Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the 2019 Emera Annual Shareholders Meeting. Please turn your attention to the screen, which contains a cautionary statement. It explains that certain statements made in today's presentations and during the question and answer session may be forward looking statements or may use non GAAP financial measures and should be received with caution. And now please welcome the Chair of the Board of Directors, Jackie Shepherd.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Emera's 2019 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. We're really happy to be back here in Halifax again this year and at the beautiful new Halifax Convention Center. I also want to point out to everyone that we're actually in Mi'kma'ki, which is the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi'kmaq people of Nova Scotia. We'd like to take a little safety moment before we get going. As you know, Emera is committed to a culture of safety And at every major meeting, we begin by talking for a moment about safety.
It's one of the ways that we ensure safety is always top of mind. I'd like to draw your attention to the exits in this room. They are clearly marked on either side of the room. And in the event of an emergency, unless you are otherwise instructed, please head to the exit closest to you. We have staff available and they can help you and help assist in the case of an emergency.
People can join today's meeting by webcast or by telephone. And throughout the meeting, any participants joining us by telephone are in listen only mode. Instructions for submitting comments over the conference bridge on the items to be voted on today will be provided when we get to the voting process. You may also submit comments by email to agm2019amerit.com. If you would like to comment or pose a question in French or in Spanish, we have interpreters here with us today who can help.
So on the stage with me today is Scott Balfour, our President and Chief Executive Officer Greg Blunden, Emera's Chief Financial Officer and Stephen Aftanis, Emera's Corporate Secretary. And you may have noticed the Emera executive team and their profiles displayed in the meeting on the screen behind me. They are also listed in the annual report and most of them are actually here in the room with us today. And I'm sure they'd be very happy to answer any questions you may have about the business after the meeting. I would also like to introduce our director nominees in addition to Scott and myself.
Background particulars including skills and experience of all of our nominees are in your management information circular. And I would ask the director nominees to please stand and to remain standing until all of our nominees have been introduced to the meeting. The director nominees are Jim Bertram, Calgary, Alberta, Sylvia Kremenska, Toronto, Ontario, Henry DeMaun, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia Kent Harvey, New York, New York. Where's Kent? Okay.
Lynn Loewen, Westmount Quebec. Don Pether, Dundas, Ontario. John Rameel, Tampa, Florida. Andrea Rosen, Toronto, Ontario. Rick Sergel, who actually couldn't make it today.
He's from Boston, Massachusetts. And Jochen Tilt from Toronto, Ontario. Thank you to all of our nominees and thank you for your ongoing contribution and commitment to Emera. I'm pleased to welcome our newest nominees this year, Jim Bertram and Joakim Tilt. Jim and Joakim bring vast industry experience to our Board, Both are seasoned leaders and well versed in driving growth within publicly traded companies.
Jim and Joachim, welcome to your first annual meeting. I would also like to acknowledge 2 board members who are stepping down this year. Our long standing Director, Al Edgeworth and Al is over here. This is Al's 14th year and he's been invaluable to the board. His leadership has played a significant role in Emera's development.
Over the past several years, Al has been the chair of our Health and Safety and Environment Committee and he's been he's driven really notable progress in that area. And on behalf of all of us, Al, we wish you the very best. I think we should have an applause. Jim Eisenhower is also stepping down from the board of Emera, but he will remain part of the Emera family as the lead director of Nova Scotia Power. As many of you know, Jim is a proud Nova Scotian.
He is well recognized and a very accomplished business leader in the community and we have benefited greatly from his expertise in finance, manufacturing and distribution. And I know he will make a significant contribution in his new role on the Nova Scotia Power Board. Congratulations Jim and thank you for your unwavering commitment to Emera. In 2018, the board was focused on governance, succession planning and strategy. Like many of our energy industry peers, Emera had some challenges from external forces last year.
We addressed these by making important decisions in order to strengthen the balance sheet and position Emera for future growth. These decisions included adjusting our dividend growth target rate and executing on select asset sales. We're confident that these were and they continue to be the right steps allowing Emera to redeploy capital to the strongest performing assets. Both Scott and Greg will be talking in a lot more detail on the business last year and our outlook in later part of the meeting. I'm also proud to note that Emera received several accolades in 2018, including being named as one of Canada's top 50 corporate citizens by Corporate Knights for our sustainability work.
We also received the Gavel Award from the Canadian Coalition For Good Governance. We're also pleased to be included in Canada's top 100 employees employers list and we were recognized for the 3rd consecutive year as one of Canada's best employers by Forbes. Delivering these would not be possible without the talent and the dedication of the teams right across Emera. So thank you to all the team for that. And to my colleagues on the board, thank you for your leadership and for your guidance.
And thank you to our shareholders. Your ongoing confidence in Emera is what enables us to succeed. So on that note, the meeting will now come to order. In accordance with the company's articles, I will chair the meeting and Stephen Aftanis will act as secretary of the meeting. Representatives of AST Trust, the company's registrar and transfer agent will act as scrutineers for the meeting.
They will report on shareholder attendance and will count the votes. The scrutineers have reported that a quorum is present. The secretary has confirmed that proper notice of the meeting has been given and that the materials for the meeting were provided to common shareholders. I now declare the meeting duly called and properly constituted for the transaction of business. At this time, I would like to welcome Greg Blunden to come forward and to give his financial report.
Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, our valued shareholders, for joining us today. 2018 was another successful year for Emera. Our business has never been stronger, and this showed in the financial performance of all of our businesses. In 2018, Emera delivered record adjusted earnings per share and cash flow for our shareholders. This achievement was supported by record earnings at Tampa Electric, Nova Scotia Power, Peoples Gas and New Mexico Gas.
We continue to make significant progress on our strategic initiatives across our portfolio. In Florida, we announced the modernization of our Big Bend power station and we completed construction of 145 Megawatts of Solar. These investments will provide our customer with cleaner, more reliable energy and support continued earnings growth at Tampa Electric. We also made meaningful progress on our funding plan and shared a new approach to funding with the investment community late last year. We announced the sale of our New England gas generation portfolio, which will help accelerate the transition to our targeted capital structure.
