Brookfield Renewable (BEP) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

DATE

Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026

CALL PARTICIPANTS

• Chief Executive Officer - Connor David Teskey
• Chief Financial Officer - Patrick Taylor

TAKEAWAYS

• FFO -- $346 million, representing 15% growth year over year.
• FFO per Unit -- $0.51, representing 11% growth compared to the prior year.
• Last-12-Month FFO -- 1.5 billion, or $2.18 per Unit, representing 15% and 12% growth, respectively.
• Liquidity -- 5.1 billion, consisting of cash, marketable securities, and available credit facilities as of Sept. 30, 2026.
• Growth Investment -- 3 billion, committed or invested during the third quarter, with 700 million net to the company.
• Commissioned Capacity -- 2.5 gigawatts, brought online during the third quarter across the global portfolio.
• Advanced Pipeline PPAs -- 1.6 gigawatts, signed during the quarter to derisk development activities.
• Annual Capacity Delivery Target -- 10 gigawatts, on track for this commissioned capacity run rate by 2027.
• Capital Recycling Proceeds -- 2.8 billion, expected from sales agreed to or closed since the end of the second quarter, representing 850 million net to the company.
• Hydroelectric Segment FFO -- $214 million, benefiting from realized gains on the sale of a 25% interest in the Maine hydro portfolio.
• Wind and Solar Segment FFO -- $243 million, supported by contributions from high capacity commissioned over the last 12 months.
• Distributed Energy and Storage FFO -- $54 million, supported by development activities and performance from the Westinghouse segment.
• Westinghouse Operating EBITDA -- 20% growth year to date, reflecting high demand for nuclear fuel and services.
• Green Bond Issuance -- C$750 million, raised across five- and 10-year tranches at rates below existing notes of comparable maturity.
• Total Quarterly Financings -- 10 billion, completed to optimize the balance sheet and fund growth initiatives.
• Nuclear Strategic Framework -- 120 billion, contemplated in an agreement with the Republic of Korea and the U.S. federal government for the construction of eight large-scale reactors.
• Boralex and Aypa Acquisitions -- closed during the period, adding a high-quality renewable power platform and the largest standalone battery storage platform in North America.
• Avaada Investment Realization -- $570 million, or $125 million net to the company, representing a successful exit from the Indian renewable platform at the maximum of the structured return range.
• Maine Hydro and Northview Sales -- $660 million, or 230 million net to the company, representing the sale of the final 25% interest in a Maine portfolio and the remaining interest in a 2,100-megawatt portfolio.
• Colombian Asset Monetizations -- 1.1 billion, realized from the sale of noncore hydro and solar assets within the Isagen platform.
• Fixed Rate Debt -- 96%, protecting the business from rising interest rates on a proportionate basis.
• Inflation-Linked Revenue -- 70%, providing an earnings tailwind during inflationary periods.
• Dividend Growth Target -- 5% to 9%, with growth expected at the lower end of the range while prioritization remains on higher-return investments.
• FFO Payout Ratio Target -- 70%, which the company continues to work toward over the medium term.
• Battery Storage Pipeline -- 20 gigawatts, representing a significant long-term growth opportunity as energy storage is increasingly combined with renewable generation.

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RISKS

• Taylor stated, "Results at ESA and specifically were impacted by drier conditions associated with El Nino," noting that these conditions affected operations in Colombia during the third quarter.

SUMMARY

Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. (NYSE:BEP) reported funds from operations of $346 million for the third quarter, representing an 11% increase per unit. Management reported that results were supported by contracted cash flows, inflation-linked revenues, and contributions from approximately 9,000 megawatts of new capacity commissioned over the last 12 months. The company closed acquisitions of the Boralex and Aypa platforms, expanding its global presence in renewables and battery storage. Strategic initiatives included signing a framework agreement for nuclear reactor deployment and progressing a corporate simplification to combine the partnership with its corporate entity. Capital recycling activities generated approximately 850 million net to the company as it crystallized value from mature assets to fund new growth.

