Welcome to the Q3 2018 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Sheryl, and I will be your operator for today's call. Please note that this conference call is I will now turn the call over to Jason Lang, Investor Relations Manager. Sir, you may begin.
Thank you, Sheryl. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Avista's Q3 2018 earnings conference call. Our earnings and our Q3 10 Q were released pre market this morning and they are both available on our website atavistacorp.com. Joining me this morning are Avista Corp.
Chairman of the Board and CEO, Scott Morris Senior Vice President and CFO, Mark Theiss Avista Corp President, Dennis Vermillion Vice President and Controller, Ryan Krassel and Director of Regulatory Affairs, Pat Ehrbar. I would like to remind everyone that some of the statements that will be made today are forward looking statements that involve assumptions, risks and uncertainties, which are subject to change. For reference to the various factors, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in today's call, please refer to our 10 ks for 2017 and 10 Q for the Q3 of 2018, which are available on our website. To begin this presentation, I would like to recap the financial results presented in today's press release. Our consolidated earnings for the Q3 of 2018 were $0.15 per diluted share compared to $0.07 for the Q3 of 2017.
For the year to date, consolidated earnings were $1.37 per diluted share for both 2018 2017. Now I'll just turn the discussion over to Scott. Well, thank you and good morning everyone. To start off, I would like to provide an update on the Hydro One transaction.
We continue to be fully committed to this transaction and we're working through the regulatory processes at each of our commissions. Hearings in Washington have concluded and we're awaiting the commission's decision. Hearings in Idaho and Oregon are scheduled to occur in the next several weeks and we expect the transaction to close by the end of 2018. During the Q3, Hydro One announced the new members of their Board of Directors and the new Board adopted a resolution reaffirming Hydro One's commitment to the merger and the related regulatory commitments. With regards to earnings, we're pleased with our year to date results and we remain on track to meet our annual expectations.
For the 1st 3 quarters of 2018, we had consolidated earnings above our expectations. For the 3rd quarter, earnings at Avista Utilities and AEO and P were higher than expected. This was offset by losses on investments at our other businesses. We are confirming our 2018 earnings guidance with a consolidated range of $0.30 to $0.60 per diluted share, which includes acquisition and regulatory commitment costs associated with the Hydro One transaction of 1.60 dollars to 1 $0.50 per diluted share. Now I'm going to turn this over to Mark.
Thank you, Scott. Good morning, everyone. May not have seen, but the Blackhawks had big news and Coach Q who won 3 Cups in 10 years was fired yesterday. So we have a new era in Chicago Hockey. Let's hope it's a good one.
For the Q3 of 2018, Avista Utilities contributed $0.18 per diluted share compared to $0.08 last year. And on a year to date basis, Avista Utilities contributed $1.39 an increase from $1.33 in the prior year. The increase in earnings for the Q3 year to date was due to general rate increases, customer growth, a decrease in acquisition and a decrease in acquisition costs, all partially offset by increased operating and maintenance expense, interest and depreciation expense. We continue to be committed to investing the necessary capital in our utility infrastructure. We expect Avista Utilities capital expenditures to total about $435,000,000 which is an increase from our previous estimate of 405,000,000 dollars The increase is primarily due to additional spending associated for capital for new electric and natural gas services.
During 2018, we issued $375,000,000 of first mortgage bonds and we don't expect to issue any additional long term debt in 2018. And we expect through early 2019, we expect to raise up to 100 and $10,000,000 of equity in order to fund planned capital expenditures, maintain an appropriate capital structure and for other general corporate purposes. The $110,000,000 of equity may come through sales of our through our sales agency agreements or an equity contribution from Hydro 1 after the consummation of the acquisition or from a combination of those sources. As Scott mentioned earlier, we are confirming our 2018 guidance for consolidated earnings to be in the range of $0.30 to $0.60 per diluted share. This includes acquisition and regulatory commitment costs associated with the Hydro One transaction of $1.60 to $1.50 per diluted share assuming the transaction is completed in 2018.
We expect Avista Utilities to contribute in the range of $0.31 to $0.55 per diluted share in 2018 and this includes acquisition again and regulatory commitment costs of $1.60 to 1 0.50 The midpoint of our Avista Utilities guidance does not include any expense or benefit under the and our current expectation is in a benefit position within the 90% customer, 10% company sharing band, which we believe will add approximately $0.07 to $0.08 per diluted share. Our outlook for Avista Utilities, among other variables, assumes normal precipitation, temperatures and hydroelectric generation for the remainder of the year. For 2018, we expect AEL and P to contribute in the range of $0.10 to $0.14 per diluted share, and our outlook for AEL and P assumes normal precipitation and hydroelectric generation for the remainder of the year. Our other businesses, we expect to be between a loss of $0.11 $0.09 per diluted share, which includes costs associated with exploring strategic opportunities. Our guidance generally includes only normal operating conditions and does not include unusual items such as settlement transactions or acquisitions and dispositions until the effects are known and certain.
I'll now turn the call back to Jason.
Thanks, Mark. Cheryl, we'd like to open up the call for questions, please.
Thank you. And our first question comes from Paul Ridzon from KeyBanc. Paul, your line is open.
Good morning.
Good morning, Paul. Hi, Paul.
Hey, Mark, let me know when you lose 2 coaches in 1 weekend. I guess, Scott, my question for you is, where do you see the most potential friction as far as the remaining approvals?
Well, as you know, we had our hearing in Washington. It was a supplemental hearing to the one we had. We currently we had a workshop in Oregon, where we had an opportunity to talk to our intervening parties as well as our commissioners. And we do have a hearing scheduled right after the week of Thanksgiving in Idaho. So, what I would say is we are continuing to make good progress with all three states working with both interveners and all parties.
So I wouldn't really say that we expect any state to be harder than the other. We respect all three states. They all have a voice, and we're working really hard to make sure that we address all of their concerns and issues.
Okay. Thank you. That's helpful.
And speakers, at this time, I show no further questions in queue.
Okay. Well, I'd like to thank everyone for joining us today. We certainly appreciate your interest in our company. Have a great day.
Thank