Good morning and Welcome to The 2025 Annual Shareholders Meeting for CMS Energy Corporation and Consumers Energy Company. I'm John Russell, Chairman of the Board. Thank you for joining us today. We will conduct the business portion of our meeting first, and then Garrick Rochow, President and CEO, will make a brief presentation followed by Q&A. I would like to introduce the other members of the Board of Directors who, like me, are up for election today: Deb Butler, Kurt Darrow, Ralph Izzo, Garrick Rochow, Suzanne Shank, Myrna Soto, John Sznewajs, Ron Tansky, and Laura Wright. Also present are representatives of our independent public accounting firm, PwC, and our Inspector of Elections. Now, it is my pleasure to introduce Melissa Gleespen, Vice President, Corporate Secretary, and Chief Compliance Officer. Melissa will serve as Secretary of the Meeting and will handle the procedural matters.
Thanks, John. Good morning, everyone. Shareholders have had the opportunity to submit questions since the distribution of our meeting materials. If you would like to submit a question today, please do so by typing it into the question box on the website at this time. All shareholders at the close of business on the record date, March 4, 2025, are entitled to vote. Affidavits have been delivered establishing that meeting materials were mailed on or about March 20, 2025, to all shareholders of record and will be incorporated into the minutes of this meeting. The Inspector of Elections has the shareholder list as of the record date, March 4, 2025, which shows the shareholders and their respective number of shares entitled to vote at the meeting. I am happy to report that we have a quorum, so the meeting is lawfully convened and ready for business.
Accordingly, the polls are now open. If there are any shareholders who have not already voted and would like to vote or wish to change a vote, please do so by clicking on "Vote Here" on the website. The purpose of the meeting is set forth on the agenda and in the proxy materials. I will pause now briefly for anyone who wants to vote. Now, on to the formal business. The first item of business is the election of directors as named in the proxy statement. The directors will serve until the next annual meeting or until their resignation or removal. There were no additional nominations submitted by any shareholder pursuant to the advance notice provision of the company's bylaws. Therefore, the nominations are closed. The second item of business is the non-binding vote on the compensation of the named executive officers as disclosed in the proxy materials.
The third item of business is the ratification of PwC as the independent registered public accounting firm for the year 2025. The fourth item of business for CMS shareholders only is the vote on a shareholder proposal: support shareholder ability to call for a special shareholder meeting. John Chevedden will make a statement in support of the proposal. Welcome, John, and you may make your statement. You have three minutes.
Hello, this is John Chevedden. Proposal four: shareholder ability to call for a special shareholder meeting. Shareholders ask our Board of Directors to take the necessary steps to amend the governing documents to give the owners a combined 10% of the outstanding common stock the power to call a special shareholder meeting. This includes that all the requirements for shareholders to call a special shareholder meeting be included in the bylaws. According to the text next to this proposal, it appears that CMS is not opposed to giving its shareholders the right to call for a special shareholder meeting. CMS seems only to quibble about the 10% figure in this proposal. A shareholder right to call for a special shareholder meeting, as called for in this proposal, can help make shareholder engagement meaningful.
A shareholder right to call for a special shareholder meeting will help ensure that the CMS Energy Board and Management engages with its shareholders in good faith because shareholders will have a viable plan B by calling for a special shareholder meeting. To guard against the Board of Directors becoming complacent, shareholders need the ability to call a special shareholder meeting to help the board adopt new strategies if the need arises. Companies often claim that shareholders have multiple means to communicate with management, but in most cases, these means are as effective as mailing a letter to the CEO. With the widespread use of online shareholder meetings, it's much easier for a company to conduct a special shareholder meeting for important business issues, and CMS Energy bylaws need to be updated accordingly. Please vote yes. Shareholder ability to call for a special shareholder meeting: Proposal four.
Thank you, John. No further business is scheduled for this meeting, and all shareholders have had an opportunity to vote, so the polls are now closed. The Inspector of Elections has reported the following: shareholders of CMS Energy Common Stock and Consumers Energy Common and Preferred Stock have voted on the proposals discussed in the proxy materials. The preliminary results show all director nominees are elected. The compensation of our named executive officers is approved on an advisory basis. PwC LLP is ratified as our independent registered public accounting firm for the year 2025, and a shareholder proposal: shareholder ability to call for a special shareholder meeting is approved. Details of the final voting results will be available in a Form 8-K that we will file with the SEC within four business days. That completes today's formal business.
