Brian Savoy
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Duke Energy
Thanks, Harry, and good morning, everyone. As shown on Slide 8, our third quarter reported and adjusted earnings per share were $1.60 and $1.62, respectively. This compares to reported and adjusted earnings per share of $1.59 and $1.94 last year. Within the segments, Electric Utilities & Infrastructure was down $0.09. O&M was higher in the quarter, largely due to unplanned hurricane restoration costs from Debby and Helene. Results were also impacted by lost revenue from storm-related outages and evacuations. As expected, growth from rate increases in riders were partially offset by higher depreciation and interest expense.
Moving to Gas Utilities & Infrastructure. Results were down $0.04 compared to last year, mainly due to higher interest expense and depreciation on a growing asset base.
And finally, the other segment was down $0.19, primarily due to a planned higher effective tax rate which reflects tax efficiency efforts realized in 2023. Our 2024 effective tax rate is in line with our full year guidance of 12% to 14%. Turning to storms. Our preliminary total cost estimate for the 3 hurricanes is between $2.4 billion to $2.9 billion for the year, and we recognized approximately $750 million in the third quarter. Most of these costs will either be deferred for future recovery or relate to capital projects to rebuild portions of the system. We are advancing cost recovery strategies through established mechanisms and have a long track record of constructive outcomes. We're targeting rider recovery in Florida beginning in early 2025 and receipt of securitization proceeds in the Carolinas by the end of next year.
Looking ahead to the remainder of 2024. We expect fourth quarter adjusted EPS to be higher than last year due to growth from rate increases in the electric and gas segments and higher sales volumes. And as Lynn mentioned, we have cost agility initiatives underway to reduce spending, which will drive O&M lower in the fourth quarter compared to last year. We've outlined our fourth quarter drivers in the appendix of the presentation. With these drivers in mind, we are reaffirming our 2024 guidance range of $5.85 to $6.10. Based on what we know today, we are turning to the lower half of the range, primarily due to storm impacts, including restoration costs and lost revenues from record customer outages.
Moving to Slide 9. Third quarter weather normal volumes increased 1.1% versus last year. driven by strong commercial volumes and residential customer growth. In the Carolinas, we've added approximately 75,000 residential customers year-to-date, roughly 10,000 more than the same period last year. And in Florida, we've added nearly 30,000 residential customers also outpacing last year. We continue to see robust economic development activity. And in the past month have signed letter agreements for 2 gigawatts of data centers. These agreements are emblematic of conversations we are having with large customers all around our service territories and represent continued advancement of projects in our pipeline.
As a result, we've increased the high end of our 2028 economic development forecast to up to 20,000 gigawatt hours of incremental load. This represents a 2,000 gigawatt hour increase since our second quarter update. As a reminder, we take a risk-adjusted approach as we evaluate which economic development opportunities to include in our forecast. In the near term, we continue to see a slower rebound in certain industrial sectors. We are in frequent dialogue with our largest customers, and they continue to signal expectations for a recovery, but the timing has shifted into 2025. Additionally, as with any extreme weather period, third quarter normal volumes likely reflect some impact from the major storms.
Overall, we're seeing steady improvement in our rolling 12-month volumes and are trending toward our 2024 load growth target of 2%. And over the long term, we see load growth at the top end of our 1.5% to 2% CAGR through 2028, with annual loan growth accelerating in '27 and 2028 as large economic development projects come online.
Turning to Slide 10. We have provided key growth drivers for 2025. We've executed an active regulatory calendar over the past two years that has yielded constructive outcomes and positioned us well as we head into next year. Beginning with the electric segment. In Florida, we'll implement a new multiyear rate plan with an updated 10.3% ROE in January. In the Carolinas, we'll implement the second year of the North Carolina multiyear rate plans and see a full year impact from the DEC South Carolina rate case. And in the Midwest, we expect the Indiana rate case to be effective in March. Finally, we'll see retail sales growth from economic development and population migration in addition to increases in rider revenues.
In the gas segment, we'll see growth from the Piedmont, North Carolina rate case integrity management intents and customer additions. We will provide 2025 earnings guidance in February along with updated load growth expectations and our refreshed capital and financing plans. As we signaled, we expect our capital plan to increase as we move further into the energy transition. We also expect capital to increase in the near term as a result of a higher pace of customer additions and refresh cost estimates for generation investments that ramp up in the remainder of the decade. We are well positioned for the opportunities presented by this unprecedented demand growth, and we will take a balanced approach to funding the incremental capital, supporting our growth rate and balance sheet strength.
Moving to Slide 11. We've made significant progress on credit supported initiatives. The constructive regulatory outcomes we've achieved with increasing ROEs and timely recovery of investments have driven considerable improvement in our operating cash flow. And in October, we efficiently monetized nearly $200 million of energy tax credits that will benefit customers over time. We expect the transactions in the fourth quarter. We've collected over $3 billion of deferred fuels since 2023 and are on track to be at our normal level by year-end. We've also completed over 80% of our planned $500 million equity issuances through the DRIP and ATM programs having priced $400 million year-to-date.
As I mentioned earlier, we will pursue storm cost recovery through established mechanisms in our states, including securitization in the Carolinas and our storm rider in Florida. We expect a temporary credit impact in 2024 and are targeting 14% FFO to debt in 2025, 100 basis points above our Moody's downgrade threshold. And reports issued in October, both Moody's and S&P concurred that the impacts from the storm will not have any long-term credit implications. As we demonstrated over many years, our commitment to our current credit ratings and our strong balance sheet will continue to be a top priority as we execute our growth objectives.
Turning to Slide 12. We operate in constructive, growing jurisdictions and the fundamentals of our business remain strong. Our track record of regulatory execution has us well positioned to achieve our long-term 5% to 7% growth target through 2028, which combined with our attractive dividend yield, provide a compelling risk-adjusted return for shareholders.
With that, we will open the line for your questions.
