About Northwest Natural Holding

Northwest Natural Holding Company (NW Holdings) provides regulated natural gas distribution (NGD) services to residential, commercial, and industrial customers in Oregon and southwest Washington. NGD provides natural gas service through approximately 799,000 meters in Oregon and southwest Washington. The company owns NW Natural, NW Natural Water Company, LLC (NWN Water), NW Natural Renewables Holdings, LLC, a non-regulated subsidiary established to pursue non-regulated renewable natural gas activities, and other businesses and activities. NW Natural is NW Holdings’ largest subsidiary. NW Natural distributes natural gas to residential, commercial, and industrial customers in Oregon and southwest Washington. NW Natural's natural gas distribution activities are reported in the natural gas distribution (NGD) segment. All other business activities, including certain gas storage activities, water and wastewater businesses, non-regulated renewable natural gas activities and other investments and activities are aggregated and reported as other at their respective registrant. NW Natural has been allocated an exclusive service territory by the Oregon Public Utility Commission (OPUC) and Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC), which includes the major population centers in western Oregon, including the Portland metropolitan area, most of the Willamette Valley, the Coastal area from Astoria to Coos Bay, and portions of Washington along the Columbia River. Major businesses located in NW Natural's service territory include retail, manufacturing, and high-technology industries. Natural Gas Distribution (NGD) Both NW Holdings and NW Natural have one reportable segment, the NGD segment, which is operated by NW Natural. NGD provides natural gas service through approximately 799,000 meters in Oregon and southwest Washington. Approximately 88% of customers are located in Oregon and 12% are located in southwest Washington. NW Natural has been allocated an exclusive service territory by the Oregon Public Utility Commission (OPUC) and Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC), which includes the major population centers in western Oregon, including the Portland metropolitan area, most of the Willamette Valley, the Coastal area from Astoria to Coos Bay, and portions of Washington along the Columbia River. Major businesses located in NW Natural's service territory include retail, manufacturing, and high-technology industries. Customers The NGD business serves residential, commercial, and industrial customers with no individual customer accounting for more than 10% of NW Natural's or NW Holdings' revenues. On an annual basis, residential and commercial customers typically account for approximately 60% of NGD volumes delivered and approximately 90% of NGD margin. Generally, residential and commercial customers purchase both their natural gas commodity (gas sales) and natural gas delivery services from the NGD business. Industrial and some large commercial customers also purchase transportation, but may buy the gas commodity either from NW Natural or directly from a third-party gas marketer or supplier. The company estimates natural gas was in approximately 63% of single-family residential homes in NW Natural's service territory in 2023. Customer growth in our region comes mainly from the following sources: single-family housing, both new construction and conversions; multifamily housing new construction; and commercial buildings, both new construction and conversions. Single-family new construction has consistently been the company’s largest source of growth. Seasonality of Business The NGD business is seasonal in nature due to higher gas usage by residential and commercial customers during the cold winter heating months. Other categories of customers experience similar seasonality in their usage but to a lesser extent. Regulation and Rates The NGD business is subject to regulation by the Oregon Public Utility Commission (OPUC) and Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC). In addition, the OPUC and WUTC regulate the system of accounts and issuance of securities by NW Natural. NW Natural files general rate cases and rate tariff requests periodically with the OPUC and WUTC to establish approved rates, an authorized return on equity (ROE), an overall rate of return (ROR) on rate base, an authorized capital structure, and other revenue/cost deferral and recovery mechanisms. NW Natural is also regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Under NW Natural's Mist interstate storage certificate with FERC, NW Natural is required to file either a petition for rate approval or a cost and revenue study every five years to change or justify maintaining the existing rates for the interstate storage service. Diversity of Supply Sources NW Natural supplements firm gas supply purchases with gas withdrawals from gas storage facilities, including underground reservoirs and LNG storage facilities. Storage facilities are generally injected with natural gas during