• Taylor stated, "Participation remains below the required approval threshold of two-thirds of eligible units," regarding the proposed corporate simplification, which led the company to extend the voting deadline to Nov. 25, 2026.
• Teskey stated, "Westinghouse will provide design, engineering, and procurement services during construction followed by long term fuel and maintenance services for the constructed AP1000 reactors generating recurring long term cash flows," highlighting the strategic value of the nuclear framework agreement.
• Teskey stated, "We are signing 15, 20 year take or pay tolling agreements or capacity agreements for batteries that have very similar risk profiles to what we see in wind and solar," emphasizing the shift away from merchant revenue for energy storage.
• Teskey stated, "The private markets continue to show incredibly robust demand for renewable assets," noting a distortion between public and private market valuations for decarbonization businesses.
• Management identified three factors distorting public versus private market valuations: interest rate sensitivity perceptions, AI-driven demand volatility, and views on government support.
• Teskey stated, "As our business grows, we have an increasingly large and diverse pool of assets available for sale," noting that capital recycling has become a recurring and accretive earnings driver.
• Teskey noted that battery storage deployment is expected to represent 33% to 50% of the company's 10-gigawatt annual commissioning target by 2027.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

• FFO: Funds from operations, a measure of cash flow commonly used in real estate and infrastructure to assess operating performance.
• LTM: Last twelve months, referring to the financial performance of a company over the preceding 12-month period.
• PPA: Power purchase agreement, a long-term contract between an electricity generator and a customer to purchase power at a specified price.
• AP1000: A Westinghouse-designed Gen III+ pressurized water nuclear reactor featuring passive safety systems.
• APR1400: An advanced pressurized water nuclear reactor designed by the Korea Electric Power Corporation.
• GW: Gigawatt, a unit of power equal to 1,000 megawatts or 1 billion watts.
• MW: Megawatt, a unit of power equal to 1 million watts.
• Green Bonds: Fixed-income instruments designed to raise capital for projects with environmental or climate benefits.
• Run Rate: The projected future financial or operational performance of a company based on current data.
• Payout Ratio: The proportion of earnings or cash flow paid out to investors as dividends or distributions.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Operator: Hello, and welcome to the Brookfield Renewable. Third Quarter 26 Results Conference Call and Webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand has been raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce CEO, Connor David Teskey.

Connor David Teskey: Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for our third quarter 26 conference call. Before we begin, we would like to remind you that a copy of our news release and investor supplement can be found on our website. We also want to remind you that we may make forward looking statements on this call. These statements are subject to known and unknown risks, and our future results may differ materially. For more information, you are encouraged to review our regulatory filings available on SEDAR+ and EDGAR and on our website.

On today's call, we will review our third quarter results, discuss what we are seeing in the energy markets today, highlight the continued execution of our growth initiatives, and outline how we continue to position the business for long term value creation. Patrick will then review our financial results, our balance sheet, and our funding activities including our growing capital recycling program, and he will also provide an update on our proposed simplification. Following our comments, we look forward to taking your questions. Turning first to the quarter, we delivered record financial results and are accelerating our growth activities. We continue to scale our recurring capital recycling program alongside our steadily growing development platform.

Lastly, we are also strengthening our financial position ending the quarter with $5.1 billion of liquidity positioning the business to capitalize on opportunities in the current environment. In the third quarter, we delivered FFO of $346 million or $0.51 per unit, up 15% year-over-year or 11% on a per unit basis. In the last 12 months, we delivered FFO of $1.488 billion or $2.18 per unit, up 15% and 12%, respectively, compared to the prior year period. We invested or committed $3 billion into growth or $700 million net to BEP during the quarter. Including closing our acquisition of Boralex, a leading global renewable platform.

Subsequent to quarter end, we closed the acquisition of IPA, the largest stand alone battery storage platform in North America, strengthening our battery storage capabilities. We continue to scale our development through the addition of new platforms and accelerating of organic growth activities across our existing businesses, commissioning 2.5 gigawatts of new capacity in the quarter. We also further derisked our advanced pipeline, by signing power purchase agreements for 1.6 gigawatts of additional projects. Today, we remain on track to ramp up our run rate of 10 gigawatts of commissioned capacity by 2027.

Alongside our growing development, we continue to scale our capital recycling program agreeing to or closing sales since the end of the second quarter that are expected to generate approximately $2.8 billion in proceeds or $850 million net to BEP at strong returns. As demonstrated in recent years, this is a new and consistent earnings driver to our business and the natural result of the increasing amount of new capacity we bring online each quarter from organic growth. As our business grows, we have an increasingly large and diverse pool of assets available for sale.

