Good morning. My name is Julie, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the TransAlta Corporation fourth quarter and full-year 2022 results conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you'd like to ask a question during this time, please press star one on your telephone keypad. If you'd like to withdraw your question, please press star two. Thank you. Ms. Valentini, you may begin your conference. Thank you, Julie. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to TransAlta's fourth quarter and full-year 2022 conference call. With me today are John Kousinioris, President and Chief Executive Officer, Todd Stack, EVP Finance and Chief Financial Officer, and Kerry O'Reilly Wilks, EVP, Legal, Commercial and External Affairs. Today's call is being webcast. I invite those listening on the phone lines to view the supporting slides that are posted on our website. A replay of the call will be available later today. The transcript will also be posted shortly thereafter. All the information provided during this conference call is subject to the forward-looking statement qualifications set out here on slide two, which is also detailed further in our MD&A and incorporated in full for the purposes of today's call. All amounts referenced during the call are in Canadian currency, unless otherwise noted. The non-IFRS terminology used, including adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow, are also reconciled in the MD&A for your reference. On today's call, John and Todd will provide an overview of the results for 2022. After these remarks, we will open the call for questions. Let me turn the call over to John. Thank you, Chiara. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our fourth quarter and full-year results call for 2022. As part of our commitment towards reconciliation, I want to begin by acknowledging that TransAlta's head office, where we are today, is located in the traditional territories of the Niitsitapi, the people of the Treaty 7 region in Southern Alberta, which includes the Siksika, the Piikani, the Kainai, the Tsuut'ina, and the Stoney Nakoda First Nations, as well as the home of Métis Nation Region 3. TransAlta had an exceptional 2022. During the year, we successfully navigated market challenges and achieved results that exceeded the top end of our updated guidance and expectations for the year. We delivered CAD 1.63 billion of adjusted EBITDA, a 27% increase over our 2021 results, and free cash flow of CAD 961 million or CAD 3.55 per share, a 64% increase over 2021 results on a per-share basis. It was a remarkable result for the company and our shareholders, where all fleets and business segments, with all fleets and business segments contributing to the results with strong performances. Availability was excellent across our facilities at 90%, compared to 86.6% in 2021. Thanks to the strong operational performance of our fleet, we were able to successfully supply generation when the market needed it most. Benefiting from the strong power prices experienced in Alberta during the year, particularly during periods of market tightness. Our results demonstrate the value of our strategically diversified fleet in Alberta. We continue to believe that we have the right fleet to effectively supply our customers and realize value for our shareholders. With our fast-ramping hydro and our converted gas assets, we can provide cost-effective reliability when the market needs it. Something we're also incredibly proud of was our safety performance throughout the year. We operated without a single lost time injury during the year across our global operations and delivered a total recordable injury frequency across the entire fleet of 0.39, an outstanding result and our best outcome ever. We continue to maintain a strong financial position with over CAD 2 billion in liquidity and are well-positioned to deliver on our construction program. During the year, we secured a CAD 400 million term facility with our banking syndicate and followed that up with a $400 million senior green bond offering in November, the proceeds of which were used to repay our expiring $400 million unsecured notes. Starting in January, our shareholders received a 10% increase to their common share dividend, raising it to an annualized CAD 0.22 per share, representing our fourth consecutive annual increase. On top of that, we returned CAD 54 million to shareholders over the year in the form of share buybacks, which we expect to continue. On the growth side, our development team secured 200 MW of renewables growth with the announcement of the Horizon Hill Wind Project with Meta, as well as the Mount Keith transmission expansion project in Western Australia with BHP. We've made excellent progress in advancing the rehabilitation of our Kent Hills facility. All towers are now fully disassembled, 21 foundations have been reported, and our first tower has been fully reassembled. Northern Goldfields Solar, Mount Keith transmission, Garden Plain Wind, Horizon Hill Wind, and White Rock Wind are all under construction and progressing well. We continue to make progress on increasing our EBITDA contribution from renewables assets with the addition of the Windrise and North Carolina solar facilities last year. EBITDA from our renewables and storage assets reached 54% in 2022, another step towards our 70% target by the end of 2025. As we've advanced our clean electricity growth plan, our ESG ratings have improved with MSCI upgrading us from BBB to A and CDP upgrading us from B to A-. Today, we're pleased to announce that we've increased our decarbonization ambitions by adopting a net zero by 2045 target. In 2022, we were able to achieve carbon emissions reductions of an additional 2.3 million tons or 18% over 2021 levels. This now brings our total emissions reductions to 68% or 22 million tons since 2015, a significant achievement. As a result of our emissions reductions journey, the carbon intensity for our converted natural gas units is approximately 57% lower than coal-fired generation, and we've reduced our carbon compliance costs by 45% from CAD 16 per MWh in 2020 and 2021 to CAD 9 per MWh in 2022, notwithstanding the increase in carbon pricing during that period. The cash cost of carbon compliance for our company has fallen from CAD 178 million in 2021 to CAD 78 million in 2022. We are committed to maintaining a leadership position in climate change and contributing to a net zero future. Our growth strategy, which is focused on renewable and storage projects, is in line with the Paris Agreement goal to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees celsius. We made great strides in expanding our pipeline for growth in 2022. We added almost 2 GW to our renewable development pipeline across Canada, the United States, and Australia, providing great progress towards our longer-term