Evergy - Q2 2023
August 4, 2023
Transcript
Operator (participant)
Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q2 2023 Evergy Inc. Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Pete Flynn, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Pete Flynn (Director of Investor Relations)
Thank you, Gigi. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Evergy's Q2 2023 earnings conference call. Our webcast slides and supplemental financial information are available on our investor relations website at investors.evergy.com. Slide 2, the disclosures in our SEC filings contain a list of some of the factors that could cause future results to differ materially from our expectations. They also include additional information on our non-GAAP financial measures. Joining us on today's call are David Campbell, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Kirk Andrews, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. David will cover our Q2 highlights, our Integrated Resource Plan, and regulatory and legislative priorities. Kirk will cover in more detail the Q2 results, retail sales trends, and our financial outlook for the year.
Other members of management are with us and will be available during the question-and-answer portion of the call. I will now turn the call over to David.
David Campbell (President and CEO)
Thanks, Pete, good morning, everyone. I will begin on slide five. I'm pleased to report that Evergy had a solid Q2 as we delivered adjusted earnings of $0.81 per share, compared to $0.84 per share a year ago. The decrease was driven by less favorable weather, as well as higher depreciation in amortization interest expense, partially offset by growth in weather normalized sales, transmission margin, and lower O&M expenses. Kirk will discuss these earnings drivers in more detail in his remarks. Our reliability metrics were strong for the year through June, as average outage, duration, and frequency, otherwise known as SAIDI and SAIFI, were favorable to relative to our target. I'd like to call out the work of our distribution and transmission teams for the improvements in system resiliency that we're seeing.
Weather has been less cooperative to start the Q3, and on July 14th, our service territory experienced a severe storm. The storm produced 80-100 mile per hour winds, resulting in our most impactful storm in recent history. At the storm's peak, nearly 200,000 Evergy customers were without power, as high winds downed countless tree limbs and damaged or destroyed nearly 500 power poles. We estimate total O&M costs of $6.5 million for the storm recovery efforts. I'd like to thank the nearly 3,500 Evergy employees, contractors, and personnel from neighboring utilities that assisted in making repairs, working with customers, and restoring power. Our crews worked 16-hour shifts through hot and humid conditions, as well as follow-on storms that disrupted the restoration efforts, and our customer teams also worked overtime to field calls and support our customers.
Our frontline workers are the bedrock of safely delivering affordable and reliable power to our customers and communities. We're extremely proud of and grateful for their contributions to these challenging conditions. Our team's consistent execution has resulted in a solid start to the year, and we are reaffirming our 2023 adjusted EPS guidance range of $3.55-$3.75 per share, as well as our target long-term annual adjusted EPS growth of 6%-8% from 2021 to 2025. Slide 6 highlights our annual Integrated Resource Plan updates, which were filed on June 15th in both Kansas and Missouri. This year's updates reflect the impacts of the renewable support provided by the Inflation Reduction Act, revised load forecasts, increased Southwest Power Pool capacity margin requirements, potential changes to environmental regulations, and updated commodity price forecasts.
As a reminder, in 2022, nearly half of the energy that we generated for our retail customers came from carbon-free resources, reflecting the contributions of our Wolf Creek Nuclear Plant and the 4,400 megawatt portfolio of renewable resources that we own or contract through long-term power purchase agreements. Over the next 10 years, taking advantage of the ample resource potential of our region, as well as substantial federal subsidies, we plan to add more than 3,000 megawatts of new wind and solar resources. The timing of these additions reflects the outputs of our recent all-resource request for proposal, which was no doubt affected by global supply chain challenges impacting solar, wind, and battery project availability and costs. Tightening capacity conditions in the Southwest Power Pool and higher demand also factored into the annual IRP update.
Reflecting higher capacity needs, this year's preferred plan includes the introduction of hydrogen-capable, hydrogen-capable combined cycle gas turbines in the latter half of the decade. We now expect to cease all coal operations in Lawrence Units Four and Five and convert Lawrence Unit Five to natural gas in 2028. In aggregate, the 2023 preferred plan includes 4,800 megawatts of new resource additions through 2032, an increase of 1,200 megawatts when compared to the 2022 Integrated Resource Plan update. As our generation fleet evolves, we are focused on achieving a responsible balance between non-carbon emitting, intermittent resources, typically with low or negative marginal costs, and older, firm dispatchable generation with higher marginal costs, all while ensuring reliability and affordability for our customers and communities.