The 2025 Annual Meeting is adjourned, and Garrick will now give a brief presentation.
Hello, I'm Garrick Rochow, President and CEO of CMS Energy and Consumers Energy. Thank you for joining our annual shareholders meeting. 2024 marked the 22nd year CMS Energy delivered industry-leading financial performance. This foundation of excellence is rooted in our commitment to our customers. All roads lead back to our customers. My coworkers are dedicated to delivering safe, reliable, clean, affordable, and equitable energy in every condition. Whether we're having a cold winter or hot summer, our customers, communities, and families depend on us to provide them with heat and light every day, 365 days a year. The customer is at the heart of everything we do. Providing them with the quality of life they expect is our promise. We continue to be grounded in our purpose: world-class performance, delivering hometown service. The way we measure our performance is balanced across the triple bottom line: people, planet, and prosperity.
When it comes to people, we are one team, energized to serve our customers and communities. For our planet, we are leading the clean energy transformation. Prosperity means we deliver consistent, industry-leading financial performance that benefits all stakeholders. Our operational and financial results are balanced across the triple bottom line. Today, I'm excited to share some of the many proof points of why you and our customers can count on us. We earn the right to serve our customers every day by holding ourselves to the standards of a world-class energy company. This starts with a focus on our simple investment thesis, which has withstood the test of time. It is rooted in industry-leading net-zero commitments, excellence through the CE.way, and remaining a top-tier regulatory jurisdiction to provide a premium total shareholder return.
This simple and effective model ensures we deliver industry-leading financial and operational performance for all stakeholders. I've mentioned this before, and I'll say it again. I love this company because we have a talented team who does meaningful work. Safety continues to be a core value and critical as we partner with our union. We make the promise that all of our coworkers go home safe at the end of the day. We continue to see a solid reduction year over year in high-energy safety incidents, ensuring that we deliver on that promise. Our teams are engaged and committed to providing the best possible service for our customers. Our $8 billion five-year electric reliability roadmap is a landmark promise for our customers. This roadmap sets bold commitments with no more than 100,000 customers disrupted per event and service restored within 24 hours.
In 2024, we restored power to just over 93% of customers within 24 hours, compared with 87% in 2023, and the average customer experienced 21 fewer power outage minutes. Although there is still more work to do, we are making good progress. Providing customer assistance and adding about 4,000 jobs and $5.3 billion worth of investments through economic development are both ways we are working to help keep bills affordable and support more opportunities and prosperous communities. Our sale of our appliance service plan resulted in a $110 million gain to share with customers. We are one team, energized to serve our customers and communities.
In November, we followed our 20-year renewable energy plan, which adds an incremental 1 gigawatt of solar and 2.8 gigawatts of wind to our long-term plan, now totaling 9 gigawatts of solar and 4 gigawatts of wind over the next two decades, outlining our plans to achieve Michigan's 2023 energy law. The plan also includes approximately 900 megawatts of incremental load growth from economic development projects. This filing supports our commitment to providing our customers with what they want: clean and renewable energy while offering additional investment opportunities. In 2024, we also made important progress to further reduce carbon emissions across our electric and gas systems. We achieved 472 million tons of methane reduction through pipe replacement and gas venting measures. More customers continue to join and participate in our voluntary green pricing program, driving over 690 megawatts of renewables across the program.
You can see through our actions that we are leading the clean energy transformation. These actions align with the future we and our customers are working to create, where our air, land, and water are cleaner than ever. Strong execution leads to strong results, and we remain committed to growing adjusted EPS toward the high end of our 6-8% growth range. Along with our dividend, we continue to provide an industry-leading premium total shareholder return. On the regulatory front, we had two successful rate case outcomes: electric in March and gas in July, our fourth consecutive gas rate case settlement. The success of these rate cases provides for needed and important customer investments balanced with affordability, and they highlight the constructive regulatory environment in Michigan.
In 2024, I'm also proud to report we delivered over $110 million in waste elimination savings, continuing to keep costs down for our customers and provide the needed headroom for future customer investments. Finally, 2024 marked the 22nd year CMS Energy delivered industry-leading financial performance. The consistency and predictability we offer, along with compounding growth, is like no other company in our sector. It's this performance that ensures value for all stakeholders. Repeatedly, the CMS Energy team delivers. Our commitment to delivering results measured by the triple bottom line reinforces why you can count on us. I'm pleased with our performance in 2024 and remain confident in our outlook well into the future at CMS Energy. Thank you, and stay safe.