Alliant Energy (LNT) Risk Analysis

- Our utility financial condition is influenced by how regulatory authorities, including the IUC, the PSCW and FERC, establish the rates we can charge our customers, our authorized rates of return and common equity levels, and the costs that may be recovered from customers. Our ability to timely obtain rate adjustments to earn authorized rates of return depends upon timely regulatory action under applicable statutes and regulations, and cannot be guaranteed. IPL and WPL may not receive an adequate amount of rate relief to recover all costs and earn their authorized rates of return, rates may be reduced, rate refunds may be required, rate adjustments may not be approved on a timely basis, costs may not be otherwise recovered through rates, earnings above certain thresholds may be required to be refunded, recovery of capital expenditures, including those for electric distribution systems, above certain thresholds may be capped or not be allowed, rates may be temporarily frozen, such as IPL's current retail electric rate base moratorium through September 2029, laws, rules or settlements may limit the ability to file rate adjustments or the period covered by a rate adjustment, regulatory decisions may limit the ability to defer recovery of and a return on prudently incurred costs in between rate reviews, certain rate base items may not receive a full weighted average cost of capital, and authorized rates of return on capital may be reduced. As a result, we may experience adverse impacts on our financial condition and results of operations. In addition, our operations are subject to extensive regulation primarily by the IUC, the PSCW and FERC. We are also subject to oversight and monitoring by organizations such as the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, the Midwest Reliability Organization, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. (MISO) and the Department of Homeland Security Transportation Security Administration. The impacts on our operations include: our ability to site and construct new energy facilities, such as renewable energy, energy storage projects, or natural gas-fired electric generating units, and recover associated costs; our ability to decommission generating facilities and recover related costs and the remaining carrying value of these facilities and related assets; MISO's resource adequacy process establishing seasonal capacity planning reserve margin and capacity accreditation requirements, as well as additional changes to capacity accreditation, such as the direct loss of load methodology, impact how and when existing and new generating facilities such as IPL's and WPL's additional solar generation are accredited with energy capacity, and may require IPL and WPL to adjust their current resource plans, to add resources to meet the requirements of MISO's seasonal resource adequacy process, or procure capacity whereby such costs might not be recovered in rates; the impact of the lack of availability of existing and new generating facilities has on our accredited capacity for such facilities pursuant to MISO's seasonal resource adequacy process; IPL's ability to achieve certain aggregate summer capacity factors under the consumer protection plan for its up to 400 MW of solar generation projects; the rates paid to transmission operators and how those costs are recovered from customers, including our ability to continue to use a transmission rider in Iowa; our ability to site, construct and recover costs for new natural gas pipelines; our ability to recover costs to upgrade our electric and gas distribution systems; the amount of certain sources of energy we must use, such as renewable sources; our ability to purchase generating facilities and recover the costs associated therewith; our ability to sell utility assets and any conditions placed upon the sale of such assets; our ability to enter into purchased power agreements and recover the costs associated therewith; the allocation of expenditures by transmission companies on transmission network upgrades and our ability to recover costs associated therewith; reliability; safety; the issuance of securities and ability to use other financing arrangements for our renewable energy projects; accounting matters; and transactions between affiliates. These regulatory authorities and organizations are also empowered to impose financial penalties and other sanctions, including requirements to implement new compliance programs. Failure to obtain approvals for any of these matters in a timely manner, or receipt of approvals with uneconomical conditions, may cause us not to pursue the construction of such projects, or to record an impairment of our assets, or may cause a delay in construction of such projects such that we are not able to meet new demand growth, and may have a material adverse impact on our financial condition and results of operations. Our regulators or legislatures could change regulations or laws to permit third parties to provide renewable energy directly to our customers without being treated as a utility, potentially causing a competitive disadvantage for us. Changes to these regulations could materially increase our costs or cause us to reconsider our strategy, which could have a material adverse impact on our financial condition and results of operations. Provisions of the Wisconsin Utility Holding Company Act may limit our ability to invest in or grow our non-utility activities and may deter potential purchasers who might be willing to pay a premium for our stock.