goal of having 5 GW of projects in the pipeline. We recently announced the acquisition of a 50% interest in a 320 MW Tent Mountain pumped hydro energy storage project. This project provides us with a unique opportunity to supply 15 hours of long duration and zero-emission energy storage capabilities for the Alberta market, helping to address the increasing intermittency that will be experienced with the growth of renewable generation in the province. Within our development pipeline, we currently have 374 MW of advanced stage generation and transmission projects that we are advancing towards final investment decisions in the upcoming quarters, representing additional growth of approximately CAD 600 million. These include our 180 MW WaterCharger battery storage project in Alberta, our 100 MW Tempest wind project in Alberta, and our 94 MW Southern Cross capacity and transmission expansion projects in Western Australia. Demand for renewables remains strong across all of our operating regions, and we see opportunities for growth in our markets. For 2023, we're targeting to reach final investment decisions on 500 MW of growth. We also have a goal of adding another 1,500 MW of new sites to our pipeline during the year to ensure our growth in the longer term. As we look ahead to advance our development pipeline, we are seeing inflationary and supply pressures mounting with associated impacts on some of our development opportunities. We've seen significant increases in turbine supply pricing and raw materials are experiencing significant price inflation. We estimate that current build costs for new assets have increased by almost 40% compared to projects that were initiated a year ago in the current environment. As a consequence, in December, we increased our capital target from CAD 3 billion to CAD 3.6 billion. Despite the increases in capital costs for projects, we're seeing continued robust demand for renewable energy as corporate and government sustainability commitments remain firm. In tandem with the increase in capital costs, we have adjusted upwards our EBITDA target from CAD 250 million to CAD 315 million as we have seen PPA prices respond favorably to the supply and input cost pressures. We expect returns to remain intact for our shareholders. We also expect the recent announcements regarding the Inflation Reduction Act in the U.S. and the Fall Economic Statement in Canada to be positive for our industry and TransAlta, and will continue to drive renewable energy demand in both regions. To date, we've secured 800 MW of growth projects across Canada, the U.S., and Australia, representing 40% of our 2 GW target by 2025. These projects will contribute approximately CAD 145 million in contracted EBITDA once fully operational or approximately 47% of our five-year incremental annual EBITDA target of CAD 315 million. As we carry out our growth focus, we're investing in our development team to broaden our capabilities as a developer of choice and to expand, advance, and convert our development pipeline. We remain confident in our ability to deliver on the remainder of our 2 GW clean electricity growth plan. Looking forward to 2023, we announced our outlook in December, advising that we expect the company to generate adjusted EBITDA between CAD 1.2 billion-CAD 1.32 billion and free cash flow between CAD 560 million-CAD 660 million or CAD 2.07-CAD 2.45 on a per share basis. Relative to 2022, we expect adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow to be impacted by three principal factors, including, first, strong merchant pricing levels continuing in Alberta, although at a lower target price range than 2022. Based on our fundamental market forecast, we expect the Alberta spot price to be between CAD 105 and CAD 135 per MWh. This lower price expectation is driven by normalized weather expectations and the addition of new wind and solar supply, which will be partially offset by lower fuel costs due to favorable natural gas hedges. Second, contributions from our new projects, including Garden Plain, White Rock, Horizon Hill, Northern Goldfields Solar, and Mount Keith transmission. Third, contributions from our rehabilitated wind turbines at our Kent Hills facilities beginning in the first half of 2023, with a full return to service in the second half of 2023. Performance from the energy marketing segment is difficult to predict, and we've set our target around a midpoint gross margin expectation of CAD 100 million. I'll now turn it over to Todd to take us through our financial results for the quarter and year. Thank you, John. Good morning, everyone. I'll kick off my comments with a discussion on the Alberta portfolio. In Alberta, our hydro, gas, and wind facilities are dispatched as a portfolio in order to benefit from base load and peaking energy sales. During the fourth quarter, our Alberta fleet had excellent availability at 94%, which underpinned our exceptional results. When we revised our guidance at the end of Q3, our balance of year outlook was based on power prices averaging roughly CAD 140-CAD 150 per MWh. Ultimately, the spot price in the quarter settled significantly stronger at CAD 214, and our merchant production was able to realize strong margins during this period. Looking at the full-year, 2022, the province experienced high electricity demand, driven by periods of strong weather-driven demand, unplanned outages at several generators, and outages on the transmission tie line, which reduced overall supply capacity. This resulted in strong pricing throughout the year, with the average pool price for 2022 settling at CAD 162 per MWh, stronger than the average price of CAD 102 per MWh in 2021. The ability of our hydro fleet to capture peak pricing was demonstrated throughout 2022, with realized energy prices of CAD 197 per MWh, which represented a 21% premium over the average spot price. Similarly, our gas fleet also captured peak pricing throughout the year with realized merchant prices of CAD 194 per MWh, which also represents a 20% premium to the average spot price. Our merchant Wind Fleet realized an average price of CAD 90 per MWh and also benefited from the sale of renewable energy credits. Looking at 2023, we have approximately 6,800 gigawatt hours of Alberta gas generation hedged at an average price of CAD 98 per MWh, and roughly 89% of our required natural gas volumes have been hedged at attractive prices. Our hedging activities provide downside protection and support for the Alberta gas fleet. We continue to retain a significant open position in order to realize higher pricing during times of peak market demand. Our financial results for the fourth quarter were exceptional. We generated over CAD 500 million of adjusted EBITDA and over CAD 300 million of free cash flow. Strong performance in the fourth quarter was led by the gas segment, which benefited from