respect to communities, I would say that broadly, our states remain supportive of the economic development opportunities associated with these data centers and ESAs. In certain communities, I think there's going to be concerns expressed and other communities are going to be receptive to these data centers and to this growth.

And I would say there are a number of places across the states of Missouri and Illinois and in our service territories, in particular, that are zoned for this kind of development and I think appropriate for this kind of development. And so we're optimistic that we're going to see good growth, specifically in Missouri, but also in Illinois.

Got it. That's helpful there. And then next question at the risk of getting ahead of myself here. I believe you have a defined ramp schedules where -- if you exceed that, that can lead to upside in the CapEx, 1 gig by '29, 1.2 by 2030. And just wondering, taking everything that you just talked about there, I guess, preliminary thoughts on line of sight to exceeding those ramp schedules. And I guess, when the potential for incremental capital coming into the plan might materialize?

Yes, Jeremy, great question. You're right. What we laid out in our plans for sales growth is we've made an assumption of about 1.2 gigawatts of growth by the end of 2030, which would represent about 6.2% sales CAGR in Missouri. And our generation plans that we're building out would provide for sales incremental to that. We had talked about the generation plans providing for up to an additional 2 gigawatts of sales by 2032 and by 2040 up to 3.5 gig. So again, some generation build-out to serve above that initial sales growth assumption. However, as I mentioned, we've signed 2.2 gigawatts of ESAs.

We are very close to signing additional ESAs that would bump up that number. And to the extent that the growth in sales comes faster than what was assumed in our plan. So again, if that 2.2 gigawatts or more exceeds -- the growth rate exceeds what was included in our plans out through 2030, it certainly represents upside. And I would say it represents upside from the standpoint of sales and sales margins, but also causes us to think about our generation needs in the next 5 years and in the next 10 years.

And within the next 5, are there things that we can accelerate, things like renewables or dispatchable resources like batteries or potentially fuel cells. And then even in the 5 to 10 years, what do the sales growth look like associated with the ESAs we've signed. But also, as I mentioned a minute ago, we're having conversations with these hyperscalers and in particular, even the ones that have signed these ESAs about expansion possibilities. So really looking at sales growth beyond the 5 years in the 10- and 15-year period and what additional generation might be needed to serve in those periods to the extent that we see sales growth beyond the assumptions included in our IRP we filed last year.

So I guess that leads me up to later this year in September. We're required in Missouri to file an integrated resource plan. We certainly plan to do that in September. It's a comprehensive update. We'll look at all the assumptions that go into that. First and foremost, I'd say, sales, what do we expect the sales growth to look like over a 20-year period, but certainly in the next 5 and 10 in particular. We'll be taking into account these ESAs that we've signed, the ramp rates that we're seeing, the conversations that we're having with data center developers and hyperscalers and looking at the economic growth more broadly in our region beyond those data centers. We'll be looking at the most reliable and affordable path forward in terms of generation resources to deploy to serve them. And we'll roll that out in September.

So I think that will be a good milestone in terms of giving a marker for what we expect sales growth to be what we expect the generation build-out to be. And I think that all should also serve as an opportunity for us to give a good update on our third quarter call with respect to our investment plans, our rate base growth and earnings expectations looking out over time.

Your next question comes from the line of Richard Sunderland with Truist Securities.

Okay. Great. Picking up some of the points from the prior questions, I'm curious if you could speak a bit more to the fuel cell opportunity you alluded to there and how you see that fitting in as a solution over the next few years?

Well, again, Richard, I think I put the word possibility or under consideration in there. I think that what we're really looking at over the next 5 years is obviously very difficult to get any additional dispatchable gas-fired generation done in the next 5 or 6 years if you haven't already started.

Obviously, we've got two big projects going on that we talked about, both Castle Bluff and Big Hollow and have another 2,100 megawatt combined cycle facility planned for 2031. But what we're looking at was what I was trying to really say is over the next 5, 6 years, really looking at anything we can accelerate and bring in during that time period. And again, the options appear to be things like renewables, batteries, which we've talked about. We're deploying some of those. And of course, we'll take a look at fuel cells. So not a commitment to that, but again, something we're looking at as a possibility for dispatchable resources in this time period.

No, understood. That's helpful. And I guess to take that topic, but just zoom out a bit, could you speak a little bit to the generation efforts overall, I guess, from a supply chain perspective, a planning perspective, as you think about that upcoming IRP filing and kind of what you have an eye to into the 2030s. You spoke to the 3 gigawatts of CCNs to be filed in short order. Just curious what you're looking at even beyond that and if you've already taken steps there.

Yes, Richard, I'll start and then turn it over to Michael. First of all, with respect to that 3 gigawatts of new resources, there were some questions we got about whether that was previously planned. I will tell you that it was. So when we -- if you look at the IRP from last February, which is on Slide 22, it's back in the appendix, you'll see that we had about 5 gigawatts of generation planned by 2030.

And then as I mentioned, that combined cycle facility, another 2,100 megawatts planned for 2031. So to be clear, the 3 gigawatts that we laid out on Slide 8, where we're going to be seeking CCNs are all consistent with that IRP we filed last year. And the capital for those is consistent with the plans we rolled out in February. So I'll start there, but I'll turn it over to Michael Moehn to kind of talk about and address some of the other questions you had.

Thanks, Marty.

Yes, just a little more specifically with respect to generation, I think we sit in a good spot there. There are obviously a great deal of activity going on. As Marty indicated, just the number of projects that we have under construction, we feel good about these solar projects. I think from a gas perspective, and we've spoken about this. We have a simple cycle project coming online at the end of '27, another one at the end of '28. Obviously, we have those turbines under contract. In fact, we've taken delivery of our first turbine here for the project here in 2027.

We have EPC contracts in place, labor is mobilized and making really good progress on both of those simple cycles, along with there's going to be about 400 megawatts of battery at that second site that comes online in 2028. With respect to longer term, the combined cycle, again, feel good about where we sit today from a procurement of long lead time material. I think we maybe mentioned on previous calls, we've executed the contract with Mitsubishi for that, a good line of sight for delivery on all that power island equipment in 2031, [ HRSG, ] steam generators, et cetera. I feel good about those delivery time lines.

We're working through the labor component piece of this. We have a consortium that we're putting in place with national construction companies. We're very fortunate to have a number of companies headquartered here in St. Louis that are going to be put together to build these plants, along with a global engineering design firm that will help design and engineer this for us. And so we feel good about it. There's obviously a great deal of work that needs to go into building these combined cycles. It's a large construction project, 2,100 megawatts, but feel good about where we sit today and the work ahead of us. I'd say longer term, as Marty talked about, I mean, there are a number of scenarios that we're working through at the moment just in terms of future demand, future generation needs.

All of these conversations are leading to ongoing conversations with the various vendors, recognizing just where we are from a supply chain perspective and just making sure that we're taking the appropriate steps to continue to put us in a place that allows us to execute against this plan. So more to come as we work through, I don't want to front-run the IRP, but all of that's been going on, Richard, for the better part of the past year.

The next question comes from the line of Shahriar Pourreza with Wells Fargo.

This is actually Andrew on for Shar. On the topic of nuclear generation, the government and hyperscalers have indicated some level of interest in the AP1000. There seems to be a consortium of regulated utilities that is forming and can consider new nuclear development as a group if cost overrun risk is taken on by a potential offtaker. Would you consider being part of this consortium or maybe already are part of this consortium, given your experience with Callaway and the 1.5 gigawatts of new nuclear in your IRP?

Yes. Well, welcome this morning. We're not a part of that consortium. As you know, we do own and operate the Callaway Energy Center here in Missouri. And if you look at that IRP that we laid out on Slide 22, as we look to the longer term, we certainly think nuclear should be part of the long-term portfolio, not just Callaway, but additional nuclear resources in the long term. So it's something that we're going to continue to study. The state of Missouri as well is working on an updated state energy plan, and we'll be taking part in that. The state is also looking at what it would take to support new nuclear.

We're going to participate in workshops associated with that. And we'll see where that leads in terms of the long term, the type of technology that's deployed and the time frame on which to do it. I think we, like a lot of companies that are interested in nuclear are certainly looking at the advancements of not only AP1000 type technology, but small modular reactors and looking over time for, again, that price and schedule certainty that would allow you to move forward. And certainly, things like consortiums may very well be a good path forward in terms of being able to address some of the risks associated with, again, price and schedule. So we'll continue to look at those types of opportunities and engage with the state and see where that leads over time. Thanks for the question.

That's very helpful. And then elsewhere in the country, we've seen customers with signed ESAs have trouble securing zoning for their data center sites. Do your customers have sites secured for the 2.2 gigawatts you have under ESA? And are there any other risks to the ramp under those ESAs that we should be considering?

Yes. With respect to those 2.2, those sites have been secured. And as I said earlier, we're looking forward in the near term, hopefully, in the second quarter to see some groundbreaking ceremonies and construction get underway. So with respect to those, I feel good about it. When you look beyond that, I talked about some of the construction agreements that we have or some of the sites that are going under with engineering studies. Those are in a variety of areas and in various stages of getting approvals. But with respect to the projects where we have ESAs, we feel very good about those.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Carly Davenport with Goldman Sachs.

Maybe just to start on the MISO transmission projects. Maybe just can you talk a little bit about the key considerations that you're evaluating on whether or not you'll put forth a bid on the remaining two competitive projects as part of that process and maybe a sense of when you might expect to file those?

Yes. Sure, Carly. If you look at what we outlined on Slide 9, where we've got some of the transmission projects, we outlined in the bottom table those competitive projects where we've had a joint bid submitted and then some of the projects that are under evaluation. And I think as we look at different project opportunities like that, it's really looking at whether we think we can put forward a good competitive proposal that delivers the value that's expected to be delivered from those projects. And look, we think we have strong capabilities in this area.

We've got definite strengths in planning, design, project management, construction, operations and maintenance. We've delivered great value within our region, and we've won a few of these competitive projects over time. So, again, we'll take a look at each one of those projects. And if we think we can be competitive and bring value, then we'll submit a bid. I'd also highlight, Carly, while we're on the topic of transmission, we have obviously a robust investment plan over the next five years, and we see that as having upside as well.

I mentioned earlier some of the upside associated with these large loads as it relates to sales and generation portfolio. But that exists in the transmission area as well. When we put together our capital plans each year, we've always been pretty disciplined about what we put in there, whether it's the CapEx, the rate base growth plans. We don't typically include projects until there's clarity on timing, scope and the system or customer need associated with those. So as we look at some of this growth, this large load growth, generators, large loads wanting to connect to our system, generators wanting to connect to our system, those again represent upside opportunities for us in terms of incremental transmission investments.

So we're looking at both things. I add that because as we look ahead at growth opportunities in transmission, we're both looking at those investments that we typically make to interconnect customers and generators as well as these competitive projects. So a couple of areas of upside for us as we look at our capital plans going forward.

Got it. Appreciate that. Super helpful. And then maybe just one other question for me. On the ICC reconciliation process, I guess it's not atypical to have some divergence on the OPEB treatment. But I guess, what are your thoughts on the adjustments proposed related to the actual infrastructure investments? Do you see any scope for some movement on that side?

