Kirk Crews
Executive Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer at NextEra Energy
Thank you, Jessica. And good morning, everyone. NextEra Energy delivered strong first-quarter results and is off to a solid start to meet its overall objectives for the year. Adjusted earnings per share increased by 10.4% year-over-year, reflecting successful performance across all of our underlying businesses. During the quarter, we were honored that NextEra Energy was again ranked number 1 in its sector of Fortune Magazine's World's Most Admired Companies list for the 15th time in 16 years. Our culture of commitment to excellence in everything we do, and our core values are what allow our team of approximately 15,000 employees to continue delivering best-in-class value to our customers and shareholders while helping build a sustainable energy era that is affordable and clean.
FPL increased net income by approximately $98 million from the prior-year comparable period, which was driven by continued investment in the business for the benefit of our customers. During the quarter, FPL successfully placed in service approximately 450 megawatts of additional cost-effective solar projects that are recovered through base rates as part of its new 4-year settlement agreement, which as a reminder, became effective on January 1st of this year. As a result, FPL has now completed on time and within budget all of its plans solar build with 2022 in service dates.
FPL now owns and operates more than 3,600 megawatts of solar, which is the largest solar portfolio of any utility in the country. FPL's modernization investments since 2001 have saved customers more than $12 billion in fuel costs and its customers have benefited from a 45% improvement in reliability over the last decade. FPL's other major capital investments are progressing well including the North Florida Resiliency Connection and the highly efficient approximately 1,200 megawatts Dania Beach Clean Energy Center, both of which are scheduled for completion later this year. By executing on smart capital investments such as these and running the business efficiently, FPL continues to deliver its best-in-class customer value proposition of clean energy, low bills, high reliability, and outstanding customer service.
At Energy Resources, adjusted earnings per share increased by nearly 7% year-over-year, primarily driven by favorable performance in our existing wind portfolio. In terms of new origination, Energy Resources had another strong quarter of renewables and storage origination, adding approximately 1,770 net megawatts to our backlog since the last call, bringing our backlog total to approximately 17,700 megawatts. Included in the additions this quarter is approximately 1,200 net megawatts of wind projects, which is the second-largest quarter of wind origination in our history.
In the midst of inflationary pressures and uncertainty in solar supply chain, which I will discuss further in a few moments, our continued origination success in this environment is a testament to the strength of Energy Resources' competitive advantages and the ongoing demand from our customers for low cost renewables and storage. At this early point in the year, we are very pleased with our team's execution and progress at both FPL and Energy Resources.
Now, let's look at the detailed results, beginning with FPL. For the first quarter of 2022, FPL reported net income of $875 million or $0.44 per share, an increase of $0.05 year-over-year. Regulatory capital employed growth of approximately 11.3% was a significant driver of FPL's EPS growth versus the prior-year comparable quarter. FPL's capital expenditures were approximately $2.2 billion for the quarter. We expect our full-year 2022 capital investments at FPL to be between $7.9 billion and $8.3 billion.
FPL's reported ROE for regulatory purposes will be approximately 11.6% for the 12 months ending March 2022. Under our rate agreement, we record reserve amortization entries to achieve a predetermined regulatory ROE for each trailing 12-month period, in this case, the 11.6% that I previously mentioned. While we initially expected to earn below our targeted ROE in the early part of 2022, a combination of warm weather operational efficiencies, and outstanding execution by the team resulted in us achieving our targeted 11.6% ROE while using a $124 million of reserve amortization available under our current settlement agreement during the first quarter.
Turning to our development and planning efforts. FPL recently filed its annual Ten-Year Site Plan that presents our recommended Generation Resource plan through 2031. The recommended Ten-Year Site Plan includes roughly 9,500 megawatts of new solar capacity across our service territory over the next 10 years, which would result in nearly 20% of FPL's forecasted energy delivery in 2031 coming from solar generation. This plan solar build-out includes nearly 1,200 megawatts of base rate solar projects inclusive of the approximately 450 megawatts placed in service during the first quarter that we plan to build over the next two years. In addition, it includes approximately 1,800, megawatts under the SoBRA mechanism of our settlement agreement, approximately 1,800 megawatts of SolarTogether community solar projects that we expect to construct over the next four years as well as roughly 4,700MW of additional solar after 2025 that is subject to approval by the Florida Public Service Commission.
FPL continues to deliver what is one of the largest ever solar expansions in the U.S. Compared to current levels, the recommended plan projects an approximately 65% increase in zero-carbon-emission electricity produced by the FPL system over the next decade, largely as a result of FPL's continued rapid expansion of solar energy through the execution of its 30-by-30 plan which we now expect to complete by 2025, and the solar additions that I previously mentioned.