Our prudent and disciplined reallocation of capital has resulted in a stronger balance sheet and increased financial stability. We raised the dividends paid to you by 4% last year, the 12th straight year of dividend increases. 2018 was a challenging year for investors, but we are pleased that 2019 is off to a much better start. As of March 31, our 1 year total shareholder return, which is dividends plus share price appreciation, was 29.5%, significantly exceeding both the TSX Index and TSX Canadian Utilities Index. We are very proud of our ability to generate very strong long term returns for our shareholders.
On an annualized basis, we have consistently exceeded the total shareholder return from the TSX Index and TSX Canadian Utilities Index over both the short and long term. These returns have been driven by our steadily increasing dividend, disciplined approach to growth and our fiscal management. Over the past 20 years, Emera has delivered shareholders an annualized total shareholder return of over 10%. Over the past decade, Emera has grown considerably. Today, we are a top 20 North American utility with operations across North America and the Caribbean.
In 2018, we reported record adjusted net income of $671,000,000 primarily driven by our Florida utilities. This represents a 16% compound average annual growth rate over that 10 year period. Earnings per share were a record $2.88 in 2018, resulting in a 10 year compound average growth rate of 8%. And in addition to our record earnings, Emera delivered record cash flow from operations last year. In 2018, operating cash flow was $1,800,000,000 which resulted in a compound average annual growth of 19% over that 10 year period.
Strong cash flows allows us to fund the dividend, invest in new growth opportunities and to continually enhance our balance sheet. We recognize the importance of the dividend to our shareholders. Since 2000, we have delivered compound average growth in our dividend of almost 6%. And as I mentioned earlier, in 2018, we increased our dividend by 4%. We are committed to growing the dividend each and every year.
Our confidence in our dividend growth is supported by visible earnings and cash flow growth and the diverse and low risk nature of our business. To support our earnings and dividend growth through 2021, we have identified $6,500,000,000 of capital investment opportunities. These include normal growth capital investments as well as new investments, including our solar program and the modernization of Big Bend in Florida and smart meters across our portfolio. Rate base is the investment we make as a company into our utilities to provide gas and electric service to our customers. With the identified growth in front of us, we forecast that our 2021 rate base will be almost 20% higher than it was last year.
And we fully expect that is that we will identify additional investment over this period as we anticipate there will be opportunities to continue to further invest in solar in Florida being just one example. And all of our investments are made for the benefit of our customers. By continuing to focus on safely delivering them with cleaner, affordable, reliable energy, we've been able to create unique and innovative investment opportunities that provide value to shareholders and customers alike. In November 2018, we shared our approach to funding our growth with the investment community. Our approach is designed to increase Emera's financial strength by delivering on 4 key objectives with a focus on limiting our need for new common equity.
Select asset sales form a meaningful part of the approach to funding. Through these sales, we are optimizing our portfolio so that we can fund the best growth opportunities and establish a strong foundation for our business going forward. And we have been successfully executing on these select asset sales. We have announced and closed the sale of our New England gas generation portfolio and the Bayside power plant in New Brunswick, and most recently announced the sale of Emera Maine. We anticipate that upon closing Emera Maine, these sales will collectively raise approximately $2,100,000,000 of proceeds, which fully satisfies our asset sale target.
Proceeds will be used to fund our growth and to reduce debt at the holding company level. As a result of our growing earnings, cash flows, our dividend reinvestment plan and the execution of the select asset sales, the debt percentage in our capital structure has declined by 4% since we first acquired TECO in 2016. And we expect upon the closing of the announced sale of Emera Maine later this year, we will achieve our targeted capital structure. Last week, we announced our Q1 results. We reported adjusted net income of $224,000,000 an increase of 11% from the $202,000,000 in the Q1 of 2018.
The earnings growth was primarily driven by results from our gas utilities and Nova Scotia Power. Earnings per share were $0.95 compared to $0.87 in 2018, an increase of 9%. And operating cash flows decreased modestly by 6% to $418,000,000 as compared to $444,000,000 in Q1 of 2018. 2019 will be a transition year for us as we complete select asset sales and focus on strengthening our balance sheet. As a result, we expect to deliver annual adjusted EPS and operating cash flow consistent with 2018 results when normalized for one time items.
We are off to a strong start in 2019. Our portfolio of regulated assets continues to perform exceptionally well as evidenced by the strong Q1 financial results. We have also continued to advance our strategic initiatives, notably installing further solar generation in Florida. And we continue to take steps to improve our financial strength and to increase our funding flexibility. I believe that our prudent and disciplined reallocation of capital will result in a stronger Emera that is well positioned to continue to deliver long term earnings and cash flow growth.
Our business has never been stronger and we are excited about the growth opportunities in front of us. Our visible pipeline of growth opportunities is expected to drive healthy rate base and earnings growth and this growth combined with the highly regulated nature of our portfolio that leaves me confident that we will continue to deliver a growing dividend and above average returns to our shareholders for many years to come. For those that have invested in Emera, we want to thank you for your continued support and interest. Thank you.
Thank you, Greg. The scrutineers report on the number of shares represented at this meeting has been received. Mr. Secretary, could you please read the report?
Madam Chair, the scrutineers have provided their preliminary report. There are present at the meeting in person or represented by proxy over 94,000,000 shares of the company. This represents more than 40% of the outstanding shares. The final report will be kept on file with the record of this meeting.
Thank you.
We will now deal with items which require shareholder approval and I will explain the voting procedure. The mailing to shareholders provided notice that 4 items would be placed before this meeting for approval. Most shareholders decided to take advantage of the voting other voting methods and provided the proxy in advance of this meeting. Shareholders here in the room who have not already voted and who want to vote at the meeting were given a ballot at the registration desk by AST Trust. Any shareholder in the room who has not already voted and did not receive a ballot at the desk, please raise your hand now and we will give you a ballot.
