Shawn Anderson
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at NiSource
Thanks, Melody. I'd like to begin by discussing the status of our generation assets under construction, which are being developed to support the integrated resource plan preferred portfolio from the 2018 and 2021 IRPs. In May, we completed Cavalry Solar, which is our third solar project owned by NIPSCO. It will provide power to approximately 60,000 homes in White County, and is expected to generate $25 million of tax revenue for the county over its life.
Construction continues on our remaining three solar build transfer projects and four PPA projects. All of these projects, under construction, remain on track and on budget to support the energy transition NIPSCO has been executing, since 2020, and which will retire our Schahfer Generating Station by the end of 2025 and Michigan City by the end of 2028.
NIPSCO filed unopposed proposed orders for two of these projects, Fairbanks and Gibson, and CPCN amendment proceedings, and the records are now closed in both. We expect final orders later this month. The record is also closed in the Gas Peaker CPCN proceeding and a final order is expected in the fourth quarter. In total, these ongoing generation investments add $2.1 billion of capital expenditures to support our retiring coal plants and are fully represented in the $16.4 billion base capital plan and satisfy the preferred portfolio from the 2021 IRP.
Turning our attention to the latest IRP process. In late June, the NIPSCO team held the second of five stakeholder meetings, leading up to an anticipated filing in November. These discussions outlined scenarios, which included an incremental need for generation by 2035 of 2.6 gigawatts for the reference case and 8.6 gigawatts in the emerging load sensitivity case.
It is important to note that the potential load growth assumptions built into these scenarios are not the total or maximum range of new load growth, but rather a risk-adjusted case using assumptions of how much of each project could be executed by each date. Note, the IRP process looks at a 20-year load forecast for our region, and is not a direct forecast of future NiSource generation projects or investment.
With that said, the interest demonstrated from new customers to develop in the Northwest Indiana region is significant and presents a tremendous opportunity for our customers and communities to enhance tax base, diversify employment opportunities, and participate in the technological innovation data centers bring to our nation. Consistent with last quarter, this potential opportunity is not included in our base-case or upside financial plans, and we will continue to advance commercial discussions to enhance visibility in the coming months.
As we review our five-year base investment plan on Slide 8, it's important to note the diversified nature of these investments, which span across electric generation as well as gas and electric distribution modernization, system hardening, and customer growth. Our projects lack concentration risk by fuel-type or by operating company, and are highly executable given the skilled labor and partnerships we've developed.
Let's move forward to Slide 9. We also continue to work through the planning, design, regulatory, and timing considerations for projects not yet included in our $16.4 billion base capital plan. Automated Meter Reading or AMI investments commenced recently in Indiana. It is expected to drive operational efficiencies and enhance our customer experience. A portion of total AMI spending across the NiSource companies is included in our base capital plan with the potential to expand across the rest of our gas companies.
We are developing MISO long-range transmission planning or LRTP Tranche 1 projects expected to come online late this decade. The three projects are the Indiana portion of a major multi-state line and are included in our base financial plan. Preliminary engineering has been conducted and point to higher costs, which exceed original MISO estimates. Our base plan does not include the additional capex potentially necessary to complete these projects.
LRTP Tranche 2 continues to be a longer-term investment opportunity that would likely commence beyond the timeline of our current financial plan. These projects skew towards higher voltage transmission and would not begin operation until early next decade. We have right of first refusal on projects in our service territory and expect a final MISO plan late this year.
Now I'll transition to our financial results. Second quarter adjusted EPS was $0.21 per share, a $0.10 per share increase versus the $0.11 per share reported in the same period last year. Net revenue increased 15% year-over-year, including $8 million of incremental normalized customer usage. Our regulatory weather normalization mechanisms continue to protect both customers and shareholders from volatility. In the second quarter, these constructs had an approximately $6 million revenue impact versus normal weather.
