Good morning, and welcome to Avista's 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I would now like to turn the call over to President and CEO, Mr. Dennis Vermillion.
Well, good morning. I'm Dennis Vermillion, President and CEO of Avista. Welcome to Avista's 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, and thank you for joining us. This is the 2nd year that we have held our Annual Meeting in an all virtual format And as we did last year, we are utilizing this format with audio only. We've strived to make this meeting as inclusive as possible by offering our shareholders the same opportunity to participate as during our past in person meetings.
Let's look at today's agenda for what we'll cover during our time together. First, we'll conduct the business portion of our meeting. If there are any shareholders who have not yet voted, you may vote during this virtual meeting by clicking on the vote button on your screen. The polls will close after the business meeting concludes. Those who are voting this morning can be assured that their vote will be included in the final results.
After the business portion of our meeting, I'll turn to our business update by discussing how we're continuing to monitor and work through the impacts of the COVID-nineteen pandemic. I'll then review some of our business and operating highlights from 2020. And after my remarks, Mark Theiss, our Executive Vice President, CFO and Treasurer, will provide some of our financial highlights from 2020 Q1 of 2021. As always, there will be time at the end for you to ask questions. If you have a question, please feel free to submit your question at any time by typing in the text box located at the lower left corner of the screen.
We'll try to answer all questions submitted in the connections with today's meeting. Unanswered questions will be addressed in our Investor Relations website after the meeting. As we begin this morning's meeting, I will caution you that we will be making forward looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, which are subject to change. I would direct you to Avista's Form 10 ks, which was filed with the SEC on February 24, 2021, and Form 10 Q, which was filed on May 5, 2021, for reference to the various factors, which could cause the actual results to differ materially from those contemplated to the extent these factors are not discussed in this meeting. Those documents are available on our website.
Before I start the business portion of our meeting, I'd like to introduce our board members who are all participating in this virtual meeting. Let me start by introducing a new board member. Sena Kawahu is a Director nominee this year. He is an operational and finance leader with more than 25 years of multifunctional experience in high growth and mature public companies across multiple industries. He is currently the Senior Vice President of Operations of Frontdoor Incorporated.
His leadership experience includes executive roles at Starbucks and General Electric Company. He holds a bachelor's degree in Business Administration from George Washington University and an MBA from the University of Michigan. And we are just thrilled that he is joining us on the Board. You can learn more about Sena's background and our other Board members' backgrounds in our proxy statement. Now let me introduce our other Board members.
Christy Blake, Don Burke, Becky Klein, Scott Ma, Scott Morris, Jeff Phillips, Heidi Stanley, John Taylor and Janet Widman. There is a very special director that I've intentionally saved for last. Mark Roscoe is retiring as a board member at this annual meeting. He has been a dedicated member of Avista's Board for 12 years and he's reached the mandatory retirement age of 72. We are so grateful for his many contributions.
During the past 12 years, Mr. Roscoe has served as a member of the governance, finance and environmental committees. He has shown outstanding dedication and commitment to Avista and we will miss his statesmanship and mature counsel on the Board. We wish Mark much future success and happiness. This is also a great opportunity for me to thank each one of our directors for the amount of time they dedicate to our company.
Thank you. Now for our officers, you'll note that the various areas for which the officers are responsible appeared in the annual so I will introduce them by name only. Our officers are Kevin Christie, Brian Cox, Greg Hessler, Leticia Hill, Jim Cansock, Ryan Kresselt, David Meyer, Heather Rosentrader, Ed Schlecht, Jason Thaxton, Mark Theiss and Connie Hulbert. At this time, we'll convene the business portion of the meeting. The Inspector of Elections has informed us that a majority of outstanding shares held of record and entitled to vote as of the close of business on March 10, 2021, the record date of this meeting, are represented at this meeting.
The first matter to be considered at this meeting is the election of directors. 11 directors are standing for election for a 1 year term. The Board recommends a vote for each director. There are no other nominations. The second matter to be considered at this meeting is the proposal by the Board of Directors that the shareholders ratify the Board's appointment of the firm Deloitte and Touche LLP as the independent registered public accounting firm for 2021.
The Board recommends a vote for this proposal. I'd like to note that representatives from Deloitte and Touche are attending this virtual meeting today. The 3rd matter to be considered is an advisory non binding vote on the company's executive compensation. The Board recommends a vote for this proposal. As you are aware, a large majority of our shareholders have voted in advance of this meeting and the preliminary voting results as of this morning show that all the proposals have passed.