There's 2 up here. Is there anyone else looking for a ballot? Please raise your hand. Thank you. Great.
In order for your ballot to count, please print your name on the ballot and mark whether you are a resident or nonresident of Canada. Your ballot must be legible and must indicate your voting intention on each item. If a box is not marked with your voting intention, your vote cannot be counted on that item. The ballots will be collected after for approval and will for approval right now, the balance will be collected after the items for approval have been presented to the meeting. There are 4 items for approval at today's meeting.
Employee shareholders or proxy holders will move and second a motion on all four items, following which shareholders will have an opportunity to comment on any of the items. Shareholders in the room who wish to comment on any items may do so by coming to For those of you on our webcast, please send your comments via e mail to agm2019amerit.com. If you have a question that does not relate to one of the 4 items to be voted on today, I would ask that you please save your question for the question and answer session following the meeting. After the items have been discussed, we will conduct a ballot vote on each of the 4 items. After the close of voting and conclusion of the meeting, we will then have a general question and answer session.
As set out in the information circular, there are 4 items for approval at today's meeting. They are the election of directors, the appointment of auditors, authorization for the directors to establish the auditors' fees and an advisory vote on executive compensation. May I have a motion regarding these 4 items?
Madam Chair, my name is Jason McQuade and I'm a shareholder of the company. I move that number 1, the nominees as set out on the ballot and on Pages 9 to 20 of the Management Information Circular be elected as directors of the company until the next annual meeting or until their successes are elected or appointed. Number 2, that Ernst and Young LLP Chartered Accountants be appointed auditors of the company to hold office until the close of the next annual meeting of shareholders or until their successors are appointed. Number 3, the directors of the company be authorized to establish the auditors fee for the current year in such amounts as they may in their discretion determine. And number 4, that the resolution as set out on the ballot and on Page 4 of the management information circular regarding the company's approach to executive compensation is approved.
Thank you, Jason. There is a seconder. Did I hear a seconder?
Yes. Joe Robertson seconds that motion.
Thank you very much, sir. As I mentioned earlier, we will have a general question and answer session following the business of the meeting. For this portion of the meeting, I'm asking our shareholders if there is any discussion here in the room specifically relating to the 4 motions. Is there any discussion from our shareholders on the conference call specifically relating to any of the items?
There is no one queued up to ask a question.
Thank you. And finally, have we received any emails relating to any of these items?
Madam Chair, we have not received any email comments at this time.
Thank you. Please pass your completed ballots to the end of the row and they will be collected and counted by AST Trust along with the votes submitted by proxy prior to the meeting. We'll wait a moment until the ballots are collected. Any more ballots? Thank you.
Is that it? It's a lot of voting going on. Okay. I think that's it. So while the scrutineers are tabulating the votes, I'm going to call on our President and CEO, Scott Belfort, to say a few words.
Thank you, Madam Chair, and good afternoon, everyone. As Jackie said, we're very happy to be back here in Halifax for our AGM this year. And I don't say that because it's expected. I say it because Halifax is home for us, and we're very proud of that. As you know, Emera started here.
And even more importantly, we've grown from here, transforming from a single electric utility into a $32,000,000,000 energy leader, employing 7,500 people, serving 2,500,000 customers in Canada, the U. S. And the Caribbean. I think it's fair bet to say that most of us here today were shaped in some way by the places where we grew up. This applies to Emera too.
Our values, our corporate culture, the way we do business, our team have all been shaped by this place. This is evident in the fact that our team, the team here at Emera are motivated to advance our strategy to safely deliver cleaner, affordable and reliable energy. Not only because it makes good business sense, but because it's the right thing to do for our customers, for our investors, for our community and for our environment. While we work hard to do the right things, we're also committed to doing them well, executing with discipline and excellence and continually adapting and innovating, always looking for a better way to do things, especially in the face of change. And there are 3 main disruptive trends driving change for us today: digitalization, decarbonization and decentralization.
Now change is a reality in every industry. But in the energy industry, where it could be said that real change has been limited until recently, change is now accelerating at an unprecedented pace. And at the same time, in our industry, we're making decisions today on investments often spanning 30 years or more. And we're doing all of this within complex regulatory environments, where there are many important stakeholders who are not always quickly or easily aligned. This is why we're integrating new technologies and integrating new technologies is such an important part of how we're delivering on our strategy to invest in cleaner energy, to improve reliability and to modernize and expand infrastructure to serve our customers.
This is also why we invest heavily in relationships and work with regulators, policymakers and our industry peers to help shape the constructive regulatory environments needed to respond to trends and prepare for change. And this is why we're investing to explore things like microgrids, battery storage, community solar and behind the meter solutions. We're finding different and better ways to offer our customers more choice and more control. Now here at Emera, we've been working to reduce carbon for well over a decade. Nova Scotia Power is a leader when it comes to reducing carbon emissions in Canada.
They are also a North American leader when it comes to the percentage of wind generation incorporated into the system. In fact, the team has reduced carbon emissions by 36% from 2,005 levels, already exceeding the 2,030 reduction target of 30% set at the COP21 Climate Conference. And NSPI is on track achieve a 58% reduction by 2,030, nearly doubling the Government of Canada's target set under the Paris Agreement. And we're taking what we've learned here in Nova Scotia and applying it in other areas of our business too. In 2018, we brought the Maritime Link transmission project into service, enabling the clean flow of energy between the island of Newfoundland and Mainland North America for the first time in history.
We're investing in 600 megawatts of new solar generation at Tampa Electric. So far, we've installed 405 Megawatts or more than 4,000,000 solar panels, a huge accomplishment given we were basically at 0 when EMEA acquired TECO just a few years ago. And we're also investing to modernize our Big Bend generating facility in Florida, where we are converting 1 coal unit to high efficiency natural gas and retiring another coal unit early. Once this work is complete, the modernization will not only decrease emissions and decrease cost of customers, Big Bend will become a more reliable and more operationally flexible source of baseload energy, supporting even further development of solar and other renewables at Tampa Electric. You've heard us talk a lot about these large scale energy initiatives because they are central to our strategy and our growth plan.