Our states are growing, helping to reduce customer costs and support safety and reliability improvements to our system. Customer count and total weather-normalized gas throughput for residential and commercial customers grew in the first half across our system. Virginia and Ohio were standouts with an average first half weather-normalized throughput, growth of 7.1% for residential, and 5.7% for commercial customers across both states.
And while the load growth forecasts from the IRP demonstrate a massive long-term increase of 11% compounded annually from 2024 to 2035 in the reference case, normalized electric load grew 5% in the second quarter from our existing customers alone. Residential and commercial classes were particularly strong. And further, existing data center customers have grown year-to-date uses by five times versus the same period last year and are projecting further growth through the remainder of this decade.
Our long-term financial guidance commitments are shown on Slide 11. As Lloyd indicated, we are reaffirming 2024 adjusted EPS guidance of $1.70 to $1.74, but we now expect to achieve the upper half of this range. All of our five-year commitments are reaffirmed today as well. This includes the year-over-year adjusted EPS growth rate of 6% to 8% annually off of the achieved results in 2024.
We remain confident in achieving our long-term growth rate in all remaining years of the plan. In particular, year-to-date execution on the financing and regulatory fronts has increased visibility into 2024 and 2025 results. For example, approximately 97% of expected 2024 rate recovery is now finalized. Our forecasts incorporate continued use of long-established capital trackers in nearly all of our jurisdictions and are based on what we believe are realistic regulatory outcomes and do not forecast material changes in the interest rate environment.
More importantly, we are still able to deliver our $16.4 billion rate base investment to customers while keeping average annual residential total bill growth at or below 4% across the five-year period. As we look forward to November, we expect to continue with our annual cadence of updating our five-year financial plan, reflecting these updated assumptions as well as our capital allocation and investment portfolios.
Slide 12 details our financing plan. We are reaffirming 14% to 16% FFO to debt in all years of the plan, as well as our guided annual equity needs in each year through 2028. Consistent with prior updates, the figures shown on this page support our base capital plan.
In May, we issued $500 million of 30-year junior subordinated notes at a 6.95% coupon for the first five-year period. In June, we issued $600 million of five-year senior unsecured notes at a 5.2% coupon. And our equity financing is limited to the use of our at-the-market ATM program in all years and consistent with previous indications, we prefer to utilize a forward ATM structure.
Through June 30th, we are happy to report we have priced $500 million of our up to $600 million 2024 guided amount. We are capitalizing on favorable absolute and relative market dynamics within the capital structure to minimize the overall cost of capital. Our credit metrics are gradually moving higher, and we retain the flexibility we've built into our plan.
I'll conclude with highlights of our growing track record on Slide 13. Our financial commitments are on track for 2024, and we now expect to achieve the upper half of our $1.70 to $1.74 adjusted EPS range. Our near-term and long-term guidance remains resilient to market and other forces outside our control and are based on realistic and executable assumptions.
Execution on numerous capital trackers, the conclusion of our Indiana gas rate case, and progress on CPCNs underscore our execution of recovery for critical investments to ensure safety and reliability of our systems. Year-to-date financing activity, including pricing of the majority of our forward ATM plan for the year and diversification utilized in the junior subordinated debt marketplace demonstrates our balance sheet flexibility.
Lastly, our base and upside capex estimates demonstrate the programmatic investment plans alongside accelerated upside for customers and investors. To reiterate, our rate base and adjusted EPS guidance includes neither the upside capex nor any data center load or investment, and is built upon the known and socialized regulatory programs, which have contributed to the 8.1% adjusted EPS growth rate we've executed, since 2021.
The value proposition NiSource continues to offer investors is diversified and fully regulated utility assets with the opportunity to invest in both programmatic gas infrastructure and the long-term energy transition story of a fully integrated electric business. These elements have been core to our story for some time, but the emerging opportunity to support economic development onshoring and new data center development truly differentiate our value proposition relative to many alternatives in the market today.
I'd now like to turn the call over to the operator for Q&A.
