Operator: Thank you for holding, and welcome to ALLIANT ENERGY's Q3 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all lines are in a listen-only mode. Today's conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to your host, Susan Gille, Investor Relations Manager at ALLIANT ENERGY. We are currently experiencing technical difficulties. Please pause for a brief hold.
Operator: We are experiencing technical difficulties and have placed the call on hold. Please stay on the line. The event will resume shortly.
Operator: Apologies for the inconvenience. We will now resume the broadcast.
Susan Gille: Good morning, and thank you for joining Alliant Energy's Q3 2026 Financial Results Conference Call. Joining me today are Lisa Barton, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Robert Durian, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Following their prepared remarks, we will have time to take questions from the investment community. Last night, we issued a news release announcing our Q3 2026 results, narrowed our 2026 full-year earnings guidance, initiated 2027 earnings guidance and dividend target, and provided our updated capital expenditure and financing plans through 2030. That release, along with our earnings presentation, will be referenced during today's call and is available on the investor section of our website at alliantenergy.com. Before we begin, please note that today's remarks and responses will include forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially.
Susan Gille: Those risks are described in last night's earnings release and in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We disclaim any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. In addition, this presentation contains references to ongoing earnings per share, which is a non-GAAP financial measure. Reconciliations to GAAP results are provided in the earnings release available on our website. At this point, I will turn the call over to Lisa.
Lisa Barton: Good morning, everyone. We are pleased to share strong Q3 and year-to-date results and measurable progress against our growth strategy. We have also updated our outlook for the remainder of this year and 2027, refreshed our capital expenditure and financing plan, and accelerated and extended our earnings growth expectation plans through 2030. Alliant Energy is experiencing extraordinary momentum, fueled by rising customer demand and economic development. As the communities we serve continue to grow and thrive, reliable, affordable energy is more essential than ever to their long-term success. We are operating from a position of strength, building on our consistent track record of growth and delivering dependable results our investors can count on.
Lisa Barton: That strength is rooted in the Alliant Energy advantage, constructive regulatory jurisdictions, flexible resource planning, practical and pragmatic leadership at the state and community levels, and an organization focused on unlocking the potential of our customers and communities, while keeping affordability at the forefront. Today's update shows how that advantage delivers dependable growth, benefits customers, and provides investment opportunities beyond our current plan. First, we have greater visibility into our growth outlook. Five data centers support our expectation for greater than 60% contracted demand growth by 2031. Three are actively under construction. Google is taking transmission service with a load ramp consistent with the accelerated schedule we filed with the Iowa Utilities Commission. QTS Cedar Rapids expects to complete the commissioning of their first two buildings later this quarter. In Wisconsin, Meta is taking distribution service with an expectation to take transmission service Q1 2027.
Lisa Barton: As a reminder, we proactively identify locations where large loads can interconnect without significant incremental transmission investment, supporting speed to power, helping customer affordability, reducing execution risk, and strengthening our competitive position. We have maintained a high bar for including new opportunities in our financial outlook. A signed electric service agreement remains important, but we also require clear visibility into land, transmission, generation, and going forward, we are also including local permitting as part of the higher bar. As large load projects have increased in scale and complexity, we are raising the bar, not just on what we include in our disclosures, but on the rigor behind it. Our objective is not to present the biggest number, but to provide investors with the greatest confidence in the executability of our growth.
Lisa Barton: That disciplined approach in determining when to include projects in our CapEx plan is what we mean by dependable growth investors can count on. In the first quarter, we announced an executed electric service agreement of new demand. We are pleased to share that the agreement supports Google's expansion at its Cedar Rapids, Iowa site. That opportunity has now met our planning threshold and is one of the projects supporting our refreshed resource plan. We are also seeing progress across a diversified set of load opportunities beyond large data centers, including edge data centers and manufacturing expansion in Wisconsin and Iowa. Based on our discussions with Mesabi Metallics, the company expects to locate its plant in our service territory in Lee County. As is consistent with this industry, a significant portion of its load is anticipated to be curtailable.
