Good morning, and welcome to Otter Tail Corporation's Second Quarter 2016 Earnings Conference Call. Today’s call is being recorded and there will be a question-and-answer session after the prepared remarks. I will now turn the call over to the company.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our call. My name is Loren Hanson, and I manage the Investor Relations area at Otter Tail. Last night, we announced our second quarter 2016 results. Our complete earnings release and slides accompanying this earnings call are available on our website at www.ottertail.com. A replay of the call will be available on our website later today. Commenting this morning will be Chuck MacFarlane, Otter Tail Corporation's President and Chief Executive Officer and Kevin Moug, Otter Tail Corporation's Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin today’s call, I'd like to remind you that during the course of this call, we will be making forward-looking statements as noted on slide two of our presentation. These forward-looking statements represent our current judgment or opinion of what the future holds. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking statements made today. So pleased by advised by placing undue reliance on any of these statements. Our forward-looking statements are described in more detail in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission which we incurred you to review. Otter Tail Corporation disclaims any duty to update or revise our forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events, developments or otherwise. For opening remarks, I would now like to turn the call over to our President and CEO, Mr. Chuck MacFarlane. Chuck?

Thanks, Loren. Good morning, and thanks for joining our call. For the quarter, net income from continuing operations was $15.6 million or $0.41 a share. We’re pleased with this result and is stronger than the second quarter last year and can be largely attributed to improving margins in our manufacturing segment. Accordingly we are reaffirming our guidance for the remainder of 2016. To enhance long-term returns, our strategy continues to focus on maintaining a solid regulative electric utility supplemented with the portfolio of manufacturing businesses. Today I will reaffirm our plans to grow rate base and review our recently filed Minnesota rate case. I will also update you on our manufacturing platform. Slide six shows our planned rate base growth. It calls for capital investment of $858 million from 2016 through 2020. Slide seven shows our regulatory recovery mechanisms. We have positive regulatory constructs and relationships in each jurisdiction. Our rate based growth plans include two large regional transmission projects and several generation investments for projected compound annual growth rate of 8% in utility rate base using 2014 as the base year. We have discussed the two large transmission projects Big Stone South-Brookings and Big Stone South-Ellendale on past earnings calls. To recap, the midcontinent independent system operator approved both as multi value projects which means the cost will be allocated across all customers in MISO's 15 state Midwest footprint, with limited rate increases to our retail customers. The map on slide eight shows the relative location and length of these lines. The first will run from Brookings South Dakota 70 miles north to a new substation near Big Stone plant. It is the next leg of the recently completed CapEx 2020 line from the twin cities to Brookings. Otter Tail Power is a 50% owner in the line portion…

Thanks Chuck, and good morning. Please bear with me this morning as I do have a cold and my voice could be challenged as I speak with you on the results of the quarter. Please refer to slides 13 and 14 as I discuss our second quarter results. Our electric segment net earnings increased $896,000 quarter-over-quarter. They key elements of this increase in earnings were an increase in retail revenue of $2.8 million related to a 9.65% interim rate increase and went into effect in April of 2016. Those rates which are subject to refund or expected to be finalized in 2017. Increased environmental and transmission cost recovery riders increased conservation incentives. Warmer weather in the second quarter compared to the second quarter of 2015 positively impacted earnings per share by a penny. Weather was neutral for the quarter when compared to normal, also positively impacting earnings for increased sales to pipeline customers. These positive impacts to earnings were offset impart by higher operating and maintenance expenses as well as higher depreciation expense due to increased rate base investments. Our manufacturing segment revenues and earnings increased quarter-over-quarter BTD’s performance. Revenues increased $7.8 million quarter-over-quarter at BTD due to the September 1, 2015 acquisition of impulse manufacturing located in Georgia. Impulse contributed $6.5 million in revenues. Our Illinois plant had an increase in revenues of $3.8 million driven by demand for wind tower components. These increases were offset by a $2.5 million decrease in sales at our Minnesota plants related to reduced volumes in agricultural, oil and gas, and recreational vehicle end markets. The key drivers to BTD’s improved quarter-over-quarter profitability is the increased volume in the Illinois plant, improved gross margins due to change in product mix and improved productivity and cost reduction efforts in the Illinois and Minnesota plants.…

Thank you. To summarize, we are pleased with the second quarter results which reflect not only interim rates at Otter Tail Power but also operational improvement at BTD during 2016. Net earnings increased quarter-over-quarter from continuing operations and we reaffirm our 2016 earnings guidance of a $1.50 to a $1.65 per share. Thank you for joining our call and for your interest in Otter Tail Corporation. We look forward to speaking with you next quarter.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating on today’s conference. This concludes today’s program. You may all disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.