Carly, this is Andrew Kirk. Those adjustments are typical as part of the reconciliation. There's nothing unusual there. So you should just assume that's just a typical part of the process, truing up rate base and related items as part of the 2025 reconciliation.

Our next question comes from David Paz with Wolfe.

Marty, you may have just answered part of this, but let me ask it more bluntly. Do you anticipate the remaining 1.2 gigawatts of construction agreements to begin ramping in your current period by 2030? Or will the ramps begin post 2030? I'm referring to the ones that -- in which you expect potentially some outcome in the near term.

Yes, David, I think that what you're asking about is we had, again, 3.4 million -- 3.4 gigawatts of construction agreements, 2.2 of that was announced in February, leaves another 1.2 of construction agreements. And as I said a couple of times, we do expect a subset of that to move to ESAs in the near term.

David, I think that, again, the ramp rates in each one of these is confidential, but you could see some movement in terms of sales associated with those during this 5-year period. Again, as you sign these ESAs, there's a period of construction to get the data center built before the sales actually start to kick in. But again, you could see some of that sales growth within the 5-year period.

That's great. And then relative to your current sales outlook and capital plan, would you view any generation spend in your 5-year period to be additive to the $32 billion? Or do you anticipate as you get incremental opportunities that you would displace CapEx just given any build constraints?

Yes. Look, we're always looking at the overall capital plan and the puts and takes, but I would expect that it would be additive to the overall plan. And also to the extent that those generation resources are being accelerated or built for the purpose of supplying the large load. Obviously, through Senate Bill 4 and the tariff that we have, those costs would be ultimately borne by those large loads. So that's probably the best way to think about it.

That's great. And then just a clarification. I think in an earlier response, you guys said you felt good about solar projects among other types of projects. What about the 1 gigawatt of wind in your plan by year-end 2030, I think, at least in your IRP. Do you have all the permits there, zoning? Any issues with that? What's the status?

Yes, David, I think as you look at that portion of the IRP, look, we're still interested in wind as a resource. We think it's -- as we think about the renewable portion of our overall generation mix, it's good to have some diversity in there of solar and wind resources. But the timing of that relative to solar, I would say, is somewhat adjustable.

So we'd love to see some more wind in our portfolio over time. But over the 5-year period, you could see, for example, solar displace that and the wind get pushed out a little bit. But -- so I think I'd think about it that way that maybe the timing doesn't have to be necessarily within the 5-year period, though we remain interested in wind. And again, you may see a substitution of solar for wind in that period.

We now reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I'd now like to turn the call over to Marty Lyons for closing remarks.

Well, thank you all for joining us today. Through robust and disciplined investment in our electric, natural gas and transmission infrastructure this year, we're positioning Ameren to reliably serve our customers and growing communities now and in the future. We look forward to seeing many of you in the next few weeks. Thanks, and have a great day.

Good day, everyone. My name is Abigail, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome you to the Ameren Corporation Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Andrew Kirk, Senior Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Modeling.

Thank you, and good morning. On the call with me today are Marty Lyons, our Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Lenny Singh, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; as well as other members of the Ameren management team, including Michael Moehn, Group President of Ameren Utilities. This call contains time-sensitive data that is accurate only as of the date of today's live broadcast and redistribution of this broadcast is prohibited. We have posted a presentation on the amereninvestors.com homepage that will be referenced by our speakers.

As noted on Page 2 of the presentation, comments made during this conference call may contain statements about future expectations, plans, projections, financial performance and similar matters, which are commonly referred to as forward-looking statements. Please refer to the forward-looking statements section in the news release we issued yesterday as well as our SEC filings for more information about the various factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated.

Now here's Marty.

Thanks, Andrew. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Beginning on Page 4. Here, we highlight some of the key updates we will cover today. We will walk through our 2025 financial results, recap key accomplishments and discuss how we are well positioned for 2026 and the years ahead. Specifically, we delivered 2025 adjusted earnings of $5.03 per share, which represents 8.6% growth over adjusted 2024 results. And we affirmed our 2026 earnings per share guidance range of $5.25 to $5.45.

I'm also pleased to report that this week, we signed 2.2 gigawatts of large load electric service agreements in Missouri. We continue to take meaningful steps towards supporting significant economic development opportunities emerging across our service territory, while also continuing to provide strong value for all our customers and our communities.

I'm proud of not only the strong operational and financial results we delivered as an Ameren team, but also our strategic plans and accomplishments that we expect will lead to competitive long-term returns for our shareholders in the years ahead.

Today, we issued 6% to 8% earnings per share growth guidance for the period 2026 to 2030, and we continue to expect year-over-year results near the upper end of that range.

Turning now to Page 5. As always, at the center of everything we do is creating value for the 2.5 million electric and 900,000 natural gas customers that we have the privilege to serve. Our 3-pillar strategy: investing in rate regulated infrastructure, advocating for constructive regulatory and legislative frameworks and optimizing our business, continue to guide our work for customers, communities and shareholders. This year, the Ameren team accomplished all of the key strategic objectives we outlined a year ago, shown on Page 6. This included investment of more than $4 billion in electric, natural gas and transmission infrastructure. We installed nearly 26,000 electric distribution poles, 283 miles of upgraded transmission and distribution lines and underground cable, 750 smart switches and 31 new or upgraded substations. We also made significant progress on the development of new generation resources.

On the regulatory front, we received constructive orders in both Missouri and Illinois electric and natural gas rate reviews. And legislatively, the enactment of Missouri Senate Bill 4 provides support for economic development and investment in reliable energy for years to come.

To further advance economic development and ongoing reliability, we updated our Ameren Missouri preferred Resource Plan last February and immediately began executing on the accelerated components.

Speaking of economic development, in 2025, we worked with stakeholders across Missouri and Illinois to support more than 70 projects that are expected to bring an estimated $3.6 billion of capital investment and approximately 3,700 jobs to our service territory from new or expanding businesses, fueling regional economic growth for years to come. These businesses represent the diverse set of industries operating across our states, including health care, manufacturing, distribution, warehousing, alternative energy and food production.

We also work closely with stakeholders to design and obtain approval of a new rate structure for large load customers to support fair cost allocation and reliable service as customer energy needs evolve.

I'm proud of our team's performance in 2025. Collectively, we focused on safely providing electric and gas service to our customers, battling through challenging weather events, building more reliable and resilient infrastructure and maintaining disciplined cost management.

As a result of strong execution of the company's strategy and solid operating performance, we delivered 2025 adjusted earnings of $5.03 per share, up 8.6% from 2024 adjusted earnings of $4.63 per share.

Turning to Page 7. Here, we highlight the value we deliver for our customers and communities. In 2025, severe weather events tested our system as we experienced approximately 30% more storms than average over the past 10 years. The severe storms and tornadoes as well as extreme temperatures experienced in our territory highlighted the value of our investments, which are designed to bolster reliability and resiliency and the value of our team members who brave these challenging conditions to safely restore service when our customers needed us most. In the face of this elevated storm activity, our system and teams performed exceptionally well. Reliability and resiliency remained strong, benchmarking in the first quartile for safety performance and second quartile for SAIDI performance. In 2025, our investments to strengthen the grid prevented more than 56 million minutes of potential customer outages across Missouri and Illinois, more than double the prevented outage minutes from last year.

The investments to strengthen the reliability of our system are also the foundation for economic growth and strong customer satisfaction. Notably, a recent economic impact study shows our operations in Missouri and Illinois generate more than $20 billion in annual economic activity in addition to other benefits to the communities where we live and work. At the same time, we continue improving the day-to-day experience for customers. By leveraging technology and streamlining service processes, we've given customers more control and transparency with regard to energy use and billing and a quicker path to assistance, reducing our average call handle time by 21% and total call volume by 12% since 2023. These improvements are resonating with customers who have rated their satisfaction at approximately 4.6 out of 5 stars on average after interacting with us across all our service channels, including call center, website transactions and field service.

Moving to Page 8. We recognize that our critical infrastructure projects represent significant investments, which is why we prioritize the projects that are most beneficial for customers and maintain a sharp focus on keeping rates as low as possible. Through disciplined cost management, we have been able to keep our Ameren supplied residential rates in Missouri and Illinois on average below both national and Midwest averages. Importantly, the percentage of the average customers' income spent on electricity has remained stable, generally tracking the rate of inflation over the last decade, even as we've made substantial investments in critical infrastructure. Ameren invests hundreds of millions of dollars each year to support our customers and communities through energy efficiency programs, demand response initiatives and substantial energy assistance funding.

In addition to funding Ameren developed programs, we also partner with a wide range of organizations to connect customers with available federal, state and local assistance.

Turning to Page 9. Disciplined execution of our strategy has delivered strong and consistent results over time. Weather-normalized adjusted earnings per share have risen at an approximate 7.4% compound annual growth rate since we divested our merchant business in 2013, while annual dividends per share have increased 78% through 2025. This performance has resulted in a total shareholder return of greater than 300% over the same period, significantly outperforming utility index averages.

As we look ahead, we believe execution of that same strategy, putting customers and community value at the center, will continue to drive strong returns.

Moving to Page 10. We turn our focus to our 2026 key strategic objectives, which continue to be focused on resource adequacy, reliability, affordability and supporting local economic growth.

This year, we plan to invest approximately $5.5 billion in electric, natural gas and transmission infrastructure to bolster the safety, security, reliability and responsiveness of the energy grid.

As we execute our generation plan over the coming years, we will continue to file CCN request for new generation resources, and we expect to file our triennial Missouri Integrated Resource Plan by late September, which will outline updated generation plans for the next 20 years.

Further, last month, we filed the required Ameren Illinois integrated grid plan, detailing electric investments needed for 2028 through 2031, and we are seeking ICC approval of the plan by the end of this year. We continue to evaluate regionally beneficial transmission investment opportunities in MISO. We submitted bids for 2 tranche, 2.1 competitive projects last month and are evaluating 2 other bidding opportunities. As always, while we work to accomplish the key objectives highlighted on this page, we remain focused on operating as efficiently and effectively as possible with a goal to hold O&M growth below the rate of inflation, and as low as prudently possible over our 5-year plan.

We have a number of initiatives underway to continuously improve and optimize our performance.

On Page 11, we outlined how the execution of our strategy is expected to drive a strong total shareholder return over the next 5 years. Today, we are rolling forward our 5-year investment plan. And as you can see, we expect to grow our rate base at a 10.6% compound annual rate from 2025 through 2030. This strong expected rate base growth will be driven by $31.8 billion of planned infrastructure investment, a 21% increase in our 5-year capital plan compared to the plan laid out last February, with the increase primarily due to robust expected generation investment needed to serve anticipated load growth and support system reliability.

We continue to expect 2026 earnings to be in a range of $5.25 per share to $5.45 per share. The midpoint of this range represents 8.1% earnings per share growth compared to our original 2025 earnings guidance midpoint.