Our flexibility to sell individual assets, portfolios, entire platforms, or minority stakes allows us to consistently crystallize value and generate a growing amount of recurring and accretive capital to fund our growth. Before discussing the broader energy market, and providing an update on our growth initiatives, We thought it would be worth highlighting the resilience of our business in an environment of higher interest rates and inflation. We have an incredibly durable platform that has delivered strong results through periods of both lower and higher rates. For new developments, we underwrite projects based on prevailing interest rates passing financing costs through into contract prices while preserving our target returns.

And with substantially all of our existing proportionate debt at fixed rates, our business is well insulated from rising rates. We also benefit from inflation linkage across 70% of our revenues which when combined with our high margins, provides a positive earnings tailwind during inflationary periods and positions our platform to deliver durable and growing cash flows over time. Turning to the energy markets, The environment for our business remains highly constructive. Global demand for power continues to grow outpacing new supply. Driven by the long standing trends of electrification, reindustrialization, and digitalization. At the same time, governments are increasingly focused on securing reliable and affordable power to support economic growth, and energy independence.

This widening supply demand imbalance is driving strong demand for renewable generation alongside investment in battery storage, and nuclear power, to provide the scale and reliability needed to support expanding electricity grids. Against this backdrop, we continue to see significant opportunities to invest in these technologies and deliver differentiated integrated solutions. Importantly, we remain disciplined in how we pursue growth continuing to develop projects backed by long term contracts with some of the largest and most creditworthy buyers of power in the world. During the quarter, we made meaningful progress advancing strategic priorities within our nuclear business, Westinghouse. Where we see among the most significant long term growth opportunities.

In September, we achieved another significant milestone, signing a strategic framework agreement with the U. S. Federal government the Republic of Korea. Building on our previously announced partnership with the US government, the agreement contemplates up to $120 billion of Korean investment to support the construction of 8 large scale reactors on federal sites. Including 6 Westinghouse AP1 thousands and 2 Korean APR1.4 thousands. Bringing us another step closer to the large scale deployment of several new utility scale reactors in the United States. Westinghouse will provide design, engineering, and procurement services during construction followed by long term fuel and maintenance services for the constructed AP1 thousand reactors generating recurring long term cash flows.

Westinghouse will also benefit from upfront licensing payments and a significant scope of work on the 2 Korean reactors. While the framework remains subject to final negotiations, it is expected to drive meaningful growth at Westinghouse while supporting investment in the nuclear supply chain. Enabling further reactor deployment globally. More broadly, growing demand for nuclear power combined with our expertise across the sector and access to scale capital is creating additional opportunities for us to invest in nuclear which we are actively evaluating. In addition, we continue to expand our capabilities and deliver on our growth targets through the acquisition of leading energy platforms. Since our last update, we closed the acquisition of both Boralex and IPA.

These acquisitions strengthen our position in attractive markets in battery storage, enhancing our ability to deliver integrated energy solutions to customers. Since closing these acquisitions, we have already begun executing on our business plans to accelerate growth and create value. At Boralex, we announced the tuck in acquisition of a renewable developer in the UK, expanding Boralex's development capabilities in an attractive market. We are also evaluating potential monetizations across the platform to crystallize value and fund future growth consistent with what we have done recently at Nayolin and many of our other renewable platforms. At IPA, we have also hit the ground running, signing 3 new power purchase agreements totaling approximately 900 megawatts at or above our underwriting expectations.

While advancing development in line with plan. More broadly, we continue to see growing demand for battery storage both through standalone projects and increasingly through hybrid solutions combining renewable generation, and storage. Year to date, we have delivered almost 600 megawatts of battery capacity across our platforms including contracted hybrid projects in Australia and Europe, as well as stand alone batteries in the US and Canada. These opportunities are further reinforcing the value of our battery storage capabilities and our ability to deliver comprehensive power solutions to our customers in a way that few others can. Stepping back, despite recent market volatilities, the fundamentals of our business remain as strong as ever.

We are delivering robust results and growth from our global portfolio of critical infrastructure assets, We are executing on our growth plans through disciplined acquisitions and the delivery of contracted projects, and we are increasingly generating strong returns through our recurring capital recycling activities. As a result, we expect to finish 2026 with earnings growth in line with or ahead of our long term targets. Underpinning all of this is our best in class balance sheet and leading access to capital which provides us with the flexibility to pursue opportunities at scale. Taken together, with a favorable long term outlook for power demand, our sector leading capabilities and our strong balance sheet.

We believe we are better positioned than ever to compound value over the long term for our investors. With that, we will turn the call over to Patrick.