That concludes the business portion of our meeting. To begin our business update, I want to acknowledge what we've all been through. The COVID-nineteen pandemic has dominated virtually every aspect of our lives for more than a year now. Each one of us has felt the impact. I have no doubt that years from now, when we look back on 2020, it will be remembered as one of the defining events of our lifetime.
For the past 14 months, the vast majority of our employees have been working from home, while our essential workers have been on the front lines, in the office and in the field. We always like to say we're keeping the lights on and the gas flowing for our customers, but during this pandemic, we've done so much more. We've kept our customers warm and safe at home with their families. We've also kept our economy rolling for those businesses that were fortunate enough to stay open and for those dedicated people who remained on the job during the stay home, stay safe orders that we all experienced. As we've seen the economic impacts of COVID ripple from business owners to employees to families, we've worked with countless residential and business customers who are struggling to make ends meet.
For many, this is the first time they've been in a situation like this. Throughout these uncertain times, we've done our best to respond with care and compassion. In 2020, we contributed $4,100,000 in charitable giving to help those most in need. Avista's new campaign, The Power of Compassion, is our latest effort. This 3 month campaign uses print and digital advertising, flyers, brochures and social media to increase awareness of Avista's bill assistance options and encourage customers who are struggling financially to please call us.
They may be eligible to receive COVID-nineteen debt relief grants or benefit from other bill assistance programs we offer. At the same time, our customer service representatives are proactively reaching out to vulnerable customers to provide detailed information about energy assistance programs, payment arrangements and energy savings tips to ensure that they are aware of the assistance options available to them. We sincerely hope that proactive and focused efforts like these will help ease the burden and stress that so many are carrying. Thankfully today, we're encouraged to see vaccination levels increasing across our communities. Children are returning to the classroom for in person learning and businesses are opening their doors again.
We're all breathing a little easier as we see these signs of hope on the horizon. As we look out on the horizon, we look forward to the day when those of us who have been working from home can safely return to the office. And we know it won't happen overnight. In fact, as the COVID hospitalization numbers rise and fall, it might even happen in fits and starts. And even when we do go back, it definitely won't be business as usual.
Instead, we'll intentionally dial up activities using all the new COVID protocols and processes and procedures we've developed and implemented. We'll continue to actively monitor the situation and quickly adapt as needed. And I'm confident we're up to the task because this past year has certainly given us plenty of opportunities to be agile and use our design thinking to create new ways to get the job done. Through it all, we'll continue doing what's right by putting safety first for our customers, communities, our employees, and we'll continue to show care and compassion to all. And will create a positive customer experience as we provide the energy that's so essential for our lives.
As we look back on 2020, I'm filled with pride by the resolve and resiliency of our employees. As we focus on some of our business and operating highlights, the theme for our 2020 annual report reflects our attitude and approach to this unprecedented year. Powering on speaks to the tenacity of our employees to power on through the challenges of these unique times. Pictured on the cover is Tanner Morgan. Tanner is one of our electric line workers.
He represents all 1800 of our Avista employees who are facing forward, confident, committed and ready to confront whatever is necessary to deliver safe, reliable energy to our customers and communities. In the face of uncertainty, our employees were able to power on with business as we invested another $425,000,000 in capital and delivered on many mission critical fronts. We enhanced our wildfire resiliency plan by building upon existing measures to prevent, mitigate and reduce the impact of wildfires over the next decade. Our customers in Washington can better manage their energy use now that we've finished installing smart electric meters and natural gas modules in one of the largest capital projects in our company's history. These customers can also avoid surprises when their bill arrives, thanks to high energy alerts that Avista can send to notify them if they could exceed their set energy budget.
This is just one of the ways we put customers at the center of all we do. We've also taken several steps to move closer to achieving our clean energy goals of providing customers with carbon neutral electricity by the end of 2027 and carbon free electricity by 2,045. The Rattlesnake Flat Wind Farm went online at the end of 2020, providing 50 average megawatts of clean renewable energy. And it really gave our energy resource mix a boost. 60% of our energy now comes from renewable The contract we recently signed with Chelan County Public Utility District adds even more clean, renewable, affordable energy to our resource mix, and it also executes on one of the strategies outlined in the 2021 electric integrated resource plan that we filed just last month.
Our vision of a clean energy future encompasses both electric and natural gas resources. That's why we recently announced our new aspirational natural gas goal of being carbon neutral by 2,045 with a near term goal of 30% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2,030. You can read all about our ongoing commitment to environmental stewardship along with social responsibility and governance in our updated corporate responsibility report on our avistacorp.com website. It includes our enduring resolve to drive courageous conversations around equity, inclusion and diversity that will help our company and our people continue to evolve. Integrity has always been one of Avista's core values, so we were honored to be recognized by Ethisphere as one of the world's most ethical companies for the 2nd consecutive year.