Building on our proven strategy and track record of strong earnings growth, we continue to expect to deliver 6% to 8% compound annual earnings per share growth from 2026 through 2030 using the midpoint of our 2026 guidance of $5.35 per share as the base. More specifically, we expect consistent earnings growth near the upper end of this range in 2027 through 2030.

In addition, last week, Ameren's Board of Directors approved a quarterly dividend increase of 5.6%, equating to an annualized dividend rate of $3 per share. This represents our 13th consecutive year of increasing our dividend. We continue to expect dividend growth in line with our long-term EPS growth guidance, and we expect our dividend payout ratio, which today is approximately 56%, to be maintained within a range of 50% to 60%. Combined, our earnings and dividend growth expectations support our strong long-term total shareholder return proposition.

On Page 12, we provide an update on the Ameren Missouri large load rate structure, which the Missouri PSC approved last November. This rate structure is in accordance with Missouri State law, which requires data centers to pay for cost to connect them to our system and for them to pay their share of ongoing cost of service. Under the large load rate structure, customers requesting 75 megawatts or more will pay a base rate, which at this time is approximately $0.062 per kilowatt hour and agree to additional terms and conditions under an ESA. The additional terms will include a service commitment of 12 years after ramp, a minimum demand charge of 80% of contracted capacity, termination provisions and collateral requirements, all designed to protect existing customers.

In addition, new customer programs will allow qualifying customers to elect to advance their clean energy goals by supporting the carbon-free energy resource of their choice through incremental payments, which would be used to help offset cost of service for other customers.

Turning to Page 13, I'll provide an update on the large load data center opportunities in our service territory. In the coming years, these projects are expected to bring in jobs, tax revenues and investment and to drive long-term economic growth. Just this week, Ameren Missouri executed ESAs with large load customers that cumulatively represent 2.2 gigawatts of new demand to be served in the future. Executing these ESAs is an important milestone. Of course, there are a number of other project milestones still to be achieved, including the customer project announcements, groundbreaking and construction. Still, these agreements are an exciting development.

Our 5-year financial plan laid out today assumes 6.2% compound annual sales growth from 2026 through 2030, which includes a base assumption of 1.2 gigawatts of new load growth by 2030, consistent with our preferred resource plan and is depicted by the blue line on the chart on the right-hand side of this page. The 2.2 gigawatts of executed ESAs represent upside to our sales and earnings forecast.

Developers continue to evaluate Missouri and Illinois for additional future large load projects. In Missouri, this pipeline includes projects with transmission interconnection construction agreements, representing a total of 3.4 gigawatts of potential new demand, inclusive of projects associated with the executed ESAs. And in Downstate Illinois, this pipeline includes projects with construction agreements representing a total of 850 megawatts of new demand.

We have now received approximately $46 million in nonrefundable payments from developers in Missouri and Illinois to cover the cost of transmission upgrades related to these construction agreements. These payments reflect developers' confidence in and commitment to their projects.

Turning to Page 14 for an update on our generation build-out. The Integrated Resource Plan filed last February called for development of 5.3 gigawatts of new generation resources between 2025 and 2030. We've made strong progress on development of these resources over the last year, with nearly 2.7 gigawatts of new generation in progress. In December, we placed Vandalia Energy Center, a 50-megawatt solar facility in service and the Bowling Green and Split Rail solar energy centers totaling 350 megawatts began final testing in January.

Further, as part of strengthening our existing fleet, dual fuel conversion work is expected to be completed by the end of the year at our Addrain Energy Center to add 700 megawatts of capacity on the coldest winter days when gas is otherwise unavailable. We continue to advance our new natural gas generation projects as well.

Yesterday, the Missouri PSC approved the certificate of convenience and necessity for the 800-megawatt big hollow natural gas energy center and accompanying 400-megawatt battery storage facility, both scheduled to be in service in 2028.

Proactive strategic supply chain work for all of our planned generation resources continues. We have procured long lead time components such as turbines and transformers for our planned near-term energy centers, and we have executed gas supply contracts and awarded labor contracts for both simple cycle natural gas facilities. We continue to actively plan for the construction of a 2.1 gigawatt combined cycle facility included in our IRP, having secured production slots for the 3 necessary turbines. We anticipate filing our CCN request with the commission later this year for this combined cycle facility, which we expect to be placed in service in 2031.

These efforts keep us on track to maintain a balanced energy mix to meet growing demand affordably and reliably, targeting approximately 70% generation from on-demand resources and 30% from intermittent resources by 2040.

Moving now to Page 15 for a transmission update. As we look ahead, there's a significant transmission investment needed to support new large load customers as well as energy resources to supply this new demand reliably. In addition, we remain focused on executing our assigned Tranche 1 and 2.1 long-range transmission projects and developing strong proposals for Tranche 2.1 competitive projects. In January, we submitted joint bids for 2 Illinois projects, and we expect MISO to select the developers for the projects this summer. Bids for 2 additional MISO projects are due mid-2026, and we are evaluating those opportunities. Recall that we do not include competitive projects in our capital plan or 10-year pipeline until projects are awarded.

Now turning to Page 16 for an update on investment opportunities in our service territory over the next decade. Our pipeline continues to grow, standing today at more than $70 billion. These investments will strengthen the safety, reliability and resiliency of the energy grid, powering the quality of life for families and businesses and supporting thousands of jobs and driving economic growth across our communities.

Moving to Page 17 to sum up our value proposition. We're confident that the execution of our strategy in 2026 and beyond will continue to deliver superior value to our customers and shareholders. Solid operating performance and prudent infrastructure investment, along with a strong balance sheet and strong credit ratings, supports safe, cost-efficient and reliable service for our customers. Robust infrastructure investment is needed in each of our business segments to ensure safe, reliable service and to meet the demands associated with exciting economic development opportunities. These infrastructure investments are anticipated to drive compound annual rate base growth of 10.6%, which, along with sales growth, provides the foundation for our 6% to 8% compound annual earnings growth expectation.

Continuing our long track record of delivering strong earnings growth, coupled with an attractive and growing dividend, will result in a compelling total return story for those seeking a high-quality utility investment opportunity. I'm confident in our team's ability to effectively execute our investment plans and other elements of our strategy across all 4 of our business segments. Again, thank you all for joining us today. I would now like to welcome our recently appointed Chief Financial Officer, Lenny Singh.

Thanks, Marty. I'm glad to be here with you today. I'll begin on Page 19 of our presentation with our 2025 earnings results. Yesterday, we reported 2025 adjusted earnings of $5.03 per share compared to earnings of $4.63 per share in 2024. Our 2025 adjusted earnings exclude certain tax benefits at 3 of our business segments: Ameren Transmission, Ameren Illinois Natural Gas and Ameren Illinois electric distribution. These tax benefits were recorded in response to IRS guidance issued to another taxpayer and associated regulatory orders issued by FERC and the Illinois Commerce Commission regarding treatment of net operating loss carryforwards.

Pursuant to this guidance in these orders, we decreased income tax expense by a total of $86 million in 2025, resulting in a $0.32 per share benefit.

On Page 20, we summarize key drivers impacting adjusted earnings at each segment. As Marty outlined, we achieved strong earnings growth, supported by strategic infrastructure investments and robust retail sales at Ameren Missouri.

Weather-normalized sales at Missouri grew 1% overall with 0.5% and 1.5% growth for our residential and commercial classes, respectively. We also experienced favorable weather across our service territory. At the same time, we funded incremental operations and maintenance activities in Missouri to improve grid and energy center reliability for the benefits of our customers.

Of course, disciplined cost management remains core to our way of doing business. Process improvements across both states help us start jobs sooner and complete work faster, delivering tangible benefits for customers. For instance, in the past 2 years, we achieved $20 million in recurring O&M savings from energy delivery process improvements, including enhanced fieldwork scheduling that were implemented has improved productivity by about 25%. Looking ahead, continued efforts to simplify and standardize processes are expected to drive efficiency, improve customer experience and help keep rates as low as possible.

With that, let's move to Page 21 for a brief update on the constructive orders in both of our Illinois rate reviews in late 2025. In November, the Illinois Commerce Commission approved a $79 million annual rate increase for our natural gas distribution segment, which reflected a higher return on equity of 9.6% and a 50% equity ratio. New rates were effective in December.

In December, the ICC also approved a $48 million reconciliation adjustment to the 2024 revenue requirement that was approved as part of the multiyear rate plan with new rates effective in January of 2026. This annual adjustment aligns customer rates with actual costs. Both orders were largely consistent with the administrative law judges recommendations.

Finally, in January, Ameren Illinois filed its required multiyear grid plan for 2028 through 2031 with the ICC, which outlines continued infrastructure investments needed for reliable, safe energy in downstate Illinois. We would expect an order from the ICC on the proposed grid plan later this year.

Turning to Page 22. We look to our company-wide capital plan for the next 5 years. As Marty highlighted, we see robust investment opportunities ahead. The plan we're releasing today calls for $31.8 billion in capital expenditures from 2026 through 2030, an increase of more than 20% compared to our investment plan issued last year. The increase in our capital plan primarily reflects the roll forward of our plan from 2029 to 2030 and the firming up of cost estimates and project timing. The investments themselves primarily reflect critical upgrades to strengthen and maintain an aging grid across all jurisdictions, significant new generation investments at Ameren Missouri and expanded transmission capabilities to support resource adequacy across the region. We expect this investment to drive 10.6% compound annual rate base growth, which is outlined by business segment on this page. For more detail on the electric investment underlying our capital plan, you may reference the Ameren Missouri Smart Energy Plan just filed with the Missouri PSC as well as the multiyear grid plan filed recently with the Illinois Commerce Commission.

Turning to Page 23. Here, we outlined the expected funding sources for the investments noted on the prior page. Our balance sheet is strong, and we remain committed to funding our investment plan in a way that supports strong investment-grade ratings and long-term financial strength. Our primary source of funding will continue to be cash from operations, which we expect to increase as sales grow and rates are updated.

Remaining funding needs will be financed in a balanced manner consistent with our past practices. We expect to issue approximately $4 billion of equity from 2026 through 2030. We'll fulfill our 2026 equity needs with $600 million of forward sales agreement that we expect to settle near the end of the year. We expect above average equity issuance in 2027 and 2028, aligned with the timing of our new generation investments. The amount and timing of our equine will ultimately be a function of the timing of cash flows, including cash flows from data center sales, the timing and amount of which we expect to have further clarity on over the course of this year.

A portion of our equity needs could be satisfied through issuance of hybrid debt securities at the parent company, which received 50% equity credit from Moody's and S&P. We expect to continue to issue long-term debt to fund the remaining cash requirements. To fund maturing obligations and a portion of the $5.5 billion of planned investment, we expect debt issuances totaling approximately $2.85 billion in 2026. Expected timing of these issuances is shown on this page.

Moving to Page 24 of our presentation for our 2026 earnings guidance. Today, we're affirming our 2026 diluted earnings per share guidance range of $5.25 per share to $5.45 per share, the midpoint of which represents approximately 8.1% growth compared to the midpoint of our 2025 original EPS guidance range.

