Northland Power (TSX:NPI) released first-quarter financial results and hosted an earnings call on Thursday. Read the complete transcript below.
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Summary
Northland Power reported strong financial performance for the first quarter of 2026, with adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow per share increasing by 18% and 17% respectively, driven by favorable wind conditions in Northern Europe.
The company is advancing several key construction projects, including the Hailong offshore wind project in Taiwan and the Baltic Power project in Poland, which are on track for commercial operations in 2027 and the second half of 2026, respectively.
Northland Power discontinued its High Bridge onshore wind project in New York and paused other projects in South Korea due to regulatory uncertainties, focusing instead on disciplined growth and high-return projects.
The company secured a new 30-year corporate power purchase agreement for the Hailong project, enhancing its contract portfolio and creating opportunities for financial optimization.
Management reaffirmed 2026 financial guidance, expecting adjusted EBITDA between $1.45 to $1.65 billion, supported by strong liquidity and strategic capital allocation.
Full Transcript
Operator
Welcome to the Northland Power Conference Call to discuss the first quarter 2026 results. As a reminder, this call is being recorded on Thursday, May 14, 2026 at 10:00am Eastern. Present for this call are Christine Healey, President and CEO Jeff Hart, Chief Financial Officer, and Adam Beaumont, Head of Capital Markets,. Before we begin, Northland’s Management has asked me to remind listeners that all figures presented during today’s call are in Canadian dollars and to caution that certain information presented and responses to questions may contain forward looking statements that include assumptions and are subject to various risks. Actual results may differ materially from management’s expected or forecasted results. Please read the Forward Statements section in yesterday’s news release announcing Northland Power’s results and be guided by its contents when making investment decisions or recommendations. The release is available at www.northlandpower.com. I will now turn the call over to Ms. Christine Healey. Please go ahead.
Christine Healey (President and CEO)
Thank you and good morning everyone. Thanks for joining us. I’d like to begin with a few perspectives on the broader macro environment that’s shaping our business and the energy sector overall. Recent geopolitical developments reinforce the importance of energy security for governments, businesses and consumers. We’re operating in a dynamic global environment where evolving market fundamentals underscore the need for resilient and flexible energy systems. Across markets we see a clear and consistent theme tightening supply and growing demand, driven in part by accelerating electrification. And together these dynamics are reinforcing the critical role of renewables as a scalable, domestically sourced and increasingly cost competitive solution, playing a central role in strengthening energy independence and system resilience. As energy security becomes more critical around the world, demand for long term contracted solutions that provide price certainty and system reliability continues to grow. We’re seeing this play out across our portfolio. In Europe we see power pricing continuing to reflect underlying macro events, particularly in markets such as Germany and the Netherlands where natural gas prices are a driver of marginal electricity pricing. And here in Canada we see an increase in power demand with the need to nearly double electricity generation in coming years. We see that already within our natural gas facilities in Canada where there is a trend of increasing utilization month over month. Stepping back the current environment reinforces our strategy at Northland, which is anchored in creating value through disciplined execution, operational excellence and effective operation of our high quality asset base. Northland is well positioned given our multi technology expertise. We own and operate a diversified portfolio spanning offshore wind, onshore renewables, natural gas fired power and grid scale battery energy storage across Canada, Europe and asia comprised of 3 and a half gigawatts of gross operating capacity and 2.2 gigawatts of capacity under construction. Our scale, operating expertise and technology breadth position us well to capture growing demand and increasing value across our markets. Our diversification helps us deliver stable performance while creating value through recontracting, optimizing our existing fleet and disciplined execution of our development pipeline. Before turning to our first quarter results, I want to acknowledge a tragic incident that occurred during the quarter at our EPSA utility in Colombia where a contractor lost his life while performing work on one of our transmission lines. We took immediate action to support the family and colleagues and have implemented a detailed action plan. We’ve completed a thorough investigation and our action plan is directed at strengthening our safety culture and and applying the lessons learned to protect everyone who works at our sites around the world. This terrible incident reinforces the importance and the need for relentless focus on improving safety culture. With that, I will begin with an overview of our first quarter results, our strategic priorities and updates on our construction activities. Jeff will then take us through the financial results in more detail and after which we will open the line for questions. Strong wind conditions in Northern Europe contributed to solid financial