Morning, everyone, and welcome to the 2025 Annual Meeting of Shareholders of Entergy Corporation. Now, I'll turn the meeting over to Marcus Brown, Entergy's Executive Vice President and General Counsel.
Good morning, and again, welcome to our 2025 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I'd like to take a few minutes to outline some of the important guidelines that will govern today's meeting. While we do not expect any technical difficulties today, in the event we lose our audio or webcast connection and are unable to provide any updates, please wait up to 10 minutes for resolution. You may also refer to the Events and Presentations page of our Investor Relations section of our website for any updates. During today's meeting, we may make certain forward-looking statements regarding our expectations, our predictions about the future. Because these statements are based on current assumptions and factors that involve risk and uncertainties, the company's actual results could differ materially from these forward-looking statements.
This may be due to a number of factors which are set forth in our Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 18, 2025, and our first quarter Form 10-Q filed with the SEC yesterday. Entergy does not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. Shareholders may submit questions electronically until the end of the business portion of today's meeting. Do so by selecting a question topic and typing in your question in the text box that appears on the bottom left-hand side of the screen. All guests are in listen-only mode and cannot verbally submit questions. Appropriate questions received during the meeting that are not answered live will be answered following the meeting on our Events and Presentations page found within our Investor Relations website. With that, I am pleased to introduce Drew Marsh, Entergy's Chair and Chief Executive Officer, to share a few opening remarks.
Thank you, Marcus. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for attending Entergy's 76th Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I want to acknowledge and welcome the Entergy Board of Directors who are attending today's meeting. I'd also like to take a moment to specially recognize Blanche Lincoln, who retired from the board at the end of 2024 after 13 years of outstanding service. We are a stronger company thanks to Blanche's service as a director. We thank her and wish her all the best. As our board and management gather for the annual meeting this year, we mourn the recent passing of our longtime former board member, Alexis Herman. Alexis was an extraordinarily accomplished person, living a life of service that included experiences ranging from her first job as a social worker in Mobile, Alabama, to her distinguished service as Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton.
Of course, we know her from her 20 years of service on our board of directors. Beyond her outstanding wisdom and insight, she was a great friend, a mentor, and an inspiration to all of us, and we will miss her dearly. I also want to recognize Pete Norgeot, who retired yesterday as our Chief Operating Officer. Over his 10+ years at Entergy, Pete transformed our power generation team, closed out our exit from the merchant power business, and in the last couple of years as COO, he recentered us on public safety while preparing us to manage our large capital outlays, responding to customer demands. Pete is also a good friend, and we will miss him, and we wish him well on the next chapter. Moving into the COO role is Kimberly Cook- Nelson, who has been driving our steadily improving nuclear operations in the last few years.
A leader in the nuclear industry, she brings a wealth of leadership experience, operational discipline, and project management skills to the COO role, which should serve us well for the growth investment road ahead. Finally, John Dinelli is taking over as Chief Nuclear Officer. He is a longtime Entergy employee, having started here when we purchased Indian Point. He has held many leadership roles within the nuclear organization, and recently, he has served as our nuclear COO, helping lead the cultural changes needed to continue our relentless pursuit of improvement in nuclear operations. While we are sad to see Pete go, we are excited about the new opportunities that will come from the leadership of Kimberly and John. I would also like to acknowledge our 12,000 employees for their passion and commitment to driving our results each day and providing our customers and communities with energy for a better future.
I am excited to provide a brief business update as 2024 was a transformational year at Entergy. We had strong financial performance while also significantly growing and de-risking our business. For a comprehensive summary of the company's 2024 achievements, I encourage you to read our performance report, which can be found in the sustainability section of our website. For our progress through the first quarter of this year, I encourage you to listen to a replay of our earnings call held earlier this week. Our 2024 accomplishments focused on improving outcomes and delivering value for our key stakeholders: our customers, employees, communities, and owners. These accomplishments included resolving key regulatory items, capturing customer growth, creating opportunities for our employees, and continuing to enhance resilience and storm responses for our communities.