The earnings drivers are summarized on this page and remain largely consistent with those discussed on our third quarter earnings call. Through disciplined cost management, we will target limiting consolidated O&M expenses to less than the rate of inflation over the 5-year plan.

Finally, turning to Page 25. I'm encouraged by the opportunities we have at Ameren to make lasting impact in our communities and shape the energy future for our customers. This is an exciting time in the industry, one that I could never have fully imagined when I started my career over 30 years ago. We remain confident in and excited about our long-term strategy, one that we believe we'll continue to consistently deliver for shareholders.

Our investment positions us to strengthen reliability for all customers and attract and support economic growth in our communities. And our disciplined cost management and strong customer growth pipeline position us to do so while keeping customer rates as low as possible. We expect that our strong earnings per share growth, paired with our attractive dividend, will provide a compelling total shareholder return that will compare favorably with the growth of our peers.

That concludes our prepared remarks. We now invite your questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Julien Dumoulin-Smith with Jefferies.

Can you guys hear me okay?

Yes, Julien,

Nicely done all around. I got to hand it to you guys. Just a couple of questions real quickly. First off, on the 2.2 gigs of executed ESAs, any caveats on why not included here? I mean, obviously, it's relatively recent. And then separately, can you talk a little bit about the commentary about being at the upper end of the 6% to 8%. Just how does that reconcile with the 2.2? How do you think about, for instance, CapEx reconciling with that and how that would position you here? I'll leave it there.

Yes. That's fine, Julien. I'll try to -- this is Marty, obviously. I'll try to answer those questions. Yes, look, we're off to an exciting start to 2026, February, in particular. It's been this month that we've been able to sign these 2.2 gigawatts of ESAs. And as we talked about on the call as well, just this week, the Public Service Commission in Missouri approved our big halo 800-megawatt simple cycle gas plant as well as some battery energy storage of 400 megawatts. And so it's been an exciting month and a great start to the year. As we think about our guidance and the sales growth looking ahead, as you know, what's been baked into our guidance over the past year, has really been about 1.2 gigawatts of new demand by 2030. And as we talked about in our IRP last year, up to about 1.5 gig by 2032. But for purposes of guidance, that 1.2 gigawatts by 2030 is certainly relevant.

That, of course, was sort of the baseline that was in our preferred resource plan that we filed with the commission this past year and is shown on Page 13 of the slide deck we posted today. But importantly, that 1.2 gig was in the guidance we provided, that 6% to 8%. And as we guided last year and we continue to guide, we really expect to be able to deliver near the upper end of that range over the 5-year period. So as you look at this 2.2 gigawatts of ESAs that certainly represents upside to the sales growth that has been embedded in that 6% to 8% guidance. And in our assertion that we expect to deliver near the upper end of that range. So it does represent upside.

Now as you mentioned, I mean, we just got these ESAs signed here in February. And there's a lot of milestones ahead with respect to the development of those data centers associated with those ESAs, things like actual customer announcements, project announcements, groundbreakings, the construction of those data centers. So again, I would say that the ESAs that we signed and the 2 gigawatts certainly gives us greater confidence with respect to our ability to deliver over this time period towards that upper end of that 6% to 8%. And I would say, depending upon the ramp rates, gives us the potential to even achieve above that.

So we're very excited about it. It's been a great start to the year. Hopefully, that answers your questions.

Absolutely. I appreciate that. And then just if I can quickly follow up. You made reference here to hybrid securities real quickly. How do you think about that as being part of the plan? I mean, clearly, it is. How do you think about that strategically here? And is that accretive to the plan when you talk about being nearly upper end of 6% to 8%? Is that an incremental source of latitude here just to come back to what's in versus out of the plan?

Yes. I think as you think about utilization of those securities versus straight equity, it might be slightly accretive in the short term. I think over time, we'd have to evaluate whether it is or isn't from that standpoint. Obviously, there's the interest cost associated with those securities. So it may be more of a neutral over time, but something that we're going to evaluate as we think about the financing plans we have ahead. Obviously, one of the things that we've really utilized over time are these ATM issuances to fulfill our equity needs. I think we'll continue to lean on that heavily, that kind of approach as we think about our financing plans, but always want to keep our options open.

Our next question comes from the line of Shar ourreza with Wells Fargo.

It's actually Andrew Kaavi on for Shar. With your rate base CAGR at 10.6% and your EPS CAGR at 6% to 8%, a there's a healthy amount of lag. How much of that is financing versus how much is structural? And how much can you narrow the lag in time and put upward pressure on the 6% to 8%?

I'm just trying to follow you, so maybe repeat that question for us.

So there's a little bit of lag between your rate base growth and your earnings growth. And I just wanted to know how that breaks down between financing and maybe other structural issues? And then is there you narrow that lag?

Yes. No, I've got you. Look, I think if you look at our rate base growth about 10.6% and you think about the amount of equity that we plan to issue and think about the dilution from that, that's the primary difference between the 10.6% rate base CAGR. And where we plan to deliver from an EPS perspective, which, as I just said a moment ago, is consistently towards the upper end of that 6% to 8% range. I think the other thing to think about over this time period is, as these sales come better into focus from the hyperscalers that we're working with in these ESAs, that too can help to reduce any differential that we have between allowed ROEs and earned ROEs that also can help from an earnings perspective.

So those are some of the big drivers that come to mind. And then I would just say we're obviously a fully rate regulated business. And as you well know, there can be lag as you think about over time during the periods between rate reviews. And so those are just some of the things to think about in terms of the earnings, the earnings growth, the earned ROEs, et cetera.

Very helpful. Switching gears a little. We've seen some data center developers cancel projects despite having signed ESAs in place in other states. Are there any concerns on your end about the potential for cancellations or -- and could you give us a little color on when the large load take-or-pay provisions in the SA become binding for the customer?

Yes, all really good questions. First of all, with respect to these ESAs, the counterparties and the terms of these and the ramp rates are all highly confidential. So I can't get into any of that. I wouldn't say that we have any concerns with respect to these ESAs or the projects coming to fruition. That said, I mentioned there's significant milestones ahead in terms of the project announcements, the groundbreaking, the construction. So certainly recognize that those uncertainties as we look ahead. But again, our 6% to 8% EPS growth guidance, our expectation of delivering near the upper end, again, was really based on about 1.2 gigawatts of sales growth between now and 2030. ESAs we've signed represents upside. And I think that, I think, again, speaks to the conservatism that we have in our overall guidance range, given again some of the uncertainties ahead. But we certainly don't have any concerns as we sit here today.

This is Michael. I agree with everything that Martin. I think beyond that, I mean, there are a number of provisions, obviously, in the tariff itself and that protective to customers in terms of termination provisions, minimum monthly payment, security requirements, et cetera. So a number of links have gone -- number of stuff has gone to great links here to make sure that we're protecting customers at the end of the day as well, in case that would happen.

Yes, those are great points, Michael. And while we can't speak to the specifics of individual ESAs, you can see some of that outlined on Slide 12 that as Michael mentioned, are all part of our large load tariff design.

Our next question comes from the line of Diana Niles with JPMorgan question.

So looking at your infrastructure and investment pipeline, are there timing considerations to some of the future opportunities there? Thinking about how much might fall within the 5-year plan period or how much visibility you have beyond 2030?

Yes, you really get into the CapEx and how we see that playing out. I mean, at a high level, we talked about over the 10-year plan, really about $70 billion of investment opportunities. And we laid that out in our slide. And then during the 5-year period, expecting $31.8 billion of infrastructure investments, and largely being driven by generation investments in Missouri as we think about in transitioning our fleet over time. But that may not be specifically answering your question, if you want to dive a little deeper.

Yes, I guess, sort of asking there like maybe how to think about the cusp between like the 5-year plan of 2030 and beyond? Like we're seeing like continued like smooth investment there? Or are you thinking about filling more opportunities in?

Yes. I think, look, we try to smooth things out over time. I think it's something that's certainly good for customers as you think about bringing those investments into rate base over time and making a stable investment profile overall. At times, it will be a bit lumpy though, as we -- especially as you think about some of the infrastructure investments we have with respect to generation resources, they can certainly be more significant investments and create some lumpiness in the investment profile. And so a couple of things we've got coming up. As you can see in our slides, we've got some significant investments in simple cycle gas-fired generation that are coming into service in '27 and '28. And then if you look at our integrated resource plan, we have a pretty significant investment in a combined cycle facility, 2,100 megawatts that we plan to bring into service in the 2031 time frame.

So there's certainly some lumpiness there. The other thing I'd say just to watch for, didn't emphasize it necessarily on this call, but did highlight it, which is that, later this year, we do expect to make our triennial integrated resource plan filing in Missouri. And in that plan, we'll certainly be looking at any opportunities to accelerate generation investments, specifically maybe looking at things like batteries, perhaps renewables. But as you move into that 2030 to 2040 time frame, also looking at the need and potential additional investments in dispatchable generation facilities. I don't want to front-run that process. It's a comprehensive update. We look comprehensively at sales, generation options, costs. We'll get stakeholder input. And -- but again, that will be a meaningful filing that we'll have later this year.

The other thing I'd maybe point you to is, today, we also, in Missouri, announced our updated Smart Energy Plan. And if you look into the details of that file, and you can kind of see some of the year-by-year investments that are planned in Missouri. Similarly, if you look over in Illinois, earlier this year, we made our updated grid plan -- grid investment plan filing. In there too, you can see some of the planned investments on a year-by-year basis. So those are a couple of resources you can look to that are out there publicly.

Our next question comes from the line of Bill Appicelli with UBS.

Just a couple of questions. On the theme of affordability, can you just maybe outline how you guys view this updated plan in terms of customer bill impact, I guess, particularly in Missouri? And whether or not the benefit of the ESAs would help to defray some of that impact?

Yes, Bill. Affordability is certainly a key concern of ours on an ongoing basis across both of our jurisdictions in Missouri and Illinois. And as you know, really focusing on disciplined cost control has been a focus -- a long-time focus of this company. In fact, as you look back even over the past 5 years, I think our O&M CAGR was something like 2.8% at the same time that consumer prices went up about 4.6%. So we've got a history of really looking to continuous improvement at the company to really take costs out to produce productivity enhancements and optimize. But that work is never done. Certainly, it's always the benefit of new technologies, new ways of doing things. And we're continuing to keep a sharp focus on continuous improvement and process improvement. We call them transformation activities internally, and we've got a number of efforts going on right now that, again, we expect to be able to continue to bend that cost curve. And as we said on the call, we really look to keep O&M costs as low as prudently possible and really deliver under that rate of inflation.

And I say prudently because there's times we're going to want to invest back in the system. We did -- we've done that with things like tree trimming, investments in our power plants, things that really keep our resources reliable and produce reliability for our customers. So we're going to keep a good focus on all of those things.

As we think about this incremental sales opportunity we have, a key focus of [indiscernible] Bill 4 in Missouri last year was really to require that at the end of the day, we design a tariff that really is focused on making sure that these new data centers are paying for the cost to connect them to the system and paying their fair share for the cost to serve them, really providing reasonable assurance that there's no burden being borne by the rest of our customers. So that was a focus of the legislature, was certainly a focus of the Missouri Commission as they approved the tariff that we'll be utilizing to serve these customers. It was a focus of ours as we went through the negotiation of ESAs that we announced earlier today. And I think it will be a continuing focus as we go through our rate review proceedings in the future.