the off-peak months in the spring and summer, and the gas is withdrawn for use during peak demand months in the winter. Diverse Contract Durations and Types NW Natural has a diverse portfolio of short-, medium-, and long-term firm gas supply contracts and a variety of contract types including firm and interruptible supplies as well as supplemental supplies from gas storage facilities. The majority of the company’s gas supply contracts include year-round, winter-only, summer-only, and monthly baseload supplies, and daily spot purchases. During 2023, a total of 875 million therms were purchased under contracts. NW Natural also contracts with an independent energy marketing company to capture opportunities regarding storage and pipeline capacity. Environmental Stewardship To that end, NW Natural developed and implemented an emissions screening tool that uses Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data to calculate the relative emissions intensity of gas producer operations and prioritize purchases from lower emitting producers. In addition to purchases of RNG, NW Natural is piloting a hydrogen blend in pipelines serving its Sherwood Operations and Training Center. NW Natural has tested a blend of 15% hydrogen and is testing a blend of 20% hydrogen at that location. Gas Distribution NW Natural has taken a proactive approach to replacement programs and partnered with the OPUC and WUTC on progressive regulation to further safety and reliability efforts for the distribution system. Additional operating and safety regulations from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) are under development. Other Certain businesses and activities of NW Holdings and NW Natural are aggregated and reported as other for segment reporting purposes. NW Natural The following businesses and activities are aggregated and reported as other under NW Natural, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NW Holdings: 5.8 Bcf of the Mist gas storage facility contracted to other utilities, third-party marketers, and electric generators; natural gas asset management activities; and appliance retail center operations. Mist Gas Storage The Mist gas storage facility is a 17.5 Bcf facility with 11.7 Bcf used to provide gas storage for the NGD business. The remaining 5.8 Bcf of the facility is contracted with other utilities, third-party marketers, and electric generators with these results reported in other. The overall facility consists of seven depleted natural gas reservoirs, 21 injection and withdrawal wells, a compressor station, dehydration and control equipment, gathering lines, and other related facilities. The capacity at Mist provides multi-cycle gas storage services to customers in the interstate and intrastate markets. The interstate storage services are offered under a limited jurisdiction blanket certificate issued by FERC. Intrastate firm storage services in Oregon are offered under an OPUC-approved rate schedule as an optional service to certain eligible customers. Gas storage revenues from the 5.8 Bcf are derived primarily from firm service customers who provide energy-related services, including natural gas distribution, electric generation, and energy marketing. Asset Management Activities NW Natural contracts with an independent energy marketing company to provide asset management services, primarily through the use of natural gas commodity exchange agreements and natural gas pipeline capacity release transactions. The results of these activities are included in other, except for the asset management revenues allocated to NGD business customers pursuant to regulatory agreements, which are reported in the NGD segment. NW Holdings These include the following businesses and activities aggregated under NW Holdings: NW Natural Water Company, LLC (NWN Water) and its water and wastewater utility operations and water services business; NWN Water's equity investment in Avion Water Company, Inc.; NW Natural Renewables Holdings, LLC and its non-regulated renewable natural gas activities; a minority interest in the Kelso-Beaver Pipeline held by our wholly-owned subsidiary NNG Financial Corporation (NNG Financial); and holding company and corporate activities, including business development activities, as well as adjustments made in consolidation. NW Natural Water NWN Water serves an estimated 180,000 people through approximately 73,000 water and wastewater connections across five states. NWN Water continues to grow though customer additions within or near its service territories, and continues to pursue acquisitions. The water and wastewater utilities primarily serve residential and commercial customers. NWN Water launched its services business in April 2023. This business provides operations and maintenance services to water and wastewater system owners and works to create value by leveraging shared personnel, technology and expertise to support delivery of clean, reliable water at a reasonable cost. NWN Water provides operations and maintenance services to nearly 20,000 connections. NW Natural Renewables