This projected increase in zero-carbon-emissions generation is significant for a utility system of our size, especially when considering that our total amount of Energy delivered in 2031 is expected to be nearly 10 percentage points higher through customer growth and increased adoption of electric vehicles. Our green hydrogen pilot program plans are also reiterated in the site plan. As we previously discussed, we until intend to build an approximately 25 megawatts electrolysis system at our Okeechobee Clean Energy Center that will be powered entirely by solar energy from a nearby site. The pilot is designed to test in practice the concept of replacing natural gas with green hydrogen as fuel for combined cycle unit use. The pilot project is expected to be to guide the way for future use of hydrogen as a fuel source across FPL's fleet of highly efficient combined-cycle units. Thus lowering or eliminating emissions from FPL's fleet in the future. This pilot project is projected to go into service in late 2023.
Notably, our as filed Ten-Year Site plan recommends a total expected deployment of approximately 3,200 megawatts of new battery storage capacity by 2031. Included in this total is approximately 1,400 megawatts of incremental battery storage to enhance readiness and reliability for our customers during potential extreme weather events. We also plan to make other smart capital investments for winterization efforts designed to support potential increased customer load during extreme winter temperature conditions while also providing additional day-to-day reliability benefits for customers.
A hallmark of our culture is taking every opportunity to learn from events that happen in our industry, not just those that directly affect FPL to ensure we continue to deliver the best possible value to our customers. Our plan targeted investments for winterization were identified as a result of our detailed assessment of our fleet following winter storm Uri last year that affected taxes and much of the South. We will provide additional detail on these programs and other capital initiatives at our June Investor conference.
The Florida economy remains healthy and Florida's population continues to grow at one of the fastest rates in the U.S. Florida's job market continues to show healthy results with more than 700,000 new private-sector jobs added over the last year and Florida's labor force participation rate is up nearly 2% year-over-year. Other positive economic data across the state include the continued strength of Florida's real estate market with a 3-month moving average for new housing permits up nearly 20% year-over-year.
FPL's average number of customers increased by more than 91,000 or 1.6% versus the comparable prior-year quarter, driven by continued solid underlying population growth. FPL's first-quarter retail sales increased 2.6% from the prior-year comparable period. And we estimate that approximately 0.7% of this increase can be attributed to weather-related usage per customer. On a weather-normalized basis, first-quarter retail sales increased 1.9% with strong continued customer growth contributing favorably. Energy Resources reported a first-quarter 2022 GAAP loss of approximately $1.5 billion or $0.76 per share. Adjusted earnings for the first quarter were $628 million or $0.32 per share, up $0.02 versus the prior-year comparable period.
The effect of the mark-to-market on non-qualifying hedges which is excluded from adjusted earnings was the primary driver of the difference between Energy Resources, first-quarter GAAP, and adjusted earnings results. As a reminder, this quarter's GAAP results were also impacted by the write-off of our remaining investment in Mountain Valley Pipeline, which we have excluded from adjusted earnings.
Contributions from new investments were roughly flat year-over-year, while our existing generation and storage assets added $0.05 per share due to favorable wind resource and the absence of winter storm Uri impacts. The contribution from our customer supply and trading business decreased by $0.02 per share and NextEra Energy Transmission increased results by $0.01 per share year-over-year. The comparative contribution from our gas infrastructure business decreased results by $0.02 per share following favorable performance in the first quarter of last year during winter storm Uri. All other impacts were roughly flat versus 2021.
As I mentioned earlier, Energy Resources had another strong quarter of origination which is reflective of our ability to continue leveraging our competitive advantages to deliver clean energy solutions to meet the ongoing market demand for renewables. Since the last call, we added approximately 1,200 net megawatts of wind projects for 2022, 2023, and 2024 commercial operation dates to our backlog. Our backlog additions also include approximately 440 megawatts of solar projects and approximately 130 megawatts of battery storage projects. With more than 2.5 years remaining before the end of 2024, we have now signed more than 85% of the megawatts needed to realize the midpoint of our 2021 to 2024 development expectation range.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Commerce initiated a review of anti-dumping and countervailing duties circumvention claim on solar cells and panels supplied from four Southeast Asian countries, which in recent years sourced over 80% of all solar panel imports into the United States. As we recently highlighted, we are disappointed by the Commerce department's decision to conduct this investigation. We believe the Commerce Department already settled this issue when it concluded in 2012 that the process of converting solar wafers into electricity-producing solar cells is technologically sophisticated and the most capital-intensive part of the solar panel manufacturing process. And when that occurs outside of China, the sales are not subject to the 2012 anti-dumping and countervailing duties applicable to Chinese solar cell imports. The Commerce Department's later rulings in 2014, 2020, and 2021 are consistent with this and have been relied upon by the solar industry as it continues to invest billions of dollars in new solar generating facilities in the United States over this period. In light of these four prior rulings, the reliance on them by the industry, and the substantial technologically sophisticated processing that occurs in the Southeast Asian countries, we believe it will be difficult for the Commerce Department to conclude under its circumvention standards that circumvention of the 2012 tariffs is actually occurring. If the Commerce Department were to find circumvention in the current investigation, we believe it will be unwinding a decade of consistent trade practice across the past three administrations including the current administration just last year. We believe such a decision would create significant price uncertainty as additional tariffs on panels from the four Southeast Asian countries would likely remain unknown until close to 2025 as final tariff amounts are not determined for about two years after the year of importation.