We also furthered progress on renewables and built generation resources to meet customer-driven needs, all while delivering adjusted earnings per share and credit metrics that met our owners' expectations. Focusing on customer growth, 2024 was a strong year, and our employees demonstrated their dedication to capturing and executing on the growth opportunities before us. We continued to see strong industrial customer growth fueled by the competitive advantages of our region. In 2024, both Entergy Mississippi and Entergy Louisiana signed electric service agreements with hyperscale data center customers. Entergy Mississippi signed another electric service agreement for a new large project in early 2025, and Entergy Louisiana announced it will be serving Hyundai Motor Group's recently announced $5.8 billion manufacturing facility.
CF Industries also recently announced that it reached its final investment decision on its $4 billion investment in a low-carbon blue ammonia facility which will be located near the Hyundai Steel facility. Just this week, Woodside LNG announced they reached FID on their $17.5 billion facility near Lake Charles, Louisiana. These new customers bring significant value to our stakeholders, including good jobs, infrastructure improvements, and tax revenues for our communities. In 2024, driven by customer interest, we continue to make progress in advancing renewable energy and other clean technology solutions. We brought more than 700 MW of solar resources online in 2024, including the Driver, West Memphis, and Walnut Bend solar facilities in Arkansas, as well as the Elizabeth and Sunlight Road solar facilities in Louisiana. Stakeholder engagement remains a key focus area, which has helped us to make progress on our ongoing journey to be the premier utility.
In the last year, we successfully concluded several regulatory processes through this enhanced stakeholder engagement approach. Those include completing the SERI settlements, securing approvals for more than $2 billion of resilience investment in Louisiana, Texas, and New Orleans, and gaining approvals from the Louisiana Public Service Commission and the New Orleans City Council for the sale of the gas distribution business. Several regulatory rate actions across multiple jurisdictions and the Louisiana Formula Rate Plan renewal and the recent regulatory approval to divest Entergy Louisiana's 16% of Grand Gulf capacity and energy to Entergy Mississippi were also completed. By effectively engaging with our stakeholders, we are able to foster constructive regulatory and policy environments that benefit our customers, communities, and employees. Our commitment to corporate social responsibility also had a positive impact in 2024, resulting in an economic impact of over $153 million for our customers and communities.
Our dedicated employees played a pivotal role in our economic impact, contributing more than 122,000 hours of volunteer service valued at more than $4 million across our service area. Entergy also played a significant role over the past year, leading up to Super Bowl LIX that was played in February in New Orleans. The company served as a founding partner of the Super Bowl LIX host committee and strengthened our stakeholder engagements leading up to the big game. In partnership with the host committee, the New Orleans Saints, the NFL Foundation, and other philanthropic organizations, we created the Charitable Legacy Program, Impact 59, powered by Entergy. Through Impact 59, we awarded more than $3.5 million in grants to local nonprofit organizations. This program is making a positive impact in the greater New Orleans community and has left a legacy of philanthropy that will endure long after the Super Bowl ends.
Finally, we effectuated a two-for-one stock split and again delivered strong adjusted earnings per share growth last year in the top half of our guidance range. We also grew our quarterly dividend per share by approximately 6%. Importantly, we continue to make positive progress on our credit metrics in 2024. This provides financial flexibility as well as long-term customer benefits through lower cost of capital. Looking forward through 2028, our expected double-digit industrial sales growth and an adjusted earnings per share compound annual growth rate above 8% indicate a strong outlook with a healthy balance sheet and an improving risk profile for all stakeholders, which in turn leads to lower costs for our customers. Fundamentally, we believe all our stakeholders have a bright future ahead, and Entergy is championing a better future through fostering growth in our service territory and investment in cleaner, more reliable, and more resilient energy.
I'm excited about our company's transformational journey and Entergy's future. Whether you are a customer, employee, community member, or an owner, thank you for your continued support of our company. We are grateful to serve you and remain committed to delivering meaningful outcomes for everyone. We'll now begin the business portion of the meeting and address the matters covered by the proxy statement. After that, we'll have some time for questions from our shareholders. At this time, I officially call the meeting to order, and the polls are now open. It is my intent to chair and conduct this meeting in the manner stated in the agenda and the rules of conduct and procedures for the meeting. In addition to the other members of the board of directors, representatives of Deloitte and Touche are independent registered public accountants who are also participating in today's meeting.