But we are also making investments right across our business that are supporting our strategy. Energy storage is becoming a big part of the renewable and reliable energy story. We have several battery storage projects across Samira that help offer a supply of clean energy when renewable generation isn't an option. And they also act as a backup during peak demands or system outages. Battery use on a larger scale for the electricity industry is very new and not yet truly competitive, but the technology and cost equation is advancing quickly.
And we're testing it in numerous ways across our business to learn how we can apply it as technology, cost and value all continue to improve. We've installed a 5 Megawatt system at Barbados Light and Power. Here in Nova Scotia, we've installed a 1.2 Megawatt Intelligent Feeder pilot project in Elmsdale, which also includes battery storage devices in customers' homes. We have 2 other battery projects underway now for Grand Bahama Power as well as a 13 Megawatt system being built at Tampa Electric's Big Bend Solar Facility. We're also exploring microgrid technology.
Microgrids can generate and deliver energy independent of the main power grid, acting as a reliable backup for nearby customers or as a way to reach customers that may be isolated from the power system. Through Emera Technologies, we've partnered with Sandia Labs in New Mexico to advance our proprietary thinking about microgrid solutions. And we're very excited to be on track to launch a pilot project of this technology together with the U. S. Department of Defense at the Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque.
We're also excited about the collaborative Smart Grid Innovation Project, a partnership between Nova Scotia Power, New Brunswick Power and Siemens to test new digital technologies to better understand their benefits to customers and to the 2 provincial grids. If approved by a regulator, this project will look at solar, batteries, electric vehicle smart charging and smart thermostat technologies. It's this kind of collaboration and innovative thinking that is helping to shape the future of energy. And just as importantly, helping us deliver solutions to meet the changing expectations of our customers. One of these expectations is that many customers are increasingly looking for more choice and more control over their energy.
This is why over the next 5 years, we're investing $450,000,000 to install 1,400,000 smart meters for our utility customers. So far, we've installed about 235,000 smart meters at Barbados Light and Power and Tampa Electric. And Nova Scotia Power will start to roll out more than 500,000 meters to 500,000 customers later this year. We're advancing community solar project in Florida. Sun Select, as we've called it, will enable residential and commercial customers to buy locally generated solar energy at a fixed rate, offering a cost competitive alternative for customers who specifically want solar energy, but are either not able or not inclined to install rooftop solar panels.
We've just received regulatory approval yesterday on this exciting project and we expect to launch Sun Select this summer. And we're exploring new behind the meter technologies to see how we could provide even more choice and flexibility. We recently acquired a small company named Grand HVAC, a heating and cooling equipment rental company based in Ontario. We'll be using this business to learn about the potential for providing other kinds of at home energy solutions to customers in the future. There's no shortage of work taking place across our business to respond to and anticipate change in our industry.
But the ability to do all of this work depends on us being financially strong. Last year was a tough one for our sector. We faced unique impacts from U. S. Tax reform, the anticipation of rising interest rates and a shift in how credit rating agencies and the Canadian Equity Capital Markets looked at our business.
These significant factors put pressure on our industry, on our business and in turn on our share price. And then in providing clarity around our $6,500,000,000 capital investment profile, investors looked to better understand how we were going to fund and finance it. And so as you know, our share price wasn't where we wanted it to be for most of 2018. And like other utilities and the markets overall, our total shareholder return for the year was negative. But the team, with support from the Board, swiftly and prudently took significant steps to address these challenges and reduce future exposure to these kind of external factors.
In August of last year, we adjusted our targeted dividend growth rate. Our dividend payment to shareholders is a fundamental part of our capital market positioning and that's not going to change. But it was important to set the growth target at a level that's sustainable over the long term. We see our adjusted rate of 4% to 5% through to 2021 as both competitive and sustainable, allowing us to reinvest more into our business. As Greg outlined, we announced and we are successfully executing an asset sale program.
We've closed the sale of our New England gas generation fleet for $590,000,000 and we announced an agreement to sell Emera Maine for $959,000,000 plus acquired debt for a total enterprise value of $1,300,000,000 Once closed, these asset sales will have raised approximately US2.1 billion dollars of equity proceeds, which will be used to reduce AMER corporate level debt and support our capital program. This funding clarity, combined with some positive macro factors, helped us end last year in a stronger position. And while the utility sector was down overall, Emera's total shareholder return did outperform the TSX Capped Utilities Index and the TSX Composite Index as well as the S and P 500. We closed 2018 with a share price at $43.71 and we've seen strong relative and absolute share price performance since then, with new all time highs being set and the valuation gap to our closest peers being closed. But a gap to our U.
S. Peers still remains, even though 65% of our business is in the U. S. There is still opportunity and some work for us to do on our share price. We also know our investors increasingly care about the commitments we're making to our people, to our environment, to our communities and to good governance.
This is why our sustainability performance is so important to us. In many ways, our commitment to sustainability is essentially our strategy in action. Our strategy is rooted in reducing carbon emissions, but doing so in a way that remains affordable for customers. And as I said earlier, we've been taking action on reducing carbon emissions for over a decade and we are making a very real difference. In 2018, we achieved a 70% reduction in coal based generation across Emera's operations compared to where we were in 2,005.
And in just the last 2 years alone, we've added 27% more renewable capacity to our generation profile. And in doing all of this, we've also created growth and value for our shareholders. We also continue to invest in building stronger, safer and more innovative communities. In 2018, we contributed over $18,000,000 to community organizations with over $13,000,000 of this invested in Atlantic Canada. And we're proud to be recognized for our efforts.
As Jackie mentioned, we were named 1 of Canada's top 50 corporate citizens by Corporate Knights. And we've been recognized for our strong governance and our efforts to be an employer of choice. There's a lot happening at Emera. But even with all the work underway, our team never loses sight of our number one priority, safety. We're making meaningful progress on our journey to world class safety.