Lisa Barton: Consistent with our approach to grow at the pace of our customers, we align our capacity resources with customers' non-curtailable needs. Mesabi's initial capacity needs are reflected in our refreshed plan. Any future phases of this project would require additional resources. Second, our growth is translating directly into infrastructure investment and earnings growth. Our refreshed capital investment plan through 2030 is 19% higher than last year's plan. The diversified plan includes natural gas generation, renewables, energy storage, and grid investments that strengthen reliability and position our system for growing customer demand. This increases our expected investment growth rate to 13% and supports an acceleration of our long-term earnings growth rate to 8% plus from 2027 through 2030. Just as importantly, customers benefit from how we structure this growth. Our commitments are clear. Existing customers should benefit from large load growth, not subsidize it.
Lisa Barton: Large load customers will pay the full cost of serving them and their share of the system investments they require. In Iowa, we are pleased to announce a one-year extension of IPL's retail electric base rate stability plan through the end of 2030, giving customers another year of greater certainty about this portion of their electric bill. At the same time, we expect to continue investing in our business and earning our authorized returns throughout this period. This extension is a tangible, best-in-class example of driving affordability and demonstrates that base rate stability, continued investment, and financial performance can advance together. In Wisconsin, economic development creates an opportunity to spread fixed system costs across a broader customer base, and our recently filed large load tariff establishes a consistent and transparent framework for future customers.
Lisa Barton: In addition to advancing Iowa's electric base rate stability with the one-year extension, our financing strategy directly supports affordability in both Iowa and Wisconsin. Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Energy announced it had closed on a $5.1 billion guaranteed loan program with Alliant Energy. Over the life of the 30-year loans, when fully funded, we estimate up to $1.2 billion of cumulative customer savings when compared to traditional debt financing. This federally backed financing helps lower the cost of building generation and critical energy infrastructure our customers depend on while strengthening the grid. Finally, our pipeline extends well beyond our current plan. To date, we have three sites which total 3.4 gigawatts of load growth. Across our service territory, we are focused on turning prospects into projects.
Lisa Barton: We expect this work to produce approximately one additional gigawatt of contracted large load within the next six months, creating meaningful upside to our current capital plan. Consistent with our commitment to raise the bar, we would update our CapEx plan accordingly. Taken together, these updates demonstrate the Alliant Energy advantage in action, the ability to convert economic development into durable growth while driving affordability, strengthening reliability, and earning our authorized returns. Before I turn the call over to Robert, I want to recognize our employees, from our field teams responding to storms and maintaining our diverse generation fleet, to those advancing critical projects and supporting customers. Their skill, dedication, and care drives our progress. I am proud of this team and grateful for all they do. We have built strong momentum.
Lisa Barton: We have greater visibility into our long-term growth, and we remain focused on disciplined execution our investors and customers can count on. I'll now turn the call over to Robert.
Robert Durian: Thank you, Lisa, and good morning, everyone. Yesterday, we reported Q3 2026 GAAP earnings of $1.52 per share. Our Q3 and year-to-date ongoing earnings demonstrate the strong financial and operational progress our teams have delivered across the business.
Robert Durian: As shown on slide 8, the year-over-year Q3 increase in ongoing earnings reflects the consistent execution of our strategy, primarily driven by higher revenue requirements in AFUDC associated with capital investments across our Iowa and Wisconsin utilities, timing of income tax expense, which will reverse in the Q4 and have no impact on full-year results, higher equity earnings from our corporate venture fund investments, $0.05 per share impact on electric margins from above normal summer temperatures this year compared to $0.03 per share in the same period last year, and higher temperature normalized retail electric sales, reflecting continued commercial and industrial strength, particularly in Wisconsin, and early contributions from ramping data center loads in Iowa.
Robert Durian: These positive drivers were partially offset by the expected costs of supporting our growth, including higher other operations and maintenance expenses related to the growth of our business and expanded generation fleet, and higher financing and depreciation costs associated with our growing rate base. Based on our strong performance through the first 9 months and improved visibility into the Q4, we are narrowing our 2026 full-year ongoing earnings guidance to the top half of our original guidance range, which is $3.41 to $3.46 per share. Yesterday, we announced our 2027 earnings guidance range and dividend target, as shown on slide 9. Together, they reinforce our confidence in continuing to deliver an attractive total shareholder return, which is projected to be greater than 11% per year over the 2027 to 2030 planning period.