strong production and strong realized pricing in Alberta. The combined gas fleet produced adjusted EBITDA of CAD 264 million, a two and a half fold improvement over last year. Adjusted EBITDA from the hydro segment was CAD 133 million, roughly double our result in 2021, and the wind and solar segment was up 21% quarter-over-quarter. Energy marketing continued its strong performance and in the quarter delivered CAD 63 million of EBITDA, which was significantly stronger than our target expectations. Looking at our full-year results, given the dynamics of our merchant portfolio, our performance was led by the hydro and gas fleets, where hydro delivered an overall increase of 64% in adjusted EBITDA year-over-year, and the gas fleet delivered a 29% increase. The increase was driven by strong operations and our ability to supply during premium pricing in the Alberta market. Adjusted EBITDA from the wind and solar segment increased by 19% year-over-year due to higher production from the full-year contributions from our Windrise and North Carolina asset additions and higher spot prices realized in Alberta. Adjusted EBITDA from the energy transition segment decreased by CAD 47 million year-over-year due to the announced retirements of Keephills Unit 1 and Sundance Unit 4. This was partially offset by strong performance of our Centralia facility, which improved by CAD 30 million, or 41% compared to last year. Our energy marketing segment also had another outstanding year, delivering CAD 183 million in adjusted EBITDA, exceeding its historical average contribution. I would like to thank all of our employees for their performance in delivering one of the best years in TransAlta's history. Slide 12 provides a historical snapshot of the hydro business. Since the expiry of the PPAs in 2020, shareholders have benefited materially from these assets, which generated over CAD 300 million of EBITDA in 2021 and over CAD 500 million in 2022. Although production varies quarter-quarterly, it remains consistent on an annual basis, providing long-term predictability. In addition, we continue to realize a premium on energy sales of roughly 20% over spot prices. Before I turn things back to John, I'll turn to TransAlta Renewables. As you know, our operating wind and solar contracted assets, as well as the majority of our contracted gas assets, are held within TransAlta Renewables and are fully consolidated in TransAlta's results. Despite the ongoing suspension of operation at Keephills, RNW's results for the year have demonstrated the resilience of the diversified fleet and delivered adjusted EBITDA within guidance expectations for 2022 at CAD 487 million. This represents an increase of CAD 24 million, or 5% compared to 2021. The increase was a result of the incremental production from the addition of Windrise and North Carolina Solar. In December, we shared our 2023 outlook with investors that highlights cash flow expectations with a payout ratio of approximately 100%. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be between CAD 495 million and CAD 535 million. This represents a modest increase over 2022 levels due to the Goldfield Solar and Mount Keith transmission projects coming online in 2022 and will also benefit from the return to service of Kent Hills 1 and 2 wind facilities in the second half of 2023. Cash available for distribution is expected to be between CAD 230 million and CAD 270 million, which is broadly in line with 2022 performance. The capital program for RNW in 2023 is fully funded and will be focused on the Kent Hills rehabilitation and the growth projects in Australia. In addition to our financial outlook for 2023, our December update provided additional clarity on the strategic focus at TransAlta Renewables. RNW will be principally focused on the sustainment of its dividend in 2023 and beyond. Growth opportunities will focus on organic expansions of our existing assets, of which we've identified, over 700 MW of opportunities across our three operating regions. With that, I'll turn the call back over to John. Thanks, Todd. As I look at our strategic priorities for 2023, our primary goal is to continue delivering clean power solutions to and be the supplier of choice for customers that are focused on sustainable growth and decarbonization. In 2023, we're focused on progressing the following key goals. Reaching final investment decisions on the equivalent of 500 MW of additional clean energy projects across Canada, the United States, and Australia, and delivering $75 million-$100 million in incremental EBITDA. Achieving COD on the Garden Plain Wind, Northern Goldfields Solar, White Rock Wind, Horizon Hill Wind, and Mount Keith transmission projects. Expanding our development pipeline by adding 1,500 MW of development sites with a focus on renewables and storage. Completing the rehabilitation of Kent Hills Wind. Advancing a new technology roadmap that aligns with our clean electricity growth plan. Advancing the long-term contractiveness of our Alberta electricity portfolio. Delivering permanent financing for our growth projects. Achieving EBITDA and free cash flow within our guidance ranges. Advancing our ESG objectives, which include furthering reclamation work at Highvale and Centralia, providing indigenous cultural awareness training to all our U.S. and Australian employees, and achieving at least 40% female employees by 2030. I'd like to close by highlighting what I think makes TransAlta a highly attractive investment and a great value opportunity. We are pursuing a path that will reposition the company towards contracted renewable generation, minimize our exposure to regulatory and carbon risk, and diversify our merchant position in Alberta. We laid out a plan with a clear focus for capitalizing on cash flow generation from our unique legacy fleet in both Alberta and at Centralia, and reinvesting those cash flows towards the expansion and diversification of our contracted renewables to drive shareholder value. I'm pleased to say that the legacy facilities, together with our energy marketing business, are performing well and positioning us to effectively fund our transition towards contracted renewables growth. Second, we're a clean electricity leader with a focus on tangible greenhouse gas emissions reductions. We've reduced our carbon emissions by 68% and are on track to achieve a greenhouse gas emissions reduction target of 75% by 2026 from 2015 levels. Our board and management have also committed to a net zero by 2045 target for our global operations. Third, we have an extensive and diversified set of growth opportunities with TransAlta Renewables as our primary growth vehicle. Fourth, our company has a sound financial foundation. Our balance sheet is strong, and we have ample liquidity to pursue our growth. Finally, our people. Our people are our greatest asset, and I want to thank all our employees and contractors for the work that they have done to deliver our exceptional results this year. Our strategy is on track and delivering consistent with our expectations. Our vision of being a customer-centered leader in clean electricity, committed to a sustainable future remains firm. TransAlta is at an exciting time in its evolution, and we're well positioned for the future as a leader in low cost, reliable and clean electricity generation focused on serving and meeting the needs of our customers. Thank you, I'll turn the call back over to Chiara. Thank you, John. Julie, would you please open the call for questions from analysts and media? Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star followed by the one on your touch-tone phone. If you'd like to withdraw your question, please press the star followed by two. If you're using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. Your first question comes from Mark Jarvi from CIBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Thanks. Good morning. John, you talked about inflation and changes in power prices offset that. As TransAlta today in terms of contracting environment, how would you say that is? Is there sort of a bid-ask spread between developers and buyers of powers? Is it, you know, you're on the same page? I guess when you think about the 2025 targets, is that something where you know, that's to have contracts in hand and maybe CODs don't really come till 2026 or just, you know, confidence on the, I guess, the timelines for getting to the promised land of incremental EBITDA? Good morning, Mark, thanks for the question. I think I maybe misspoke during the presentation. I think at one point I said that one of our, you know, having TransAlta Renewables as our primary growth vehicle, that actually isn't correct. It is TransAlta, in fact, that's the primary growth vehicle. I think we made that clear in a December press release that we did in December. In terms of getting back to your question, look, we have seen inflationary pressures creep into sort of the new projects that we're developing. We do think that, you know, our PPA counterparties, those individuals that we're speaking to, very really see that. They see it not just from us, I think they see it from all developers that are in the marketplace trying to provide projects to meet their needs. Our sense is that those PPA prices are calibrating upwards to be able to make sure that those returns remain, you know, where they need to be. You know, in terms of, you know, TransAlta's approach, we're gonna remain very disciplined from a capital allocation perspective. We're not gonna, you know, rush into doing growth for the sake of doing growth. We do have hurdle rate expectations and continue to do pretty robust risk assessments on the projects that go forward. It's not just about the contracted period, it's also about the merchant tail period once the contract rolls off. That factors into the way that we're thinking about pricing and, you know, we'll proceed with projects when we're comfortable that we're getting appropriate risk-adjusted returns. In terms of growth, you know, I think our total approach on growth was actually landing transactions, getting to a determination to proceed with transactions in that 2 GW pipeline by 2025. We're confident that we'll be able to do so. When I speak to our growth team, they have a pretty clear sense of which projects slot in where and at which time frames in terms of the generation that we're looking to develop to be able to meet that target. We've got a cushion given the increase in the pipeline that we have going forward. Understood. And my second question, just on the Alberta power price year- to- date, it's been a little soft relative to the forwards over the start of the year. What's your updated view there? Is that just milder weather? Are you seeing any other sort of elements on the supply-demand side that might contribute to where, you know, settlement prices are below the forward curve at the beginning of the year? Yeah. I would say that the prices so far this year haven't been sort of wildly outside, you know, outside the ranges of what at least our fundamental forecasting was kind of expecting. I think, you know, for purposes of the guidance that we provided, we were looking at pricing in that CAD 105-CAD 135 range over the course of the year. I think year-to-date, pricing has been roughly in the CAD 119 range. I think month to date has been, I think about CAD 109- CAD 110, although we've had quite a bit of weather here in the last little bit, which is lifting prices here as we move to the balance of the month. I think the forward curve is in the mid 130s right now, Mark. you know, that would be kind of at the upper end of what we thought things would go. I would say we've had some pretty benign weather, so far, at the front of the year in terms of, you know, compared to sort of a normalized price expectation. I think the weather has been less cold than we would expect. As a result, I think we've seen quite a bit of renewables generation in the market, which tends to occur at kind of the temperatures that we've seen and the weather conditions that we've seen in the year-to-date. As you know, that can change, you know, pretty quickly. We are seeing that change right now. In terms of the balance of the year, you know, in terms of supply additions into the marketplace, I think what we've seen is frankly constructive to pricing in the year. I think some of the larger gas facilities that we were looking at potentially coming in earlier in the year are looking now to come in certainly later in the year and possibly even into the early part of next year. From a supply perspective, I think that's, you know, I'd say on balance, probably more positive to seeing, you know, better pricing in the year than maybe our original base assumption was when we were looking at our guidance for the year. Okay. Thanks for the comments, John. Thanks a lot, Mark. Your next question comes from Maurice Choy from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Thank you, good morning. I just want to start with buybacks. Obviously, you stated in the past that you will consider opportunistically buying back your stock, particularly if the share price falls below your view of the intrinsic value. If I compare the capital you've allocated to buybacks in Q4, the transactions seem to be around the CAD 12-CAD 13 range, which is quite similar to the earlier parts of 2022. With the share price being where it is today, how do you view your buyback activity level in 2023? Good morning, Maurice. I would, I think you're right in terms of kind of identifying the levels that we would typically be in the market buying back shares. I would say, you know, given where the share price is trading today, and given our view generally