ANNUAL REPORT 2000
CMS Energy Electric Utility
Gas Utility CMS Energy is an integrated energy company with Oil and Gas a strong asset base enhanced by an active Gas Transmission marketing, services and trading capability. Our growth Independent Power Production strategy is focused upon wholesale customers in International Energy the central United States from the Great Lakes to Distribution Marketing, Services, the Gulf of Mexico to the Rocky Mountains, where Trading we own and operate extensive natural gas and electric businesses. We also develop and operate international energy projects in selected areas of high growth and opportunity.
Our capabilities include:
• Oil and gas exploration and production • Liquefied natural gas importation and processing • Gas gathering, processing, storage and transportation • Electricity generation and transmission • Electricity and natural gas distribution • Energy marketing and trading, and energy management services
Sustainable Pretax Operating Income ($ millions)
Electric Utility Gas Utility Gas Independent Other Transmission Power Nonregulated** Production
494 481
227 189 160 132 148 98 61 34
99 00 99 00 99* 00 99 00* 99 00
* Excludes Loy Yang (2000) and Nitrotec (1999) write-offs ** Includes oil and gas exploration and production; marketing, services and trading; and international energy distribution businesses Financial Highlights
Millions of Dollars, Except as Noted Percent December 31 2000 1999 Change REVENUE Electric utility $ 2,676 $ 2,667 0.3 Gas utility 1,196 1,156 3.5 Independent power production (a) 1,171 1,073 9.1 Natural gas transmission (a) 1,053 895 17.7 Oil and gas exploration and production (b) 155 143 8.4 Marketing, services and trading (a) 4,442 1,320 236.5 International energy distribution (a) 265 307 (13.7) Other 30 31 (3.2)
Total revenue (a)(b) $10,988 $ 7,592 44.7 Consolidated revenue $ 8,998 $ 6,103 47.4 Consolidated net income $ 36 $ 277 (87.0) Net income attributable to: CMS Energy common stock $ 36 $ 269 (86.6) Class G common stock – 8 – Net income before losses on investments (c) $ 304 $ 318 (4.4) Effects of losses on investments in LoyYang (268) – – Effects of losses on investments in Nitrotec – (49) – Net income attributable to CMS Energy common stock $ 36 $ 269 (86.6)
Per common share (c) Diluted earnings per average common share: Earnings per share after reconciling items $ .32 $ 2.17 (85.3) Effects of losses on investments in LoyYang 2.37 – – Nonsustainable level of gains from asset sales (.20) – – Cumulative effect of change in accounting for inventories .04 – – Effects of losses on investments in Nitrotec – .43 – Effects of Class G common stock exchange – .25 – Earnings per share before reconciling items $ 2.53 $ 2.85 (11.2) Dividends declared $ 1.46 $ 1.39 5.0 Book value $ 19.48 $ 21.17 (8.0) Market value (year-end) $ 31.69 $ 31.19 1.6
(a) Includes CMS Energy’s share of unconsolidated revenue. (b) Before intercompany eliminations. (c) Refer to Management’s Discussion and Analysis for an explanation of the reconciling items.
CMS Energy Corporation 1 To Our Shareholders
Right to left: William T. McCormick Jr., chairman and chief executive officer; Alan M. Wright, executive vice president, chief financial officer and chief administrative officer; David W. Joos, executive vice president and chief operating officer– electric; and William J. Haener, executive vice president and chief operating officer– gas.
The year 2000 was a difficult one for CMS Energy, but it ended in a very positive way.
It began with the company facing continued uncertainty with respect Sustainable to electric utility restructuring, underperformance of several international Earnings per Share (Dollars) assets, a weak balance sheet, and rising interest rates and utility 2.75 purchased gas costs. 2.50 2.53
During the year, we worked hard to address each of these problems, as well as to sharpen our strategies for future growth. We also exceeded our year 2000 sustainable earnings commitment of $2.50/share, excluding the one-time $268 million write-down of the Loy Yang power plant in Australia. Target Actual Target 00 00 01 Significantly, we resolved a number of major uncertainties and problems in 2000 to clear the way for reliable growth in the future. We:
• Worked with legislators and regulators to pass electric restructuring legislation in Michigan, which resolved a pending rate complaint and provided for full recovery of stranded costs, securitization and no mandatory power plant divestitures. • Disposed of $1.2 billion of nonstrategic assets and consolidated debt, thus improving our domestic and international focus.