But again, the goal is for them to pay their fair share, the cost of providing them service, and, at a minimum, to not have a burden fall on the rest of our customers. And we're certainly hopeful that over time, as these sales increase, that there would actually be benefits for the remainder of our customers. So again, affordability has been and will continue to be a big focus for us.

Okay. That's very helpful. And then just a point of clarification. The 3.4 gigawatts of construction agreements, I guess, that's inclusive of the 2.2 ESAs, right? So does that imply that there's about 1.2 gigawatts of sort of advanced negotiations around additional large load customers?

Some are advanced, some aren't. I would just say that that is -- you're correct, by the way. The 3.4 is inclusive of the 2.2, and they're in various stages of development.

Okay. And then just just to an earlier question about rolling in the benefits of the ESAs. Is that something you would look to do on a future quarterly call or that need to wait until sort of your next full reset maybe on Q3?

Yes. Look, I think we'll monitor over time. I mentioned some of the milestones ahead with respect to the development of these data centers and getting clarity in terms of a sales forecast. I also mentioned other drivers that might be out there. For example, we open updates to the integrated resource plan later this year in Missouri. And so I think there'll be a number of things that will come into greater focus over the course of the year. I wouldn't rule out an update as part of a quarterly conference call. Obviously, things are moving at a faster pace than they historically have. And we'll need to think about being more nimble as well in terms of the guidance we provide.

Next question comes from Carly Davenport with Goldman Sachs.

Maybe one just on Missouri. I know we're still pretty early in the legislative session there, but I think there's been some bills introduced around data centers and other generations. So just curious if you have any early thoughts on potential impact there? Or if there's any other legislation that you've been watching?

Carly, it's Michael. Yes, there are a number of bills floating around. There's couple of bills related to solar. We continue to engage with stakeholders sponsors around that. It's early innings. I think people are open to discussion. Again, with all resources, there's always certain concerns. My sense is that we can find a path forward on this. Maybe it's related to some solar setbacks or some changes in local taxing authority, but look, solar is an important resource combined with everything else that we're doing from a natural gas and nuclear coal perspective. As we just indicated, Marty just went through, ultimately, need all of this generation. So engage with the stakeholders around this, and hopefully, we can land in a good spot. Beyond that, not a lot of legislation going around. We had some success, obviously, last year was Senate Bill 4. The focus really has been on the implementation of that Senate Bill 4. There were a number of provisions in there around forward test years for water and gas utilities. Those rule makings are active, and we're participating in that process. That's important we get that right. I think that could be a framework for us going forward on the electric side. And beyond that, we'll just continue to evaluate the session.

Got it. Great. And then just a clarifying question as you think about the financing path. Any sense how much of the equity you could look to satisfy with the hybrids? And then outside of that, is the ATM still the sort of preferred method of issuance?

Carly, thanks for the question. Thanks for the question. As we said in the plan, we have not specified what amounts we're going to be using. But the plan, if you think back at the $4 billion over the 5 years, it's on average $800 million a year. Remember, 2026 was completed with forward sales agreement. We are have had success with ATMs over the year, and we'll continue to leverage that throughout the plan. Hybrids are part of the solution, and we'll continue to make determination as we progress throughout the year.

Our last question comes from Sophie Karp with KeyBanc.

I was wondering [indiscernible] CEO role in, I guess, educating the communities, particularly in Missouri, right, on the benefits of having the data center under the special tariff, and whether it's actually any benefits to them? Because what we see is a lot of pushback on it because of the of media coverage that data centers receive and lot of communities without maybe understanding that there might be a benefit to them begin to oppose these developments. So my question is, do you see yourself as having a role in actively educating these communities to prevent those outcomes?

Well, I think we have a role specifically with respect to clarifying the impacts on reliability and affordability of energy services. And so I think with respect to the broader benefits to the community in terms of jobs, economic development, impacts on other aspects I think, again, it would be up to really the data centers, developers, the hyperscalers to provide clarity with respect to broader impacts of their operations. We think it's, again, important though for us to be there and be engaged and to be able to speak to the legislation that's been put in place, the terms and conditions of our our tariffs, the ESAs that we're assigning also important, the generation resources that we have available, the generation resources that we're building. and the fact that we do believe we can serve these additional customers reliably. And as I said earlier in my remarks, provide service to them in a way that they will be paying for the cost to connect them to the system, and they will be paying for the cost to serve them, and the reasonable assurance that can be provided to the rest of our customers that they will not be negatively impacted by the service provided to these customers.

And so I do think we have a role in speaking to that.

All right. And then maybe on Illinois [indiscernible], do you -- I guess Illinois has kind of not on the forefront of your investment plan lately. Can you talk a little bit about the regulatory climate in that state, how it's been evolving? And is there a potential for upside from the multiyear grid plan or some other pending regulatory proceedings in Illinois?

Yes. So look, Illinois does remain obviously an important part of our business. And I would say we do continue to invest significantly in Illinois, as you see in our 5-year plan, about $3.6 billion in electric distribution, we've got $1.9 billion going into Illinois natural gas. And they're growing at a somewhat of a slower growth rate than we're seeing with respect to our transmission operations and Missouri operations, but it continues to be a significant place for investment. And I think if you look at the regulatory environment over there, I would tell you, I feel like it's stabilizing, and in some cases, improving.

If you look at this past year end, and you can see some of this on, i think, Slide 21 that we provided, but the commission approved the reconciliation for our last multiyear rate plan in December. In November, we got an order in our gas case that we had pending. And what you saw there is both an increase in average rate base going from $2.85 billion to $3.2 billion, and you saw an ROE move from [ 9.44 ] up to [ 9.6 ]. And so I think it's a place that I know there were concerns over the past couple of years, and I'm not saying those concerns have completely dissipated in the investment community. But I think we've seen a stabilization. And I'd say, constructiveness with respect to the recent decisions. We've got this multiyear grid plan filing that's out there. We just made that in January. In that filing, we look to listen to feedback we've gotten from commissioners and other stakeholders in the past. We look to really support the investments that we're making there. We think they are the right investments to make for our customers, and we'll look to engage with stakeholders over the course of this year and expect an ICC decision in December.

Sophie, it's Michael. Yes, I agree with everything that Marty said there. In addition to that, I think the other thing that came out of this recent legislation, the surge of legislation that was this construct of a for the state of Illinois. I think that really is a very good constructive step forward to give a clear picture of the resource advocacy issues in both [indiscernible] and MISO. Hopefully, within a framework to begin to deal with this from a long-term reliability perspective. So we look forward to engaging in that. And I think it does continue to add to Marty's comments around the stability of the state.

There are no more questions at this time. I'd now like to turn the call over to Marty Lyons for closing remarks.

Well, again, thank you all for joining us today. I think you can tell, we're off to an exciting start here in 2026 as a company. I want to once again thank the entire Ameren team for all of their hard work, serving our customers, serving our communities and delivering the results that we've been able to deliver. And with that, for all of you that joined us today, please be safe, and we look forward to seeing many of you as we get out on the road in the months ahead. Thank you.

Greetings. Welcome to Ameren's Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Call.

[Operator Instructions] Please note, this conference is being recorded. At this time, I'll now turn the conference over to Andrew Kirk, Senior Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Modeling. Thank you. You may now begin.

Thank you, and good morning. On the call with me today are Marty Lyons, our Chairman, President, Chief Executive Officer; and Michael Moehn, our Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, along with other members of the Ameren Management Team.

This call contains time-sensitive data that is accurate only as of the date of today's live broadcast and redistribution of this broadcast is prohibited. We have posted a presentation on the amereninvestors.com homepage that will be referenced by our speakers.

As noted on Page 2 of the presentation, comments made during this conference call may contain statements about future expectations, plans, projections, financial performance and similar matters, which are commonly referred to as forward-looking statements. Please refer to the forward-looking statements section in the news release we issued yesterday as well as our SEC filings for more information about the various factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated.

Now here's Marty, who will start on Page 4.

Thanks, Andrew. Good morning, everyone. Before we get into the financials, I want to highlight the strategy that drives our actions and deliver strong long-term value for our customers, communities and shareholders. Pursuant to this strategy, we've been investing in the electric and natural gas infrastructure of Missouri and Illinois to harden it and make it more reliable, resilient and safer. And we've been adding new energy generation resources to meet the needs of our communities today and in the years to come. Because we are committed to providing a strong value proposition for our 2.5 million electric and 900,000 natural gas customers, we are also laser-focused on optimizing our operations to keep customer rates affordable.

As we look ahead, the region and communities we serve are poised for significant economic growth, bringing investment, jobs and tax revenue as well as necessitating incremental investment in utility infrastructure. To support this growth, we are actively engaging with stakeholders on economic development opportunities and to advance constructive regulatory frameworks designed to serve new large load customers and maintain just and reasonable rates for all customers. We're excited about the opportunities in front of us and believe the future is bright for Ameren and the communities we serve. Michael and I will dive into more details on the pages ahead.

Now let's turn to Page 5 for a summary of our third quarter results. Yesterday, we announced third quarter 2025 adjusted earnings of $2.17 per share compared to adjusted earnings of $1.87 per share in the third quarter of 2024. Our recent FERC order provided guidance on ratemaking for net operating loss carryforwards. And as a result, we recorded a tax benefit of $0.18 in the third quarter of 2025. Given the nature of the tax benefit, we have excluded it from our adjusted third quarter 2025 earnings.

The key drivers of our strong third quarter results are outlined on this page. As we move to Page 6, I'll cover how execution of our strategy has translated into tangible results for our stakeholders throughout this year. During the first 3 quarters of 2025, Ameren delivered on its commitments, deploying more than $3 billion in critical infrastructure upgrades for customers. For example, as part of our Ameren Missouri 2025 Smart Energy Plan, 11,300 electric distribution poles were replaced, 600 of which were upgraded to stronger composite poles. 300 smart switches were installed to reduce outages and speed restoration. 32 miles of subtransmission lines were hardened. 5 new or upgraded substations were energized and 55 miles of underground cable were replaced to strengthen system reliability.

In Illinois, our customers are benefiting from the replacement of more than 8,500 stronger electric distribution poles, 8 miles of coupled steel gas distribution pipelines and 13 miles of gas transmission pipelines for safety. Further, our transmission business placed in service 11 new or upgraded transmission substations and 40 miles of new or upgraded transmission lines to deliver energy more efficiently. These are just a few of the many projects completed through September.

We also continue to execute on Ameren Missouri's preferred resource plan. As you know, we updated this plan in February to reflect the growing energy needs of our customers and communities, including during extreme weather conditions. The plan calls for the addition of approximately 10 gigawatts of generation capacity by 2035, including 3.7 gigawatts of natural gas generation, 4.2 gigawatts of renewables and 1.4 gigawatts of battery storage. Through September, we've invested more than $825 million in new or existing generation resources and have requested CCNs from the Missouri Public Service Commission for 1.45 gigawatts of additional resources.