We're excited about the potential investment opportunities ahead of us as we continue to transition our portfolio over the coming years. Moving to slide 7, I'll provide an update on our regulatory and legislative priorities. In Kansas, we're awaiting intervener testimony, which is due to be filed by August twenty-ninth, and our pending Kansas Central and Kansas Metro rate cases. Activity in September picks up, with rebuttal testimony due September eighteenth, and a settlement conference scheduled for September twenty-first. Should an agreement be reached, we'd be required to file it by September twenty-ninth. Otherwise, hearings would run from October ninth through the thirteenth. We look forward to working with all parties to achieve a constructive outcome and advance regionally competitive rates for our Kansas customers and communities.
Shifting to Missouri, the order approving our request to securitize extraordinary costs from Winter Storm Uri remains in the state appellate process, with oral arguments to be held September 7th. We believe the Missouri Commission's decision in support of securitization is well supported by the record. As a reminder, we will complete the securitization financing after the appeal plays out, but incremental carrying costs incurred prior to approval will ultimately be recovered when we issue the debt. We anticipate resolution later this year. I'll conclude my remarks with slide 8, which highlights the core tenets of our strategy: affordability, reliability, and sustainability. On the affordability front, advancing regional rate competitiveness is one of our primary objectives.
Our focus on delivering benefits to our customers since the 2018 merger is reflected and demonstrated in the EIA data on rate trends across states in the central United States over the past five years. In addition, direct market evidence is provided by ongoing wins in economic development in our territory. We're pleased by our progress in improving regional rate competitiveness and keeping our rate trajectory well below the rate of inflation. Affordability is and will always be an area of focus. Ensuring reliability is also a core element of our strategy, and along with safety and safety, this includes a focus on metrics relating to customer service, the commercial availability of our fleet, safety, and all elements of our operations, including infrastructure investments.
This summer has brought resiliency and reliability to the forefront, as storm activity in our service territory has been more prevalent than normal, including the July 14th storms with straight-line winds in excess of 80 miles an hour. With respect to sustainability, we continue to advance the transition of our generation fleet, as detailed in our 2023 IRP update and continuing the progress of the last two decades. Since 2005, we've significantly and cost-effectively transformed our generation fleet, reducing carbon emissions by nearly half, while reducing sulfur dioxide and NOx emissions by 98% and 88%, respectively, and we look forward to the ongoing portfolio transition.
Our mission is to empower a better future, and our vision is to lead the responsible energy transition in our region, always with an eye on affordability and reliability, as well as sustainability. With that, I will now turn the call over to Kirk.
Kirk Andrews (EVP and CFO)
Thanks, David. Good morning, everyone. Turning to slide 10, I'll start with a review of our results for the quarter. For the Q2 of 2023, Evergy delivered adjusted earnings of $186.1 million or $0.81 per share. That's compared to $194.5 million or $0.84 per share in the Q2 of 2022. As shown on the slide, from left to right, the year-over-year increase in the Q2 adjusted EPS was driven by the following: First, a 13% decrease in cooling degree days compared to last year drove a $0.08 decrease in EPS. Compared to normal, weather for the Q2 was favorable by approximately $0.03 per share.
Weather-normalized demand growth of 1.1%, driven by the residential and commercial sectors, contributed $0.04 per share. Higher transmission margin, resulting from our ongoing investments to enhance our transmission infrastructure, drove a $0.02 increase. A $53 million decrease in adjusted O&M drove a positive $0.17 variance year-over-year. This was partially due to the continued execution on operational efficiencies and partially the result of timing of O&M expenditures within 2023. The net impact of higher depreciation and amortization was $0.07 for the quarter, which includes the offsetting impact of new retail rates. The combination of higher interest expense and lower AFUDC drove a $0.13 decrease, with interest expense representing about $0.12 of that variance. The increase in interest expense also reflects the lower rate environment comparatively in early 2022.
Finally, other items, both positive and negative, drove a net increase of $0.02. I'll turn next to the year-to-date results, which you'll find on slide 11. Through the first six months of 2023, adjusted earnings were $322 million or $1.40 per share, compared to $324 million or $1.41 per share for the same period last year. Again, moving from left to right, our year-to-date EPS drivers, that is, versus 2022, include the following: When combined with the mild winter weather in the Q1 of this year, our year-to-date results reflect an approximate 13% decrease in heating degree days and in cooling degree days, driving a $0.16 decrease in EPS versus the first half of 2022.