2 CMS Energy Corporation • Wrote off our Loy Yang investment, eliminating future operating losses. • Gained approval from the Michigan Public Service Commission to blend high-cost purchased gas with lower-cost inventory gas for the remaining period of our gas utility rate freeze, which ends March 31.
At year-end, we also put in place a new top operating management team: Dave Joos and Bill Haener, who share the chief operating officer role for electric and gas businesses, respectively.
Our comprehensive financial improvement plan deserves more detailed attention, so I have asked Al Wright, our chief financial officer and the executive responsible for executing the plan, to provide a detailed explanation, which begins on page 28.
Operationally, all of the company’s energy businesses are now prospering and put us in a strong position for future growth.
For the first time in many years, Consumers Energy does not face major regulatory issues. Most important, the issue of electric restructuring has been favorably and finally resolved in a way that benefits customers without penalizing shareholders.
Beginning next year, all of Consumers Energy’s electricity customers will be able to choose a different supplier. The utility will continue to deliver the energy as it does now, maintain its highly reliable distribution system, and sell electricity to those customers who prefer us to be their supplier.
The company will be allowed full recovery of stranded costs, and will not be required to sell any of its generating plants. Although residential electricity customers were given a 5 percent rate reduction, beginning last October we are allowed to fully offset that revenue As part of our financial improvement plan, loss with securitization benefits. Securitization bonds essentially the company in 2000 refinance existing utility debt with lower-cost, longer-term debt, sold a number of underperforming or yielding annual savings that offset the rate reduction. nonstrategic assets such as the Lakewood plant (top), and wrote In every state contemplating customer choice, citizens are understandably off our investment in Loy Yang Power in worried about whether they will face the power blackouts and soaring Australia (bottom). electricity prices that are plaguing California. In Michigan, the answer is no. Legislators, regulators and utility officials worked together to design legislation that avoids the mistakes made in California.
CMS Energy Corporation 3 Michigan also is bringing choice to natural gas customers. Consumers Energy has operated a three-year pilot program in which 150,000 customers participated. The pilot is being replaced by a phase-in of permanent choice for all customers.
During the pilot, we froze the price of natural gas for our customers at $2.84 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf) through the end of March 2001. Last year, gas prices rose nationwide to unprecedented levels – the average cost this past winter rose to about $6.50 per Mcf and January market prices soared to $10 per Mcf. We were able to purchase gas at an average of $3.85 per Mcf. The gas price freeze ends with the pilot program, and we are returning to a system that fully compensates us for the cost of gas purchased to serve our utility customers.
The gas price freeze (versus our higher supply cost), a five-month delay between the electric rate reduction and the start of the offset associated with securitization, and unusually mild summer temperatures contributed to an 8 percent decrease in Consumers Energy’s earnings during 2000. Sustainable operating earnings were $579 million, compared to $626 million the year before.
Meanwhile, sustainable operating earnings of our nonutility, diversified energy businesses grew 39 percent to $477 million, compared with
As part of deregulation, $342 million in 1999. Much of this increase is the benefit of the first Consumers Energy is full year of earnings from the CMS Panhandle Companies, including implementing programs that allow gas and electricity liquefied natural gas (LNG) operations, which were acquired at the end customers to choose their of the first quarter of 1999. Our international power plants – including energy supplier. 940 megawatts (MW) of new capacity – also increased earnings, and our exploration and production business benefited from higher oil and natural gas prices as well as increased production.
Other significant developments for the company in 2000 included:
• The third unit at the coal-fired Jorf Lasfar power plant in Morocco began commercial operation, and the fourth and final unit started operating early in 2001, bringing the plant’s total capacity to 1,356 MW. It is the largest independent power plant in Africa. • The first two gas-fueled generating units began operating at the 720 MW Al Taweelah A2 power and desalination facility in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
4 CMS Energy Corporation • The acquisition of the 445-mile Sea Robin pipeline, a gas and Stock Price at Year-end condensate pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico, offshore Louisiana, was (Dollars) completed. With a capacity of 1 billion cubic feet (bcf) per day, it 48.44 provides additional gas supply gathering resources to the CMS 31.69 Trunkline pipeline system. 31.19 • The CMS Trunkline LNG regasification facility in Lake Charles, Louisiana, received 55 cargoes, more than doubling the 27 cargoes received in 1999. • Our marketing and trading business successfully made the transition from a retail to a wholesale business. It traded 614 bcf of natural 98 99 00 gas, an increase of 31 percent from 1999, and 37,800 gigawatt-hours of electricity, up more than 900 percent. • Our oil and gas exploration and production business recorded year-end net proved oil and gas reserves of 235 million barrels of oil equivalent, despite selling reserves totaling 52 million net equivalent barrels during the year. The business began development of three significant oil and gas discoveries in Texas, began a major gas production program in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming, and more than doubled the natural gas and condensate field’s daily production capacity to nearly 225 million cubic feet of gas in Equatorial Guinea.