Patrick Taylor: Thank you, Connor. Good morning to everyone on the call. We delivered another record quarter. Generating FFO of $346 million or $0.51 per unit. up 15% or 11% per unit year over year. Our results this quarter benefited from our long term contracted cash flows. Inflation linked revenues, and our diverse global business. We also realized the benefits from assets commissioned over the last 12 months. And execution of our scaling asset recycling program. Turning to our segment results. Our hydroelectric business generated $214 million of FFO. Benefiting from realized gains on the sale of our remaining 25% interest in our main hydro portfolio and the sale of some small hydros from our ESAN business in Colombia.

These gains together with the diversification of our fleet, helped offset weaker hydrology in Ontario, and Columbia. Results at ESA and specifically were impacted by drier conditions associated with El Nino. Which we expect to be temporary. With generation returning toward long term averages in the near term. Our wind and solar businesses generated $243 million of FFO. Benefiting from contributions from record capacity commissioned over the last 12 months and realized gains from the sale of assets to Northview Energy. Lastly, our distributed energy, storage, and sustainable solutions businesses contributed $54 million of FFO. Supported by development activities and continued strong performance at Westinghouse.

Year to date, adjusted EBITDA from Westinghouse's operating plants business its core business today, increased over 20% reflecting strong underlying demand for nuclear fuel and services. While the business continues to advance new AP1 thousand reactor development opportunities. Turning to our balance sheet. We continue to maintain a strong financial position. With over $5.1 billion of available liquidity today and remain focused on optimizing our balance sheet. Completing approximately $10 billion of financings in the quarter alone. Access to diverse sources of scale long duration capital, remains a significant competitive advantage. Providing flexibility to fund our growing development pipeline and pursue attractive investment opportunities.

Our financing activities this quarter were highlighted by our raising $750 million of green bonds across 5- and 10-year tranches. Strong investor demand enabled us to upsize the offering and price at the tight end of our expected range. At rates below our existing notes of comparable maturity. Further demonstrating the depth of demand for our credit and our ability to access scale capital at attractive terms. In addition, we continue to advance the recontracting of an 800-megawatt portfolio of hydro assets in Ontario under 20-year inflation linked power purchase agreements with the provincial system operator. We expect to sign these contracts before year end securing long term cash flows and supporting meaningful up financings.

Which we are progressing in parallel to generate even more capital. To fund growth. Turning to capital recycling. We continue to execute on our strategy. Agreeing to or closing sales since the end of the second quarter that are expected to generate $2.8 billion of proceeds. Or $850 million net to BEP all at strong returns. We completed the sale of our remaining 25% interest in a noncore hydro portfolio in Maine We closed the remaining 1-third and approximately 2.1 gigawatt portfolio of renewable assets to Northview Energy and completed 2 transactions involving small noncore hydro assets and solar assets from our Isan business in Colombia.

Together, these sales crystallize the value created through development, and operational improvements over many years. Generating highly accretive capital to fund further growth. In addition, we monetized our investment in Nevada, 1 of our Indian renewable platforms. For approximately $570 million or $125 million net to BEP. We initially invested in the business in 2023 through a structured investment to support its growth. Since then, the platform has grown its operating renewable capacity from 4 to over 7 gigawatts and added 3 gigawatts of annual solar module manufacturing capacity. With the sale, we have successfully exited at the maximum of our structured return range and above our target return expectations.

Representing another successful investment realization in India, where we continue to see significant opportunities to deploy capital into growth. Looking ahead, we have a robust pipeline of further monetization opportunities across our global business. As our development activities continue to scale, we are increasingly establishing recurring asset recycling programs within all of our platforms. Allowing us to monetize newly developed assets, and redeploy capital into higher returning opportunities. We also continue to evaluate larger portfolio and full platform sales where we can to crystallize significant value. Providing additional flexibility to fund our growth while delivering strong returns. Now before we return to questions, I wanted to provide a brief update on our proposed corporate simplification.

Combining BEP and BEPC into a single listed corporate entity. While substantially all votes cast by BEP unitholders to date support the simplification, Participation remains below the required approval threshold. Of 2-thirds of eligible units. Accordingly, we have extended the voting deadline to November 25, 2026 to provide unitholders with additional time to review the transaction and cast their votes. We continue to believe the simplification is in the best interest of all security holders. And expect the transaction to be tax deferred for Canadian and US unitholders. There will be no changes to our distributions or dividends. Brookfield's ownership, or management fees, or BEPS preferred units or public debt. All of which will remain outstanding.