As compared to normal, weather was approximately $0.04 unfavorable through the first half of 2023. Solid weather normalized demand growth of 1.6% year to date, in line with our annual estimate, driven by the residential and commercial sectors, contributed $0.09 per share. Higher transmission margin, resulting from our ongoing investments, drove a $0.04 increase. Decreased O&M drove a positive $0.29 variance year over year. As I mentioned earlier, the decrease is partially a result of timing of O&M expenditures within 2023. A $0.13 decrease from higher depreciation expense due to increased infrastructure investment, which again, is net of the offsetting impact of new retail rates.
$0.04 of year-to-date proceeds from company-owned life insurance and higher interest expense and lower AFUDC, which drove a $0.26 decrease, with interest expense representing $0.22 of that variance. The increase in interest expense again reflects both a higher carrying balance and the lower rate environment in the first half of 2022. We expect rate-driven variances to decrease in magnitude as we move through the year, consistent with the original assumptions in our guidance. Finally, other items, both positive and negative, drove a net increase of $0.08, which was primarily driven by other income and income tax items. Turning to Slide 12, I provide a brief update on the recent sales trends. Weather normalized retail sales increased 1.1% in the Q2 as compared to last year.
This was primarily driven by increases in both residential and commercial usage, while year-to-date weather normalized demand is up by approximately 1.6%. Lower industrial demand continues to be driven primarily by 2 refining customers. Excluding these 2 customers, remaining industrial weather normalized demand would have increased during the first half of this year. Demand growth continues to be supported by a strong local labor market, with Kansas and Kansas City metro area unemployment rates of 2.8% each, which continue to remain below the national average of 3.6%. Finally, on slide 13, I'll wrap up with an overview of our long-term financial expectations. With a solid start to the year, we are reaffirming our adjusted EPS guidance range of $3.55-$3.75 for 2023.
We are also reaffirming our long-term compounded annual EPS growth rate target of 6%-8% from 2021 to 2025. We expect to address our outlook for earnings growth beyond 2025 on our year-end call in February. Our $11.6 billion, 5-year capital plan through 2027 is focused on new infrastructure investment to improve customer service, enhance reliability and resiliency as we transition our generation fleet, while continuing to advance regional rate competitiveness and meet the evolving needs of our customers and our communities. With that, we'll open up the call for questions.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. As a reminder to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Durgesh Chopra from Evercore ISI.
Durgesh Chopra (Managing Director)
Hey, good morning, team. Thanks for giving me time. I have two questions.
Kirk Andrews (EVP and CFO)
Good morning.
Durgesh Chopra (Managing Director)
Hey, good morning, David. Hey, guys, I appreciate the... Hey, good morning, Kirk. I, I appreciate the fact-
Kirk Andrews (EVP and CFO)
Of course.
Durgesh Chopra (Managing Director)
... you know, with the, with the IRP moves, you guys kind of reaffirmed your CapEx and rate base outlook. Maybe can you just get a little bit more granular, and quantify how much CapEx was there associated with renewables in the, in the current plan? Then what are the opportunities on the grid mod side or other opportunities, that you think that as a result of those moves, that the CapEx and rate base growth profile is, is still intact? Any color there?
Kirk Andrews (EVP and CFO)
Sure. I guess thanks for the question. It's a good one. When we put out our Integrated Resource Plan, you'll recall that we also, you know, released a slide at the time saying that our overall capital investment plan for 2023, 2022, 2023 to 2027 was in line with our updates in the last quarter. Now, there is some mix shift in that. We haven't published that overall change yet. We're going through that process, as we typically will, through the course of the year. The Integrated Resource Plan has a higher overall total level of resource additions, but there's some phasing shifts over the near term. Particularly, there's a drop in window in the near term, and that reflects to a large degree, supply chain constraints and the impact of that on product availability and costs.
Why we reaffirmed our overall capital plans is for the factors that you highlighted. We have a wide range of beneficial infrastructure investments, particularly in the grid, grid modernization and grid resiliency side, that are the elements that we expect will be a little bit higher and will contribute to an overall capital plan that is consistent. Now, again, over the 10-year timeframe, we have a relatively significant addition of new resources. In that time period, you can expect that there'll also will be an uptick in capital expenditures. We only give a 5-year plan update, but you'll see some elements of that when we get to year-end, because we'll add 2028 to our public disclosures, and you'll start seeing, as we start, some of those resource additions that I mentioned, in particular relating to hydrogen-capable new natural gas units.
