Good afternoon. My name is Dina Bartolacci Seely, Manager of Corporate Communications at Emera. Thank you for joining us for Emera's 2024 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, which is being held in a virtual format. Please note, certain statements made in today's presentations, and during the question and answer session afterward, may be forward-looking or may include non-GAAP financial measures and should be received with caution. Any such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to Safe Harbor provisions contained in applicable securities laws. Actual results and financial performance could differ materially from historical results or any conclusions, forecasts, or projections in the forward-looking statements. Certain material factors or assumptions were applied in drawing the conclusions or making the forecasts or projections as reflected in the forward-looking statements.
Additional information about the material factors that could cause actual financial performance to differ materially from the conclusions, forecasts, or projections in the forward-looking statements can be found in Emera's latest MD&A and financial statements, which are available on SEDAR+ . Thank you. I will now turn the meeting over to Jackie Sheppard, Chair of the Emera Board of Directors.
Thank you, Dina. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Emera's 2024 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I'm on location with management at Emera's head office in Halifax, Nova Scotia, which is located in Mi'kma'ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi'kmaq people. Emera seeks to build deep and meaningful relationships with Indigenous peoples and organizations across Mi'kma'ki and in all other regions where we operate. Employees at Emera begin every meeting with a safety moment, and our annual meeting is no different. Emera's core values place the safety of our teams, their customers, and the communities where we operate above all else. Collectively, we continued to improve our overall safety performance in 2023. Emera's lost time injury rate improved by 24% compared to the average over the past five years. This was our best ever level of safety performance.
While we're proud of this achievement, we also know our work is never complete. We strive to continually improve and to create an Emera that's predictably safe, where team members are empowered to speak up, and where they know they should only perform a task if they're certain it can be done safely. Now to the business of today's meeting. We invited shareholders to vote in advance by proxy, and many took advantage of this option. There will also be an opportunity to vote virtually during the meeting through the online platform, and I will provide instructions when we get to the voting process. As stated in the company's Management Information Circular, you must remain connected to the Internet at all times during the meeting in order to vote when balloting commences. Thank you for exercising your voting rights, whichever method you have chosen.
Joining me today are Scott Balfour, our President and Chief Executive Officer, Greg Blunden, our Chief Financial Officer, and Brian Curry, Emera's Corporate Secretary. Now, I would like to introduce our director nominees. Biographies of each director nominee can be found in our 2024 Management Information Circular. In addition to Scott Balfour and myself, the other director nominees are Jim Bertram, Calgary, Alberta, Henry Demone, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Paula Gold-Williams, San Antonio, Texas, Kent Harvey, New York, New York, Lynn Loewen, Westmount, Quebec, Brian Porter, Toronto, Ontario, Ian Robertson, Oakville, Ontario, Karen Sheriff, Picton, Ontario, and Jochen Tilk, Toronto, Ontario. Thank you to all the director nominees for your ongoing contribution and commitment to Emera. This year marks some changes to the board, which are of note. At this time, I would like to welcome Brian Porter to Emera's board.
Brian joined us in March and is standing for election for the first time. Brian spent the majority of his career with the Bank of Nova Scotia, including 10 years as President and CEO. We are pleased to add his extensive corporate and leadership experience to our board. Additionally, I would like to acknowledge Andrea Rosen, who is not standing for re-election. Andrea joined Emera's board in January 2007. She served as Chair of the Audit Committee for more than 10 years, and as Chair of the Nominating Corporate Governance Committee since June 2020. Her leadership and deep financial experience has been of great benefit to Emera over the years. On behalf of the board and the entire Emera team, thank you, Andrea, for your many contributions to the company, and we wish you continued success.
We are in the midst of a significant energy transition that brings with it new opportunities and new challenges. As we continue to manage the transition to cleaner energy and meet ambitious climate targets, we are also navigating increased costs of living, higher interest rates, increasingly unpredictable weather events, all while seeing growing demand for energy. Emera is ready to meet these challenges and seize the opportunities with discipline and focus. Emera is continuing to advance its strategy of safely delivering cleaner, reliable energy in a way that balances the impact on costs for customers. Through 2026, we plan to spend CAD 8.9 billion in capital. This is the biggest capital plan in our history, with 60% of that amount focused on reliability initiatives and enabling the energy transition.
Emera is making meaningful progress, and Scott will share more on that later in the meeting. Our focus remains steadfast to grow, to continue to grow and strengthen our business, and in so doing, deliver strong returns for our shareholders over time. 2023 was a challenging year for the industry, with macroeconomic headwinds of higher interest rates continuing to negatively impact share prices across the utility sector. Emera's share price was not immune, declining 2.8% for the year. Despite this, Emera still managed to outperform the utility indices in both Canadian and U.S. markets, and over the past 10 years, our compound annualized total shareholder return of 10% also outperformed both the Canadian and U.S. sector benchmarks. Finally, I want to extend my sincere thanks to the dedicated and highly skilled members of the Emera team who delivered this performance.