This price uncertainty would likely result in the unintended consequence of U.S. solar-panel supply once again being sourced significantly from China because the tariffs applicable to imports from China are more certain based on 10 years of assessed duty history. U.S. solar-panel assemblers are, for the most part, sold out of solar panels through 2024 and even at full capacity, are only capable of serving 10% to 20% of the U.S. solar-panel demand in the first place. Should also be noted that nearly all of the large domestic solar panel assemblers in the U.S., do not support the efforts behind the circumvention claim or the commerce department's decision to investigate as they also primarily rely on imported cells from Southeast Asia to produce their panels in the United States. And all of the uncertainty from the investigation is occurring at a time when natural gas, coal, and oil prices have increased dramatically, leaving solar and storage is one of the few ways to alleviate inflationary pressures on electricity prices.
For these reasons, among others, we are optimistic that the investigation will ultimately be resolved favorably and the Commerce Department will conclude not to impose additional anti-dumping and countervailing duties on sales and panel source from the Southeast Asian countries. We believe that NextEra Energy is as well-positioned as any company in the industry to manage these issues. However, given that a number of suppliers are not expected to ship panels to the U.S. until the Commerce Department makes a preliminary determination as late as August. We continue to expect some of our solar and storage projects may be adversely impacted by this delay. We are working closely with our suppliers and customers to assess the potential impacts of this investigation and are optimistic about our ability to arrive at acceptable mitigation measures. Based on what we know today, we believe that approximately 2.1 gigawatts to 2.8 gigawatts of our expected 2022 solar and storage build may shift from 2022 to 2023.
Despite the delay, given our competitive advantages, including the strength of our supplier relationships and contracts, we remain comfortable with our current development expectations for wind, solar, and storage, which are to build roughly 23 gigawatts to 30 gigawatts over the four-year period from 2021 through the end of 2024. We run a diversified business at Energy Resources that includes multiple renewable energy technologies and provides a natural hedge against temporary disruptions, like the one our industry is currently experiencing. In fact in light of the uncertainty in the solar supply chain, we believe renewable demand will likely temporarily shift in part from solar to wind, and we believe Energy Resources has terrific competitive advantages in wind development.
The accompanying slide provides additional details. Finally, during the quarter, NextEra Energy Transmission along with its partners completed the construction of the East-West Tie Transmission Line Project, the 450-kilometer, 230 kilovolts transmission line runs from Wawa to Thunder Bay, Ontario, and is expected to address long-standing regional transmission constraints, thereby increasing much-needed access to Energy to support new economic growth in the region for years to come.
Turning now to the consolidated results for NextEra Energy. For the first quarter of 2022, GAAP net loss attributable to NextEra Energy were $450 million or $0.23 per share. NextEra Energy's 2022 first-quarter adjusted earnings and adjusted EPS were approximately $1.46 billion in $0.74 per share, respectively. Adjusted earnings from the corporate and other segments were roughly flat year-over-year. Our long-term financial expectations, which we increased and extended earlier this year through 2025, remained unchanged. For 2022, NextEra Energy expects adjusted earnings per share to be in a range of $2.75 to $2.85. For 2023 through 2025, NextEra Energy expects to grow roughly 6% to 8% off the expected 2022 adjusted earnings per share range. NextEra Energy is in a strong position to meet its financial expectations through 2025 and we will be disappointed if we are not able to deliver financial results at or near the top end of our adjusted earnings expectations ranges in each of 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025, while at the same time maintaining our strong balance sheet and credit ratings.
A big part of NextEra Energy's culture is a focus on continuous improvement and productivity. To that end, we are currently wrapping up our company-wide productivity initiative to re-imagine everything that we do which we call Project Velocity. Project Velocity built upon the success of Project Momentum and Project Accelerate, which were launched in 2013 in 2017, respectively. The employee-generated ideas implemented through Project Momentum and Project Accelerate are projected to deliver more than $1.8 billion in average annual run-rate savings, first, our cost projections just 10 years ago. In fact, the ideas generated this year in Project Velocity alone are expected to reach roughly $400 million in additional run rate efficiencies in the next few years, representing the largest identified O&M cost savings in the history of these programs.