performance in the first quarter, with adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow per share increasing 18% and 17% respectively compared to the first quarter of last year. While strong wind conditions underpinned that performance, our high fleet availability of 96% enabled us to capture these favorable wind resources and convert them into generation. We continued to advance construction at the 1 gigawatt Hailong offshore wind project in Taiwan, the 1.1 gigawatt Baltic Power offshore wind project in Poland, and the 80 megawatt 2 hour Jurassic Best project in Alberta, together representing more than 2.2 gigawatts of generation and storage capacity under construction. At Hilong, we recently signed a new 30 year corporate power purchase agreement with our current corporate offtaker which will cover 100% of the project’s generating capacity. As electricity demand grows and energy security becomes a greater policy priority, we see commercial off takers seeking long term contracted supply, providing price certainty and reliability, and Northland is well positioned to meet that demand. Turning to a bit more detail about our construction projects at Hailong fabrication of all the remaining major components has been completed. Our turbine installation campaign is underway following the opening of the weather window on April 1, we have 51 out of 73 turbines now installed. With 32 of those turbines generating power and all cabling work now complete, the project remains on track for commercial operation in 2027. At Baltic Power, we completed several important construction milestones including fabrication of the remaining components and installation of all four export cables, all the interarray cables, all the transition pieces and 38 of the 76 turbines. The project remains on track for commercial operation in the second half of 2026. At Jurassic Bass in Alberta, we installed all 39 battery packs and 20 medium voltage transformers during the quarter and successfully energized the project’s main transformer. That project remains on track for commercial operations in the second half of this year and we are advancing our two battery energy storage projects in Poland. We expect to start construction on one of those projects in the coming weeks, with the second project beginning in the coming months. Disciplined capital allocation remains central to our strategy. We continue to refine and high grade our development pipeline and prioritize projects with returns that meet our investment criteria. During the quarter, we decided to discontinue the 100 megawatt High Bridge onshore wind project in in New York State following the government’s suspension of permit applications. We had previously minimized spending on this project pending certainty on the permitting path and we’ve now determined that the issues are unlikely to reverse in the near term and our development money is better spent elsewhere. We also chose not to renew a permit for a 990 megawatt offshore wind project in South Korea due to the project not meeting our investment criteria. The remainder of our 1.6 gigawatt development portfolio in South Korea remains paused as we continue to assess the regulatory environment. These are the right decisions for our business. Our objective is disciplined growth supported by strong returns and execution certainty. We are also evaluating opportunities across our core markets and we’re maturing value enhancement opportunities within our existing fleet and we look forward to providing you with updates and more details on that as the year unfolds. With that, I’ll turn it over to Jeff to walk us through the financial results.
Jeff Hart (Chief Financial Officer)
Thanks, Christine and good morning everyone. It was a strong quarter with operational availability of 96% which allowed us to capture strong wind resource across our European offshore fleet. In addition, our results were supported by lower curtailments related to negative pricing and grid outages and the Oneida Energy Storage facility, which commenced operations in May of last year, also contributed meaningfully. These drivers were partially offset by lower production from our onshore wind and solar facilities in Spain, Canada and the U.S. overall, we generated first quarter adjusted EBITDA of 427 million, which represents an 18% increase compared to the first quarter of 2025. This increase, as I mentioned, was due to higher production from offshore wind and Contributions from Oneida as well as pre completion revenues from Highlon. Net income for the quarter was 161 million compared to 111 million in 2025 and free cash flow per share for the quarter was $0.70 compared with $0.60 in 2025. And in relation to our major construction projects, Baltic Power and Highlong both are on track for commercial operations as planned, with overall costs aligned with original expectations and as previously disclosed in the fall of 2025, slower than expected turbine commissioning at Highlong may require a potential equity injection of 150 to 200 million Northland share and this can be funded by several sources including corporate liquidity. However, we and our project partners are actively looking at optimizations at the project level and will provide an update later this summer. The signing of the new 30 year Highlon corporate power Purchase Agreement extends our weighted average contract length and creates incremental capacity for further project level optimizations. The Northland team is pursuing more value creation activities across our fleet and we are reaffirming our 2026 financial guidance with 2026 adjusted EBITDA expected to be in the range of 1.45 to 1.65 billion and free cash flow per share in the range …
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