IDACORP's Q4 2024: Navigating Contradictions in Regulatory Filings, Rate Cases, and Growth Projections

These are the key contradictions discussed in IDACORP's latest 2024Q4 earnings call, specifically including: ADITC Mechanism Filing Process, Rate Case Timing and Capital Plan, Load Growth and Generation Needs, and Credit Metric Expectations:



Financial Results and Growth:
- IDACORP's diluted earnings per share were $5.50 for 2024, compared to $5.14 in 2023. Full-year 2025 earnings guidance is anticipated to be between $5.65 and $5.85.
- The financial growth was driven by strong customer growth and the January rate increase, as well as the use of additional tax credit amortization.

Rate Case Outcomes and Infrastructure Investment:
- The Idaho limited issue rate case resulted in a rate increase of $50.1 million or 3.7%, and the Oregon general rate case increase was $6.7 million or 12.14%.
- These increases are to recover infrastructure costs and labor expenses, supporting ongoing enhanced wildfire mitigation efforts.

Energy Demand and Load Growth:
- Idaho Power served nearly 650,000 customers at the end of 2024, with 2.6% customer growth, and projects significant future energy demand from new projects like Meta and Micron.
- Growth projections indicate robust load growth, necessitating new infrastructure investments.

Capital Expenditure and Infrastructure Development:
- IDACORP plans to spend an average of $1.1 billion per year on CapEx from 2025 to 2029, up from $554 million over the previous five years.
- This reflects the need to meet customer growth and utility reliability requirements, with a 5-year CapEx forecast total of $5.6 billion.