Robert Durian: Our 2027 full-year ongoing earnings guidance of $3.63 to $3.73 per share represents 8% growth over the midpoint of our original 2026 earnings guidance. Our 2027 annual common stock dividend target is $2.25 per share, a 5% increase over our 2026 annual dividend target. We are moderating the pace of dividend growth to help fund our larger capital plan efficiently. We will continue to target a payout ratio of 60% to 70% and expect to operate near the lower end of that range during this period of elevated investment opportunity. As shown on slide 10, the strength of our progress supports an increase in our long-term earnings growth expectations.
Robert Durian: We raised our long-term annual earnings growth target to 6% to 8% plus, and increased and extended our expectations to 8% plus from 2027 through 2030, reflecting our confidence in the durability of our large load opportunities driving our investment growth, the revenue and cash flow contributions from data centers ramping into the plan, and our continued operational excellence. As shown on slides 11 and 12, our refreshed capital investment plan for 2027 through 2030 totals $15.9 billion, a 19% increase above our prior four-year plan. This translates to a 13% compounded annual growth rate in rate base plus construction work in progress, up from 12% last year.
Robert Durian: The incremental investments from last year supporting this growth include 1.2 gigawatts of additional natural gas combustion turbines to meet growing customer energy demand, and an additional 200 megawatts of energy storage to support system resiliency and integration of new load growth. The difference between the projected 13% CAGR and our earnings growth target through 2030 of 8% plus primarily reflects approximately 375 basis points of estimated dilution from equity issuances and approximately 50 basis points of estimated dilution from refinancing maturing non-utility and parent debt. Our capital plan takes a disciplined approach to investing in customer-focused infrastructure, including natural gas generation, renewables, energy storage, and electric and gas distribution. We remain confident in our ability to execute this diversified plan responsibly. Our expectation to convert additional large load growth to incremental capital expenditures in the plan creates substantial further investment upside.
Robert Durian: We will incorporate those opportunities into future capital plan updates as projects satisfy our criteria for inclusion. To fund this larger capital plan, we have developed an efficient and disciplined financing strategy through 2030, summarized on slide 13. This financing plan maintains a strong balance sheet throughout the planning period. Our execution to date gives us confidence that we can finance this growth while maintaining financial flexibility and protecting customer value.
Robert Durian: This increasingly efficient financing mix is supported by a combination of growing cash from operations as data center loads ramp in accordance with contract terms, continued strong execution of our tax credit monetization program with approximately $2 billion of tax credits expected over the planning period, benefits from the U.S. Department of Energy's recent commitments of approximately $5 billion, which provides lower-cost, long-dated, and flexible financing and reduces costs for customers, hybrid financing instruments that provide equity credits at a lower after-tax cost than common equity, and disciplined common equity issuances. Equity funding represents approximately 40% of our incremental capital expenditures, at the low end of our previously stated range of 40% to 50%. Our proactive execution of equity has already secured approximately $1.1 billion of the $2.7 billion of common equity in the updated four-year financing plan through forward equity agreements.
Robert Durian: This effectively addresses our expected equity needs through the first half of 2028 and provides meaningful flexibility as we continue to grow. We are confident with our ability to execute the remaining equity requirements over the planning period, with settlements weighted toward the next several years and moderating thereafter. We expect to continue using ATM programs while retaining the flexibility to act opportunistically when market conditions are favorable. Turning to slide 14, we have outlined our remaining debt financing activity for 2026, along with our plans for 2027. For the remainder of 2026, we expect to complete up to $200 million of additional long-term debt at IPL and up to $300 million at WPL.