Thank you as well to my colleagues on the board for your leadership and contributions to Emera's success. Thank you all. I will now call the meeting to order. In accordance with the company's articles, I will chair the meeting, and Brian Curry will act as secretary. Representatives of TSX Trust Company, the company's registrar and transfer agent, will act as scrutineers, report on shareholder participation, and 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, including the audited financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2023, which are hereby presented to the meeting, a copy of which the secretary shall keep with a record of this meeting.
With that, I now declare the meeting duly called and properly constituted for the transaction of business. We have received the scrutineers' report on the number of shares represented at this meeting. Mr. Secretary, could you please read the report?
Madam Chair, the scrutineers have provided their preliminary report. They are present at the meeting or represented by proxy, more than 134 million shares of the company. This represents over 46% of the outstanding shares. The final report will be kept on file with the record of this meeting.
Thank you, Mr. Secretary. We will now move to the items requiring shareholder approval, and I will explain the voting procedure. The mail-out to shareholders provided notice that in addition to receiving the financial statements for 2023, four items would be placed before this meeting for approval. Most shareholders submitted their votes by proxy in advance of this meeting. If you have already voted by proxy, your vote has been received by the scrutineers, and there is no need to vote online during the meeting. You can vote online by making your selection from the options shown on your screen. Confirmation of your voting choice will appear on the screen. You can change your votes until the end of the voting period by selecting another choice.
If you are a registered shareholder or a proxy holder and have a question on the motions for shareholder approval, please submit it online via the Lumi platform. If your question relates to a matter other than the motions for approval, please wait for the time provided for shareholder questions following the formal business of the meeting. As I mentioned, there are four items for approval at today's meeting. I will ask the secretary and chief financial officer to move and second the motions. The four items for approval will now appear on your screen. 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. I now declare the polls open on all items. I would ask the secretary to make motions regarding these four items. Mr. Secretary?
Madam Chair, I am a shareholder, and I move that, one, each of the 11 nominees, as set out on pages 18 to 28 of the 2024 Management Information Circular, be elected as directors of the company to hold office until the next annual meeting or until their successor is elected or appointed. Two, Ernst & 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. Three, 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. Four, the resolution, as set out on page 15 of the 2024 Management Information Circular regarding the company's approach to executive compensation, is approved.
Thank you, Mr. Secretary. I would now ask Greg Blunden, our Chief Financial Officer, to second these four motions.
Madam Chair, I am a shareholder, and I second all four motions.
Thank you, Greg. Are there any questions from registered shareholders or proxy holders relating to these four motions? I remind everyone that this is not the general question-and-answer portion of the meeting. That session will follow the formal business of the meeting and Scott's remarks.
Madam Chair, there are no questions related to the motions.
Thank you, Dina. As a reminder, voting is open, and the motions and voting options are displayed... Please remember to scroll down the page to ensure you vote on all four motions. We will take a short pause to allow for voting, and I will announce when the polls are closed. Thank you. The polls are now closed. While the scrutineers are tabulating the votes, Emera's President and Chief Executive Officer, Scott Balfour, will provide some remarks.
Thank you, Madam Chair, and thanks to each of you joining us for today's meeting. As Jackie has said, many of the global economic challenges we faced in 2022 continued to have an impact in 2023 across most industries and sectors, certainly including utilities. But despite this, we have confidence in our future. With our focus on the investments and markets where we can have the greatest impact. Every day, we are focused on delivering cleaner and more reliable energy through our portfolio of companies, driving continued value for our utility customers, for our people, for our communities, and of course, for you, our valued shareholders. While 2023 presented its challenges, the business delivered in a number of important areas. In 2023, we safely executed on a nearly CAD 3 billion capital program, the largest in our history.
This strong and growing capital investment plan reflects an expected rate base growth profile of 7%-8% through 2026, and is the key driver of our earnings growth. We continue to invest in decarbonization and reliability as we work to meet legislative requirements and customer demand for cleaner energy, in line with our vision to achieve Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050. We are making meaningful progress. Since 2005, we've reduced CO₂ emissions by 47% and our use of coal within our generation mix by 77%. It's worth noting that we plan to invest more than 60% of our CAD 8.9 billion capital plan over the next three years in cleaner energy and reliability initiatives. Much of our progress is taking place at our two largest electric utilities, Tampa Electric and Nova Scotia Power.
Thanks to increased solar and natural gas generation, coal accounted for less than 4% of Tampa Electric's generation in 2023, down by more than a third from 2022. Tampa Electric's scaled solar generation investments are both cost-effective for customers and reducing reliance on fossil fuels. We brought four new solar projects into service in Florida in 2023, bringing our total solar capacity at Tampa Electric to 1,255 MW. Solar energy has saved Tampa Electric customers approximately CAD 200 million in fuel costs over the past five years. Last year was Tampa Electric's best year yet for reliability. We set records in four of five reliability metrics, including a 56% reduction in the average duration of customer outages since 2018. Nova Scotia Power also achieved significant reliability improvements for customers in 2023.
