Robert J. Durian
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Alliant Energy
Thanks, John. Good morning, everyone. Yesterday, we announced third-quarter non-GAAP earnings of $0.93 per share, compared to $1.02 per share in the third quarter of 2021. Our quarterly earnings change year-over-year was primarily due to higher interest expenses and the timing of income taxes. The non-GAAP adjustment recorded in the third quarter of $0.03 per share related to Iowa tax Reform enacted earlier this year. In September, the Iowa Department of Revenue announced a corporate state tax rate of 8.4% for 2023, which is down from the current rate of 9.8%. This change resulted in a current year charge at our nonutility and parent operations related to lower deferred tax asset value. However, this change will also enable us to pass millions of dollars of annual savings from lower state taxes onto our customers in Iowa for decades into the future. Through September of this year, our net temperature impacts increased Alliant Energy earnings by approximately $0.07 per share.
And our temperature-normalized sales are tracking above our sales growth expectations from the beginning of the year. Looking forward to the fourth quarter and our full-year 2022 results, we expect strong earnings growth from investments in Wisconsin solar projects and the reversal of tax timing issues that have impacted the first nine months of this year. As a result of stronger sales through September and our projected fourth-quarter results, we have narrowed and raised our 2022 earnings guidance to a range of $2.76 per share to $2.83 per share. During 2022, our team has been advancing and transforming our Clean Energy Blueprint to ensure that we not only accomplish our current year goals but also enable the achievement of our financial and operational objectives over the long term. Our sourcing team has been ensuring materials and equipment to our on-site or are on order to achieve the targeted completion dates of our announced solar project. And our development team has been advancing a robust portfolio of future generation resources that supports the future of clean, affordable and reliable energy for our customers. As John mentioned, we issued our consolidated 2023 earnings guidance range of $2.82 to $2.96 per share.
The key drivers of the 6% growth in EPS are related to earnings on investments in our core utility business and our continued efforts to reduce cost to support customer affordability. We are forecasting these key earnings growth drivers will be offset by higher depreciation and higher financing costs associated with new construction projects. We invest strategically and in the best interest of our customers. These investments include implementing technology in many areas of our business, from our enterprise work and asset management solution to our advanced distribution management system. We are working to improve the customer and employee experience while controlling customer costs. Through our ongoing transition and retirement of our fossil fuel generation resources, we will continue reducing our operating costs. And as we bring our planned solar projects into service, we expect production tax credits and lower fuel expenses to largely offset the impact of increases in renewables rate base, which makes these new investments very cost-effective for customers. This will translate into long-term benefits for our customers and as John mentioned, long-term value for our shareowners. Moving to our financing plans. In August, we successfully completed a $600 million green bond issuance at WPL to finance solar generation project.
And in September, we filed information with our two state commissions, announcing plans to move away from tax equity financing to full ownership of WPL and IPL's solar and battery projects to capture even more benefits for our customers. We expect to replace the previously planned tax equity financing with additional long-term debt issuances, supplemented with some modest levels of new common equity to fund our announced solar and battery project. Our 2023 plans include $1.3 billion of financing, largely related to funding customer-focused investment. This includes issuing up to $300 million of long-term debt at both our Iowa and Wisconsin Utilities, up to $450 million of debt at Alliant Energy Finance and up to $250 million of new common equity. We have won $400 million maturity in mid-2023, which will be refinanced with the planned new debt issuance in Alliant Energy finance. This 2023 financing plan is driven by robust capital expenditure plan, and supports our objective of maintaining capital structures at our two utilities, consistent with their most recent regulatory decisions. And our future financing plans anticipate utilizing the new transferability provisions within the Inflation Reduction Act to accelerate cash flows from future tax credits generated by wind, solar and battery projects, thereby reducing our future financing needs. Finally,
I'll highlight our regulatory initiatives in progress as well as those regulatory filings we plan to make in 2023. First, there are two key regulatory initiatives currently in progress. In Wisconsin, we recently requested construction authority for 175 megawatts of battery storage, which supports capacity needs resulting from the proposed sale by WPL of a portion of the West Riverside generating facility to our neighboring utilities. And in Iowa, we are expecting a decision from regulators on our advanced ratemaking filing for 400 megawatts of solar and 75 megawatts of battery storage. This proceeding is progressing, and we anticipate a decision in the next few weeks. As a reminder, this decision should include an improved ROE and depreciation rates for the life of the solar and battery storage assets. Turning to our 2023 regulatory plans. In conjunction with our updated capital expenditure plan, we expect to make regulatory filings in both Iowa and Wisconsin in 2023 for additional renewables and dispatchable resources to improve seasonal reliability and meet customer energy needs.
From a rate review calendar, we expect to file a WPL rate review covering future test years 2024 and 2025 in the first half of next year. And for IPL, we expect to file our next rate review by the first half of 2024. Before I wrap my remarks, I want to acknowledge our Alliant Energy employees. You've executed our plan and kept our strategic projects on track, allowing us to share the financial and operational plans today from clearing supply chain hurdles to regulatory planning and communication, from preparing our tax equity financing to pivoting to full ownership to capture even greater customer benefits from the Inflation Reduction Act, your actions have been and continue to be focused on the best interest of our customers and the communities we are privileged to serve. We very much appreciate the continued support of our company by our investors and look forward to meeting with many of you at the EEI Finance Conference next week. Later this week, we plan to post on our website the updated materials in advance of EEI. At this time, I'll turn the call back over to the operator to facilitate the question-and-answer session.