Robert Durian: Looking ahead to 2027, we expect to issue up to $2.8 billion of long-term debt, including up to $1 billion at Alliant Energy Finance, or the parent, up to $1.3 billion at IPL, and up to $500 million at WPL. Across both years, we anticipate financing at our two utilities to include funding through the recently approved U.S. Department of Energy loan program. Finally, I'll provide an update on the regulatory initiatives shown on slides 15 and 16, along with our planned future filings. We continue to advance this work with transparent and constructive engagement in both states. We recently filed a large load tariff in Wisconsin and an ICR application for a second Google project in Cedar Rapids, and expect decisions back on both in the first half of 2027.
Robert Durian: Looking ahead to our planned regulatory filings, in conjunction with our updated capital expenditure plan, we expect to make additional regulatory filings for energy resources that enhance reliability, further diversify our portfolio, and meet growing customer energy needs. We expect to file an individual customer rate application for the QTS Clinton Data Center in the first half of 2027, and in the spring, we expect to file the next Wisconsin Retail Electric and Gas Base Rate Review for forward test years 2028 and 2029. We are proud of the progress reflected in these results. Our teams are executing with discipline, our financing strategy is well-positioned, and the opportunities ahead reinforce our confidence in delivering the strategy. I will now turn the call back to Lisa.
Lisa Barton: Thank you, Robert. Today's update demonstrates the Alliant Energy advantage, disciplined execution, accelerating growth, and greater value for our customers and share owners. Our team's strong execution positions us to deliver, and we are excited about the opportunities ahead. We look forward to sharing our progress and speaking with many of you at the EEI Financial Conference. I'll now turn the call back to the operator for Q&A.
Operator: Thank you. At this time, the company will open up the call to questions from members of the investment community. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Nicholas Campanella with Barclays. Nicholas, your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Nicholas Campanella: Hey, good morning. Thanks for all the updates. Appreciate the time.
Lisa Barton: Good morning.
Nicholas Campanella: Hey. I just wanted to confirm, thanks for the new growth rate outlook and clear acceleration of rate base and load here. Is 2027 kind of the new base to grow 8%+ off of? Then, just taking into account the dilution, how are you framing the plus? Can you be above 9% in this plan? Thanks.
Robert Durian: Yeah, sure, Nicholas Campanella. You could either take the midpoint of the original guidance for 2026, which is 341, or the new guidance for 2027 of 368, and build it off of either one of those base amounts. Then for your second question regarding the plus sign, think of the plus sign as representing earnings growth of at least 8% each year over the 2027 through 2030 planning period. We will probably see some periods of higher earnings growth than that minimum 8%, and think of that as usually in line with years where we have some higher capital expenditures.
Nicholas Campanella: Okay. Thank you for that. Then maybe just, sounds like on the additional sites that you are working on right now, you are being very scrutinous in terms of having the local permitting, land control, the transmission studies. How would you kind of compare the 2 to 4 GW in advance versus the 10 sites that you are in active discussion with? What does the 10 sites equate to in a gigawatt number? Thanks.
Lisa Barton: Yeah, so we are not specifically labeling each of these sites. The way to really think about it, each site is a little bit unique. I will say this, it is a minimum of several hundred megawatts, going up higher than that. The size does vary. Really what we were trying to do here is make sure that what we are giving you is growth that you can count on. We have always made sure that our developers have the line of sight with respect to land, that they have land control, that they are not speculative. We want to make sure that we have an appreciation for the load ramp. That helps with making sure we can work with both ATC and ITC on getting the transmission access that they need, and our ability on the generation side.
Lisa Barton: We have an extreme level of confidence in our ability to secure the generation that we need. I think what you are seeing is that with respect to timing, these data centers are really engaging with the communities, and we are really pleased with that. There is a greater level of transparency. That has always been at the national level, the pushback that you have heard. This level of engagement is really getting communities to understand and appreciate the value of these data centers. I will give you a little bit of an example here in Clinton. So, QTS, for example, has been really talking about the property tax benefits, and that is in that $20 to possibly $60 million a year range. As a point of reference, the second-largest company in terms of a property tax contribution is about $5 million a year.
Lisa Barton: So, taking that time to invest in these dialogues is important. What we will be doing is, if there is an ESA, that is signed, we will update that on a quarterly basis. But the load and the CapEx is something that we would update at either EEI or AGA. Quite frankly, with the future that we see, we would be disappointed if we did not have another gigawatt in the next six months. With that, we would be disappointed if we were not updating our CapEx at AGA.