Lastly, there is no meaningful cost to the business as a result. If you are a BEP unit holder, as of August 21, 2026, we encourage you to review the materials associated with the proposed simplification and to vote your units. With respect to BEPC, shareholders have voted to approve the transaction on October 14, However, as a reminder, the completion of the transaction remains conditional upon the approval of BEPS investors. In closing, our large diversified operating business, strong financial position, and disciplined approach to growth and capital recycling position us well to deliver on our target 10%-plus FFO per unit growth and 5% to 9% distribution growth targets for the business.

On behalf of the board and management team, thank you for your continued support and investment in Brookfield Renewable. That concludes our prepared remarks. With that, operator, please open the line for questions.

Operator: Certainly. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star-1 on your telephone. Wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star-1 again. 1 moment, please. First question comes from the line of Nelson Ng with RBC Capital Markets.

Nelson Ng: Great. Thanks, and good morning, everyone. First question just relates to, it is kind of short term. I. And I know that investors are more long term focused. But what have been the early signs, if any, of an impact from a potential Super El Nino. I know, Patrick, you mentioned that there was some impact seen in Q3, and I know some of the other. there is a few renewable companies who have kind of baked in some weak wind resources in their guidance for the next 2 quarters, but I know Brookfield is unique in terms of you do own a lot of hydro in North and South America.

Can you just comment on your kind of initial thoughts?

Patrick Taylor: Absolutely, Nelson. it is Patrick. I would say it is still relatively early days in our own monitoring of El Nino. And the impact to our results in the quarter from our vantage point has been relatively modest. Overall, we are very focused on the diversification of the platform that we have across all the technologies and the regions that we have, which we think are going to provide us a fair bit of insulation from the broader impacts that maybe certain other players may see in the sector. But it is still relatively early days, Nelson. We have not seen a significant impact to us and our global business.

But we are monitoring, you know, particularly results from our Columbia business. Which we have seen continue to deliver very strong results in spite of some of the impacts of El Nino that are pretty early today.

Nelson Ng: Great. Thanks, Patrick. And then this next question, I know it is still pretty early, but like, with the Democrats kinda gaining the majority in the House and Senate, in the midterm elections, Not sure whether you have any initial thoughts. Like, I presume Democrats are generally viewed as being more favorable for renewables, but not too sure about their view on data center development. But it would be great to get your initial thoughts.

Connor David Teskey: Good morning, Nelson. Connor here. We went into I guess, yesterday incredibly well positioned regardless of outcome. Our business, as Patrick mentioned, is incredibly diverse. But more importantly, it. it is driven by these multi decade demand trends, not by any single government policy or administration. And perhaps most importantly, our position at the forefront of the fastest, most important technologies, whether it be nuclear, whether it be batteries, whether it be low cost renewables, remains unchanged regardless of who is in office and what policies, they put in place. So we were fairly relaxed going into the votes yesterday. We do wanna be more constructive in answering your question.

As you say, it is very early But the results overnight could potentially open the door for either, permitting or credit reform. it is in the United States; it is too early to tell. We are not reliant on either of those things. But we will position the business to capitalize regardless of how things could change in the future.

Nelson Ng: Great. Thanks, Connor. I will leave it there.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Sean Steuart with TD Cowen.

Sean Steuart: Thanks. Good morning, everyone. A couple of questions. I want to start with the asset recycling platform. And the question is, as it becomes a larger percentage of overall EBITDA and FFO, Can you give us some perspective on what the crystallized returns on recent initiatives look like and thoughts on your ability to sustain those types of returns? Over the midterm?

Connor David Teskey: Good morning, Sean. Perhaps I will start and Patrick, you can jump in. Maybe to take a step back our decisions approach to asset recycling has and always will be an emotionless decision based on value. If we can sell assets at a greater value than we believe we will earn from holding those within our portfolio, and we have the ability to reinvest those proceeds into better risk adjusted returns elsewhere in the business then we absolutely will sell those assets and recycle the capital accretively into new growth opportunities.

What has changed in our business over the last 2, 3, or 4 years is due to the growth of our organic development business we now produce more stabilized cash generative operating assets every year at the exact same time that we have come into a market that has a tremendous amount of demand and investment opportunity. And those 2 things together has created an opportunity for us to continuously, grow our capital recycling program. And as a result, it is created what we think is a recurring and growing earnings driver that almost certainly will continue to scale on a very predictable basis into the future.