on where we think value is for the company, it would be low. It would be the kind of circumstances where we would be more active in the market and buying back shares. As you know, we have a pretty set view on how we allocate capital in the company, and we've got that bucket of, I think 35%-50% that is oriented towards growth, debt repayment and returning capital to our shareholders through share buybacks. We do have a pretty significant growth program that's in flight right now that we're making sure that we're allocating capital to appropriately there. For sure, we would look to being constructive and buying shares in the marketplace when we're seeing the shares trading kind of at lower levels. Thanks. If I could just finish with the RNW/TAC question, and thanks for the clarity on the development pipelines in your slides. When you exclude the projects under construction, it does seem like RNW's pipeline is about 15% of TAC's pipeline, or a total pipeline combined. Maybe some thoughts on how these lines were drawn. Also, am I right to assume that if an asset sits on a TAC side and not an RNW side, that asset could still be dropped down to RNW? Yeah. Maybe I'll start with your last question first, then Todd and I can jump in and talk about the allocation. Well, first of all, I think Maurice, the broad percentage kind of allocation that you talked about is about right. I tend to think of it as sort of in that 17%-20% would be the total that would be on the RNW side. I think it is the case that, you know, the projects that are on the TAC pipeline could, depending on the circumstances, be candidates for a drop-down to TransAlta Renewables, so we haven't hardwired that. That would be done on an asset-by-asset basis in light of the circumstances that we see. I think on the RNW pipeline, those assets that have been articulated there as being very clearly for RNW tend to be expansions of existing assets that are within the RNW family. For example, when you think of the Canadian battery opportunity, just a simple one, that's tied to Kent Hills, which is a RNW asset. Willow Creek is sort of a step-out growth from existing assets that they would have. The U.S. assets would fall into a similar vein. Then, you know, step-outs in terms of our existing relationships in Australia would also naturally fall towards TransAlta Renewables, given the, you know, given their investments that they have in that part of the world. Todd, I don't know if you wanna add any more color to that. I think you've covered it well, John. Yeah. I mean, in particular, the nearest term projects are the Australian ones, which are currently, you know, the expansions of existing facilities under the existing contractual relationships. Those are the most advanced and the ones that we're keeping our eye on in the near term here. Thanks for the color. Thanks, Maurice. Your next question comes from Rob Hope from Scotiabank. Please go ahead. Morning, everyone. I wanna revisit your comments on capital allocation. I understand, you know, you wanna save some dry powder for your development pipeline. When we take a look at your, you know, CAD 1.1 billion of cash on the balance sheet, programs in flight, as well as the potential to sanction another CAD 600 million of growth, you know, you still have quite a lot of dry powder there. When you take a look at, you know, where you want to put capital to work, could we see you do, you know, incremental returns to shareholders, or is there a bias towards something else, whether that's kind of, you know, more on the development side? Good morning, Rob. You know, you're right when it comes to sort of the strength that we have in the balance sheet. We tend to, when we look at our capital allocation, look to a view on what's in sort of the best interest of our shareholders from a longer-term perspective. You know, we are of the view that growth is the primary way, you know, appropriately risk-adjusted growth is the primary way that we can increase value for our shareholders. That really underpins our entire clean electricity growth plan. You know, the legacy business is generating strong cash flow right now, and that is helping to drive the strength in that balance sheet and the allocation. As I said before, we do look at where the share price is trading at any given time and continue to lever in share buybacks as appropriate. When it comes to sort of the way that we look at our dividend policy, and that's a board issue, obviously, again, we look at it from a long-term sustainability perspective and making sure that we're layering in that dividend, you know, sort of going forward. I think maintaining a strong level of liquidity in a bit of an uncertain time that we're in right now and with the kind of growth that we expect to see going forward is prudent. Also given kind of the evolution of the Alberta merchant market as well, making sure that we're strong from a financial perspective. Yeah. No, I just add that, look, that's all correct. In our minds, I think we're probably earmarking sort of that CAD 50 million-CAD 75 million number, similar to what we've done in prior years. We are planning and thinking about an Investor Day later in the year, you know, we'll have an opportunity to update you with our thoughts at that point in time. All right. That's great. Then maybe a little bit more of a granular question. O&M kind of ticked up in Q4, specifically at the gas and the hydro assets. Can you give some color what happened there, was that, you know, in part just an acceleration of work just given how much or just how strong pricing was? It was effectively a factor of the strong performance. It is a combination of different things. Some of the incentive programs we have is some of the ongoing costs. It's basically triggered with the stronger performance, Robert. I think also, Robert, as a line item, I would say, insurance has ticked up pretty significantly across the board, and that's being reflected in the O&M side, particularly on the hydro. Especially on hydro. Yep. Was that just a Q4 item, or is that, has been occurring all through 2022? It's been a gradual increase throughout the year, I would say. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Yep. Your next question comes from Patrick Kenny from National Bank. Please go ahead. Thank you. Good morning. Just back to the clean growth strategy. Just wondering, as you look back over the past year, given the resurgence in market demand for, you know, reliable natural gas-fired generation, across multiple jurisdictions, I know you expect the inflationary pressures within your renewables backlog to be offset by, you know, higher PPAs. Just curious if you're having conversations with your board with respect to shifting towards, you know, more of a balanced growth strategy between renewables and gas. Again, given the new geopolitical environment, as well as the extra cash that you have on the balance sheet. Good morning, Patrick, and thanks for that. You know, our clean electricity growth plan, kind of, the status quo plan that we have now that takes us out to 2025 continues to be the focus of the company and the primary direction that we're going in. I would say that the importance of our gas fleet and the role that it plays, for example, in Alberta and even in Southwestern Ontario, very critical, and we're very much focused on, you know, what are the attributes of that fleet to be cost-effective going forward and as flexible as possible, you know, just given the market dynamics that we see developing in both of those jurisdictions. In terms of incremental new, I think, gas build, we do consider it periodically. We aren't seeing a ton in terms of it being contracted, you know, getting us to a place where we're comfortable with the kind of cash flows that incremental natural gas generation build would provide. Do we evaluate potentially adding some peaking gas, particularly from an Alberta perspective? The answer to that would be yes, for sure, expecting that to be more merchant in orientation. In terms of sort of greenfield natural gas prices or natural gas projects, we see a bit of interest for that in Western Australia, in sort of those remote kind of operating regions, but we aren't seeing a ton of that, certainly from a North American perspective. Okay. Got it. Thanks for that. Then on the on the new pumped hydro storage opportunity, wondering if you can comment on what sort of hurdle rates you would need in order to proceed with the investment. You know, would it be in line with the 11.5x build multiple on the base- Yeah. Clean growth plan? You know, would you be needing a higher return just to compensate for development risks? Maybe you can walk us through what those key risks on execution might look like. No, for sure. I would say that Tent Mountain is a real early-stage opportunity, Patrick. In terms of, you know, what are hurdle rates. We're very excited about the opportunity, but it's years away from coming to reality. In terms of what the hurdle rates would be, you know, our preference would be that we would see that facility contracted in some way or have some kind of a revenue stream that provides at least a relatively predictable cash flow stream for that kind of asset, given the size of capital investment that would be required to bring it through. I think the returns that we would be looking for would be in the context from a risk-adjusted perspective on that profile. I don't think that our company right now is viewing that kind of project as a merchant project. Just to address your question on returns. In terms of, you know, some of the development elements associated with that, again, early days, just making sure that we're clear from a pricing perspective, what it would cost to get the project to be executed. We have a sense of what that would be, and there has been technical work done, but there is a bit more that we need to do to make sure that it's there. Then kind of the age-old question, it seems increasingly important, is transmission interconnection. It is in a relatively remote part of the province, and the issue would be, you know, how much would it cost and what would the time frames be to be able to bring that power into the grid from an interconnected perspective in an efficient manner. Just trying to give you a bit of a flavor of the kinds of ways we're looking at it. Okay. That's great color. Thanks, John. I'll leave it there. Thanks a lot, Patrick. Your next question comes from John Mould from TD Securities. Please go ahead. Morning, everyone. Maybe just starting with your 2023 objective of securing long-term contracts for the Alberta merchant fleet. You know, how much of that fleet would you ideally like to contract, and maybe what's realistic? What does the competitive environment look like for contracting those assets right now, given the pipeline of new build renewable power, development projects out there in the province, including your own? Yeah. Good morning, John. What we focus on, and when we think of the kinds of contracting that we're doing, I'm gonna separate kind of the contracting that we would do to kind of underpin new growth, greenfield growth from a PPA perspective, and kind of just focus on the kind of recontracting that we're focusing on for our merchant fleet right now, which is really what the goal is directed towards. You know, we are seeing some interest in having renewables from offtakers come in. I think of the work that we've done with Lafarge, for example, to supply some of their operations from our existing wind fleet. On the gas side, which is an even bigger focus for us as we go forward, our C&I business is an important component. It has grown for us. When we talk about our hedge levels, I would say, Todd, 40%, almost 50% of that is probably underpinned by our C&I business as we go forward, as opposed to just hedging in the financial market. That tends to be in that three-year range. We have seen more recently a bit of an uptick in interest from customers in terms of making sure that they lock in power prices, given some of the just higher prices that we've experienced over the last little bit, and our C&I team is looking at increasing that. We tend to focus on that, I would say, Todd, as kind of representing what the equivalent would be of our version of base load generation from a thermal perspective, and making sure that it's contracted at an appropriate level with a view to long-term generation over that period. Hopefully that gives you a little bit of color. Yeah. Yeah. I would say it really is focused on the C&I business because it is an attractive way for us to hedge out three to five years. That really doesn't exist in the financial markets to any magnitude. As John mentioned, sort of thinking that, you know, 300 MW-plus is a nice base load level of fixed price contract to have, period. Okay, great. Thanks for that. Then, maybe just coming back to the RNW pipeline. You know, there's nothing in there for Ontario. You're qualified for Ontario's first upcoming long-term RFP. You know, just given the out-supply outlook in the province, are there opportunities for adding storage, optimizing Sarnia or, you know, wind expansions at some of the sites within RNW's portfolio? Or would any opportunities in that province, you know, really land beyond the 2026-ish, excuse me, time horizon that you're covering seemingly in that pipeline? Yeah. We are, John, looking at potentially adding a bit of incremental generation in some of our existing gas facilities in Southwestern Ontario, particularly in areas where we think just given sort of power demand and the grid that they would be in demand. We aren't at this point in time anyways, expecting to be sort of a