In 2018, we began implementing a safety management system across our operations, bringing more rigor and consistency to our processes, including reporting, auditing and contractor safety management. We also continue to focus on reinforcing safety leadership and our speak up culture across Emera. I'm proud of the team's commitment and the progress we are making, but we know we have more work to do. The team also continues to be steadfastly focused on delivering for our customers. In 2018, the team at Nova Scotia Power launched a new outage reporting tool that lets customers report power disruptions online, including from mobile devices and immediately receive information about their outage and estimated restoration time.
Along with the other initiatives taking place, this work has earned customer satisfaction scores of 80% or better, the highest scores in over 15 years for Nova Scotia Power. For the 6th consecutive year, Peoples Gas in Tampa was ranked 1st in customer satisfaction among midsized natural gas companies in the South region by JD Power. In fact, our 2018 scores were actually the highest in the country, placing us ahead of the other 83 utilities in the survey for the top spot nationwide in overall residential customer satisfaction. The team at New Mexico Gas was ranked 1st in the industry for first call resolution by JD Power. This means customers are getting their concerns addressed the first time they call.
These are important recognitions that reinforce our commitment to customers and just as importantly, the dedication of the team. And it's that dedication and hard work of our team right across our business that makes our success and growth possible. Now the truth is that 2018 was a significant lift for the team. Making disciplined decisions around the allocation of capital is critical and the value of that has been clearly demonstrated over the past year. But selling businesses also has a real and meaningful impact on people, and I don't take that fact lightly.
Our approach to the asset sale program was based on respect for and a mindfulness of the impacts of the teams involved, while still executing with the discipline required to meet our objectives and to deliver the results expected. Thank you to the entire team for your consistent commitment to doing the right things and doing them well. To our Board of Directors, thank you for your continued support and invaluable guidance, particularly during my 1st year as CEO in what was both a challenging year for our business and our industry. We accomplished a lot together in 2018, and we're proud of the work that has advanced our strategy and positioned us well for future growth. We are and always will be committed to doing the right things, working safely, delivering for our customers, building respectful and constructive relationships with our stakeholders, executing with discipline and investing in our people.
And we will never stop innovating and developing new and better ways of doing things. These values very much shaped by our roots and our home here in Nova Scotia guide our decisions and they guide our growth. And it's through this growth that we're able to make a difference where we live and work, investing back into the communities, including here in Nova Scotia. But rather than just take my word for it, I'll close by sharing a video that our employees and partners have created to help tell the story. Thank you.
As one of the younger newer engineers for the company, I've had the pleasure of working on exciting projects such as renewable energy, electrification of transportation, grid modernization, GIS and drone inspection.
I'm really excited about what Emera is doing to promote innovation in the state of New Mexico. I was born and raised here, so I'm really proud to work for an organization that cares about where we live and where we work.
Being part of Emera means to me the opportunity for a diverse and inclusive culture, building strong meaningful relationships and working with indigenous leaders, communities, First Nations and organizations in every aspect of our business.
Innovation means working with innovative teams in smart places with smart tools to ensure we meet the customers' needs in the future.
Living and working safely matters to our team, to our families, to our customers and to our community.
To have large organizations, choose a city as their head office as they expand around the world means that you are creating a feeder system for small and medium sized enterprises right here in Halifax. The whole idea of Emera being a world leading energy company from Halifax just in and of itself makes Halifax stronger. There is the economic impact, which is huge, employing thousands of people in good paying jobs, but also being a creative
corporate partner in Halifax. We could not do the work that we do without Amira. And when I say that, they're contributing over 300 $1,000 annually to support grassroots important programming in our community that simply would not be there if it wasn't for Amira. Amira's commitment to community matters, because they are a leader, and they can use that power for good and they do.
I'm working with ARIA Technologies, Emera Idea Hub, and our company builds portable mini wind turbines. It is incredibly important that companies like Emera support innovation at this level for us because it encourages people that are going to graduate in the next year or so to exercise their creativity to come up with solutions that benefit our community. And I feel like Emera is going to encourage more and more companies to look at the hub and all the great things it's doing, to look at the companies that's housing and all the great things the companies are doing and to support a culture like this.
Utility and really created a capital structure that allowed it to punch way above its weight. I think we have far too few global champions in our country, and anytime we have an opportunity to build 1 and grow 1 and nurture 1, we should seize it because having head offices really matters. That's where a lot of the philanthropy comes from and a lot of the community leadership comes from. Well, Emera has been like a large stone in a pond. The effect just keeps rippling out, and that's huge for the province of Nova Scotia and, in fact, for our whole region.
What a great company. And thank you, Scott. The Secretary advises me that the voting results have been received. Mr. Secretary?
Madam Chair, the scrutineers report that all items voted upon at the meeting have received more than the number of votes required, and therefore, all items are passed. The final voting results will also be posted online at sedar.com.
Thank you, Stephen. In light of the results of the voting, I now declare each of the 12 nominees for directors are duly elected. Ernst and Young LLP is appointed as auditors of the company. The directors are authorized to establish the auditors fee for the current year and the resolution regarding the company's approach to executive compensation is approved. Ladies and gentlemen, there being no other formal business to be put before the meeting, I will now entertain a motion to terminate this meeting.
Madam Chair, my name is Jason McQuade, and I'm a shareholder of the company. I move that the meeting be terminated.
Thank you, Jason. Thank you, sir.
We will now vote by show of hands. All those for the motion? All those against the motion? Thank you. The motion is carried.
We will now proceed to the question and answer period. And I'm going to ask Scott to come forward. So we'll first take comments and questions from shareholders here in the room and then from shareholders on the conference call. And finally, we'll take questions from by e mail. We will ask that all shareholders with questions please give your full name and affirm that you are a shareholder or a proxy holder of the company.
If you would like to ask a question or pose a question in French or Spanish, we have someone here to help with the translation. And Scott or myself, we will direct it. We have all of our leaders here. We could direct questions, if required. So are there any questions at this time?
I see you're ready.