Nicholas Campanella: That is very clear. Appreciate that. Just to clarify, the 10 is on top of the 2.4 gigawatts? Or it is partially reflected in that?
Lisa Barton: Put it this way. From the three sites that we currently have, there is 3.4 gigawatts worth of data centers that have committed to those existing three sites. There is additional growth opportunities within those sites. Then think about it, there is another seven more. It has been one of those questions that people want to
Nicholas Campanella: Thank you very much. Okay.
Lisa Barton: to answer it. Mm-hmm.
Nicholas Campanella: Thank you for.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Rini Singh with Bank of America. Rini, your line is now open.
Rinny Singh: Good morning, guys. Thanks for the update. Thanks for taking the question. I guess first, you mentioned the 1 gigawatt in 6 months. I guess, how are you thinking about for that next gigawatt, the capital intensity to serve that, just given MISO accreditation changes and then the generation you announced with the previous ESA in Q1? And how do you think about the timing of that in terms of, does it require the capacity in parallel, or does that kind of depend on the curtailability?
Robert Durian: Yeah, we think of the capacity requirements of this. We always try and line up the generation capacity with the load ramps to be consistent with ensuring that we have the capacity ready to go and we have the cash flows lined up for when we end the construction cycle with the load ramp. So what we tried to signal to folks is, think of our CapEx plan updates will largely be for every gigawatt of additional load, you're probably going to see somewhere in the neighborhood of $2 billion to $3 billion of additional CapEx. And again, that's largely because we're focused only on the capacity resources needed to serve these customers. We may have further opportunities in the future to be able to provide energy resources, but think of that as kind of upside further out in the plan than what we're targeting right here.
Rinny Singh: Okay. Thanks, Robert. Then just on the large load tariff in Wisconsin, how should we think about the proposal there and the economic benefits to existing customers and potentially differences to the previous ICR filings or similarities?
Lisa Barton: It really complements the previous ICR filings, and what it does is it puts that umbrella around it, consistent with what the commission was looking for. So, in essence, it just provides that level of clarity. But we do not expect any differences. We do not have to wait for approval by the commission. The commission was very clear with us that if we have another data center, to continue to move forward with that and to notify them of those provisions, those ICR provisions.
Rinny Singh: Okay, perfect. Thanks so much, Lisa.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Julien Dumoulin-Smith from Jefferies. Julien, your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Julien Dumoulin-Smith: Hey, good morning, team. Thank you guys very much. Appreciate the time, and nicely done as always. I have to hand it to you. Maybe picking it up on just the offense side of this equation, right? You talk about an incremental customer announcement here. How do you think about that translating to rate case stay-outs, maybe in Iowa beyond this 2030 timeline? Again, to the extent to which this would be incremental savings. Then related, how do you think about the pathway for data center load to enable maybe parallel Wisconsin stay-outs here? Maybe any further related commentary about Crowley and some of the moratorium commentary of late, if there is anything that you care to share as of yet?
Lisa Barton: Hey, you got quite a few number of questions sitting there, Julien. I applaud you on that. First of all, we are super excited to be able to announce the extension of our rate stability plan that we have in Iowa. I think that that has really demonstrated the attractiveness of the jurisdiction for other economic development. As you alluded to, we have Mesabi, which we are very, very excited about that. Raja and I had an opportunity to go and tour their state-of-the-art mine in Minnesota, and just great progress on that. What I will say about Mesabi is that we have firm demand to secure their initial phase of growth in the plan that we have announced. To the extent that they make further investments, we would be updating our capacity needs. As I mentioned in my talking points, we are focused on their non-curtailable.
Lisa Barton: This is a type of load that is very curtailable. That is just the nature of the sector. What we are going to make sure that we are doing is building to support their non-curtailable capacity needs. In terms of what the outlook is, and what we will do on a constant basis is look to calculate what we can expect in terms of a continuation of the stay-out. We certainly never want to be in a situation where we overpromise and underdeliver, so as we continue through the timeline, we will be evaluating that at EEI and so forth. With respect to Wisconsin, our rate review proceeding will be next year, early next year. We continue to see that data center growth really helps to drive affordability, taking those fixed costs and spreading it out over a broader base.