Marcus, I will now ask you to report on the mailing of the notice for this meeting, the presence of a quorum, and other business we will consider today.
Thank you, Drew. Today's meeting agenda is shown on the top right corner of the webcast screen, and the rules of conduct, which outline how we will proceed with today's meeting, are available on the virtual meeting portal in the meeting materials section. To facilitate an orderly meeting and to permit enough time for questions at the end, we ask that you abide by these rules. Participants are not permitted to use any recording devices. However, this meeting is being recorded, and a replay will be available on the events and presentations page found within our investor relations website. The notice of the annual meeting of shareholders of Entergy Corporation was provided to shareholders of record as of March 7th, 2025. The notice and the proxy statement were distributed to shareholders beginning on March 21st. A list of shareholders is available on the virtual meeting portal for today's meeting.
As of the record date, there are 430,771,399 shares of common stock outstanding. Beth Vanderbeck, our appointed inspector of election, is in attendance today and has informed us that a majority of the shares entitled to vote at the meeting are represented today. Accordingly, we have a quorum, and we may proceed with the business of the meeting. I will now review the matters to be voted on. As noted in the polls, the polls are open. If you have already submitted your vote, you will not need to vote today. Your shares will be voted in accordance with the directions you previously provided. If you have not already voted your shares or wish to change your vote, you may do so by selecting the vote button at the bottom right corner of the meeting portal.
The polls will remain open until we conclude the matters to be voted on portion of the meeting. However, once the polls close, no further proxies or votes or any revocations or changes will be accepted. The first proposal is the election of directors. Director nominees are Gina Adams. Gina is the executive vice president, general counsel, and secretary of FedEx Corporation. John Black. John is a retired audit partner at Deloitte and Touche. John Burbank. John is an independent strategic advisor and entrepreneur. Kirkland Donald. Kirk is chairman of the Huntington Ingalls Industries board and is a retired admiral and former director of the Navy Nuclear Propulsion Program. Brian Ellis. Brian is the senior vice president and general counsel of Danaher Corporation. Philip Frederickson. Phil is a retired executive vice president of ConocoPhillips. Elise Hyland. Elise is a former senior vice president of EQT Corporation. Stuart Levenick.
Stuart is our board's lead director and a former group president and executive office member of Caterpillar Inc. Drew Marsh, of course, is our chair and CEO. Karen Puckett, Karen is a former president of Harte Hanks Inc. The next item are two management proposals. Proposal two is the ratification of the appointment of Deloitte and Touche as the independent registered public accountants for 2025. Proposal three gives our shareholders the opportunity, on an advisory basis, to approve our named executive officer compensation. That concludes the matters to be voted on. The polls are now closed. The inspector of election will collect and tabulate all of the proxies and the ballots. Subject to final verification by the inspector of election, I can report that each of the director nominees has been elected.
The appointment of Deloitte and Touche as our independent registered public accountants for the fiscal year ending 2025 has been ratified. The advisory vote to approve named executive officer compensation has been approved. After the meeting, we will complete the final vote tabulations and provide the final voting results on the events and presentations page found within our investor relations website and in our Form 8K, filed with the SEC. Drew?
Thank you, Marcus. There being no further business to come before the meeting, I declare the 76th annual meeting of shareholders of Entergy Corporation adjourned. At this time, I'll answer some questions received from our shareholders. The first question is, how much opportunity do data centers present to Entergy over the next few years? Data centers clearly represent a major growth opportunity for Entergy over the next several years. Entergy Mississippi and Entergy Louisiana have announced agreements with hyperscale data centers, as I mentioned a moment ago, AWS in Mississippi and Meta in Louisiana. As we discussed in our earnings call a couple of days ago, we are in active discussions on other data center projects and our pipeline of projects that are not in our current forecast is 5-10 gigawatts. Entergy's service area is an attractive option for data centers for several reasons.