A lot of that capital expenditure you'll see showing up in the, in the latter part of our capital plan, the 5-year plan.
Durgesh Chopra (Managing Director)
Got it. Okay, so you, you remain confident in, in your CapEx and rate base outlooks, and we'll look for more color on the Q4 call. That's the key takeaway there. Okay, just then, on the, on the Kansas rate cases. Can you give us any incremental data points? What's the feedback been from various stakeholders and the potential for a settlement? I know you put out some dates there, just looking for any additional color that you can share.
David Campbell (President and CEO)
Hey, Durgesh, for better or worse, the way the process plays out, we don't have a lot to share. We'll see. We're still in the process of sort of a rigorous back and forth in terms of our receiving a lot of questions, as typical, typically happens in all rate cases. We'll have a good sense, and you can get some feel for where parties are focusing the questions. We really get a sense of things when when the first round of testimony is filed. August 29th is going to be a day that a lot of people will be doing a lot of reading, certainly on our side. You'll see staff and intervener testimony on that day. You get a lot more color on things as we head into, you know, in August and September.
We will certainly look forward to the opportunity to work constructively with all parties in, in seeking a settlement. It's been five years since the last, last rate case. Otherwise, at least in our view, it's a pretty straightforward rate case in terms of the elements that are included. It's primarily related to the infrastructure investments that have been made over that time period, plus the amount of cost savings that we've been able to achieve as a result of the merger, with a couple of items that I think are pretty clearly described and laid out. It's a little less complicated than some elements, at least, of our Missouri West case last year, which, again, was approximately 1 year. We look forward to constructively engaging with the parties.
But you'll learn more about that later this month, and then particularly as we head into September and October.
Durgesh Chopra (Managing Director)
Got it, guys. Thanks so much again.
David Campbell (President and CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Shar Pourreza from Guggenheim Partners.
Shar Pourreza (Senior Managing Director and Sector Head for North American Power, Energy, and Utilities)
Hey, guys. Good morning.
David Campbell (President and CEO)
Morning, Shar.
Shar Pourreza (Senior Managing Director and Sector Head for North American Power, Energy, and Utilities)
Morning, morning. I, I just want to be crystal clear on, on the response that you gave to Durgesh, because, I mean, obviously, this was a very deep IRP update a few weeks ago. Is the messaging that it is status quo from just a capital perspective to the current trajectory, but there could be some step function increases as we shift forward? I just want to get a bit of a sense there.
David Campbell (President and CEO)
As of my-- to sharpen my response, I'll have Kirk go first. Kirk, go ahead and, I'll, I'll follow up.
Kirk Andrews (EVP and CFO)
Sure thing, David. Hey, Shar.
Shar Pourreza (Senior Managing Director and Sector Head for North American Power, Energy, and Utilities)
Hey.
Kirk Andrews (EVP and CFO)
The way I think about it is, first of all, I think Durgesh asked this question as well. I mean, I think our overall, and we put this in a broad category, new generation/renewables. Their Q4 update, the cumulative amount of that was a little over $2.1 billion. That's obviously contributes to the aggregate $11.6 billion. The way to think about that is, yes, our overall magnitude of capital expenditures is in line. We also expect the magnitude of capital expenditure on new generation and renewables to be in line. We do expect probably some timing shifts. We also expect the annual cadence of that capital expenditures to accumulate up to that $11.6 billion to also be consistent.
It will probably be a little bit of a mix shift, because if you look at the magnitude, and the cadence specifically of renewables and new generation year-over-year, informed by the IRP, kind of plan over plan, that'll probably imply a little bit of variation in the implied capital expenditure space over that period of time. However, we have an abundance of very necessary and beneficial grid modernization projects, so you may see a little shift between those two categories year-over-year. Overall, the aggregate magnitude, the amount of generation, as well as the annual magnitudes, will be in line. If that helps.
Shar Pourreza (Senior Managing Director and Sector Head for North American Power, Energy, and Utilities)
Yes, it does, and thank you for that.