In terms of the capital recycling we have done over the last 12 to 18 months, Patrick may have a specific number, but it is above our. On average across billions of dollars, it is above the high end of our 12% to 15% total return targets. it is in the mid to high teens. And therefore, we view it as a very attractive not only new earnings driver to our business, but 1 that allows us to drive returns at or above the top end of our target range.

Sean Steuart: And I guess the question is, as you know, this is a programmatic piece of the process going forward. Your ability to sustain that 15%-plus return appreciating it will be opportunistic, and you will only move ahead on these opportunities if the returns make sense. But based on the pipeline of recycling opportunities you have, clear line of sight on, that type of return is still in reach out of the return for you guys?

Patrick Taylor: it is Patrick here and our. The short answer is yes. We have a high level of conviction in our ability to continue to deliver at those returns. And that conviction comes from how we were actually approaching our capital recycling program.

And the flexibility that we have We are able to pursue recycling no different than our operating fleet in a very diverse way across technologies, across countries, And then we also have flexibility in how we are going about recycling single assets parts of platforms, full platforms, the markets in which we sell them, private, public, etcetera, And so no different than what you have seen from us over our history in terms of being flexible on the M&A side. I would now say our capital recycling capabilities are catching up to that And our conviction in our ability to deliver those returns stems from that global base and the flexibility.

So the short answer is yes, but it does stem from that diversity and the flexibility that we have as a business.

Sean Steuart: Okay. Thanks very much, guys. I will leave it there for now.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Valtteri Sidhu with National Bank of Canada.

Valtteri Sidhu: Hi. Good morning, everyone. Just on the democrats winning last evening and appreciating your comments earlier that this is relatively new and fresh. I just wanted to ask the question another way What are you seeing for the spread for renewable assets today in the public and private markets? And what do you think that could ultimately evolve towards, just given the potential for more positive investor sentiment on the space? And if any impact on other development opportunities and/or I know your both targets.

Connor David Teskey: Good morning, and then thanks for the question. Generally, we would say that the private markets continue to show incredibly robust demand, for renewable assets and for a very significant number of years now, the private markets have been far more constructive on renewable assets and renewable investment exposure than the public markets. And we have certainly been capitalizing on that, whether it be the privatization of Nayeon or the privatization of Boralex that we closed this quarter. Candidly, I think some of that distortion between the private markets and the public markets is perhaps driven by 3 things. Not simply government policy perception.

The first would be in general, we think the public markets significantly overestimate the impact of interest rates on the fundamental performance and value of these businesses. Demand is overwhelming, and therefore, we are able to pass higher funding costs into contracts, preserving our returns, We have got inflation linkage in almost all of our contracts. We have got 95% fixed-rate. So the first thing I would say that is distorting public versus private is the perception of the sensitivity to interest rates. The second 1 would be the sensitivity to AI demand or AI volatility in the market.

And there, it is important to recognize that the demand for energy and clean energy from AI is simply amplifying what was already a multi decade trend of reindustrialization and that was creating a supply demand imbalance that the market is very simply unable to meet. And therefore, our growth and the market growth is not being set by AI demand, but rather it is being set by the number of projects and the ability to pull them out of the ground. Therefore, when sentiment on AI changes, it really does not change the demand profile for our business. And then we get to the third 1, which is the perception of government support.

And here, it is important to recognize that our business and the majority of the industry is driven by corporate demand. Not government policy. We had a line, I was going to say, 2, 3, or 4 years ago, where our business was driven now by corporate pull no longer government push. And therefore, new government that maybe is a little bit more constructive on permitting or tax credits, that would absolutely be incrementally beneficial. But candidly, we do not think it changes the incredible demand back backdrop for our business.

But it is those 3 things, not just government perception that we think is driving the difference in perspective between public support for green energy and private support for green energy. So a bit of a long winded answer, but I think it helps outline what we are seeing in the market.

Valtteri Sidhu: Very good. Thanks. Thanks for that context, Connor. And then turning over to my next question here. Now you have IPA close behind you, and batteries are becoming a larger growth driver. How are you seeing supply chain conditions evolve as the broader industry also currently skills development? Are you seeing constraints around equipment availability, delivery time lines, or cost that could affect execution and returns? And if you are, how are you looking to mitigate some of those risks?