Lisa Barton: There was a recent CSI paper that was issued in Iowa that just cited those benefits, so we look forward to having those discussions with whoever actually moves forward with the commission. We have always had practical and pragmatic leadership at the state level. While we continue to feel that when we show everyone the facts behind the numbers, that the support for data centers will be there. It really speaks for itself. I do think that that is what sets us apart. We have best-in-class solutions for affordability. Where else can you have 0% rate increases in this country?
Julien Dumoulin-Smith: Indeed. No, it does speak to it. If I can follow up a little bit on the other side of the ledger here, on the cost side, is this more of a structural thing or more of a pull-forward on the O&M, just with the move to the 5%? Then a second embedded one, how do you think about de-risking the procurement and EPC side? You guys are always thoughtful. We're seeing some peers of yours move in new and novel ways. How do you think about just that side of the equation as you announce this uptick here?
Robert Durian: Yeah, Julien, first off, with the O&M expenses, think of that as we're very focused on ensuring that we have strong reliability for our customers, so we're investing more money in the energy delivery side of the business, and also in the generation side of the business. We know how important the generation facilities are to meeting the capacity requirements and the growing demand of our customers, so we're investing more money, as you can imagine, as we're building more generation. Those costs are going to continue to increase because we have more facilities to be able to maintain. From a pull-forward perspective, not significant amounts. We've actually had, I would say, fairly neutral overall temperatures to date for the year, and so we're just managing the business based on our original projections for the year.
Lisa Barton: Julien, to your question with respect to how we're managing from a CapEx standpoint, obviously, it's not our first rodeo. We've been doing this for a long time successfully. We build in contingencies into our projects, and we're very aware of the market conditions where we're building these facilities, so that's all tied together. High level of confidence in our ability to execute.
Julien Dumoulin-Smith: Got it. Just one quick clarification here. 2026 to 2027 base, or it's slightly different outcomes. It doesn't matter. You can read either way?
Robert Durian: Yeah.
Julien Dumoulin-Smith: To clarify Matt's question earlier.
Robert Durian: Yeah, you are right, Julien. The math works the same. Either 341 off of 2026 or 368 off of 2027, you will get to the same point.
Julien Dumoulin-Smith: Okay. Awesome. Thank you, guys.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Paul Fremont with Ladenburg Thalmann. Paul, your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Paul Fremont: Thanks. I guess my first question is Mesabi included now in the 2 to 4 gigawatts in advanced discussion, and are they also a part of the 1 gigawatt that is likely in the next 6 months?
Lisa Barton: So the 2 to 4 that we have talked about, and it continues to be data center growth. Mesabi is not included in that.
Paul Fremont: That would be-
Lisa Barton: It is not in the additional-
Paul Fremont: Oh, sorry.
Lisa Barton: Yeah, sorry. It is not included in what we anticipate for the additional gigawatt.
Paul Fremont: Great.
Lisa Barton: That gigawatt is for data centers.
Paul Fremont: Are you able to put sort of a capacity size amount to a potential Mesabi demand?
Lisa Barton: So not at this time. When you think about, we've had active conversations with them. It is ultimately their call and their decision on when to talk about the size of that plant, so that's very consistent with what we do with all of our other customers. But again, we do have the firm demand, their non-curtailable factored into our plan for their first phase.
Paul Fremont: Right. Then, should we assume that you've added 400 megawatts to the 2 to 4? Because in the past, that 2 to 4 included Google too.
Robert Durian: No, think of that was part of the 400 megawatts that we announced earlier this year. It was part of the 2 to 4. So that would not be-
Paul Fremont: So it's really 1. So it's like 1.6 to 2.6?
Robert Durian: 3.6.
Paul Fremont: Or 3.6. Yeah. Okay. I think that's it for me. Thank you very much.
Lisa Barton: Thanks, Paul.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Anthony Crowdell with Mizuho. Anthony, your line is now open.