In 2025, we also made the decision to spend more on operating and maintenance by accelerating certain tree trimming and energy center maintenance activities. All of these efforts underscore our commitment to delivering reliable energy for the long term. And as you know, our electric rates remain below both national and Midwest averages, a testament to our unwavering focus on continuous improvement and affordability.

Now let's turn to Page 7. We have a long track record of strong and consistent earnings per share growth. As we look ahead, we expect this to continue. In February of this year, we updated our long-term earnings growth guidance, which included our expectation to grow earnings at a 6% to 8% compound annual rate from '25 through 2029 based off of our 2025 original guidance midpoint of $4.95. For 2025, we expect adjusted diluted earnings per share to be in the range of $4.90 to $5.10, up from our original guidance range of $4.85 to $5.05. We're well positioned to continue our long history of delivering above the midpoint of our original earnings guidance range.

For 2026, we now expect diluted earnings per share to be in the range of $5.25 to $5.45. And we expect consistent earnings growth near the upper end of our 6% to 8% EPS compound annual growth rate range in 2027 through 2029. Consistent with prior years, we plan to update our long-term earnings growth guidance on our fourth quarter call in February 2026, including our 5-year capital and financing plans, which will reflect, among other things, firmed up capital estimates related to Ameren Missouri's preferred resource plan.

Turning to Page 8. I'll provide an update on economic development activities in our region and associated sales growth expectations. We remain closely engaged with potential data center customers and are building a robust pipeline of large load opportunities that extend into the next decade. Data centers represent significant private investment opportunity for our states, bringing in thousands of jobs in fields such as construction, plumbing, electrical work and technology as well as substantial tax revenue.

As we discussed on our earnings call in August, data center developers continue to evaluate opportunities in Missouri, given the numerous desirable construction sites in our territory, available transmission capacity and our ability to deliver power when needed at competitive rates. As a result of this engagement, Ameren Missouri's executed construction agreements with data center developers have expanded to 3 gigawatts, up from the previous total of 2.3 gigawatts. The developers of the data center sites with construction agreements in place have now made nonrefundable payments to us totaling $38 million to cover the necessary transmission upgrades and which demonstrates their confidence in and commitment to the proposed projects.

We also continue to actively engage with potential data center customers to negotiate electric service agreements that are aligned with our proposed Missouri large load rate structure and, among other things, would establish anticipated minimum ramp schedules. I'll talk more about progress on that large load rate structure in a few minutes.

As outlined in Ameren Missouri's preferred resource plan, we expect 1 gigawatt of new load from data center customers by the end of 2029 and a total of 1.5 gigawatts of new data center demand by the end of 2032. To give you a sense of the proportions, 1 gigawatt of new data center load by 2029 would represent approximately 5.5% compound annual Missouri sales growth from 2025. In addition, we're seeing notable expansion in the region's defense and geospatial intelligence ecosystem which is stimulating growth across multiple sectors, including advanced manufacturing.

One such example is the opening of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's new nearly $2 billion campus in St. Louis this September. The campus, which employs more than 3,000 people, represents the largest federal investment in St. Louis' history. Private sector participation is also strong with companies like Scale AI choosing to locate their headquarters downtown. The presence in St. Louis of federal and private sector geospatial operations, including advanced mapping, satellite imagery and spatial analytics, strategically aligns with our region's strength in defense and defense tech industries.

Looking ahead, Boeing has begun construction of new facilities to build the F-47 fighter approved earlier this year. Production of the F-47 is scheduled to start in 2026. These developments further strengthen St. Louis' position as a national hub for innovation and strategic investment.

In Downstate Illinois, developers are also advancing data center projects with expected incremental energy demand totaling 850 megawatts. We have signed construction agreements with these developers and received payments to support the necessary transmission interconnections. Energy supply for these projects is expected to be provided through third-party supply agreements. We expect to provide an update on our Missouri and Illinois 5-year sales growth expectations in February.

Moving now to Page 9. We provide an update on generation resources currently in progress at Ameren Missouri. We have procured long lead time components such as turbines and transformers for our planned energy centers with expected in-service dates through 2029. And we have secured production slots for the 3 turbines for our combined cycle energy center expected to be in service in 2031, remaining on track to deliver the dispatchable resources called for in our preferred resource plan.

In August, we requested a certificate of convenience and necessity for the Reform Solar Energy Center, a planned 250-megawatt solar facility to be located adjacent to our existing Callaway Nuclear Energy Center. Generation projects with CCN requests pending before the Missouri Public Service Commission will support progress toward our goal of maintaining a balanced energy mix. We're targeting approximately 70% generation from on-demand resources and 30% from intermittent resources by 2040.

Ameren Missouri's planned generation portfolio is expected to provide an estimated $1.5 billion in customer savings from tax credits through 2029, of which approximately $270 million has been realized so far in 2025. Building, maintaining and operating a sufficient and optimal mix of energy centers to meet our customers' needs in an affordable manner is critical for our stakeholders, and I'm proud of the work our team is doing in those regards.

On Page 10, we outline Ameren Missouri's proposed large load rate structure, which was filed with the Missouri PSC in May and updated in surrebuttal testimony earlier this week. In accordance with Missouri State law, any future large load data center customers would be required to pay for cost to connect them to our system and for their share of ongoing cost of service. Under the proposed large load rate structure, we would deliver service under our existing large primary service base rate, which is currently approximately $0.06 per kilowatt hour, and customers would agree to additional terms and conditions as part of an electric service agreement.

The additional terms would include a service commitment of 12 years after ramp, a minimum demand charge of 80% of contracted capacity, exit provisions and credit and collateral requirements, all designed to protect existing customers. In addition, new customer programs would be available that would allow qualifying customers to advance their clean energy goals by supporting the carbon-free energy resource of their choice through incremental payments, which would help offset costs for other customers. This structure would offer a fair and competitive rate to large customers and maintain just and reasonable rates for all customers. While no deadline exists for Missouri PSC approval of our proposed large load rate structure, based on the existing procedural schedule, we would expect a decision by February of 2026.

Moving now to Page 11 for an update on the long-range transmission planning process at MISO. Our focus remains on building the LRTP Tranche 1 and Tranche 2.1 projects that were assigned to us and developing strong proposals for Tranche 2.1 competitive projects. We are carefully evaluating each bidding opportunity, and we'll submit bids for projects when we believe we offer a clear advantage on project design, cost and execution. As we have successfully done in the past, when it enhances the strength and competitiveness of our proposals, we expect to partner with other entities.

For example, in August, we submitted a joint proposal with 3 other partners on a Tranche 2.1 competitive project in Wisconsin. We expect MISO to select the developer for this project in early 2026. The bidding and selection process for the 4 remaining Tranche 2.1 competitive projects will continue to take place over the remainder of this year and next. As a reminder, we do not include investment related to competitive projects in our 5-year plan until projects have been awarded to us.

Further, MISO continues to analyze increasing energy demand and updated resource mix assumptions across the region as part of the futures redesign process. We expect this analysis will show the need for significant incremental transmission investments that would benefit the wider MISO region over time. MISO is expected to issue its report in early 2026.

Moving now to Page 12. Looking ahead over the next decade, our pipeline of investment opportunities continues to grow, standing today at more than $68 billion. We will provide further details in February as to the planned capital investments expected for the period of 2026 through 2030 and the associated financing plan. These investments will deliver significant value to all of our stakeholders by making our energy grid stronger, smarter and cleaner and by powering economic growth in our communities.

Turning to Page 13. In February, we updated our 5-year growth plan, which included our expectation of 6% to 8% compound annual earnings growth from 2025 through 2029. This earnings growth expectation is primarily driven by strong anticipated compound annual rate base growth of 9.2%, reflecting strategic allocation of infrastructure investment to strengthen the grid in each of our business segments and to build new energy resources to meet increased demand. We expect to deliver strong long-term earnings and dividend growth, resulting in an attractive total return. I'm confident in our ability to execute our investment plan and our broader strategy across all 4 of our business segments as we have a skilled and experienced team dedicated to achieving our growth objectives while keeping customers at the center of everything we do.

Now before turning the call over to Michael, I'd like to briefly share a leadership update. Effective January 1, Michael will assume the role of Group President of Ameren Utilities, overseeing the operations of each of our business segments. Michael is an experienced leader, bringing to this newly created position, deep financial and broad operational expertise, qualities that will continue to support our focus on delivering value for customers and shareholders.

When Michael transitions to this new role, Lenny Singh, currently Chairman and President of Ameren Illinois, will transition into the role of Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Lenny has nearly 35 years of utility leadership experience with substantial operational, regulatory and profit and loss responsibilities. These experiences will ensure we continue to practice financial discipline aligned with our regulatory frameworks and deliver value for our customers and shareholders. I'm pleased with the strength and alignment of our leadership team and believe these changes position us well for continued execution of our strategy and strong performance.

With that, I'll hand the call over to Michael.

Thanks, Marty, and good morning, everyone. Turning now to Page 15 of our presentation. Yesterday, we reported third quarter 2025 GAAP earnings of $2.35 per share, which included a tax benefit related to our Ameren Transmission segment. This tax benefit was recorded due to IRS guidance and a FERC order issued to another taxpayer regarding treatment of net operating loss carryforwards. Pursuant to this guidance, this quarter, we decreased income tax expense by $48 million or $0.18 per share. Excluding this benefit, third quarter 2025 adjusted earnings were $2.17 per share compared to adjusted earnings of $1.87 per share for the third quarter of 2024.

The key factors that drove the $0.30 increase in adjusted earnings per share are highlighted by segment on Page 16 and reflect the important investments we've made to strengthen the energy grid across our service territory. In addition to benefiting from new electric service rates in Missouri and warmer-than-normal weather in July, we continue to experience strong sales growth within Ameren Missouri's service territory. In fact, total normalized Ameren Missouri retail sales over the trailing 12 months through September increased across all customer classes with an overall increase of approximately 1.5%. Further, in light of the benefit from weather this year and to support stronger reliability, we've increased energy center and discretionary tree trimming expenditures, the latter in targeted areas to address vegetation growth near our power lines.

Moving to Page 17. Since 2013, we've delivered strong, consistent normalized adjusted earnings per share growth of greater than 7.5% compound annually. Yesterday, we increased our 2025 earnings per share guidance range of $4.90 to $5.10. The midpoint of the new range represents approximately 8% growth compared to both our original 2024 earnings guidance range midpoint and our 2024 results. Outlined on the page are select earnings considerations for the fourth quarter of 2025, which I encourage you to take into consideration as you develop your expectations for the balance of the year.

And moving to Page 18, we provide detail on our 2026 earnings per share expectations, which we also announced yesterday. We expect our 2026 earnings per share to be in the range of $5.25 to $5.45, the midpoint of which represents 8.2% growth compared to our original 2025 earnings guidance midpoint of $4.95. Expected 2026 earnings details by segment compared to our 2025 expectations are highlighted on this page. Robust planned infrastructure investment, strong expected sales and economic growth and strategic business process optimization opportunities give us confidence in our ability to grow earnings in 2026 and the years ahead.