Connor David Teskey: We. Obviously, the SEC is scaling up very dramatically and no different than what we have seen in solar, let's say, over the last decade. You do hit kind of short-term pockets where, you know, things get a little bit tighter from a supply chain perspective or a little bit looser. But what I would say is, in general, capacity additions that are being added on a global basis are doing an incredible job of keeping up with supply. And it is important to recognize that a lot of the capacity that is driving, supply for utility scale energy storage was actually on the back of incredible capacity additions to drive energy storage for transportation.

So this is not a discrete subsegment of a supply chain. We are part of a much broader supply chain that is very well supplying the broader market. In terms of when we do get those short term periods of tightness, this is where, as Brookfield Renewable, we continue to be incredibly differentiated by our scale and our global procurement. We are 1 of, if not the single largest battery storage developer around the world. We are 1 of the largest buyers of this type of equipment.

We have favorable framework agreements with the largest suppliers such that when there is tightness in the market, we generally are largely insulated from it by having a preferential position with the large, equipment providers. So it is something we monitor, but it is not something that is stressing us out too much at this point.

Valtteri Sidhu: Very good. Thank you. I will turn the line over.

Operator: Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Benjamin Pham with BMO.

Benjamin Pham: Hi. Thanks. Good morning. I wanted to stay with battery storage. Now you have you have closed the IPA acquisition. You have unpacked the battery storage outlook quite a bit in your recent Investor Day. Could you remind us the returns you are expecting with underwriting standalone storage and could you also update us on how quickly you expect to build up the 20-gigawatt-plus pipeline?

Connor David Teskey: So in terms of the returns we expect, they would be, at or above call it, the high end of our target range, which I do not think, should be a surprise. Anytime we are doing development, we would expect that to be at or above the high end of the range and to be offset by things like our long-term contracted hydros are gonna be at the lower end of the range. Batteries are no different.

The thing that we are most excited about and what is driving a lot of our enthusiasm about batteries is and while this may not last forever, certainly in the short to medium term, We are seeing outsized returns from the development of batteries while at the same time, they are now increasingly being contracted under very similar long term offtakes that we see in wind and solar. So we are signing 15, 20 year take or pay tolling agreements or capacity agreements for batteries that have very similar, you know, risk profiles to what we see in wind and solar, but we are able to do that at a premium return.

The other benefit we are seeing from a return perspective when it comes to batteries is the ability to either retroactively install batteries on existing wind and solar sites to, optimize or enhance the load profile of those projects. And those can be installed at incredibly high returns because you can leverage the existing infrastructure that is already on those sites or the ability to combine new build batteries with new build wind and solar generation to provide more 'round-the-clock the clock solutions that tend to generate very, very lucrative off take contracts that generate higher returns.

So all these things contributing to batteries certainly being on the upper end of where we are seeing risk adjusted returns. in the market. In terms of battery deployment in the pace at which we expect to build things out. As we look forward to next year, let's say, 2027 where we expect to be at about a 10 gigawatt run rate, for commissioning of new capacity, I would expect our energy storage component of that to be somewhere between a third and 50%.

Patrick Taylor: That it is Patrick here. If I could just add the other area above and beyond what Connor has mentioned on battery storage that I would highlight as well, just on the financing side. We have a long history of innovating in terms of how we finance all of the other technologies that we have invested in for years. We are spending a tremendous amount of time continuing to evolve and innovate in that space as well. And we think that this will provide another opportunity for us to demonstrate how our access to scale capital can be very differentiated and drive very efficient investments and support strong returns as well.

So there is a lot of economic benefits and a lot of strategic benefits to the IPA transaction, and us accelerating our battery storage strategy. And we think that access to capital is just another area we can just apply that advantage to continue to benefit from the strategic move that we are making.

Benjamin Pham: Okay. Got it. Seems like a pretty big lever going forward. Especially next year. Maybe I will switch over to the payout ratio trend looking at 1 of your slides. You have you have been incredible progress with moving towards that 70% target over the medium term. It looks like given your last 12 months results, you are probably getting close there. And not too far in the future. How should we think about your dividend growth now in that 5% to 9% range? Get towards that 70%? Is it gonna track more towards the FFO growth rate that you have been guiding for?