First, we have available land, and we have affordable energy costs and welcoming communities. These are features that have been around for quite a while and remain so for other large industrial projects. Also, our vertically integrated utility model allows us to provide a complete technical solution, which speeds things up for potential data center customers. We successfully also work with a wide range of stakeholders and can bring key parties to the table to drive solutions for the customer, which also helps speed things up. Finally, we have a long track record of bringing large customers online due to our current large industrial customer base. Data centers help lower the price of electricity per customer by having a new large customer sharing some of those grid costs.
As I mentioned in my opening remarks, these large customers bring significant value to our communities, including good-paying jobs, infrastructure improvements, and new tax revenues. The second question is, where do you see the most growth coming from over the next couple of years? That is our growth we expect to come from our industrial customer segment. Our latest industrial sales growth guidance is for 12%-13% compound annual growth through 2028. At Entergy, we have a very diverse customer base. Data centers are the biggest part of that growth category, but we are also expecting growth from more traditional industrial segments. The three new customers I mentioned earlier are good examples of that. The next question is, how is infrastructure hardening for hurricanes going? We are making good progress. It is still relatively early in our investment process. Our customers, however, are already realizing hardening benefits from multiple sources.
The first, we have an accelerated resilience program that is designed to upgrade assets that are currently in service and still useful, but not at the latest standards. We have more than $2 billion approved under these programs in Louisiana, Texas, and in New Orleans, and we plan to request phase two spending as soon as the end of this year. Our capital plan also includes new infrastructure that is needed to serve growth. These new assets will be built to the latest standards, and they will also support reliability and resilience. Finally, when we have weather events, any damaged infrastructure, we aim to restore that to current standards, which is especially important since these assets are in areas that are generally more vulnerable to storms. Next question is, what is the range of impact that you see tariffs having on Entergy's operations?
Tariffs are obviously a very important issue right now, and we are actively engaged in monitoring that issue as the landscape evolves. I'll say right up front, with everything we know today, we believe tariff impacts are manageable. Tariffs would primarily impact our capital plan. On our earnings call this Tuesday, we estimated that impact to be approximately 1% of our $37 billion four-year capital plan. The vast majority of that estimated impact is in the back end of our forecast period, which provides time to continue to reduce those effects through additional supply sources and other strategies. We're making every effort to alleviate the effects of tariffs on our operations for the benefit of our customers. We're working hard to make ends meet and competing in a global marketplace. We're also working with our suppliers to develop alternative supply sourcing strategies.
In addition, our ongoing cost management efforts, as well as contingencies in our spending plans, will help us manage our costs. We're actively monitoring what this also means to our customers' businesses. Our large industrial customers are highly competitive in domestic and global markets, and commodity spreads continue to be supportive of our customers, in part due to the structural advantages of low-cost natural gas. In that sense, commodity fundamentals still favor U.S. manufacturing, and our service area remains well-positioned to capture new onshoring and industrial development with the Gulf Coast advantages that I just mentioned and that we've been talking about for some time. These foundational elements can facilitate even further expansion of the broad industrial manufacturing base and supporting services in our region. With everything we know today, we believe tariff impacts are manageable.
The next question is, how is the use of artificial intelligence changing how Entergy operates? Entergy has a dedicated AI team working on incorporating AI into our business and creating value for our stakeholders. In implementing AI, we are careful to ensure proper data security, including customer information. One example that illustrates how we're using AI to better serve our customers is an automated tool we developed to help contact center employees more effectively respond to customers. The tool uses a large language model to generate real-time actionable information for our contact center reps and has improved our responsiveness to customer questions. To improve our field operations, we implemented an AI solution to reduce the frequency and duration of power outages associated with maintenance for our equipment. This innovative technology uses smart meter data to anticipate transformer power outages and ensure more reliable power delivery to customers' homes and businesses.
These are just two examples, and we expect to continue to implement AI solutions to better serve our stakeholders. This concludes the Q&A session and today's meeting. As a reminder, we will post responses to any other questions submitted during the meeting, as well as the questions I just answered this morning, along with a replay of today's webcast on the investor section of our website early next week. Thank you for attending the annual meeting of shareholders and for your continued support of Entergy. Stay safe and have a great afternoon.
This now concludes the meeting. Thank you for joining and have a pleasant day.
The host has ended this call. Goodbye.