DTE Energy Company (NYSE:DTE) Q3 2023 Earnings Conference Call November 1, 2023 9:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Barbara Tuckfield - Director, IR

Gerardo Norcia - Chairman & CEO

David Ruud - EVP & CFO

Conference Call Participants

Shahriar Pourreza - Guggenheim

David Arcaro - Morgan Stanley

Durgesh Chopra - Evercore ISI

Jeremy Tonet - JPMorgan

Julien Dumoulin-Smith - Bank of America

Anthony Crowdell - Mizuho

Andrew Weisel - Scotiabank

Steve Fleishman - Wolfe Research

Sophie Karp - KeyBanc

Travis Miller - Morningstar

Ryan Levine - Citi

Gregg Orrill - UBS

Operator

Good morning. My name is Emma and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the DTE Energy Third Quarter Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions]

Barbara Tuckfield, Director of Investor Relations. You may begin your conference.

Barbara Tuckfield

Thank you and good morning, everyone. Before we get started, I would like to remind you to read the safe harbor statement on Page 2 of the presentation, including the reference to forward-looking statements. Our presentation also includes references to operating earnings which is a non-GAAP financial measure. Please refer to the reconciliation of GAAP earnings to operating earnings provided in the appendix.

With us this morning are Jerry Norcia, Chairman and CEO; and Dave Ruud, Executive Vice President and CFO. And now I'll turn it over to Jerry to start the call this morning.

Gerardo Norcia

Thanks, Barb, and good morning, everyone and thanks for joining. I'll give a brief business update and Dave will provide a financial update before we take your questions.

Now let me start by emphasizing a few points, including my confidence in the company and our long-term opportunities. As you know, we have faced unprecedented headwinds this year. And these events have impacted our financial plan by $370 million. However, the combination of these headwinds is truly onetime in nature and the fundamentals of DTE remain strong. We have a solid record of achieving our financial targets and we know how to do so without sacrificing safety or reliability.

This year alone, we have offset $270 million of earnings headwinds from the unprecedented combination of storm activity, unfavorable weather and a low rate order driven by a difference in the sales forecast. The fact that we have been able to offset most of these challenges while maintaining service excellence is a clear proof point of our highly engaged team and commitment to operating excellence. DTE also benefits from strong cash flows and a solid balance sheet that support continued investments that will build the grid of the future and drive the clean energy transition. Our long-term growth plan is robust with numerous opportunities for these investments. And as I said, we have an incredible team of highly engaged employees who are committed to our customers and who know how to execute safely and efficiently.