Brian Savoy
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Duke Energy
Thanks, Harry. And good morning, everyone. Turning to slide seven, our first quarter reported and adjusted earnings per share were $1.44. This compares to reported and adjusted earnings per share of $1.01 and $1.20 last year. Within the segments, Electric Utilities and Infrastructure was up $0.29 compared to last year. Growth was driven by rate increases, higher volumes and improved weather. Partially offsetting these items, were higher interest expense and depreciation on a growing asset base. As a reminder, residential decoupling was in effect for both of our North Carolina utilities this quarter, which moderated the impact of a mild winter in the Carolinas.
Moving to Gas Utilities and Infrastructure, results were flat compared to last year. And finally, the other segment was down $0.05, primarily due to higher interest expense. With a strong start to the year, we're on track to deliver on our 2024 EPS guidance range.
Turning to slide eight. We were pleased to see solid growth in weather normal volumes this quarter versus last year. Customer growth remains robust in our jurisdictions, led by the Carolinas and Florida, which both grew 2.4%. We're also encouraged to see improving residential usage across our jurisdictions. Commercial and industrial volumes were up over 1% versus last year, driven by strength in the commercial sector. We are closely monitoring economic trends and remain in regular conversations with our largest customers. Notably, these customers continue to convey expectations for growing power needs in the second half of the year. Combined with new economic development projects coming online, we expect growth to accelerate throughout the year.
Turning to slide nine. The impact of economic development activity in our jurisdictions cannot be overstated. We are gearing up to serve up to 18,000 gigawatt-hours of additional load from these projects in 2028. This is up 2,000 gigawatt hours from the projection we just shared in February, demonstrating the strength of our economic development pipeline.
As a reminder, we take a risk-adjusted approach to our forecast, and generally only include the most mature and committed projects. We've included a few photos that showcase the impressive size and scale of the construction activity underway. Pictured at the top of the slide, is a substation that will serve Wolfspeed's $5 billion semiconductor manufacturing facility in North Carolina. The new factory will bring about 1,800 jobs to the state. We've recently energized the initial transformer bank in the substation and Wolfspeed expects the facility to begin production by early next year.
This project and others across many sectors, including batteries, data centers, EVs, and pharmaceuticals to name a few, are making tangible progress and will provide meaningful load growth in our service territories. We operate in some of the most attractive jurisdictions for both economic development and customer migration, which underpins our confidence in our 2% volume growth forecast in 2024 and 1.5% to 2% growth rate over the five-year planning horizon.
Turning to slide 10, we recognize the importance of a strong balance sheet, as we execute one of the sector's largest capital programs. We are on track to achieve 14% FFO-to-debt by the end of this year, which represents 100 basis points of cushion to our Moody's downgrade threshold. The biggest driver of our FFO improvement is the implementation of the North Carolina rate cases, which add nearly $700 million of annual revenues.
Combined with the collection of remaining deferred fuel balances, monetization of tax credits, and programmatic equity issuances, we have a clear line of sight to achieving our target. As disclosed in February, we expect to issue $500 million of common equity annually over the five-year plan via our DRIP and ATM programs. We're off to a great start having priced just over $100 million year-to-date.
We also completed approximately 65% of our planned long-term debt issuances for 2024 in the first quarter, which helps to de-risk our plan. We've raised $4.6 billion in long-term debt with an average interest-rate interest rate of 5.19% and an average tenor of 13 years. We've been strategic in our approach, reducing floating-rate exposure amid a rising rate environment and further diversifying our investor base with a euro offering in April. As we have demonstrated this quarter and over many years, we are committed to our credit ratings and a strong balance sheet as we execute our growth objectives.
Moving to slide 11, we remain confident in delivering our 2024 earnings guidance range of $5.85 to $6.10 and growth of 5% to 7% through 2028. We operate in constructive growing jurisdictions and the fundamentals of our business are stronger than ever. We are well-positioned to achieve our growth targets for the year, which combined with our attractive dividend yields provide a compelling risk-adjusted return for shareholders.
With that, we'll open the line for your questions.