This result is another example of the strength of our culture and team and highlights our continued focus on productivity and our team's willingness to embrace innovation and leverage technology. From 2021 to 2025, we also continue to expect that our average annual growth and operating cash flow will be at or above our adjusted EPS compound annual growth rate range. We also continue to expect to grow our dividends per share at roughly 10% per year through at least 2024 off a 2022 base, as always, our expectations through normal weather and operating conditions.
Let me now turn to NextEra Energy Partners, which delivered solid first-quarter results with year-over-year growth and adjusted EBITDA of more than 16% driven primarily by contributions from the approximately 2,400 net megawatts of renewables and storage added during 2021. Yesterday, the NEP board declared a quarterly distribution of $0.7325 per common unit or $2.93 per common unit on an annualized basis, up approximately 15% from a year earlier. Inclusive of this increase, NextEra Energy Partners has grown its LP distributions per unit by more than 290% since the IPO. Further building upon that strength, NextEra Energy Partners today is announcing that it is entered into an agreement with Energy Resources to acquire an approximately 67% interest in an approximately 230-megawatt 4-hour battery storage facility in California that is fully contracted with an investment grade counterparty for 15 years. The acquisition will further diversify NextEra Energy Partners' existing portfolio with the addition of another battery storage project and is an excellent complement to NextEra Energy Partners' existing operation.
NextEra Energy Partners expects to acquire the project interest for approximately $191 million subject to closing adjustments, which is expected to be funded with existing debt capacity. NextEra Energy Partners share of the assets tax equity financing is estimated to be approximately $80 million at the time of closing. The acquisition is expected to contribute adjusted EBITDA of approximately $30 million to $35 million and cash available for distribution of approximately $13 million to $18 million, each on a five-year average annual run-rate basis beginning December 31, 2022. The transaction is expected to close later this year upon the project reaching its commercial operation date and support NextEra Energy's Partners' projected adjusted EBITDA and cash available for distribution growth in 2022.
Finally, NextEra Energy Partners recently closed on a transaction to sell an approximately 156-mile gas pipeline from its existing portfolio for a total consideration of approximately $3 million to a third party. The sale price of the pipeline represents an attractive and accretive EBITDA multiple and further enhances the renewable energy profile of NextEra Energy Partners. We are pleased with this transaction and look forward to redeploying the proceeds into accretive renewable energy assets like the battery storage acquisition from Energy Resources that I just mentioned to support NextEra Energy Partners' long-term distribution growth expectations.
Turning to the detailed results. NextEra Energy Partners' first-quarter adjusted EBITDA was $412 million and cash available for distribution was $169 million. New projects, which primarily reflect the asset acquisitions that closed in the second half of 2021 contributed approximately $75 million of adjusted EBITDA and $25 million of cash available for distribution. The adjusted EBITDA and cash available for distribution contribution from existing projects declined $9 million and $29 million respectively versus the prior-year comparable quarter.
Favorable performance at existing projects drove an increase in adjusted EBITDA contributions of approximately $46 million year-over-year, which was more than offset by the absence of approximately $55 million in benefits realized during last February's winter storm Uuri. Excluding the positive impact of winter storm Uri from last year's first-quarter results, this quarter's adjusted EBITDA and cash available for distribution were up nearly 38% and 31% respectively year over year. Cash available for distribution was also impacted by the timing of payment.
Wind resource for the first quarter of 2022 was 108% of the long-term average versus 98% in the first quarter of 2021. Additional details are shown on the accompanying slide. NextEra Energy Partners continues to expect run rate contributions for adjusted EBITDA and cash available for distribution from its forecasted portfolio at December 31, 2022 to be in the ranges of $1.775 million to $1.975 million, and $675 million to $765 million respectively. As a reminder, year-end 2022 run rate projections reflect calendar year 2023 contributions from the forecasted portfolio at year-end 2022 and include the impact of IDR fees which we treat as an operating expense. As always, our expectations are subject to our usual caveats including normal weather and operating conditions.
From a base of our fourth quarter 2021 distribution per common unit at an annualized rate of $2.83 we continue to see 12% to 15% growth per year in LP distributions as being a reasonable range of expectations through at least 2024. We do not expect the recent solar supply chain disruption to impact our ability to deliver on these expectations. We expect the annualized rate of the fourth quarter 2022 distribution that is payable in February of 2023 to be in a range of $3.17 to $3.25 per common unit. We also continue to expect to achieve our 2022 distribution growth of 12% to 15%, while maintaining a trailing 12-month payout ratio in the low 80% range.
In summary, both NextEra Energy and NextEra Energy Partners are benefiting from our history of strong execution that has positioned us well to capitalize on the terrific growth opportunities available to us across our businesses. We look forward to sharing more detail with you on our growth plans for both NextEra Energy and NextEra Energy Partners at our Investor Conference in New York on June 14th.
Before taking your questions, I'd like to turn the call over to John Ketchum.