We have significantly reduced our federal and state income tax obligations through tax planning strategies and the utilization of bonus depreciation deductions for certain expenditures for property. These tax planning strategies and bonus depreciation deductions have reduced taxable income, which in turn has generated large tax credit carryforwards. We plan to utilize all of these tax credit carryforwards in the future to reduce our income tax obligations. If we cannot generate enough taxable income in the future to utilize all of the tax credit carryforwards before they expire due to lower than expected financial performance or changes to tax regulations, we may incur material charges to earnings. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 allows for the sale or transfer of eligible renewable tax credits to other taxpayers. We have sold, and continue to plan to sell, a substantial amount of our eligible renewable tax credits. The inability to sell renewable tax credits at reasonable terms, or the determination that renewable tax credits that we generate or sell are not eligible or are eligible at a different rate, could materially impact our tax credit carryforward position or result in liability to purchasers of the tax credits, which could subject us to significant litigation, liability and costs. Repeal or amendment of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, or portions of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, could have an adverse impact on our financial condition and results of operations, including, but not limited to, a material increase in customer costs, a material decrease in cash flows from operating activities, which could impact metrics used by rating agencies, and a negative impact on the economics of future planned renewable and energy storage projects. In addition, our tax liability is determined by our taxable income multiplied by the current tax rates in effect. If the federal or state tax rates are increased, or we become subject to a corporate alternative minimum tax, we may experience adverse impacts to our financial condition and results of operations until those rates are reflected in our regulatory filings. Our utility business currently operates wind and solar generating facilities, which generate production tax credits that are eligible to be used to reduce our federal tax obligations. The amount of production tax credits we earn is dependent on the level of electricity output generated by our qualifying generating facilities and sold to an unrelated buyer, and the applicable tax credit rate. A variety of operating and economic parameters, including transmission constraints, the imbalance of supply and demand of energy resulting in unfavorable pricing for wind or solar energy, adverse weather conditions and breakdown or failure of equipment, could significantly reduce the production tax credits generated by our wind or solar facilities resulting in a material adverse impact on our financial condition and results of operations. Our utility business is developing energy storage facilities, which are expected to generate investment tax credits. Investment tax credits are dependent on the tax capitalized costs of the qualifying generating facilities and the applicable tax credit rate. If there is a disagreement on the qualifying costs or whether the facility qualifies for higher levels of investment tax credits, the amount of investment tax credits awarded may be significantly reduced, possibly adversely impacting our financial condition and results of operations. If energy storage facilities are not completed in the anticipated timeframe or investment tax credits are not able to be generated or sold due to the repeal or amendment of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, we may experience adverse impacts on our financial condition and results of operations. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 introduced new labor requirements that are required to qualify for the full value of renewable tax credits. Failure to meet these requirements on renewable projects that began construction after January 28, 2023 could result in a significant reduction in the amount of renewable tax credits, which could adversely impact our financial condition and results of operations.

We have experienced a significant increase in inflation. The impact of supply chain disruptions and other factors continue to create uncertainty in near-term economic conditions, including whether inflation will continue and at what rate. Increases in inflation raise our costs for labor, materials and services. Inflation may also cause interest rates to increase or stay elevated, increasing our cost of capital. Failure to timely recover these increased costs in rates may adversely impact our financial condition and results of operations. Further, increased costs due to inflation will directly and indirectly increase customer costs, which may decrease demand for energy or impact our customers' ability to pay their bills, which could adversely impact our financial condition and results of operations.