As we reimagine our energy future, we know that achieving a clean energy future will require innovation, And we're so excited to see Scott Morris' bold vision to create the 5 smartest blocks in the world come to life now that the Catalyst Building and the adjacent Scott Moore Center For Energy Innovation are completed. These two buildings have been designed to interact with each other and the energy grid using an innovative Eco District shared energy model. This innovative project demonstrates that when utilities and developers collaborate to design and operate buildings that better utilize the existing grid, we can delay costly construction. Ultimately, it can lead to a reliable, more affordable clean energy future for all of us. In closing, let me bring us back to these two words, powering on.
This sentiment positively captures our approach to a year that we will never forget. And I firmly believe the same confident attitude is equally relevant today. It continues to be a driving force as we move through 2021 beyond. We realize that our world as we know it has been changed forever. Yet amidst all the uncertainty during the past year, I amazed by what our employees have accomplished.
With a combination of pure grit and perseverance, plus an abundance of innovation and dedication, they have delivered solid results. Today and always, we remain steadfast in our commitment to our employees, our customers, our communities, and of course, you, our shareholders, to continue powering on. At this time, I'll turn the program over to Mark Theiss, who will provide the highlights of our financial performance.
Thank you, Dennis. Good morning, everyone. I'll start with the Blackhawks update. We ended our season last night with a 5 to 4 loss in overtime. So now we in Spokane are rooting for Tyler Johnson, the Tampa Bay Lightning to get another cup and hopefully bring it back to Spokane and also next season to start in the fall with the Seattle Kraken.
So we'll finally have a franchise. Turning to our financial and operating highlights. Given the challenges we faced, our financial performance in 2020 was very strong. We had earnings of 129,500,000 dollars or $1.90 per diluted share and our earnings benefited from higher utility margin from rate relief in Washington and Oregon and customer growth. We did experience some headwinds in the Q1 with a refund to customers ordered in our 2015 general rate case and the disallowance of certain costs related to Colstrip.
After considering these items, our earnings exceeded our expectations for the remainder of the year. We received orders authorizing the deferral of COVID-nineteen related costs, primarily bad debt expense, that of savings and benefits under the CARES Act. The respective regulatory commissions will determine the appropriateness and prudency of these deferred expenses when we seek recovery. In February of this year, we initiated earnings guidance for 2021 through 2023, which we confirmed last week. Assuming timely and appropriate rate relief, this puts us on track to earn our allowed return by 2023.
This year, we are off to a strong start in the Q1 with earnings of $68,500,000 or $0.98 per diluted share. Compared to the prior year, our earnings benefited from higher utility margin, mainly due to general rate increases and customer growth. We continue to expect a gradual economic recovery in 2021, as Dennis mentioned, and we have decoupling and other regulatory mechanisms, which mitigate the impacts of changes in loads for residential and certain commercial customer classes. Over 90% of our utility revenue is covered by regulatory mechanisms. We filed general rate cases in Washington in October of last year and in Idaho in January of this year and are continuing to work through the regulatory processes and expect resolution in the Q3 of this year.
As Dennis mentioned, we continue to be committed to investing the necessary capital in our utility infrastructure. We estimate that Avista Utilities capital expenditures to be about $415,000,000 for 2021 and we expect AEL and P to spend about $7,000,000 in 2021 and we expect to invest $15,000,000 in our other businesses primarily related to non regulated investment opportunities and economic development in our service territory. We continue to show consistent growth in our dividend. The Board raised our dividend 4.3% in February of 2021 and it was the 19th consecutive year that the Board has increased our dividend. We expect annual dividend growth of 4% to 5% and target a long term payout ratio of 65% to 75%.
Regarding liquidity and capital resources, as of April 30, we had $182,000,000 of available liquidity under our committed line of credit. And in the Q2 of this year, we expect to extend our $400,000,000 revolving credit line to April of 2026. For this year, we expect to issue approximately $120,000,000 of long term debt and up to $75,000,000 of equity. That concludes the financial and operating highlights I plan to share this morning. And I'll now turn the call back to Dennis, so we can answer any questions that you may have.
Well, thank you, Mark. At this point, I'd like to open it up for questions. Okay. There were no questions. So I would like to close by thanking all of you for attending today's Annual Meeting.
We send you all our very best wishes. We hope you stay safe, healthy and strong. Please take care good care of yourselves and your loved ones. Thank you for your interest and support of our company. Have a great day.
Thank you for attending the 2021 Avista Annual Meeting of Shareholders. You may now disconnect.