Anthony Crowdell: Hey, good morning, team. Appreciate the update. Just two quick ones. I guess, for Iowa, the ability to earn your authorized ROE through the rate freeze, I guess, in the rate freeze through 2030, can you talk to us how much depends maybe on tax credits or flexing O&M, and how much cushion do you have if you start to see O&M or depreciation run a little ahead of plan?
Robert Durian: Yeah, good question, Anthony. Think of it as when you look at the capital expenditure plan that we've announced here as far as the refresh plan, there's about 1.2 gigawatts of energy storage built into the plan. Think of that as driving a pretty significant amount of tax credit for us. It gives us a high level of confidence to be able to navigate the plan and any modifications we might see to either sales or O&M expenses or other costs through the 2030 period. That's what gave us the confidence to be able to extend it out to that time period.
Anthony Crowdell: Got it. Then I think Nick had asked this question earlier. The 2027 midpoint of $3.68 is about 7% above the narrowed midpoint of 2026. I guess what has to change if I think about 2028 to 2030? What has to change in that to get to the 8%+? Is it data center load ramp, or is it rate-based growth, or what's changing it now? I pivot from 7% to 8%+ in two to three years.
Robert Durian: Yeah, Anthony, the way we think about it is we're starting from the midpoint of the original guidance for 2026. That was the $3.41, and if you build 8% off of that equals roughly the $3.68 that you're referencing from the 2027 time period. Think of the biggest driver as to how high we may get into the earnings growth is largely dependent upon the capital expenditure plans. We've obviously updated the refresh plan to show the $15.9 billion that we now have over four years, and we continue to work on what I'll call capital upside for different opportunities, including the additional load growth that we may see from the data center prospects that we have. Then we've got some additional things that we're pursuing, like wind repowering and other things that might be additions to the plan.
Robert Durian: If you watch the CapEx, that should be a good indicator as to where we're going to be in the growth rate going forward.
Anthony Crowdell: Great. That is all I had. I will see you guys at EEI.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Weisel with Scotiabank. Andrew, your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Andrew Weisel: Hi. Good morning, everyone. Hi. I will throw in a congrats to the Brewers. I know you are not serving Milwaukee, but it is a source of statewide pride.
Lisa Barton: No, we were all watching.
Andrew Weisel: A lot of info today. Congrats on some good updates, but a couple things I wanted to clarify. First, on the CAGR, you have two figures out there. It sounds like you are very clearly guiding to 8% or better. So what exactly does this 6% to 8% refer to? Where would it be less than 8%?
Robert Durian: Yeah, think of that as a much longer term CAGR for us, but we have great visibility to the 8%+ from the 2027 through 2030 time period. Our vantage point is we are going to continue to work on trying to extend that and hopefully increase that over time as we continue to build in what I would call future waves of upside capital to the plan. So I would focus more on the 8%+ right now from the 2027 through 2030 time period, and then we will continue to update you guys as we get further along with the upsides that we have, largely related to the load growth that we are pursuing right now.
Andrew Weisel: So it is like 2031 and beyond is 6% to 8%, but you are going to work on making that more 8%+ continued? Is that the way to think of it?
Robert Durian: That is a great way to think about it. But have a pretty high level of confidence that we are going to be able to keep that more 8%+ going into the future.
Andrew Weisel: Okay, great. Thank you. Then on equity, the change in equity you show as 40% financing of incremental CapEx, but the new outlook is $2.7 billion compared to the old outlook of $2.4 billion. That is only an increase of $300 million versus $2.5 billion of CapEx. That is about 12%. It is a great thing to have less equity than 40%, but help me bridge that gap.
Robert Durian: Sure, Andrew. Think of there is about $600 million or $700 million that we are going to actually execute here before the end of the year. So we have built that into the plan. So when you add that $700 million to the $2.7 billion that is going to happen from 2027 to 2030, you actually get up to $3.4 billion of future equity. So it is just a matter of the timing difference between the base year you are starting with. If you start with 2026, it is actually $3.4 billion.