Successful implementation of our strategy is dependent upon our ability to access the capital markets. We have forecasted capital expenditures of approximately $11 billion over the next four years. Disruption, uncertainty or volatility in the capital markets could increase our cost of capital or limit our ability to raise funds needed to operate our businesses. Disruptions could be caused by Federal Reserve policies and actions, currency concerns, inflation, economic downturn or uncertainty, monetary policies, a negative view of the utility industry or our company, failures of financial institutions, U.S. debt management concerns, U.S. debt limit and budget debates, including government shutdowns, European and worldwide sovereign debt concerns, other global or geopolitical events, or other factors. IPL and WPL have entered into conditional commitments with the U.S. Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office for loan guarantees of approximately $3 billion in aggregate and WPL has been selected for additional grants. The inability to access these funds due to federal action or other reasons may increase our costs and interest rates. Increases in interest rates will cause the cost of capital to increase and may cause the price of our equity securities to decline. Any disruptions in capital markets could adversely impact our ability to implement our strategy. We rely on our strong credit ratings to access the credit markets. If our credit ratings are downgraded for any reason, such as worsening credit metric impacts, reduced liquidity, negative changes to our regulatory environment, or general negative outlook for the utility industry, we could pay higher interest rates in future financings, the pool of potential lenders could be reduced, borrowing costs under existing credit facilities could increase, our access to the commercial paper market could be limited, or we could be required to provide additional credit assurance, including cash collateral, to contract counterparties. If our access to capital were to become significantly constrained or costs of capital increased significantly due to lowered credit ratings, prevailing industry conditions, regulatory constraints, volatility of the capital markets, inflation or other factors, our financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.

Alliant Energy is a holding company with no significant operations of its own. The primary sources of funds for Alliant Energy to pay dividends to its shareowners are dividends and distributions from its subsidiaries, primarily its utility subsidiaries. Our subsidiaries are separate and distinct legal entities and have no obligation to pay any amounts to Alliant Energy, whether by dividends, distributions, loans or other payments. The ability of our subsidiaries to pay dividends or make distributions to Alliant Energy and, accordingly, our ability to pay dividends on Alliant Energy common stock will depend on regulatory limitations, earnings, cash flows, capital requirements and general financial condition of our subsidiaries. Our utilities have dividend payment restrictions based on the terms of regulatory limitations applicable to them. If we do not receive adequate dividends and distributions from our subsidiaries, then we may not be able to make, or may have to reduce, dividend payments on Alliant Energy common stock.

We operate in an industry that requires the continuous use and operation of information and telecommunications systems. We face threats from use of malicious code (such as malware, viruses and ransomware), employee theft or misuse, vulnerabilities (such as the log4j and MOVEit vulnerabilities), fraud attempts, phishing attacks and advanced persistent threats. This includes threats from nation-state actors (such as VOLT TYPHOON and SALT TYPHOON), which have demonstrated an increased focus on targeting critical industries, including telecommunications and energy. Incidents of ransomware attacks have been increasing in frequency and magnitude. Emerging artificial intelligence technologies may be used to develop new hacking tools, exploit vulnerabilities, obscure malicious activities, and increase the difficulty detecting threats. Cyber attacks targeting electronic control systems used at our generating facilities and for electric and gas distribution systems could result in a full or partial disruption of our electric and/or gas operations. We have relied on a global supply chain for certain components of our operating and technology systems, which may increase our exposure to cyber attacks. Any disruption of these operations could result in a loss of service to customers and a significant decrease in revenues, as well as significant expense to repair system damage and remedy security breaches. Due to the evolving nature of cyber attacks and cybersecurity, our current safeguards to protect our operating systems and information technology assets may not always be effective. We rely on third parties for software to protect against cyber attacks and we are at risk if such third parties are targets of cyber attacks. Measures taken to avoid, detect, mitigate or recover from cybersecurity breaches or incidents may be insufficient or become ineffective, and there are no assurances that cybersecurity breaches or incidents will not impact our business, operations and financial condition. If the technology systems were to fail or be breached by a cyber attack or a computer virus, and not be recovered in a timely fashion, we may be unable to fulfill critical business functions and confidential data could be compromised, adversely impacting our financial condition and results of operation. In addition, we use information technology systems to collect and retain sensitive information, including personal information about our customers, shareowners and employees, which is subject to privacy laws and regulations. In some cases, we outsource administration of certain functions to vendors that have been or could be targets of cyber attacks. Any theft, loss and/or fraudulent use of customer, shareowner, employee or proprietary data as a result of a cyber attack could subject us to significant litigation, liability and costs, as well as adversely impact our reputation with customers and regulators, among others.