David Campbell (President and CEO)
So Kirk, thank you for the clarity. I'll add in an additional point is, you know, we're very focused on affordability, and as we think about our capital planning, we have, and we were able to have the opportunity to go through this with our Kansas commissioners. We have a similar dialogue, of course, Missouri. We've got an old system. We've got a lot of very, a wide range of beneficial projects that are available to us. We calibrate our level of expenditure with an eye towards affordability. There's no doubt around that.
We'll continue to shape that, but we've got a really robust capital plan informed by, you know, parts of our system are still very old, so we've got, if you will, a backlog of beneficial projects, but we're always going to keep an eye on affordability as well.
Shar Pourreza (Senior Managing Director and Sector Head for North American Power, Energy, and Utilities)
Got it. David, can you just speak a little bit more broadly to sort of the transmission expansion backdrop and SPP? I mean, MISO is now looking at Tranche two and three. They're spending billions on moving power through your neighboring systems. Do you see the RTO picking up the pace here in the years ahead? Just any color on the backdrop, especially as you guys continue to evaluate, on the generation side?
David Campbell (President and CEO)
Yeah. Well, that's a great question, Shar. I think it's fair to say that the Southwest Power Pool, certainly if you look at their, their strategic plan, the grid of the future and the future evolution, the long-term transmission plan is on their agenda. But it's also fair to say that what's on their agenda is a process that will lead to kind of Tranches one, two, and three. In that sense, it's they're not at the same stage as MISO in the Southwest Power Pool. In other words, it's still some time away. We, as a big player in the Southwest Power Pool, are certainly an advocate for going through that process.
We know how important it's going to be as you look at our Integrated Resource Plan, especially as you get to the latter part of this decade in the 2030s. This is true across all of the players, really, in our space, and that will be impacted by things like the evolving federal EPA rules. There's a lot of changes in our resource plan that are coming, and the transmission grid is going to have to be ready for that. I think we, as a participant in SPP, will continue to be an advocate for moving down the path. I think it's fair to say that the, where you see Tranches 1, 2, and 3 in MISO, you don't yet see those in SPP, but it's on their strategic agenda, and we'll be working with them to try to advance it, because it is evolving.
Further evolving the transmission grid is going to be very important for our region to keep rates affordable as we transition our fleet.
Shar Pourreza (Senior Managing Director and Sector Head for North American Power, Energy, and Utilities)
All right. I think that is fantastic. You guys covered everything. I appreciate it.
David Campbell (President and CEO)
Thanks very much.
Shar Pourreza (Senior Managing Director and Sector Head for North American Power, Energy, and Utilities)
Sure.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Julien Dumoulin-Smith from Bank of America.
Julien Dumoulin-Smith (Senior Research Analyst)
Hey, good morning, team. How are you guys doing?
David Campbell (President and CEO)
Good morning, Julien.
Julien Dumoulin-Smith (Senior Research Analyst)
Can you guys hear me? Hey, excellent. Hey, thanks so much. Wonderful. Hey, look, just following up on the last question, let me just jump to this. You know, obviously the updated IRP had a fairly modest, if not flattish outlook on load. You know, a lot of the commentary that you're making here would kind of perhaps suggest that that certainly has an upside bias to it. We've seen that in other jurisdictions. How do you think about the evolution of your load forecast itself? What's in that plan? What's not in that plan? Again, obviously, you just filed this, so obviously there's a certain element of it being still relevant. Maybe we could talk about some of the pivots in it as you think about this IRP just at the outset.
David Campbell (President and CEO)
Yeah, it's a great question, Julien, because it's I think it is an upside factor for our sector and for our region as well. We, we do have a low, medium, and high demand case in the Integrated Resource Plan. We typically, in the long-term planning elements, think in the mid-range, it's a 0.5% rate of growth. We had a higher level of growth we expected or embedded in our plan in 2023, which we've seen, tracking with our results at least in the first half of the year.
Over the long term, there are certainly structural factors that I would argue could take us more towards the higher end rather than that 0.5% per year, and that's going to be from electrification and some of the large new loads that are coming in as we effectively are reshoring, if you will, here in the United States. The last element, which gets more and more focus, is the transformation of electricity demand driven by AI and the need for more and more data centers. I, I do think there are some upside factors, those three, electrification, onshoring, and proliferation of data centers. I think it's also fair to say that that could be upside to the long-term plans. A lot of that will manifest itself the latter part of this decade into the 2030s.
