Thank you for holding, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Alliant Energy's First Quarter 2015 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all lines are in listen-only mode. Today's conference is being recorded. I would now turn the call over to your host, Susan Gille, Manager of Investor Relations at Alliant Energy.

Good morning. I would like to thank all of you on the call and the webcast for joining us today. We appreciate your participation. With me here today are Pat Kampling, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer; Tom Hanson, Senior Vice President and CFO; and Robert Durian, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer; as well as other members of the senior management team. Following prepared remarks by Pat and Tom, we will have time to take questions from the investment community. We issued a news release last night announcing Alliant Energy's first quarter 2015 earnings and affirmed 2015 earnings guidance. This release, as well as supplemental slides, that will be referenced during today's call, are available on the Investor Page of our Website at www.alliantenergy.com. Before we begin, I need to remind you that the remarks we make on this call and our answers to your questions include forward looking statements. These forward looking statements are subject to risk that could cause actual results to be materially different. Those risks include, among others, matters discussed in Alliant Energy's press release issued last night and in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We disclaim any obligation to update these forward looking statements. At this point, I will turn the call over to Pat.

Thanks, Sue. Good morning and thank you for joining us today. I will begin with an overview of first quarter 2015 results and share our progress on our various large capital projects. I will then turn the call over to Tom, who will provide a detailed walk of our first quarter 2015 results and discuss our current financing plan and this year's regulatory calendar. We had another solid quarter, the first quarter of 2015 earnings inline with our expectations. However, this quarter's results were lower the first quarter of 2014 due to several items. First, the weather benefit was much lower than realized last year since this winter was much closer to normal compared to the extreme cold temperatures and propane disruptions experienced last winter. Second, this quarter reflected expected higher electric transmission expense at WP&L and higher retail electric customer billing credits at IPL. The billing credits to IPL customers began in May of 2014, therefore, none occurred in the first quarter of 2014. And third, timing of the tax expense at the parent is influenced by the tax benefit riders. However, earnings did benefit from the elimination of capacity charges related to the original Duane Arnold purchase power agreement that expired in the first quarter of 2014. During the first quarter, we experienced a remarkable performance at our generating station. Of note, is that a Riverside and Emery combined-cycle natural gas generating station had capacity factors that averaged approximately 50% and the capacity factors from a wind farm averaged approximately 40%. Also, the environmental control equipment installed at co-plants met all performance requirements. During 2015, we plan to invest over $1 billion of capital in our utilities. Almost 35% of that will be for improvements and expansion of our electric and gas distribution systems, including bringing natural gas…

Good morning, everyone. We released first quarter earnings last evening with our earnings from continuing operations of $0.87 per share. First quarter 2015 earnings are $0.10 lower than first quarter 2014. Comparisons between the first quarter 2015 and 2014 earnings per share are detailed on Slides 2 and 3. We estimate that first quarter 2015 weather impact when compared to normal temperatures resulted in higher earnings of $0.04 per share. This was $0.08 lower than the first quarter 2014 weather impact of a positive $0.12 per share. Temperatures in Alliant Energy's service territories were approximately 10% colder normal during the first quarter 2015, compared to approximately 20% colder than normal during the first quarter 2014. The extreme weather volatility over the last several years has increased the difficulty in estimating weather impacts. Retail electric sales volumes decreased approximately 3% quarter-over-quarter, primarily due to the impact of the extreme cold temperatures during the first quarter 2014. The abnormally cold weather combined with the higher propane cost and supply constraints in the first quarter of 2014 contributed to customers relying more on electric heating sources, which contributed to increased usage per customer during such period. The quarter-over-quarter decrease in residential and commercial sales volumes was partially offset by increased sales -- increased industrial sales volumes related to recent customer expansions. On a weather normalized basis, retail electric sales volumes decreased approximately 1% quarter-over-quarter. Despite the first quarter results, we continue to forecast normal weather and modest retail electric sales increases of 1% for IPL and 2% for WP&L when compared to 2014. We forecasted residential electric sales increases of less than 1% for both IPL and WP&L when compared to 2014. The 2015 full-year guidance range also factors in retail base rate settlements at IPL and WPL. The IPL electric rate settlement…

Thank you, Mr. Hanson. At this time, the company will open up the call to questions for members of the investment community. Alliant Energy's management will take as many questions as I can within the one hour timeframe for this morning's call. [Operator Instructions]. Our first question today comes from Brian Russo with Ladenburg Thalmann.

Hi. Good morning.

Good morning, Brian.

I know you have got a couple of hundred megawatts of wind renewal pool, PPA contracts that roll-off over the next several years, maybe could you just talk about the strategy there? I may have read somewhere that you issued RFP, but I am not exactly sure.

Yes, sure. Brian, I would say that those two decisions are independent. We issued NRP right now just because some attractive pricing and wind, in Iowa. And we thought we are just filling the portfolio for our Iowa energy needs. We still are evaluating a long-term needs when these PPAs expire, that's still announces that we are providing, but we have just taken the opportunity of low cost wind right now at Iowa.

And would that be up sight to your CapEx or is there a price holder the current budget?

Yes, we do have price holders in the current budget for additional wind facilities, but its years out.

Okay great. And it seems like you guys are testing the market on solar opportunities, is there any sort of formulative long-term strategy there?

Right now, we are just experimenting. We have -- we are putting solar across the property to really find out how to integrate in a cost effective manner with our electric distribution system. So this will be the first year that we are going to lean, experiment and then we will see what lessons learned and what other opportunities we are going forward.

Okay. And then lastly, you mentioned a 40% capacity factor on your wind, does that include to Franklin County?

Yes, it did. Yes, we had a very good first quarter both cash generation and wind.

Okay. Great. Thank you.

Sure, Brian. End of Q&A

[Operator Instructions] Ms. Gille, there are no further questions at this time.

With no more questions this concludes our call. A replay will be available through May 8, 2015 at 888-203-1112 for US and Canada, or 719-457-0820 for international. Callers should reference conference ID 8244179. In addition, an archive of the conference call and a script of the prepared remarks made on the call will be available on the Investor section of the company's Web site, later today. We thank you for your continued support of Alliant Energy. And feel free to contact me with any follow-up question.

And that concludes today's conference. We appreciate your participation.