Now turning to our financing plan on Page 19. To support our strong credit ratings and maintain our balance sheet while we fund our investment plan, in February, we outlined a plan to issue approximately $600 million of common equity each year through 2029. We have fulfilled our equity needs for 2025 and 2026 through forward sales agreements that we expect to physically settle near the end of these years. Having utilized most of the capacity available under our existing equity sales distribution agreement, in August, we increased the program capacity by $1.25 billion to enable additional sales to support equity needs in 2027 and beyond. And in September, Ameren Illinois issued $350 million of 5.625% first mortgage bonds due 2055, completing our planned debt issuances for this year. We feel great about our financial position and the progress we've made in our financing plan.

Turning to Page 20. I'll provide a brief update on ongoing regulatory proceedings in Illinois. Our Ameren Illinois natural gas distribution rate review is pending with the Illinois Commerce Commission, or ICC, and we expect a decision this month. As a reminder, we have requested $135 million annual base rate increase. In October, the Administrative Law Judge, or ALJ, recommended an annual base rate increase of $91 million based on a 9.93% return on equity and a 50% common equity ratio. The difference is primarily driven by allowed ROE, the common equity ratio and the treatment of other post-employment benefits. Following the ICC's decision, we expect rates to be effective in December.

Turning to Page 21. Our 2024 annual reconciliation proceeding under the electric multiyear rate plan continues to progress. In September, the ICC staff revised its reconciliation adjustment recommendation to a $47 million increase compared to our updated request of $60 million, with the variance primarily driven by treatment of other post-employment benefits. The ALJ recommendation and the reconciliation proceeding is expected later today. An ICC decision is expected by mid-December and rates reflecting the approved reconciliation adjustment will be effective by January 2026.

Turning now to Page 22. Our strong performance so far this year has positioned us well to continue executing our strategic plan, which will drive superior value for all of our stakeholders. We continue to expect strong earnings per share growth to be driven by robust rate base growth, disciplined cost management and a strong customer growth pipeline. Our strategy and team are well aligned and focused to ensure we capitalize on these opportunities for our customers and shareholders. We believe our growth will compare favorably with the growth of our peers. And further, Ameren shares continue to offer investors an attractive dividend. In total, we have an attractive total shareholder return story.

That concludes our prepared remarks. We now invite your questions.

Our first question is from the line of Jeremy Tonet with JPMorgan.

This is Diana Niles, actually on the call for Jeremy. So I was wondering with 3 gigawatts of signed data center construction agreements, would you foresee a need for future revisions to generation plans?

Yes, it's a great question. Yes, we're very excited to have expanded the data centers that we have subject to construction agreements. As you know, last quarter, we were at about 2.3 gigawatts, and now we're up to about 3 gigawatts. And I'll tell you, it's great because it gives us even greater confidence in the sales projections that we put forward earlier this year. You'll recall that embedded in the integrated resource plan was about 1 gigawatt of sales increase by 2029 out to 1.5 gig by 2032.

And as you can see on the slide that we presented in our materials, Slide 8, the current generation plans that we have in place would allow us to serve up to 2 gigawatts of increased sales out through 2032. So number one, the 3 gigawatts of construction agreements gives us greater confidence that we'll be able to achieve the sales growth expectations that we've got. And over time, we'll see what -- how these translate into actual ramp rates for the hyperscalers that would utilize these data centers.

So as you know, we're working to get a tariff across the finish line with the Missouri Public Service Commission. Then we'll sign energy services agreements with hyperscalers pursuant to that tariff. Those energy services agreements will lay out what the hyperscalers expect to be their minimum ramp rates over time. And with that, we'll see where we land within these projections that we show on Page 8. Now I will say that the current generation plans that we do have allow us to serve greater than 2 gigawatts beyond 2032. So we'll really have to see what those ramp rates look like over time and what that means for added generation capacity over time. But again, the current plans that we have in place, the current plans that we're executing for generation expansion, it would allow us to serve up to that 2 gigawatts by 2032.

Yes. The only thing I might add to that is that as we go through '26, as Marty indicated, we'll have another opportunity to look at this IRP. We'll have an IRP filing probably in the fall, around September '26. So that's something to keep an eye on as well.

The next question is from the line of Nick Campanella with Barclays.

Congrats to Michael and Lenny on the new roles. Yes, absolutely. So I just wanted to ask, you're delivering on an 8% year-over-year growth off of 25%. And I hear you on the communication upper half of the earnings range. But just given you've had some companies kind of moving out to 7% to 9%, what's your view on just what puts you lower in that 6% range now? And could that be up for kind of consideration as we look towards fourth quarter?

Nick, this is Marty. I'll start, and then Michael can certainly tag on. But you're right, the guidance we gave today, obviously, we're delivering earnings this year and projecting earnings next year that are in the top end of that range as we look to '27 to '29, continue to expect to be in the top end of that 6% to 8% earnings growth range. So we feel really good about the growth that we've been achieving and the growth that we project over the next several years.

I think as we look ahead, we've got some important things that will really solidify our plans. The most notable one we just talked about in response to the last question, which is really getting the tariff approved by the Missouri Public Service Commission and getting these energy services agreements signed with the hyperscalers and really getting some better firmness, if you will, to the ramp rates and to the sales projections that we see between now and 2030.

So when we roll around to February, obviously, we're going to update our sales growth expectations. We'll update our CapEx, our rate base growth expectations as well as our financing plans and update our growth guidance. So right now, I feel real good about the 6% to 8%, feel real good about delivering near the upper end of that growth range. And look, we won't constrain the growth. We're looking for economic development in all of the regions, the communities that we serve in Missouri and Illinois and certainly don't want to constrain that. And if that translates into greater investment opportunities and greater growth opportunities for us, certainly, we'll pivot with that.

Yes, not much to add there. I mean, as Marty said, I mean, you look at what we did here for '25, I mean, it's again, 8% off of '24. What we introduced for '26 is, again, 8.1% off of that $4.95 midpoint. And I think it's a fair question. As Marty said, we'll continue to evaluate it. I mean I think all of this is just consistent with the track record that we've had now for, what is it, 12, 13 years, 7.5% growth, and we'll continue to focus on delivering the upper half of that.

Understood. Not going to constrain the growth rate. All right. And then maybe just as we prepare for the fourth quarter update, maybe how are you framing balance sheet capacity to serve some of the load in CapEx? And just you've always kind of operated at an FFO level that is north of your peers. But I'm just curious, one, is the increased sales forecast a net benefit to cash flow and thus should equity needs to be lower? And then two, just any interest in using some balance sheet capacity relative to your minimums?

Yes, absolutely. And look, I mean, obviously, all the sales growth is accretive over time. I think we get -- you have to get these ramp schedules and get all that timing nailed down, but certainly look forward to that. And I think we've talked about these tax credits that we're flowing back to customers. There's a brief period of time where those are helpful as well.

But look, Nick, I mean, we start this from a position of strength, as you know. I mean, we're sitting at Baa1, BBB+. Moody's is really that threshold metric for us. It is a 17% downgrade threshold today. I mean we're operating above that here in '25. So we got good margin above that. We continue to guard this balance sheet. I mean we've been very disciplined about the equity that we needed over time and been very good about getting it out there. And again, as you know, we've taken care of all of our '25 and '26 needs.

We continue to have very constructive conversations with the rating agencies about sort of where that downgrade threshold will be. We'll see over time where those conversations continue to go. We have been leaning into the balance sheet, as you know, but it's a balancing act. But we do like our position where we are today and feel good about what we have, and we'll continue to give you the updates as we move into that February call.

The next question is from the line of Carly Davenport with Goldman Sachs.

Maybe on the data center front, just with the construction agreements now at the 3 gigawatt level, is there anything you can share on that delta just in terms of how many customers that change is attributed to? And then I think there previously was an indication on the slides that you expected the ramp to begin in late 2026. Has that view changed at all? Just curious how we should think about that.

Yes. Carly, we're really expecting the ramps to begin in 2027 at this point. So not so much in 2026. So as we've worked through this, a bit of delay there. But nothing discouraging overall as we talked about up to the 3 gigs of construction agreements. Carly, I don't have it in front of me, but I think that's one additional site. I mean these are big sites that folks are looking at.

I'll tell you that overall, when you look at the development pipeline we have, we talked about this last year, just still a large number of sites being looked at and data center developers, I'd say, at a minimum kicking the tires, we've got across the 2 states, about 36 gigawatts of economic development opportunities broadly, and it breaks down about half and half. So think about 18 gigawatts in each state, Illinois and Missouri. Now -- and about 80% to 90% of those are data centers, by the way. But -- and most of those are in the early stages of looking at the various sites.

But I will tell you in Missouri, in addition to the 3 gigawatts of signed construction agreements, there's another 2 gigawatts of considerations that are in, I'd say, advanced stages of discussion. So there are folks still looking very seriously at sites and considering entering into construction agreements there as well. Over in Illinois, by the way, I think I mentioned in the prepared remarks, we've got some construction agreements as well, about 850 megawatts of large load with construction agreements. So some good progress really in both states.

Did I answer all your questions, Carly? Or was there something else there?

No, that covered it. That's really helpful. And then maybe just a follow-up on Illinois, just with the Omnibus Energy bill passing over the last couple of weeks here. Just kind of curious your early views on any sort of implications for the business there.

Yes. Overall, we were neutral on Senate Bill 25 that passed in the veto session, although I think that I'd probably highlight 3 things, and there were a number of things in this bill that go beyond the 3 things I'd cite. But one of them was that it does call now for an integrated resource planning process to be done at the ICC. I think it's the first time that we've really had integrated resource planning in states since 1997. So I think that is a positive thing that the state is going to be looking at integrated resource planning holistically. And my expectation is sort of utility by utility region by region. But I think that's a good thing. And certainly, we'll look to engage there as the ICC gets that process underway in 2026.

The other thing, I think, driving this is that certainly, there's been concern as folks think about resource adequacy across the state and also want to be mindful of the clean energy goals that the state has. And so a couple of other things that I'd mention is that it does establish an energy storage procurement process across the state and also gives the Illinois Power Authority the ability to enter into long-term contracts for renewables. And all of those things are going to be subject -- they'll occur over time, and they'll all be subject to consumer protections that are built into the legislation. But again, processes that lawmakers believe over time will reduce the price of capacity and help to keep volatility and cost under control for customers as it relates to energy and capacity.

And then the third thing I'd mention is increased investment in energy efficiency, which is something we -- does involve us that we partake in. Over time, we'd expect our investment in energy efficiency on behalf of our customers to double to about $250 million a year. All of that would continue to be subject to treatment as a regulatory asset recovery over time with a return. I will tell you that the return there is being reduced down to the return that was granted as part of the multiyear rate plan. However, we have the opportunity to earn up to 200 basis points of incentives. And we believe with the spending that's called for as well as the metrics to be achieved that we have a very good opportunity to earn incentives that would be additive to that ROE. So those are the 3 things that I'd really call out. There were some other provisions to the bill, but those are the things I'd highlight.

