Lloyd Yates
President and Chief Executive Officer at NiSource
Thanks, Chris. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Hopefully you've all had a chance to read our second quarter earnings release issued earlier today. 'll begin on Slide 6 to provide you with an update on our three key priorities. First, we are raising our 2023 non-GAAP NOEPS guidance, the upper half of $1.54 to $1.60. We are also reaffirming our annual non-GAAP NOEPS growth of 6% to 8% through 2027, an annual rate base growth of 8% to 10%. Meanwhile, our non-tracked O&M target is to remain flat in 2023, as well as throughout the duration of the plan.
We continue building a track-record of execution and growth, and our commitment to investors, employees and customers is central to everything we do. We call our original 2023 NOEPS discrete guidance of $1.50 to $1.57 was introduced at our Investor Day in November. In February, we raised and narrowed our estimate to $1.54 to $1.60. And today, we are again raising to the upper half of this range. In the approximately nine months since November, our superior operations, regulatory and financing execution has enabled this increase in earnings expectations. For our customers, commodity market conditions have been improving. However, inflation and interest-rate headwinds continue to persist. Despite this, we remain focused on delivering value to our customers and highly visible derisked financial results for our investors.
Second, our leaning regulatory execution continued this quarter in both the electric and gas businesses. May was a particularly busy month for our gas distribution business as the Columbia Gas of Maryland filed a request with the Maryland Public Service Commission seeking approval to adjust base rates. The request seeks to recover approximately $40 million of capital investment. Additionally, the Virginia State Corporation Commission approved a settlement among Columbia Gas of Virginia and the parties in its base rate case originally filed in April 2022. The base rate adjustment approval authorizes recovery of approximately $390 million of capital investment. Columbia Gas of Ohio infrastructure replacement program rider rates went into effect in May, initiating the recovery of $360 million of capital investment.
At the electric business, the record is closed in the Northern Indiana Public Service companies electric rate case. We believe the settlement reached back in March represents a balanced outcome for stakeholders as the company invested billions of dollars in our customers and communities in the state. A final order is anticipated today from the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, with rates anticipated to be effective and steps by September 2023 and March 2024.
At FERC, we received approval for incentive on two new MISO, MTEP electric transmission projects last month, supporting our rate base investment in customer reliability beyond our current financial plan through 2027 Lastly, in June, we announced a definitive agreement to sell a minority stake in NIPSCO to Blackstone Infrastructure Partners. The transaction strengthens our balance sheet and financial flexibility in March, yet another example of NiSource's steadfast execution for stakeholders. More importantly, it enables us to support ongoing investments in Indiana and our 1.3 million electric and gas customers in the state.
Slide 7 details our annual capital expenditures across our six-state service territory. In the five-year period through 2027, we plan to invest $15 billion in our customers and communities. At Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania, we are currently replacing 21,000 feet of pipe in Fredrik town in Washington County. Nearly half of the small towns residents will have their service lines upgraded, with the remaining customers to be upgraded in the next two years. As part of this project, Columbia Gas is converting a low-income housing authority system from a master meter to individual meters, helping to lower the authorities maintenance obligations. This $6 million project is part of the company's $110 million capital investment in Pennsylvania during the second quarter alone.
NIPSCO remains committed to the gas [Indecipherable] plan to extend gas service into rural areas, including Steuben, Allen and Lake counties in Northern Indiana. Our major projects and local operating area teams have installed over 24 miles of raw gas main and and installed 1,170 new services year-to-date through June as part of this plan. On the other side of our footprint, crews at Columbia Gas of Maryland are installing new pipe in the city of Cumberland to improve safety by abandoning three low-pressure regulator stations along with abandoning a significant amount of bare steel pipe. This is part of an investment of nearly $8 million of total capital in the state during the second quarter.
Turning to Slide 8, shows key rate case in select capital rider activity since 2021. Our leading regulatory execution continues with no less than nine cases filed in seven jurisdictions across six states in the last three years. Our state regulatory teams are in constant cycle of communication and engagement with key intervenors, regulators and customer groups. In addition to general rate cases, regulatory capital tracker filings allow timely recovery, own and of our investment. All of this activity is built on a foundation of robust economic activity in our states.
For example, at NIPSCO, the Northern Indiana meter transportation district provides idle transportation links to Chicago and Cook County, Illinois, and is construct the double track in northwest Indiana project. The project is anticipated to expand service, improve mobility and accessibility and stimulate job creation for Southern Lake County, and we are in the process of constructing substations to support this major transportation investment in the region.
In Ohio, the new Intel chip factory has been under construction since mid-2022, and Licking County on the outskirts of Columbus. It is estimated to be a $20 billion investment in the state and Intel will be a new Columbia Gas of Ohio customer. In Virginia, the Norfolk Naval Shipyard is the Navy's primary East Coast repair, overhaul and modernization facility, and one of the four public shipyards that play a critical role in maintaining America's fleet. The shipyard is installing a combined heat and power plant expected to be complete later this year that will significantly improve energy security and efficiency with expected consumption of 1.7 million dekatherms annually for Columbia Gas of Virginia. Customer count across our territories has been growing on average by 0.5% to 1% annually for years, including 2023 to date. Favorable demographic trends have driven inbound migration, thanks to a stable and growing manufacturing base, robust Utility and non-utility infrastructure, and low tax rate in the states we serve.
Turning to another foundational element of value for our 4 million customers, our internal teams continue to advance on all aspects of our operational excellence initiatives. Project Apollo is on-track, generating efficiencies by doing things safer, better, more efficiently and for less cost. One recent example of establishing standard buffer zones around our underground infrastructure that indicate areas where digging can safety occur especially for third-party excavators,. Before instituting extended zones, they approve of being called out to excavation sites to locate underground facilities when it wasn't needed. We've eliminated more than 10,000 unnecessary trips in the last three months, allowing more time to be spent on value-added work.
Technology investments are also key to our operational excellence initiatives. This year, we began our five-year, approximately $1 billion transformation with an initial $300 million investment in SAP and Salesforce technology platform implementation that will standardize work practices and drive efficiencies for our field employees to improve service to our customers. All of this is expected to contribute to keeping total customer build levels in line with inflation over the five-year financial plan. These achievements, would not be possible without our dedicated employees and their commitment to our customers, communities and all NiSource's stakeholders.
With that, I will turn the call over to Michael Luhrs.