Yes, ma'am. They've come a long way. First of all, great presentation. Come all the way. My name is Joe Robinson, and I used to work with Tampa Electric Company as an engineer, and I'm the 2nd vice president of the local NAACP branch.
And TECO's plan to burn more fossil fuel, crack gas, the Big Bend, solar, hurts our community. Tampa is highly vulnerable to sea level rise and storm surge and climate change. I'm here to tell you that the most vulnerable communities, racial minorities are always the ones left behind when disaster strikes. TECO can do better for our communities of color. Chairwoman Jackie Shepherd and Ms.
Scott Balfour, I met you previously. I was there when TECO was transferred and you did a great job.
Thank you.
Okay. And I hope that you direct Mrs. Tower, who we've been trying to meet the current CEO of Tampa to meet with us. I'm here with some ladies, usually ladies go first, but they told me to go first. So I said, all right.
So, and we want to have them meet with us and they have come a long way from Tampa, Florida because together we can do better, we can achieve a win win for our local communities, for our shareholders and the climate. Now furthermore, Ameritico, and I'm going to say this, on a polycalculi does not like black people. And I say that because we see none on your current boards of Emera or Tampa Electric Companies, what I was advised today as a community board. Will you please? Will you please?
I've come well over 17, 18, whatever 100 miles it is and lost my hearing on the flight from Boston to Halifax. I don't know why, but I got it back. Would you please consider adding black people to your boards to reflect the real community that you serve? Thanks. And finally, once again, Chairwoman Jackie Sheppard and Mr.
Scott Balfour, will you direct TECO to drop his plan to burn more coal and frac gas and big damn power plants in Tampa Bay? And I understand as an engineer, licensed professional mechanical that is transitioned, but some of these ladies don't agree with that.
So I'm
going to let them tell you, all right. And thank you for your time.
So Mr. Robinson, thank you for coming all this distance. And we tried to help with the weather, but it didn't work out. So first of all, I just want to make a comment on the Emera Board and diversity and inclusion. I just want you all to know and I think we've taken some very demonstrable steps, but Emera is absolutely committed to diversity, absolutely committed to inclusion.
We totally respect the position you've taken here. You've made really good points. And I just want to say we've made progress. We know we have to make more progress in that area. But thank you.
Scott, maybe you want to comment on the local board?
Yes. I'd be happy to. So again, thank you for your question, Mr. Robinson, and thank you for coming all this way. That's not an easy journey, I know.
So you raised a few points that I'd be happy to respond to, but talking starting with the local board in Florida. Look, this is an important issue for us as Jackie says, diversity and inclusion is a strategy that we're bringing across Emera at all levels and all businesses. And we've done some good work. We do have some gender diversity. We do have some ethnic diversity, including on the board in Tampa, but we clearly still have some more work to do.
So I take the comments and bring that into our thinking for sure. So thank you for that. As it relates to the impact of carbon in the environment and look, on this we're aligned, right? Our as I said, our whole strategy is rooted in reducing carbon emissions. And we're proud of the progress that we're making.
And the Big Bend Modernization Project will reduce the amount of coal that is burned at that facility materially and in so doing also reduce carbon emissions. But you also have to remember that what's important is maintaining a balance of that against the cost impact for customers and that there is a transition. It can't all be done overnight. And as we are investing in the modernization of Big Bend, bringing lower emitting natural gas to that facility as we retire 1 coal unit and convert the other, it's enabling us to build even more renewables. And as we all know, renewables, whether it's solar in Florida or wind in Nova Scotia, it's not continuous.
You can't count on it every minute of every day. And what's important is having the backup generation in order to backstop that intermittent source of renewables. And so something like the modernized Big Bend facility will allow us to continue to bring more renewables on stream and help with that journey towards a zero carbon profile over the long term.
Thank you. Madam?
My name is Nina Tatlock. And I would just like to add that there are more costs to burning fossil fuels and to customers at TECO of TECO than just paying our TECO electric bill There are more costs I live in Apollo Beach, Florida. I have come a long way too. Apollo Beach is where TECO's Big Bend plant has been burning dirty coal for decades. I have had cancer.
Many of my neighbors are also sick. I see many of them carrying around oxygen tanks. I believe it is because of the dirty coal that has been burning. I'm here because we urgently need TECO to be a good neighbor. Your company is planning to move forward with the project will imperil our lives, but it does not have to do that.
Instead, TECO could do what companies like it all across the country are doing, retiring dirty old coal plants and building a local clean energy economy based on technologies like solar and energy efficiency. Chairwoman Jackie Shepherd and Mr. Scott Balfour, will you direct TECO to drop their plans to burn more coal and fracked gas at Big Bend. We have come all this way because together we can do better. We can achieve a win win win for local communities, your shareholders and the climate.
Thank you. And thank you for coming all this distance. Scott, do you would you like to comment there?
Sure. So to Mr. Tadlock, thank you again for your question and also for taking the time and effort to travel all this way. And again, we're aligned in our strategy to reduce the carbon emission profile from electricity generation. And in fact, the efforts that are underway at Tampa Electric with the solar investment that's being made there, we will have more solar energy per customer in the Tampa Electric System than any other utility in Florida.
And we're not done with that. We want to continue to invest in the whole point of the Big Bend conversion where we're retiring coal plants early is because it is the right thing to do. It is that win, win, win that you're referencing. And part of our journey for us to be able to continue that effort to continue to reduce the carbon emission profile, continue to invest in renewables and continue to create a win win win for customers, for the community, the environment and shareholders alike.
Hello there. My name is Gretchen Fitzgerald, and I have a proxy for shareholder, John Himmelman, today. So I'm asking questions on his behalf.
Of course.
Emera's stock is performing well. As a shareholder, I want the companies in which I invest to reflect my values. Some of my close associates have refused to purchase EMEA because of its poor environmental record, in particular, your use of biomass for power generation. Nova Scotia Power is a central part of your company. And as a resident of Nova Scotia, I am only too aware of Nova Scotia Power's heavy reliance on coal.