major player in that period of time or, you know, sort of stepping out in any significant way. Some of the existing wind facilities, for example, that we have in the region, you know, I think of Melancthon or, you know, facilities or Wolfe Island, sorry, just outside of Kingston. You know, I think those are pretty well built up. You know, we're not seeing it as a big opportunity of runway for us going forward. You know, we recently did participate in one of the RFPs that we had in Ontario, and it helped with some of our post-PPA contracting in Ontario at Melancthon. You know, we'll do it opportunistically, but we don't have a ton of focus on that right now. Okay, great. Thank you. I'll leave it there. Thanks, John. Your next question comes from Ben Pham from BMO. Please go ahead. Hey, morning. Just a couple of questions on RNW. I'm wondering, I know you got the backlog in the slide. But with RNW, just looking at a yield of 8.5%, 100% payout. Like how does RNW even contemplate even making any sort of acquisitions or drop-downs with that cost of capital? Yeah. Hey. Morning, Ben. Look, I think really the two avenues that we're focused on. Clearly, as we mentioned, the Kent Hills remediation is fully funded, but on top of that, the company does still have a some bit of cash in Canada. It also has access to some cash down in Australia from those operations. There's a little bit of cash remaining available. On top of that, the company really has, you know, modest leverage. There's additional capacity on the leverage side that we can, we can look to entertain. Your comment is exactly driven around one of our core discussions internally about allocating growth and how do we do growth going forward. It was clear that TransAlta was sitting on larger cash balances, and that would just naturally lead you to a more moderated growth profile down at TransAlta Renewables. Basically, you have to pick your focus areas of where you want to invest, and clearly that's in the Australian and the Albertan businesses. Okay. Got it. Now, maybe just another question on RNW. We've seen a U.S. YieldCo launch a strategic review because of a high yield. Is that something that the RNW board and the team is considering or looking at? I don't. And look, Todd can speak to this. I don't think there is any sense of doing a big sorta strategic review right now from a, you know, a TransAlta Renewables perspective. I think we've talked about the convergence of the strategies of the two companies and the notion that in terms of the broader TransAlta group, having an interest in simplifying our structure if we can. That has a number of elements to it. It requires. You know, when we think about what that means going forward, you know, clearly that would need to be fair to TransAlta Renewables shareholders. It would need to be appropriate and make a lot of sense for our existing TransAlta Corporation shareholders. Whatever we would do, we need to make sure that we would or consider that it continue to permits us to grow and execute on our clean electricity growth plan and obviously maintain our credit rating. It's an ongoing thing that we assess internally, I would say, rather than doing any kind of a public sort of strategic review. Okay. got it. Then John, maybe my last one as a follow-up. I mean, you've had probably the best year I've seen TA put out for forever, for a long time, and your stock sitting here languishing over the last year. How much do you think that's attributed to how the RNW vehicle has moved? I mean, is there something else too that you think is driving that disconnect? You know, Ben, I'd be speculating. I mean, I think, for sure the way that TransAlta Renewables trades and how it all fits within the family has an impact on the company and how it trades. But, you know, I have to tell you, we're just focused on trying to execute our business plan. We're looking at making sure that we operate our facilities as best as we can. We're trying to be as disciplined as we possibly can from a capital allocation perspective and making sure that the projects that we're bringing on make sense and achieve the metrics that we've set for them and create value for our shareholders. You know, our belief is if we continue to execute well, that would be the key thing that value that we're creating will be reflected in the marketplace. Again, taking a long-term view. I gotcha. Okay. Okay, thanks, John. Thanks, everybody. Thanks so much, Ben. Your next question comes from Naji Baydoun from iA Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Hi, good morning. Just wanted to start off with a brief update on Garden Plain. Still no sort of changes to the ownership structure there? No indications from Pembina? Good morning, Naji. No indications from Pembina. We are getting close to, you know, getting that wind farm up and running. I think, Todd, by and large, we would think that we would be substantially there, I would say, by the end of the quarter, roughly speaking. I think we're entering into that zone on when Pembina would consider whether it would be wanting to exercise its option to acquire its interest in the facility. No. You know, nothing more than that at this point. They haven't given us indication of which way they're leaning at this point. No, not one way or the other. I did just want to point out that, you know, Garden Plain is connected to the grid and a number of turbines have been commissioned and generating in. It's, you know, it's up and running. It's not finished yet, but it's up and running and contributing, so we're happy to see that. Yep. Okay. Okay, that's good color. Thanks. I just wanted to try to take another stab at the capital allocation. Again, you know, amazing year. Great free cash flow generation, 2022 and 2023 as well. Yet kind of the stock price is going the other direction. You did a bit of buybacks in Q4, but not much. I guess once permanent financing is completed for the existing projects, is that enough to maybe launch, like, a more meaningful share repurchase program, maybe even an SIB? Yeah, I don't wanna. Naji, I wouldn't speculate on what we would do in terms of whether we would do, you know, a substantial issue for bid or, you know, anything more. I can tell you it is a constant discussion that we have in our management team, a constant discussion that we have, you know, with our board of directors, every meeting that we have in terms of what an appropriate level of capital allocation would be. Again, we're focused on the long term. At the kinda trading prices that we've recently seen for the share price, you know, I think you can expect that we would be in the market being active from time to time buying back shares. Yeah. Just to point out again, I think it was mentioned, we still have to finish the existing construction on the announced facilities. Then we are targeting 500 MW of new