Patrick Taylor: Hi, Benjamin. it is Patrick. I would say a couple things to that. You know, First, we are making progress with respect to our payout. it is something that for the last couple of years, we have been very focused on in terms of getting towards our medium to long term target. And we continue to focus in that respect. In terms of dividend growth, what I would suggest is just given the significant amount of opportunities that we see ahead for the business. You know, realistically, we would expect to be probably on the lower end of our 5% to 9% as we have been for the last couple of years. But that is really 2 things.

First, we just see a lot of good growth opportunities. At or above the high end of our long term return expectations for investments. And then secondarily, it is us also continuing to show discipline and working to lower our payout ratio over time. So it is competing, interest there, but at the same time, we just see significant investment opportunities above our target range. And in those environments, it behooves us to be probably on the lower end of our dividend growth target.

Benjamin Pham: Okay. Got it. that is very helpful. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. And as a reminder, to ask a question, please press star-1 on your phone. Our next question comes from the line of Anthony Crowdell with Mizuho.

Anthony Crowdell: Hey, good morning team. 2 quick questions. Just on the simplification strategy, just talk about how do you guys think you get to a 2-thirds vote by later this month? Anything are you doing differently to encourage that vote? And then I have 1 follow-up.

Patrick Taylor: Thanks, Anthony. it is Patrick here. The key on the simplification, it is truly about getting the vote out. Of those that have voted to date, 99.7% have been for. We also have the recommendation from 2 independent proxy advisory firms recommending for it. So just to reiterate, it is truly about getting the vote out. The way in which we are continuing to focus on that is continuing, you know, significant outreach on the retail side of the business. We obviously have a very significant and large retail following as a business. Having been listed for the number of years that we have in Canada and in the US in particular.

And so the efforts on the retail side have been very significant over the last several weeks and will continue to do so. As we get towards our deadline at the end of the month. So it is focused on retail, as well as institutional over the next couple of weeks, and we just simply encourage BEP, unitholders to vote. And we remain committed to executing, the simplification because we do see the significant benefits that we would expect to accrue to all of our investors by doing so. So we have our heads down focusing on getting the vote out. And we will continue to do so over the next several weeks.

Anthony Crowdell: Great. And then just a follow-up. I do not wanna be left out in not asking a battery storage question. Company owns assets in ERCOT. ERCOT pricing has been very weak this year. Expected maybe to be weak for the near future. The everyone's really pointing to the amount of batteries storage that has come on the market and really suppressed prices. Just if you talk about--you know, maybe it does not seem like an attractive market that you would wanna deploy more battery storage or maybe it is Just any color and also when you think maybe the market goes back to normal, to showing the amount of demand that is going on in ERCOT?

Connor David Teskey: Thanks, Anthony. And let me frame it this way. there is probably. And I am sure I am gonna leave a geography out but there is probably 4 major markets around the world where we have seen the same dynamic play out around the build out of battery storage, and those would be California, ERCOT, the UK, and Australia. And in those markets, when battery storage tended to be built under a merchant revenue stream, you tended to go through these oscillations where when more intermittent renewables were on the grid, then relative to battery storage. Battery storage was incredibly profitable to own and develop.

But when battery storage got a little bit ahead, of the penetration of intermittent renewables, you get the dynamic of what you are seeing in ERCOT where you know, spreads compress and the revenue construct looks far less attractive. All of this to say what is changing about battery storage is, in general, we are not building batteries against merchant revenue constructs anymore. We are building them against 15, 20, 20 plus year take or pay tooling or capacity arrangements that are completely insulated from those oscillations short term oscillations of the attractiveness or unattractiveness of the markets when, grid stabilizing at assets get ahead of or behind the market penetration of intermittent renewables.

So ERCOT would be no different for us. We will continue to build there as long as we are seeing demand for those long term contracts. And if we do, we think we will continue to generate great returns.

Anthony Crowdell: Just 1 follow-up. Any timing on when you think the market--what is the right word--maybe exhausts all the merchant battery storage there that we get back to normal 2027, 2028, or not really sure?

Connor David Teskey: It would be tough to tell. The only thing I would say is in general, these things correct faster than people think. Great.

Anthony Crowdell: that is all I had. Thanks for taking my questions.

Operator: Thank you. I will now hand the call back over to CEO, Connor David Teskey, for any closing remarks.

Connor David Teskey: Thank you very much everyone for joining this quarter's earnings call and for your continued support and interest in Brookfield Renewable. We look forward to updating you and connecting with you again with our Q4 and full year results early next year. Thank you, and have a great day.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating. This does conclude today's program, and you may now disconnect.

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