Andrew Weisel: Got it. Okay, so there is a lot still coming before year-end. Okay. Then one last one on the IPL stay-out. The additional year, it sounds like you are pointing to tax credits. Are those coming in better than you expected, or is the additional year more a function of the DOE loan savings or better underlying demand trends, or is it all of the above? You keep pointing to the tax credits, but I thought those were kind of well understood and expected.
Robert Durian: Yeah, great question. So think of it in a couple different things that we are seeing as far as benefits more recently. One is we continue to layer in more energy storage. So we added another couple hundred megawatts of energy storage to the most recent capital expenditure plan.
Robert Durian: The other thing is I am really proud of the team. They are really focused on trying to figure out how they can maximize the tax credits. So most often with a battery storage project, you will get a 30% baseline ITC, but then you do have the opportunity, if you locate those into certain energy communities, you can get an additional 10% credit. Then more recently, we have been focused on trying to figure out if we can get to domestic content. So if we can source enough of the equipment for the projects from domestic sources, you get an additional 10%.
Robert Durian: And so you can get anywhere from 30% to 50%, and we see a better pathway to be able to get to those higher percentages for some of the more recent projects that we put into the plan. So we are pretty excited and pretty proud of the team focused on that because we know how it is going to help our customers in the future.
Andrew Weisel: Okay, that all sounds very positive. Thank you so much.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Aditya Gandhi with Wolfe Research. Aditya, your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Aditya Gandhi: Hi. Good morning, Lisa and Robert. Thank you for taking my questions. Robert, I wanted to go back to the 1 gigawatt equals to $2 billion to $3 billion of CapEx rule of thumb that you gave us, and tie that a little bit into the 1 gigawatt that you will expect to contract in the next six months. Can you give some color on how much of that we should expect within the current planning period versus after the current planning period? And is 40% a good rule of thumb for thinking about the equity content for the additional CapEx?
Robert Durian: Yeah, great question. When you think about that next gigawatt of load, the ramp rate from that is actually going to start more in that 2029, 2030 timeframe. We really are targeting most likely to have the capacity resources available for that later in the plan. Think of that as more in the maybe 2030, 2031 timeframe when it comes to gas generation. You will see a mix. Some of it will be in the 2027 to 2030 timeframe, but there will also be some of that CapEx that will actually be in the 2031 and beyond timeframe. It is a little bit of a mix of both.
Robert Durian: To your second question, yeah, we have talked in my prepared remarks about the impact of equity dilution on the incremental capital expenditures and the growth rate of the investment CAGR. The difference between that and the growth rate, the key drivers there, like I said, were equity dilution as well as the refinancing dilution. I think one thing that is really important for you guys to understand is, as we look further out into the future, we actually think going forward, the investment, the incremental CapEx that we have is actually going to be funded with a relatively lower level of new common equity than our previous guidance of 40% to 50%. We will update that more when we provide future updates as far as incremental CapEx, but you should probably expect us to do better than that 40% to 50% in the future.
Lisa Barton: Aditya, one of the things that I would point out is that, as I mentioned, we would be disappointed if we were not at AGA updating our CapEx plan. What you would see there would be the resource plan associated with serving load. Keep in mind, we are always looking at this on a portfolio basis, so certainly stay tuned.
Aditya Gandhi: That is super helpful. Thank you. Just to clarify, Robert, the equity would be lower than the 40% to 50% just because of higher cash flow from the data centers as you get to the out years of your current plan and beyond that?
Robert Durian: Yeah, exactly. So, when you think about the ramping of the load growth, obviously the cash flows are going to ramp with that as well. So, we peak out in that 2031 timeframe with the current load that we've got in the plan. As we layer additional load in there, we see some stronger cash flows in the latter part of the plan, and that is what gives us the confidence that we may not need as much incremental new common equity with the incremental CapEx that we will layer in in the future.
Aditya Gandhi: Great. That is all I have. Thank you.
Operator: Ms. Gille, there are no further questions at this time.
Susan Gille: With no more questions, this concludes Alliant Energy's Q3 2026 earnings call. A replay will be available on our investor website. Thank you for your continued support of Alliant Energy, and please feel free to contact me with any follow-up questions.
Operator: This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.