Despite the challenges of a significant hurricane, record low temperatures, wildfires, historic flooding, and an unprecedented series of lightning strikes, the Nova Scotia Power team has reduced the average frequency of outages over the last five years and brought outage duration down by 36% compared to the five-year average. System reliability in Nova Scotia is among the best in the region, and like the team at Tampa Electric, the team remains focused on continued improvement. Nova Scotia Power is also working to deliver cleaner energy to customers. In 2023, the team reduced its use of coal and generation by nearly 25% compared to the year before, and the use of coal is down by 60% since 2005. This progress is largely due to strong energy flows across the Maritime Link that helped Nova Scotia Power reach 40% renewables in 2023.
Since the Labrador Island Link was commissioned in April 2023, the Maritime Link has delivered almost 175% of the energy it was contracted for. In 2023 alone, it delivered nearly 20% of Nova Scotia Power's total energy requirements for the year. The focus on delivering cleaner, reliable energy is a key priority across all our operating companies. At Peoples Gas, three renewable natural gas projects are now online, providing customers cleaner, cost-effective energy while also capturing methane that would have otherwise be emitted into the atmosphere. In the Caribbean, thanks to ongoing system improvements and enhanced vegetation management, Barbados Light & Power also achieved record reliability for customers in 2023. From a financial perspective, investments in our regulated utilities, particularly those in Florida, continue to drive our earnings growth....
Since we acquired TECO in 2016, Tampa Electric's earnings have increased at a compound annual growth rate of 8.6% per year, while earnings at Peoples Gas have increased at a CAGR of 10.5%. Like many other companies, the effects of higher interest rates were a headwind throughout 2023. For the year, we reported adjusted earnings of CAD 809 million and adjusted earnings per share of CAD 2.96. While these results were down slightly from 2022, we remain focused on and confident in our ability to deliver long-term earnings growth and value to our shareholders. Over the past three years, our adjusted earnings have grown at an average compound growth rate of 5.3%.
Our continuing success in delivering long-term growth of earnings and shareholder value reflects our commitment to, and track record of, strong governance and our disciplined approach to capital allocation. Both are very much at the center of our financing plan in support of our capital investment growth profile that includes targeted asset sales. We raised our dividend by 4% in 2023, continuing our more than 17-year history of consecutive dividend increases, and we've delivered annualized dividend growth of 5.4% since the year 2000. 2023 was a challenging year for North American utility stock returns generally. However, Emera delivered 2.5% total shareholder return with an annualized 10-year TSR of 10%. Looking forward, we are optimizing our portfolio for future growth and continuing our work to strengthen our balance sheet.
We're also investing in our operating companies to deliver on what their customers need most and in so doing, growing our earnings and cash flow. We're confident that the path we're on will deliver solid growth and value for shareholders. Across Emera, we remain committed to the safety of our teams and communities. As Jackie mentioned, in 2023, we improved our lost time injury rate by 24% compared to our five-year average. This is our best safety performance ever. We are proud of this achievement, and we know our work is never complete. We're committed to giving back to our communities. In 2023, through our community investment program, we contributed over CAD 12 million to organizations and initiatives, creating opportunities for youth, fostering innovation and entrepreneurship, and helping to support a cleaner planet.
One example is our partnership with Halifax-based Tribe Network, an organization dedicated to empowering racialized individuals pursuing entrepreneurship, innovation, and technology across Atlantic Canada. This focus is foundational to our strategy and demonstrates the values we live by across Emera. More details are available in our annual sustainability report, available on our website. Finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that our progress is only possible because of our people. Across Emera, teams are applying their expertise and dedication to generating cleaner energy, updating infrastructure, and delivering excellent customer service. We work to be an employer of choice, attracting, developing, and retaining top talent. To all employees, thank you for your hard work and commitment. You are the driving force behind our shared achievements, and you're essential to our success.
I want to thank Jackie, your steadfast guidance as Chair of our Board of Directors, and all members of our Board of Directors for your ongoing focus on ensuring we're doing the right things for the customers of our utilities, our communities, and our shareholders. And finally, to our valued shareholders, thank you for your ongoing confidence in Emera.
Thank you, Scott. The secretary advises me that the preliminary voting results have been received. Mr. Secretary?
Madam Chair, the scrutineers report that all four items voted upon at the meeting received more than the number of votes required, and therefore, all items are passed. The final voting results will be posted online at www.sedarplus.ca.
Thank you, Mr. Secretary. With these voting results, I now declare all four motions approved. With the formal business of the meeting now complete, and with the consent of the meeting, I now declare the meeting terminated. We will now proceed to the general question-and-answer session and take questions from registered shareholders and proxy holders. So that as many questions as possible can be answered, please be brief and concise and address only one topic per question. Questions on the same topic or otherwise related may be grouped or summarized and answered together. Dina, do we have any questions?
Madam Chair, we have no questions.
Well, thank you for your participation in today's meeting and for your continued support of Emera. If you have any follow-up questions or comments, we encourage you to reach out to us by email, phone, or mail. Thank you all for attending.