growth, which would equate roughly to, you know, north of a billion dollars of capital spend. Look, that is our primary focus. We're not, as John said, sort of entertaining at this point. Okay. Okay. Perhaps, I guess, more updates too as the year unfolds, we look forward to that Investor Day. Just maybe one last question on those FIBs new projects. You got Tempest and WaterCharger, that kinda maybe takes you to 300 MW. Just any more color on kind of the remaining 200 MW could come from to get you to 500 for the year? We have, I think it's just under 100 MW in Australia actually, at Southern Cross that we're working with BHP to actually land as well. When you look at the entire portfolio, I think when you do the math, it's just under 400 MW of late stage projects that we've got in place. The team continues to work various other elements in our pipeline, including potentially other projects that you don't see in our pipeline that could come forward. We're feeling pretty confident of our ability to land 500 MW over the course of the year. Okay. Okay. Just to be clear, that 94 MW expansion, that's a gas project, correct? The 500 MW is not all renewables, it's just total. That's right. That's fair. Yeah. Oh, okay. Okay, got it. Thanks for the clarification. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, should you have a question, please press the star followed by the one. Your next question comes from Chris Varcoe from Calgary Herald. Please go ahead. Hi. It's a question for John. John, we've seen natural gas prices across North America tumble this year pretty sharply. I'm wondering what kind of impact do you see these lower gas prices having upon your business and upon power prices in Alberta in 2023. Separately, do you view these lower prices as something that might be sustainable through the year? Or do you view this as just more a temporary phenomenon? Yeah. Good morning, Chris. In terms of, you know, natural gas prices, maybe I'll try to answer the question this way. I mean, I think, you know, having lower natural gas prices tends to help in terms of moderating kind of prices that you'd see in, in the marketplace. I mean, natural gas prices are still one of the most critical input costs in terms of pricing that goes on in the market. As you know, last year, prices were high, kind of been, you know, almost in some places, record levels of cost. We have seen prices come down, as you say. Right now, we're in the mid $2 range, I think, Todd, in terms of what we're expecting. I think we see that as being relatively stable, certainly for this year into 2023 and even going into 2024. Our company has largely procured its natural gas needs for the year at pricing that would be in that mid CAD 2 range, kind of in that CAD 2.50 range. I think, you know, more importantly, when you look at the province of Alberta, you know, there continues to be, at least from our company's perspective, a very real need to have natural gas-fired generation in the province. On cold days like today or super hot days, the renewables just can't provide the level of security and reliability that we need for the grid. We think from a long-term perspective, it continues to be a critical part of the menu that needs to be in the province. I think we're in a bit of a period of more moderated gas pricing right now, kind of a stable period, I would say. Who knows? I couldn't. You know, I probably would have said something similar at the beginning of 2022, then our, you know, the world turned upside down. Just changing gears, I wondered if you could lay out for me a timeline and the next steps for your early-stage pumped hydro project, the Tent Mountain Renewable Energy Complex. Oh, great. In terms of the next steps internally for us, it continues to be a considerable amount of due diligence, more technical work being done on making sure that we can, in a very effective way, move water from the upper reservoir to the lower reservoir, up and down, at an appropriate period of time. Really pressure testing the construction costs of that and the economics associated with that. Thinking through regulatory requirements. Thinking through interconnection to the grid, which is a critical component there. Making sure that we deal with our stakeholders in an appropriate way to make sure that the development is appropriate and they have an ability to provide input into that before we get anywhere near to being able to bring it in a, in a real meaningful way to our investment performance committee and our board for assessment. It remains years away, I would say, Chris, one of the key things, I think before we can begin actioning on it, not so much doing the diligence we need to develop it, but to actually bring it forward as a, as a viable project would be visibility or revenue stream. You know, how confident are we that we're gonna be able to get paid for developing a project like this? We think it's exactly the kind of thing that the province will need in the future. We're not quite there, I don't think from a market construct perspective, where the value of that would be, I think, fully recognized yet in the marketplace. I think we'll get there, though. Just finally, how do you view it, vis-a-vis the Brazeau project? I guess maybe can you update me on where that project now sits within the company? Yep. Brazeau is also a later stage project. Similar considerations, I would say, with Brazeau. I think we have a better sense of some of the technical requirements of Brazeau in the sense that we've been working on it for a longer period of time and periodically refresh the costs associated with developing that project. It too, you know, needs to have some kind of line of sight or visibility to the revenue stream before we'd be able to bring it forward. Again, we think it's the kind of battery effectively that the province will need in the future. In some respects, the Montem site is, you know, our Tent Mountain site is even better than Brazeau. It's 15 hours of storage, we think right now. Brazeau might be a little bit less than that. We really like the height differential between the upper reservoir and the lower reservoir. Also is a more bite-sized capital cost. Brazeau, although we can stage it, we can phase out the size of Brazeau, it's a pretty big project. I think right now it would roughly be in the CAD 3 billion range to put it in place. Tent Mountain would be quite a significant order of magnitude less than that. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Presenters, there are no further questions at this time. Please proceed with your closing remarks. Great. Thank you, everyone. That concludes our call for today. If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to the TransAlta Investor Relations team later today. Thank you very much. We thank you for joining and ask that you please disconnect your line.