Emera has invested in wind and solar power generation, both of which are true renewables. Continued efforts by Efficiency Nova Scotia to reduce power consumption are also great ideas. I'm sure that shareholders want to have a good future for their children and their grandchildren. Using some of our profits, Emera could take important steps toward facilitating a low carbon future. Chairperson Jackie Shepherd and Mr.
Scott Balfour, why doesn't Emera take stronger actions to reduce CO2 emissions, including getting off of coal and exceeding government regulations? And I actually have a second question after that.
So again, Mr. Fitzgerald, thank you for the question. And look, there's no question we have more work to do, but Mr. Himmelmann's suggestion that challenging the environmental record, I respect, but also have to reflect on the fact that we've reduced our amount of coal in our generation mix by 70% since 2005. We've made some great progress.
We clearly have some more work to do as we balance that transition to renewable energy. We still need to find ways to backstop that energy when the wind is not blowing doing that in a way that is affordable for customers and not putting undue pressure on the cost for customers at the same time and following all of that within the policy parameters established by the province of Nova Scotia, the reference to biomass, I understand. And the reality is that biomass for us is a very small component of the generation mix today. Some countries is quite a significant component. Denmark would be heralded for its commitment to biomass in that case at in the range of 12%.
We're more like 2% to 3%. It's a very small component. Obviously, a lot of our source of renewable energy is coming from wind. And we're proud of that. We're continuing to invest in that.
All part of that journey as we transition from coal to clean is the effort and strategy that's underway for us in Nova Scotia.
Yes. Unfortunately, the equivalency agreement will allow you to burn until 2,000 and forty two, and we're aware of 300 megawatts of existing hydro that could be pumped into Nova Scotia at the same cost or even saving money to ratepayers that could turn down 2 of the coal fired plants. So I think there's an opportunity there that we're missing. And Mr. Hemmelgund's second question,
you
for entertaining me for so long, is that Emera has described its efforts and successes in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This approach is now known to be as bad or worse than burning of coal. He's talking about biomass. All carbon based fuels provide a serious challenge in this era when human induced climate change is so apparent. False claims that biomass provides a renewable solution need to be stopped.
Chairperson Jackie Shepherd and Mr. Scott Balfour, who you cease to report biomass as a renewable energy source And how much of Emera's reported success in reducing greenhouse gas emissions is attributable to biomass burning for electric generation? I think you've answered it in part, but I don't know if there's a number you could give.
Yes, in part. So yes, as I mentioned, biomass is a very small fraction of the generation mix for us, less than 3% here in Nova Scotia today. But it's also important to understand that we don't set the policy to determine whether biomass is renewable or not. That's established by the government, the province of Nova Scotia. And we operate within the parameters that they establish and trying to manage cost in the best way that we can for customers.
Thank you for the questions.
Thank you.
Hi, I'm Susanna Randolph. I'm also up from Florida. So thanks for entertaining us. We've come a long way. So it's a means a lot to us to be able to stand up here and ask you questions.
With regard to TECO's plans at Big Bend, I think a couple of things we'd like to point out just in reviewing TECO's 10 year site plan that was just recently submitted to the Florida Public Service Commission this past April, just a month ago, it actually shows that after a small period in time when you're bringing on the fracked gas, that the coal generation, the coal burning goes up. There are 2 coal units that are going to continue to operate, Unit number 3 and Unit number 4, 4 being I believe the biggest unit. And I would just like to there's a lot of talk about moving away from carbon. The trends being decarbonization, which you've acknowledged. And just I'd love for you to acknowledge that part of why we're seeing in a 10 year site plan that coal burning goes up, I believe around the 2026, 2027 mark.
And just really quickly, the second point I'd like to make just on behalf of my friends and our communities in Florida, part of the Big Bend Modernization project, which I find really kind of ironic that modernization is a word being used when we're talking about another fossil fuel. It's kind of on its face logical. But in any case, part of that plan is that that major project is the elevation of the power block portion of the plant by 14 feet. It is located on the coastal area and the construction of a seawall. It says in the filings 20 feet 20 foot seawall.
I just have to say from Florida as we're dealing with more frequent flooding, we're staring climate change in the face in probably the most profound way. We are kind of it's rolling in. The tide of inevitability around climate crisis is already hitting our state in a major way. And just how disheartening it is for our community to see measures like elevation and seawalls being built to protect the plant, while the neighborhoods just down the way where Naina lives don't have that kind of protection. These are places we love.
This is where we're from. And it's really disheartening to see. It's wonderful to hear the great investments you make in communities and the commitment you have to the communities around you, but that is really, really hard to hear and to see and to know. And given the challenge we are facing, Tampa comes up number 1 or number 2 on the list of most susceptible cities globally sometimes, but definitely in our country, how you're really addressing the climate crisis. So the increase of burning of coal, but also gas is another fossil fuel.
Methane is as bad or worse for climate change. So some remarks on that would be really great. Our hearts are really hurting here. Okay.
Well, I appreciate that, Ms. Randolph. Again, thank you too for joining us here in Chile, Halifax relative to the weather from which you came. Look, we share the concern and it's why our strategy is rooted in reducing the carbon emission profile. And I wish we could wave a magic wand and make that happen today.
The reality is 100% renewable is not physically or practically possible today. They're just whatever that renewable source, certainly in Florida, there's no hydro resource to call by. The sun does not shine, obviously, 24 hours a day. And storage is not yet a viable solution in order to manage that. And so that's why we look at things like natural gas as a transition fuel in order to transition our way to a carbon free electricity sector in the future.
The climate impacts in the meantime, yes, we're all feeling them, right? And they're real to all of us. And I understand the concerns of the community and things that we can be doing continuing as I say to reduce the carbon emission profile. The specific point that you raise as to the site plan and the impact of the usage of coal may be offline with benefit of Nancy here could chat about that. I can't speak to that specifically now.