I think those long-term fundamentals are strong and, and should present some, if you will, bias towards the higher-- it's in the IRP, but it's more in the high case as opposed to the mid. I think for our region, the additional piece that we have relative to some others is, of course, a lot of our portfolio transition does occur in the 2030s as well, right? As, as we know, we've got a, we have an interesting mix in our generation portfolio. We've got half, basically half that's emissions free and half that's fossil-based and relatively higher share of coal. There's several utilities that have a similar share, but a lot of that transition for us will happen in the 2030s. I think the long-term fundamentals from a resource planning perspective, from a demand perspective, are strong.
As we know, when there's demand growth, that helps with affordability because you're spreading across costs, across a bigger, a bigger pot. I think it's a great question, and I think it's something that, that leads us to have a, you know, a bullish outlook in the long term.
Julien Dumoulin-Smith (Senior Research Analyst)
Awesome. Hey, guys, just pivoting here to the guidance and just year-to-date results, if you will. You know, I, I know you guys have a cost legacy, and kudos on that front. $0.29 is pretty impressive as a headline number here on O&M. Can you talk a little bit about, you know, what those items are, the sustainability of them into 2024? Maybe some of the move, the puts and takes within guidance that you contemplated at the start of the year, i.e., how are you tracking against those guidance items?
It would seem as if, you know, with weather still fairly modest as a headwind, $0.29. I know you offset the Persimmon Creek here, but like, it's certainly a nice showing on the cost front in year-to-date sense.
David Campbell (President and CEO)
Julien, there's a lot there. I think, Alan is correct to supplement. We, like our peer utilities, try to manage our business in a raw perspective with based on managing as best we can the things in our control as things outside of our control move. Weather has been a headwind this year. July was on the mild side, at least in our region. I know it's been quite variable across the U.S., we were in the milder side in July, but it didn't even vary across our service territory. Proud of the team and how we managed costs. You, you, you asked about which elements, it really is, and we review this in a rigorous basis across the entire part of our business, from ops to our generation side, transition distribution, our customer operation, and the corporate center.
Some of this is timing and phasing, as Kirk mentioned in his remarks, but we are going to be managing the business dynamically and just as our peer utilities do, because we, you know, we reaffirm our annual guidance this year, and we seek to, again, manage the things that are within our control so that we are in a position to offset factors that are outside of our control. Proud of the team for their cost management. We've laid out, as you know, ongoing cost savings as part of our plan. I think that that's continues to be our plan as we look through to 2025.
It's a, it's a testament to the work of the team, and the efforts of our enterprise to drive affordability of benefits for our customers and manage our business so that we can hit our plan and deliver results.
Julien Dumoulin-Smith (Senior Research Analyst)
Got it. It sounds like, there, there, there could be some items here, but, you're not ready necessarily to say the, the, the-
David Campbell (President and CEO)
Yeah, we're sticking with our guidance for the year.
Julien Dumoulin-Smith (Senior Research Analyst)
Yeah.
David Campbell (President and CEO)
Yeah, we're sticking with our guidance for the year, Julien, and you know, it's, we'll manage the business dynamically, just as, as you've seen us doing for the first part of the year and in prior years.
Kirk Andrews (EVP and CFO)
Yeah, you know, without quantification, Julien, just to, just to add on to that, I mean, you're correct. I mean, you're, you're a keen observer, right? You, you, you got that large number year to date. I, I even said in my remarks, it was partially to do with inter-year timing. Partially doesn't mean all of it. That's our job through the year, right? You know, you know, making sure that we stay vigilant around our costs, so that, so we've got that cushion to be able to offset, you know, some of the unknown variables, right? We, we can't control weather.
David mentioned we had a, a little bit of storm costs past the, the first half of the year, that storm-related cost, that gives us a cushion to absorb that, and obviously, the, the variability that we're all experiencing on, on interest rates. Staying ahead of the game and, and being vigilant around those costs away from that inter-year timing, some of which can't really extrapolate that over the balance of the year. But having that in our pocket to look towards the, the back half of the year allows us to maintain our commit. 'Cause as we've said, you know, one of the things that we are very focused on here, is making sure we deliver on those commitments, right?
The means by which we do that is dynamic during the year because it's anything but a static environment, because of some of the elements I've, I addressed.