NW Natural Renewables is an unregulated subsidiary of NW Natural Holdings established to pursue unregulated renewable natural gas activities. In 2021, a subsidiary of NW Natural Renewables, NW Natural Ohio Renewable Energy, LLC (Ohio Renewables) and a subsidiary of EDL, a global producer of sustainable distributed energy, executed agreements to partially fund two production facilities that are designed to convert landfill waste gases to RNG (EDL Facilities). The EDL Facilities have been constructed, and testing and commissioning of these facilities is underway, but has been delayed. Upon each EDL Facility achieving full commercial operations, Ohio Renewables is committed to make cash payments of approximately $25 million for each facility to partially fund the infrastructure required to condition biogas. Alongside these development agreements, Ohio Renewables and a subsidiary of EDL executed agreements for Ohio Renewables to purchase up to an annual specified amount of RNG produced by the EDL Facilities over a 20-year period. The agreements provide that either party may terminate the agreements and related transactions with respect to the subject facility if it does not reach commercial operations and the funding does not close by December 31, 2023, provided the terminating party has not failed to fulfill its obligations under such agreements, including with respect to achieving commercial operations. Ohio Renewables has contracted to sell RNG produced by the EDL Facilities up to certain specified volumes in each of calendar years 2024 through 2026 to an investment-grade counterparty. Ohio Renewables additionally has contracted to sell a fixed-volume amount of RNG under a long-term agreement with an investment-grade utility beginning in 2025 and extending through 2042. Properties NW Natural's Natural Gas Distribution Properties NW Natural's natural gas pipeline system consists of approximately 14,300 miles of distribution mains, approximately 700 miles of transmission mains and approximately 10,300 miles of service lines located in its territory in Oregon and southwest Washington. In addition, the pipeline system includes service regulators and meters, as well as district regulators and metering stations. Natural gas pipelines are located in public rights-of-way pursuant to franchise agreements, ordinances, or other legal rights, or on lands of others pursuant to easements obtained from the owners of such lands. NW Natural also holds permits for the crossing of numerous railroads, navigable waterways and smaller tributaries throughout our entire service territory. NW Natural owns service building facilities in Portland, Oregon, as well as various satellite service centers, garages, warehouses, and other buildings necessary and useful in the conduct of its business. Resource centers are maintained on owned or leased premises at convenient points in the distribution system to provide service within NW Natural's service territory. NW Natural commenced a 20-year lease in March 2020 for a headquarters and operations center in Portland, Oregon. NW Natural's Mortgage and Deed of Trust (Mortgage) is a first mortgage lien on certain gas properties owned from time to time by NW Natural, including substantially all of the property constituting NW Natural's natural gas distribution plant balances. These properties are used in the NGD segment. NW Natural's Natural Gas Storage Properties NW Natural holds leases and other property interests in approximately 12,000 net acres of underground natural gas storage in Oregon and easements and other property interests related to pipelines associated with these facilities. NW Natural owns rights to depleted gas reservoirs near Mist, Oregon that are continuing to be developed and operated as underground gas storage facilities. NW Natural also holds all future storage rights in certain other areas of the Mist gas field in Oregon in addition to other leases and property interests. NW Natural owns LNG storage facilities in Portland and near Newport, Oregon. A portion of these properties are used in the NGD segment. NWN Water's Distribution Properties NWN Water owns and maintains water distribution pipes, storage, wells and other infrastructure and wastewater treatment facilities, and holds related leases and other property interests in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Texas and Arizona. Pipelines are located in municipal streets or alleys pursuant to franchise or occupation ordinances, in county roads or state highways pursuant to agreements or permits granted pursuant to statute, or on lands of others pursuant to easements obtained from the owners of such lands. These properties are used by entities that are aggregated and reported as other under NW Holdings. The company considers all of its properties currently used in its operations, both owned and leased, to be well maintained, in good operating condition, and along with planned additions, adequate for its present and foreseeable future needs. History Northwest Natural Holding Company was founded in 1859.