I'm not sure whether she can or not. But I do know that our efforts will continue to be to increasingly or decreasingly use coal in the future, to continue to look at the resourcing plan for the generation of electricity in Tampa and here in Nova Scotia in order to use the coal fleet less and less, progressively less and less. But today, that thermal generation does help us to be able to support more and more renewable. And we continue to think that that's the right thing to do. Thank you for the question.
Thank you, Scott. Are there other questions?
One more on climate. Okay. Can you take it? Okay. Well, first of all, it's probably a bit redundant, but I wanted to start with thanking Nova Scotia Power through EMRA to for what they have done.
I looked at a report which is several years old now, but I understand that you're on track with achieving 2020 goals. I have a few things to say and that is that I'm sorry, I didn't tell you my name, Margaret Stewart. And our family has held investments in Emera since its inception. In fact, Emera shares are now the largest single stock that I hold in my portfolio. And I've had to sell some because it was so out of balance, okay?
So I don't have any complaints about the stock performance.
You're a smart investor.
And I appreciate the fact that you still have your head office here and that you come back to have your meetings here sometimes anyway. Okay. And I appreciate things like your participation in energy efficiency programs and all the things that you have done that have been good for the environment. But I'm coming today after the IPCC report, which tells us that we're going to have to work even harder to reduce our emissions. And I have and most of the things I was going to say have already happened here.
But you made one there was one comment about biomass. And according to my figures here, you were projecting increasing biomass from about 3%, which you said in 2015 to 7% in 2020. And I don't know whether you're still planning that or not. But where originally it was used, probably planned to use waste. Now we have examples of clear cutting and with the demand from Europe, for instance, along with ours, it's how are forests going to remain sustainable.
I also had questions about we now have a lot of private producers with wind power and I appreciate very much that ComFit project that you were part of, because I've been able to through my stock purchase, which I wish I had more of to send my Christmas and birthday gifts to my grandkids and say you're partial owners of this. I wonder about the fact that there's no very little projection for increased wind power over the last short while. And I know that there are producers that would like to produce more. And I know you say that you the wind doesn't blow all the time. But recently, a doctor from Doctors For the Environment was speaking in here in Nova Scotia.
And he was pointing out that in Alberta with their combination of wind and solar And in fact, if you have a backup, like we are going to have soon with our hydropower from Newfoundland, that, that provides the backup that's needed when the other things aren't producing as they should. And so I wonder if even though we're not Florida with our sunshine, we are more than Germany, which is supposed to be one of the pioneers in using solar. And I wonder if there is a greater chance for even when the sun doesn't shine, solar does produce is produced. And we have places like Kings County now that's looking at 1st solar wind solar farm in Nova Scotia. And I'm wondering what Emera might do to encourage that sort of thing even if it's not what Florida has.
Thank you.
Okay. Now I've come today because I recently was chatting with my granddaughter who came back from McGill and she said, Nana, they've got to do something soon. So I'm asking you don't rest on your formal laurels because do what you can now. By 2010, the IPCC report says we have to have much more action done. And so let's make again an aim.
And if even if the government says that you can continue on till 2,040 2, I think it is, using coal, It's legislated out for the rest of Canada that they have to do it by 2,030. So let's try to do better. Okay.
Thank you. Scott?
So again, thank you for the question, Ms. Stewart. So I think one of the so first of all, we agree. We are not stopping. We're going to keep on this goal that we have in executing our strategy to continue to generate more of our electricity through cleaner carbon reduced sources.
We're on track to achieve 40% of our electricity in 2020 from renewable sources here in Nova Scotia 40%, which is a huge shift from where we were just a few short years ago. And yes, the equivalency agreement will have us continuing to use coal plants for a longer period than in other parts of the country, but that's instead of building large gas generation facilities. And by allowing us to use the coal plants, albeit less and less to support more and more renewable in order to transition from coal to clean in a faster fashion rather than making large investments in natural gas. And you're right, the hydro resources that we can now utilize through with benefit of the Maritime Link and the development of Muscat Falls is a really important backstop for us as we continue to support more wind and potentially more solar. The one challenge with solar that we have here in Nova Scotia is yes, we have thankfully we have many sunny days here too.
But of course, we have to have enough electricity generation usage needs are the highest. And that's usually when it's dark out. It's usually a dinner time in February. And the solar doesn't help us very much in order to meet the electricity demand at those very peak requirements. And that's why we need to make sure that the solution is more than just those renewables that back up from things like the hydro through the Maritime Link are so critically important.
Thank you for the questions.
Thank you. Well, I don't see anyone standing next to a mic. So maybe we'll move to if there's any questions from the conference call.
And we have no questions on the phone lines.
Thank you. Do we have any e mail questions?
Madam Chair, we have received one email question.
Thank you.
The first question is from William Phillips. He is a shareholder. Mr. Phillips says, the recent change to the NS Power Privatization Act causes me some concern when it now removes the legislative restriction preventing non Canadian residents from holding more than 25% of Emera's voting shares in aggregate. Is there not a possible concern in this change with unintended consequences?
Got it. Thank you.
Sure. So I thank Mr. Phillips for the question. I'm not sure what unintended consequences Mr. Phillips might be referring to.
There's none that I can think of that I think pose any concern. The reality is that the elimination of that restriction was simply leveling the playing field for us. There are no other investor owned utilities in the country that have a restriction as to the number of shareholders that are non Canadian. There are transactions that our peers can enter into and have entered into that, that restriction would have prevented us from doing in order to continue to grow the company. And it didn't seem right to us.
And the government agreed that a Nova Scotia company should be disadvantaged relative to one of our peers, for example, in Newfoundland or in Ontario and really just leveling the playing field without any negative consequences, without any impact to social policy here in Nova Scotia. Of course, the other share restrictions that remain, no single shareholder more than 15% is still a restriction here and a requirement that our head office continues to be here, which of course aligns very well with our interests too.
Think as the shareholders in the room, it's really important that you allow your shares to be held by as many people as possible in as many locations. And so I think that's very constructive for the company. And as Scott says, it eliminates a constraint that we would otherwise have relative to our peers in the market. So I think this is a good thing for the company. Any other questions?