David Campbell (President and CEO)
Got it. All right. I got more. I'll leave them offline. Thank you very much. Have a great day.
Kirk Andrews (EVP and CFO)
Thanks, Julien.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Michael Sullivan from Wolfe.
Michael Sullivan (SVP of Equity Research)
Hey, good morning.
Kirk Andrews (EVP and CFO)
Morning, Michael.
Michael Sullivan (SVP of Equity Research)
Hey, guys. I just wanted to put a finer point on that last line of questioning. The mild July weather and then that storm impact, are both of those factored into the 2023 guide reaffirmation?
David Campbell (President and CEO)
Michael, obviously, we don't have our full results for July yet. We are able to quantify the storm costs, and I included that in the script. We did affirm. We are affirming our annual guidance range today. Some of the answer to your question is yes. Based on the information we have now, we're affirming our guidance for the year. As Kirk described, very important for us to, you know, we'll stay ever focused on that and keep working those things that we are in our control to help offset if there, you know, Mother Nature can shift day to day, factors that are outside our control. Yes, we're affirming our guidance for 2023 today.
Michael Sullivan (SVP of Equity Research)
Okay, great. That's helpful. Then, you know, a lot of what you updated in the IRP, I think you mentioned, was formed by the recent RFP process. When, when will we see the results or more detail on, on that RFP?
Kirk Andrews (EVP and CFO)
Hey, Mike, it's Kirk. I think you'll expect to see that from us, later in the year. Can't discount the possibility we may have some more information once we get to the Q3 call in November. As we move through the back half of the year, we'll certainly have some more information about that.
David Campbell (President and CEO)
Part of it, Michael, as you can appreciate, relates to ongoing negotiations that are occurring.
Kirk Andrews (EVP and CFO)
Exactly.
David Campbell (President and CEO)
That's the main driver as to why you're not hearing more.
Michael Sullivan (SVP of Equity Research)
Understood. Okay, that was all for me. Thank you.
David Campbell (President and CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question goes to the line of Paul Patterson from Glenrock Associates.
Paul Patterson (Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Hey, good morning.
David Campbell (President and CEO)
Morning, Paul.
Paul Patterson (Senior Equity Research Analyst)
I just have one question at this point, and that is: there's a rate design change with time of use that's coming up here, I guess, in Missouri for you guys. I'm just wondering, it looks like there's a potential for some significant changes. Is there any, I guess, how I put this, is there any risk that customers might be, some customers might be unpleasantly surprised by the change, even though it's a rate design issue? People don't necessarily know what's going on, and it's time of use, and they're just not prepared for it. Sometimes in certain jurisdictions, we've seen it happens from time to time, where people are very upset by something that kind of a change, if you follow me.
David Campbell (President and CEO)
Paul, it's a good question. Again, if you're correct, it's, it's from Missouri jurisdictions only, and it is a result of the last rate cases. There was a Missouri Commission feel strongly about this topic and included in their order, a move towards time of use rates for all customers in Missouri. Now, fortunately, partially a result of a, you know, the, you know, revision that was made to the order, that's being implemented in the fall. It is being implemented later this year, when we're out of the hot weather season. We've had time, and we've put out a lot of communications around the time of use transition, and we'll continue to have a lot of communications.
There's several different options, one of which is a relatively modest change relative to the historical rate plans. We think with the level of communication tools we now have, the number of folks who have online accounts, that the level of information will be high. A big part of what we'll need to do in adhering to the commission's order on this, is just having a high level of communication. Fortunately, again, with it being implemented in the fall, in a milder weather time, I think that it will be a little more explainable to customers. It primarily relates to the hours of 4:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. on weekdays, so it's, you know, it's a concentrated approach.
Even though it is, as you know, rate design is not intuitive to many customers, I think, our team's done a nice job laying out what it entails, what it means, and, and how customers can, can work with it. We'll, we'll work with the commission's order, and we think we'll be able to communicate with our customers, make sure we work with them as they go through the transition and, and select a plan that's best for them.
Paul Patterson (Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Awesome. Thanks so much. Really appreciate it.
David Campbell (President and CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. At this time, I would now like to turn the conference back over to David Campbell for closing remarks.
David Campbell (President and CEO)
Great. Thank you. I'd like to thank everyone for your interest in Evergy this morning. Hope you have a great day. That concludes the call.
Operator (participant)
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.