Dan Cregg
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Public Service Enterprise Group
Good morning, everybody and thank you, Ralph. As Ralph mentioned, for the first quarter of 2023, PSEG reported net income of $1,287 million, or $2.58 per share, compared to a net loss of $2 million or less than $0.01 per share for the first quarter of 2022. Non-GAAP operating earnings for the first quarter of 2023 were $695 million, or $1.39 per share, compared to $672 million, or $1.33 per share for the first quarter of 2022. We have provided you with information on Slide 9, regarding the contribution to non-GAAP operating earnings per share by business for the first quarter of 2023 and Slide 10 contains a waterfall chart that takes you through the net changes quarter-over-quarter in the non-GAAP operating earnings per share by major business.
Starting with PSE&G. PSE&G reported first quarter 2023 net income of $487 million or $0.98 per share, compared to $509 million or $1.2 per share in the first quarter of 2022. First quarter 2023 non-GAAP operating earnings were $492 million or $0.99 per share compared with $509 million or $1.01 per share in the first quarter of 2022. The major drivers for the quarter, with a rate base additions from transmission and our Gas System Modernization investment programs, which were offset by the lower pension credits and the timing of taxes. Compared to the first quarter of 2022, transmission was a $0.01 per share higher. Gas margin was a $0.01 per share higher, driven by $0.03 per share, of favorable GSMP investment return that was partly offset by a $0.01 per share of lower non-ship demand due to the warm weather and other margin items.
Electric margin was flat compared to the first quarter of 2022, also reflecting the absence of favorable CIP true-up in the year earlier quarter, partly offset by growth in the number of customers. Other electric and gas margin added a $0.01 per share, reflecting both the earnings impact of the TAC or the tax adjustment credits and appliance service results.
Lower distribution O&M expense added $0.03 per share compared to the first quarter of 2022, primarily reflecting reduced weather-related corrective maintenance and gas maintenance costs. Both depreciation and interest expense increased by $0.01 per share compared to the first quarter of 2022, reflecting continued growth in investment. Lower pension credits reflecting 2022's investment returns, resulted in a $0.04 per share unfavorable comparison to the year-earlier quarter. The impact of PSEG's $500 million share repurchase program completed in May 2022, had a $0.01 per share benefit in the first quarter of 2023.
Lastly, the timing of an effective tax rate adjustment and other flow-through taxes had a net unfavorable impact of $0.03 per share compared to the first quarter of 2022, but will reverse over the remainder of the year driven by the use of an annual effective tax rate. The CIP mechanism in effect since 2021, limits the impact of weather and other sales variances, positive or negative on electric and gas margins, while enabling PSE&G to promote the widespread adoption of its energy efficiency programs.
Winter weather in the first quarter 2023 was the warmest first quarter in PSE&G's records. Measured by heating degree day, the first quarter of 2023 was 23% warmer than the first quarter of 2022 and 23% warmer than normal. The CIP mechanism allowed us to recover the impact of this extreme weather on sales. Growth in the number of electric and gas customers, the driver of margin under the CIP mechanism continues to be positive and were each up 1% during the trailing 12-month period.
PSE&G invested $800 million during the first quarter and is on track to execute its planned 2023 capital investment program of $3.5 billion. That includes infrastructure upgrades to its transmission and distribution facilities, Energy Strong II investments, Last Mile spend and the Infrastructure Advancement Program and the continued rollout of the clean energy future investments in energy efficiency and the energy and cloud, including smart meters. For the full-year 2023, PSE&G's forecast of non-GAAP operating earnings is unchanged at USD1,500 million to USD1,525 million.
Moving on to PSEG Power & other, which includes our nuclear fleet, gas operations, Long Island and Parent activities including interest expense. For the first quarter of 2023, Power & Other reported net income of $800 million or $1.60 per share and non-GAAP operating earnings of $203 million or $0.40 per share. This compares to first quarter 2022 net loss of $511 million or $1.2 per share and non-GAAP operating earnings of $163 million or $0.32 per share. We previously mentioned that PSEG Power would benefit from an approximate $4 per megawatt hour increase and the average price of our 2023 hedged output, which rose to approximately $31 per megawatt hour. The majority of this annual price improvement was realized during the first three months of the year with higher winter pricing driving most of the increase.
