Andrew Marsh
Chief Executive Officer at Entergy
Thank you, Bill, and good morning, everyone. Yesterday, the planned leadership succession that we announced in August took effect. While I'm honored to have the opportunity to lead this great company, I'm not alone. Leo remains as the Executive Chair for the next few months, and we will continue to execute at a high-level on our strategic path.
We have built a strong bench of talented leaders. Kimberly Fontan takes over as Chief Financial Officer, and Kimberly Cook-Nelson assumes the role of Chief Nuclear Officer. Meanwhile, Chris Bakken will serve as the Executive Vice President of Energy Infrastructure to provide leadership and mentorship to both Pete Norgeot, who was recently promoted to Chief Operating Officer, and Kimberly Cook-Nelson as they settle into our top operational roles. While the new senior leadership -- or with the new senior leadership team in place, Entergy has a bright future, and we expect to deliver on the commitments that we've made to our key stakeholders.
Today, we are reporting strong quarterly adjusted earnings of $2.84 per share. This is another solid quarter that keeps us on track for the year. In fact, with our biggest quarter behind us, we are narrowing our 2022 guidance by raising the bottom of the range by $0.10 per share. And we are affirming our longer-term outlook for 6% to 8% annual growth through 2025. Last week, our Board of Directors raised our quarterly dividend by 6%. The annualized amount is now $4.28 per share, consistent with our target payout ratio of 60% to 65%.
During the quarter, we continue to execute on many important fronts. Steady predictable growth depends on steady predictable regulatory mechanisms. Four of our operating companies have annual formula rate plan to provide timely recovery of our investments to benefit customers. Mississippi's FRP filing was approved in July. Entergy New Orleans and Entergy Louisiana's FRP rate changes were effective on September 1, and we expect Entergy Arkansas' annual review to wrap-up in December.
Entergy Texas filed a base rate case this year, and it is proceeding on schedule with hearings planned in December. Absent this settlement, we expect a decision in the second quarter of next year. The New Orleans City Council approved a $206 million securitization financing for storm cost recovery and replenishment of Entergy New Orleans' storm escrow. While the prudence review of Ida costs is ongoing, moving forward with the financing will benefit customers by reducing interest rate risk.
Louisiana's review of Ida costs is also ongoing. Staff recently filed supportive testimony and recommended full cost recovery. Hearings are scheduled for December and we expect to receive securitization funds early next year. These developments are an important step in moving our credit metrics back to targeted levels.
In September, we received an ALJ recommendation on our proposed Orange County Advanced Power Station, or OCAPS. It was very encouraging that the presiding judges recommended approval of the project and they recognize the significant economic and reliability benefits that this facility would bring to our customer in Texas. The ALJ did not support the hydrogen capability for the plant, so we continue to believe that day one hydrogen co-firing capability for OCAPS is in the best interest of our customers. I'll note that the Governor of Texas has indicated his support for the plant, including its hydrogen capability.
OCAPS hydrogen capability is less than 5% of the total investment, and it provides a critically important option for fuel diversity and ensures the plant's continued value in a low-carbon future. Also, an economically viable hydrogen economy is no longer decades away. The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act promises to improve hydrogen economics and further accelerate clean hydrogen production.
As we've said, Entergy's region is uniquely positioned to take advantage of this opportunity, and we expect the Gulf Coast to lead the way, bringing jobs and economic benefits to our communities. The decision on Orange County ultimately lies with the Commission, and it is on the agenda for tomorrow's meeting. If approved, OCAPS will be our first unit capable of burning up to 30% hydrogen on day one, with plans to eventually be 100% hydrogen capable.
The Gulf region remains a prime target for onshoring growth opportunities. As we laid out at Analyst Day, our industrial customers have many inherent advantages that make them low-cost producers on the global stage. This is enhanced by recent supply chain and geopolitical conditions.
Commodity spread is important to our customers to remain positive and continue to support the outlooks we laid out at Analyst Day. We continue to see announcements for new projects in our service area. For example, Entergy Texas and New Fortress Energy signed an MOU for collaboration on developing renewable energy and hydrogen infrastructure. The partnership will help accelerate the green hydrogen economy in Southeast Texas.
New Fortress Energy's project will leverage industry-leading electrolysis technology from Plug Power for the production of more than 50 tons per day of green hydrogen. Entergy Texas will supply 120 megawatts of green power to serve this facility, which is expected to be one of the largest of its kind in North America.
In Louisiana, Olin and Plug Power announced plans to produce green hydrogen from a 15-ton per day plant. Both of these projects are good examples of how the hydrogen economy is coming to life in our service territory. CF Industries announced a $2 billion carbon capture ammonia complex in Ascension Parish, which will create more than 400 jobs. This is another great example of customer growth tied to decarbonization. As I said, we've seen a lot of progress in the last few months. We continue to monitor the significant pipeline of opportunities for signs of impacts from broader economic uncertainty. We've not seen a noticeable pause or pull back.