The next question is from the line of Julien Dumoulin-Smith with Jefferies.

It's Brian Russo, on for Julian. Just a follow-up on the Clean and Grid Reliability Affordability Act in Illinois. Do you -- are there anything in that bill that could lead to incremental investments for the Ameren utilities, whether it's indirectly through transmission and distribution, maybe lesser so on the storage opportunities. Just wondering if you could provide more specifics there.

Yes. Brian, good question. I think the -- really, probably the biggest opportunity, if you will, is in that energy efficiency space where, again, we do treat that as a regulatory asset. So it does get sort of rate base treatment in there. We do expect the investments in energy efficiency, as I said a moment ago, to double over time to about $250 million a year. But I'd say that's the only notable thing from a real investment opportunity standpoint.

Okay. Understood. And then also on the last earnings call, you had mentioned existing data center customers requesting more studies to pursue possible expansions. And I think there was about 1.7 gigawatts of existing customer expansion cited in some of the large tariff testimony. That's incremental to the 3 gigawatts. Is that correct?

Yes, it is. I think that, again, with respect to the 3 gigawatts of construction agreements, we still don't know what the ramp rates are going to be with respect to the hyperscalers there. So again, some of that growth could be between now and, say, 2030 or it could be beyond. We'll just have to wait and see.

But again, to your question, and I said a few minutes ago, besides that 3 gigawatts of signed construction agreements, another -- we got another 2 gigawatts that are in very advanced stages of discussion in Missouri, which would bring it to 5 overall. And again, the overall sort of funnel, if you will, of data center opportunities is much more significant because, again, we're looking at about 18 gigawatts of overall economic development opportunities in the pipeline. So there's a lot of other sites for data center developers to consider and to pursue.

And as we talked about on the last call, the conversations with the hyperscalers are progressing very well with respect to the energy services agreements that would be pursuant to this tariff. And it's those hyperscalers that are also inquiring about these expansion opportunities that would be available to them after we sign these ESAs and serve their initial needs, they're certainly looking at expansion opportunities beyond that. And again, we've got plenty of sites in our part of Missouri to accommodate.

Our next question is from the line of Paul Patterson with Glenrock Associates.

It sounds to me -- and I apologize, I got slightly distracted when you were talking to Nick. But just to sort of summarize his question about the earnings, it sounds like you guys are sort of being conservative now. And when you guys refresh the numbers and everything, there's a potential for upside. Is that sort of a -- is that a good summary? Does that summary make sense or...

I would -- I'll start out. This is Marty. Paul, I think that there's certainly upside. We do agree with that. In terms of conservative, maybe we're always a bit conservative, but I think what we really try to do is be accurate with you in terms of our expectations based on sort of what we know today. And again, what our plan has been based on is, as it relates to sales growth, you look at that Page 8 and you look at that 1 gigawatt by 2029, 1.5 gigs by 2032, which is sort of the demand expectations that are at the heart of our preferred resource plan, those are also the sales expectations that we've got built into our plan.

But there's -- we still got to get the ESAs across the finish line. We've still got to get the ramp rates spelled out. But we also can serve, as we've talked about, as you see there, up to that 2 gigawatts by 2032, you see in the lighter green shape. And we've got construction agreements for up to 3 gigawatts of sites. So certainly upside in the plan. But again, I think what we're providing to you today is what we believe is sort of the best guidance given the facts that we've got today.

Michael?

Yes. And look, we are providing, obviously, quite a bit of clarity today. I mean I think the thing that's really missing is what Marty said, it's getting this large load tariff across the finish line, getting these ESA executed. And I think we can put a bit finer point in terms of the overall guidance. But we pointed to today is somewhere close to the upper end of that 6% to 8% off of this 26% that we just put out there at $535. So hopefully, that gives you a decent amount of visibility.

No, I think it does. And then with respect to the tax gain, it sounds to me like it might be related to -- you guys did mention it was related to, I guess, a FERC order. And I'm just wondering, without getting into great detail on it, is there a potential for any rate base change as a result of the IRS and the FERC order that you're referring to?

Yes, Paul, this is Michael. A small amount. I mean what you're effectively doing is taking some net operating losses and putting those -- setting those up as some tax assets. So you'll have some opportunity over time with a little bit of rate base. I wouldn't say that it's a material number. And again, that's really why we ended up excluding it from the GAAP earnings.

Okay. And then just with Carly's question on the legislation. I was just wondering, it does seem like there's -- the ROE change that you referenced seems like an improvement. Of course, there's some execution issues there. I was wondering like -- am I right in thinking that? I mean, like -- I mean, just -- it sounds like that could be kind of a boost potentially. Obviously, there's execution, but you guys have been executing pretty well. So any elaboration on that?

Yes. I'd go into it looking at it more as a neutral. I do think that there is some -- from an ROE perspective, I do think that over time, as I said before, there's opportunity for incremental investment. And you're absolutely right. We have a good track record of execution overall as a company, and we're going to look to execute well on these energy efficiency programs for the benefit of our customers. I think that's what is expected of us. And if we do that well, then we'll have the opportunity to earn the incentives that are in there. But you're right. I mean, we're -- there's some opportunity in there. I think about the overall ROE effect as being more neutral, some good investment opportunities. And certainly, we're going to try to maximize the impact for the benefit of our customers.

The next questions are from the line of David Paz with Wolfe Research.

Yes. Just a couple of quick questions and clarifications here. First, how should we think of the $5 billion increase in your 10-year capital plan pipeline as we sit here today, is that back-end loaded? Or could we see the bulk of that in the '26 to '30 update?

David, it's Michael. Yes. Look, we'll obviously give you some more visibility on that here in the February time frame. As you noted, I mean, there is a $5 billion increase there. I think Marty alluded to some of that -- I mean, I wouldn't say it's one thing. It's a number of things in terms of kind of firming up some of this generation, which you know is a bit back-end loaded. But there are other things in terms of just investing in the grid and continue to build out reliability and making sure that -- we're making investments that are benefiting customers, et cetera. I mean we have a massive service territory, 64,000 square miles, 1 million poles, thousands of substations, et cetera.

And so as we continue to go through time and look at those opportunities, those are all things that are being accretive to the capital plan. Technology is also an opportunity here. As we continue to invest in systems, those are also leading to some increases as well. So not one thing I can point to, but we'll certainly give you visibility on the years as we roll forward into February. But some great opportunities in terms of the overall pipeline.

Okay. And then just on the [Audio Gap]. Can you break that down by Missouri and Illinois?

David, you're back. We missed that question. Can you repeat it again? Sorry, we had a technical issue.

Sure. [Audio Gap] You gave a number that was in advanced discussions. Just can you break that down between Illinois and Missouri?

David, I'm going to try to answer the question. I think you're asking, but you may need to ask it again. You've cut out twice. I think you're talking about sort of advanced discussions on the data centers. And when I talked about the 2 gigawatts of discussions that were sort of advanced, those were in Missouri. So we've got 3 gigawatts of signed construction agreements, another 2 gigawatts in advanced stages of discussion.

If that didn't answer your question or you have more, why don't you repeat it again?

No, I think we're having a technical issue. Sorry about that. Noticing it elsewhere, too. But anyway, yes, that was the answer. It sounds like Missouri is the 2 gigawatts that were in advanced discussions. And then maybe just one quick one. Obviously, we've heard from some in the state of Missouri on new large load and affordability. Just maybe if you can elaborate on the regulatory and political engagement you have there and then touch on how those conversations might look in Illinois and your wires-only business.

Yes. So in Missouri, I would say the state is very supportive and encouraging of economic development and including data center development and data center attraction. And so the state certainly wants to realize those opportunities. Certainly, there are certain communities that have expressed concern around various things, water usage, noise, electricity rates and the like, things that have to be addressed as we go through the process of getting these data centers approved and built. And I think those concerns can and are being addressed.

And of course, these data center opportunities bring with them, as we said earlier, tremendous investment, a lot of jobs, especially in construction trades as well as tax base over time, taxes for communities over time. So a lot of good economic development benefits associated with these data center opportunities. Of course, I think a concern as it relates to utility rates over time is just making sure that these data center developers, the hyperscalers pay for the cost to serve them, the cost to connect them to the system, to make sure that over time, they're paying a cost of service that reflects the cost to serve them and that there's no detriment to the rest of the utility customers that we and other service providers are serving.

And that was actually one of the focuses of Senate Bill 4 earlier this year in Missouri, where, again, they embedded in that requirement that the Missouri Public Service Commission as they think about the tariff that would be approved to serve these to make sure that, again, there was reasonable assurance that the rest of the customers were not being harmed by these data centers.

And so David, when we filed our tariff with the commission, and again, we outlined the components of that on Slide 10. It was really designed to make sure that we were designing the tariff and charging the hyperscalers a rate, which would be in accordance with Senate Bill 4 and the provisions that I just talked about. And I think that's been a concern of some of our elected officials just making sure that we weren't providing the discounted rate, that we were providing a rate that held the rest of our customers harmless that there weren't costs included in rates for our existing customers that were associated with service to these large load customers.

So I think that's sort of the balance of concerns that are out there. But back to your point, overall, the state is very supportive and very desiring of these economic development opportunities. We're certainly working in concert with the state as well as economic development organizations across the state to bring the fruition in our service territory. And we're going to try to do this the right way, where we make sure that there are rewards that are brought to the communities that we serve in terms of the economic development opportunities and that from a rates perspective, these customers pay their fair share and the rest of our customers are not harmed by their usage.

Our final question is from the line of Stephen D'Ambrisis' with RBC Capital Markets.

Congrats to Marty and Lenny on the new roles -- Michael and Lenny, excuse me. Just really quickly on -- there's been some questions about Illinois legislation, but I thought given we'll probably see some bills get prefiled in December and Missouri, I was wondering if there's any legislative priorities that you guys are advancing or if there's anything we should be legislative topics that you think will be pertinent or come up kind of in the bill prefiling in December?

Yes. Nothing to comment on specifically, Steve. I mean, obviously, we've continued to improve the environment there. I appreciate what the legislature has done. I mean the commission continues to be very thoughtful and forward-looking. I mean, trying to find ways to provide the right incentive for investment, but at the same time, continue to balance that with customer impact.

So anything that would occur over the next couple of months, my sense is would be constructive and balanced, and we'll see what time brings. As you know, the prefiling is December 1. And so beyond that, it's probably a bit premature to get into the details.

This now concludes our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over to Marty Lyons for closing comments.

All right. Well, thanks to everybody who joined us this morning. A lot of great questions, a lot of great dialogue. As you can tell, we remain absolutely focused on strong execution of our plan, and we will continue to do that for the remainder of this year and into next as we work to really diligently serve our customers and deliver safe, reliable and affordable energy.

So again, thank you all for joining us. I'm sure we'll see many of you at the upcoming EEI Financial Conference. And with that, have a great day and a great weekend.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation. This does conclude today's teleconference. You may now disconnect your lines, and have a wonderful day.