And as a result, gross margin for the quarter rose by a total of $0.10 per share, driven primarily by $0.17 per share increase from recontracting 8.4 terawatt hours in generation and market impacts from the step-up in power prices. The gross margin increase also includes lower capacity revenues of $0.02 per share and lower gas operations of $0.05 per share, reflecting lower capacity and natural gas prices during the first quarter of 2022.
First quarter cost comparisons improved by $0.01 per share in 2023, reflecting lower nuclear costs and reduced spend on offshore wind activity versus 2022. Higher interest expense covering PSEG Power impairment financings were $0.04 per share unfavorable compared to the year-ago quarter from refinancing maturing debt at higher rates. Lower pension credits from 2022 investment returns were $0.03 per share unfavorable versus the first quarter of 2022. Taxes and other were $0.04 per share favorable compared to the first quarter of 2022, reflecting the use of a lower effective tax rate in the quarter that will reverse over the balance of 2023, partly offset by lower investment income.
On the operating side, the nuclear fleet produced approximately 8.4 terawatt hours during the first quarter of 2023, similar to the first quarter of 2022 and ran at capacity factor of 100%. For the full-year 2023, PSEG is forecasting generation output of 30 terawatt to 32 terawatt hours and has hedged approximately 95% to 100% of this production at an average price of $31 per megawatt hour. For 2024, PSEG is again forecasting nuclear baseload output of 30 terawatt to 32 terawatt hours and has hedged 75% to 80% of this output at an effective price of $37 per megawatt hour.
The forecast of non-GAAP operating earnings for PSEG Power & Other is unchanged at $200 million to $225 million for the full year. This forecast reflects the realization of a majority of the expected increase in the average 2023 annual hedged price in the first quarter of the year, with minimal incremental pricing improvement compared to the prior year expected over the balance of 2023.
Moving on to recent financing activity. As of March 31, 2023, PSEG had available credit capacity of $3.9 billion, including $1billion at PSE&G. In addition, PSEG had total cash and cash equivalents on hand of approximately $1.2 billion. PSEG Power had net cash collateral postings of $700 million at March 31, primarily related to out of the money hedge positions resulting from higher energy prices. As these historical lower-price trades continue to settle through 2023 and into 2024, collateral was returned as PSEG Power satisfies its obligations under those contracts. Thus far in 2023, collateral postings have been below the high levels experienced during 2022 and remains subject to market moves.
Early in the first quarter, we prepaid $750 million of the $1.5 billion 364-day variable rate term loan due in April. Subsequent to the end of the quarter, the remaining $750 million of the April 2023 term loan matured and was replaced by a new $750 million 364-day variable rate term loan maturing in April 2024. As of March 31, 2023, PSEG had outstanding a total of $1.25 billion of 364-day variable rate term loans expiring, April and May of 2023 to support PSE&G Power's collateral needs and PSEG Power had outstanding, a $1.25 billion variable rate term loan expiring March 2025.
In total, $1.05 billion of Power & Other's variable rate debt has been swapped from a variable rate fixed as of March 31, 2023 with an additional $175 million swapped in April. Also in March, PSE&G issued a total of $900 million of green bonds, consisting of $500 million of secured medium-term notes due 2033 and $400 million of secured medium-term notes due 2053. As Ralph mentioned, we are reaffirming PSEG's 2023 non-GAAP operating earnings guidance of $3.40 to $3.50 per share with regulated operations at PSE&G forecasted to contribute USD1.5 billion to USD1,525 million and PSEG Power & Other forecasted at USD200 million to USD225 million, noting that PSEG Power & Other has realized the majority of the expected annual price increase in recontracting during the first quarter of '23.
That concludes our formal remarks. And operator, we are ready to begin the question-and-answer session.