As we said at Analyst Day, fundamentals of our region uniquely position the Gulf Coast for substantial growth even in a challenging economy. We also continue to make progress on expanding our renewables footprint. We received approval for the 250-megawatt Driver Solar acquisition in Arkansas. This facility is being constructed near US Steel's expansion in Osceola, and it is expected to be completed in 2024, and US Steel received the facility's clean energy attributes. This illustrates how we work collaboratively with our customers and our regulators to support growth, jobs and sustainability in our region.
In September, the Louisiana Commission approved four solar projects totaling 475 megawatts. They also approved our new Go Green tariff, which -- that's GEAUX Go [Phonetic], which began taking reservations from large commercial and industrial customers yesterday. Based on inquiries to-date, we are expecting strong demand and it arrived. The 365 megawatts allocated to the tariff were fully reserved in just a few minutes, indicating strong [Techincal Issues] demand for sustainability products.
We also announced plans for two new renewable RFPs. Entergy Texas is seeking 2,000 megawatts of clean energy and Entergy Mississippi is seeking 500 megawatts. We now have eight active RFPs totaling 7,000 megawatts. We've made selections in four of those RFPs and are negotiating with counterparties. We'll announce specific projects once agreements are reached.
In addition to clean energy, resilience is important for our customers who depend more than ever on reliable electricity supply. Since Hurricane Ida, we've invested in new infrastructure build to higher standards that will improve the system's resilience, including more than 22,000 distribution poles, more than 2,200 transmission structures and eight stations.
Execution on our resilience investment is ongoing and our base plan includes investments that will continue to upgrade our system. At Analyst Day, we laid out our $15 billion 10-year accelerated resilience plan. We expect our proposed investments to significantly reduce physical and financial storm risk, and we are engaging with stakeholders to make our case.
We made our first filing in New Orleans. We plan to file in Louisiana before year-end and in Texas by mid-next year. We did our homework and the accelerated resilience plan is heavily informed by our neighbors in Florida, knowing that their hardened assets performed well in Hurricane Ian, along with the strong performance of our own hardened infrastructure over the past couple of years, gives us confidence that we can substantially reduce our exposure to storms and provide meaningful benefits to customers.
Affordability remains a top priority, and we announced several initiatives last quarter to help our customers when they saw higher bills from both warmer temperatures and higher natural gas prices. As part of our recent customer affordability initiatives, we have helped more than 35,000 customers with more than $5 million in bill credits. We've held energy fairs in 48 communities to provide helpful information to our customers about how to manage their bills and benefit from energy efficiency.
We've also weatherized many low income customers' homes and installed energy-efficient appliances, including new heat pumps and tankless water heaters. These efforts are only a part of what we're doing to help with affordability. Many of our past actions are mitigating the impacts of high natural gas prices for our customers today. The investments we made over the last eight years in more efficient generation and renewable resources are reducing fuel costs.
Based on 2022 gas prices, these modern assets are reducing fuel costs by an estimated $400 million compared to what it would have otherwise been. Our nearly decade-long participation in MISO has also produced customer savings, which totaled more than $2 billion through 2021.
Support for economic development and growth in our service areas also helps with customer affordability. Not only does it spread fixed costs over a growing customer base and also provides economic growth and jobs that are critical for our communities. Another lever for affordability is continuous improvement, which is more important than ever. We are using CI to find efficiencies that will offset inflationary pressures and create headroom for new investments to help customers.
We have a robust growth story at Entergy. We're seeing significant industrial growth as economic indicators for businesses in the Gulf South continue to be positive. Besides driving investments and growth for our owners, that industrial growth is important for our communities, especially in today's economic environment. This opportunity is unique to Entergy, and it will benefit each of our key stakeholders.
We see our growth continuing for years to come as our customers need our help to achieve their decarbonization goals. It starts with growing our clean energy capacity, which will reduce our customers' indirect emissions and continues through electrification of industrial processes to reduce their direct emissions. We're very excited about our near-term and long-term prospects, and we look forward to continuing this conversation with you at the EEI Financial Conference in a few weeks.
Before I wrap up, I'd like to say a few words about Leo Denault. He yesterday retired from his role as our Chief Executive Officer after a long and successful career. While we won't see him day to day, the impacts of his tireless dedication to our four key stakeholders remain.
Under Leo's leadership, we simplified our business to our core utilities. We turned around our nuclear operations. We redefined our customer focus. We've progressed and broadened our ESG commitments. We raised diversity, inclusion and belonging as the strategic pillar. We emerged as a national leader in corporate citizenship. Without missing a beat, we navigated through the pandemic and storms of the last couple of years, and we established a clear vision of our future opportunities.
As part of his distinguished career, Leo completed 74 earnings calls over the past 19 years, and he has been a steady presence for our key stakeholders. We will work with him as Executive Chairman for the next several months as we continue to make progress on the vision and strategy that he established.
As I turn the call over, a word about our new Chief Financial Officer, Kimberly Fontan. Most recently, Kimberly served as our Chief Accounting Officer, and she also has senior leadership experience in operations and regulatory roles. Kimberly brings a broad experience and perspective, and she is a great addition to Entergy's senior leadership team.
Now, I'll turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Kimberly Fontan.