Our vision is to be an integrated energy company with a strong asset base, supplemented with an active marketing, services and trading capability. We are particularly strong in the North American gas value chain with exploration, gathering, processing, LNG, pipelines and distribution. Our assets are currently 80 percent domestic (with a strong position in the 20-state region from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast to the Rocky Mountains), and 20 percent international. While we will continue activities in focused international areas of previous suc-
cess, high growth and opportunity, we believe that at the present time CMS acquired the Sea the prospects for our domestic businesses are unusually good compared Robin gas and condensate pipeline, which is strategi- to recent years, and thus our near-term growth focus will be domestic. cally positioned in the Gulf of Mexico, an important hydrocarbon supply area. As we look to the year 2001 and beyond, I am encouraged that we have resolved many of our problems. We are committed to finishing the job, particularly with respect to strengthening our balance sheet. Fortunately, we will be doing this during a time when there are favorable trends affecting our outlook. These include:
• Strong gas and oil pricing favorable to our exploration and production revenues and profits.
CMS Energy Corporation 5 • Increased LNG cargoes and margins due to strong gas demand and prices. • Increased gas pipeline demand for firm capacity, improving transport margins. • Higher electricity pricing for our merchant independent power plants in the United States. • Lower forecasted interest rates, reducing CMS’ debt costs. • Greater energy price volatility, increasing earnings opportunities for our marketing, services and trading company.
As mentioned earlier, we recently realigned our management team. Dave Joos, who has led our electric utility business, is now executive vice president and chief operating officer – electric. All of CMS Energy’s electric businesses report to him, as does our marketing, services and trading unit. Bill Haener, who has led our gas transmission business, is now executive vice president and chief operating officer – gas. CMS Energy’s gas businesses, which include the distribution, pipeline, LNG and field services groups, report to him. Al Wright, who has been our chief financial officer, is now executive vice president, chief financial officer and chief administrative officer. In addition to his former responsibilities, he also manages human resources, information technology and corporate services. Vic Fryling, president and COO, took early retirement, and we thank him for his contributions and wish him well.
This management team is supported by a dedicated and extremely CMS’ drilling in the Permian Basin in West talented work force of 11,700 CMS Energy employees, and an Texas has been very additional 2,400 partnership employees. We are proud of the industry successful. We hold the record for the longest leadership they exhibit on a daily basis, and thank them for their horizontally drilled well, contributions to our success. at 9,400 feet.
We also thank our Board of Directors for their wise counsel and continuing support.
William T. McCormick Jr. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer March 30, 2001
6 CMS Energy Corporation Creating Value
One of CMS Energy’s strengths in the energy industry is the extensive span of our expertise, which reaches across almost the entire value chain.
Our expertise and resources span most fuels, and cover every step of the way to the customer: exploration and production; LNG importation; gas gathering, processing and storage; transmission; generation; distribution; commodity marketing and trading; and energy management services.
But our greatest strength is creatively integrating the individual pieces of this value chain. By finding innovative ways to combine our skills and assets, we can build businesses whose values are much greater than their parts. This creates improved value for both our customers and our shareholders.
This strategy is focused heavily in North America, and particularly on the natural gas chain from exploration to distribution. We have concentrated about 80 percent of our assets in the United States, primarily in the central states corridor from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast to the Rocky Mountains. Our near-term growth will be focused in this market, because we believe the prospects for our domestic businesses currently are unusually good compared to recent years. Simultaneously, we will continue activities in focused international areas of high growth and opportunity.
2000 2000 Sustainable Pretax Consolidated Operating Income Revenue (Millions) (Millions) $1,056 $8,998
$775 $8,213
$281 $785