Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Welcome to the Annual Meeting of the Shareholders of NextEra Energy. I'm Jim Robo, Chairman and CEO of NextEra Energy, and I hereby call this meeting to order. So, first of all, let me begin by thanking all of you for attending this meeting or for listening via our webcast.
The company you own had a very strong year in 2017 and after the official business of this meeting is concluded, I will give a brief overview of our performance last year before opening up the floor to questions if needed. So, first of all, let me review a few housekeeping items and make some introductions. Please be aware that our proceedings are being webcast this morning. On the dais with me today is Charlie Sieving, Executive Vice President and General Counsel. In the back of the room is Scott Seeley, Vice President of Compliance and Corporate Secretary, who will assist in the business of the meeting.
Also with us today are other senior officers of NextEra Energy, Florida Power and Light Company and NextEra Energy Resources. I would like to introduce our directors who are joining me today as nominees for election. I'll ask that each stand up as their name is called. Sherry Barrett, the retired Vice Chairman of Northern Trust Corporation, a financial holding company headquartered in Chicago. Sherri has been a Director since 1998.
Jim Cameron, a Private Investor and former Chairman and CEO of Utilities Inc, which was one of the largest investor owned water utilities in the United States. Jim has been a Director since 2002 Ken Dunn, Emeritus Professor of Financial Economics and former Dean of the David A. Tupper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. Ken has been a Director since 2010. Naren Gersakhani, former President and CEO of ADT, a provider of security systems and services.
Narayan has been a Director since 2014. Kirk Hachigan, Chairman and Acting CEO of JELD WEN, one of the world's largest manufacturers of windows and doors. Kirk has been a Director since 2013. Tony Jennings, Chairman of Jack Jennings and Son, a family owned construction business and the former Lieutenant Governor of Florida. Tony has been a Director since 2007 Amy Lane, the retired Managing Director and Group Leader of the Global Retailing Investment Banking Group at Merrill Lynch and Company.
Amy has been a Director since 2015. Rudy Shupp, retired President of Valley National Bancorp and Chief Banking Officer of Valley National Bank. Rudy has been a Director since 2005 Jack Scholes, Retired Executive Vice President of Exelon and President of Exelon Energy Delivery. Jack has been a Director since 2012. Bill Swanson, retired Chairman and CEO of Raytheon, a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, security and civil markets throughout the world.
Bill has been a Director since 2009. And Hansel Tux, retired President of Raytheon International and Chairman and CEO of Raytheon Aircraft. Hansel has been a Director since 2005. Also here today are independent auditors, Deloitte and Touche representing the firm this morning are Greg Silagy and Alison Taylor. Now, let's get to the formal business of the meeting, which will include a description of the items of business that require approval of shareholders, a discussion of those items only and a vote on those items.
When we finish the formal business, I will adjourn the meeting, then as I said, I'll give a brief review of our 2017 results and then take any questions. To enhance the value of this meeting to you and to ensure that all shareholders have a fair opportunity to participate, we have 4 simple guidelines. 1, we'll follow the order of business set out in the agenda. 2, because this is a meeting of shareholders, the opportunity to participate is limited to those who own shares of NextEra Energy or their representatives. 3, those wishing to speak on an item of tell us whether you're an organization holding shares.
Please address your question to me and please allow time for additional shareholders to participate. To assist you in this regard, we have a timekeeper who will ring a bell after 2 minutes. 4, those who have not had an
Mr. Chairman, approximately 91% of our outstanding shares are present, so we have a quorum.
Thanks, Charlie. We have 5 items of business today, including 2 shareholder proposals. If those shareholders or their representatives are here to present them. Item number 1 is the election as directors of the nominees specified in the proxy statement. Item number 2 is the ratification of the appointment of Deloitte and Touche LLP as NextEra Energy's independent registered public accounting firm for 2018.
Item number 3 is the approval by non binding advisory vote of NextEra Energy's compensation of its named executive officers as disclosed in the proxy statement. Item number 4 is proposed by Myra Young. Is the proponent or a representative of the proponent here today? Please step to the microphone, introduce yourself and present your proposal.
Wendy Stokan, I'm reading for Myra K. Young. Can you hear me?
Yes, step closer to my phone maybe. Thank you. Okay.
Just begin, right? Proposal 4, right to act written consent sponsored by Myra K. Young of Elk Grove, California. Shareholders request that the Board of Directors take the steps necessary to permit written consent by shareholders entitled to cast a minimum number of votes that would be necessary to authorize an action at a meeting at which all shareholders entitled to vote thereon were present and voting. This written consent is to be consistent with giving shareholders the fullest power to act by written consent in accordance with applicable law.
This includes shareholders' ability to initiate any appropriate topic for written consent. The shareholders' right to act by written consent and to call a special meeting are 2 complementary ways to bring an important matter to attention of both management and shareholders outside the annual meeting cycle. This is important because there could be more than a year between annual meetings. A shareholder's right to act by written consent is one method to somewhat equalize NextEros Energy's restrictive provisions for shareholders to call a special meeting. For instance, it takes 20% of shareholders to call a special meeting when a company's enabled 10% of shareholders to do so.
This proposal topic won majority shareholder support at 13 major companies in a single year. This included 67% support of both Allstate and Sprint. Last year, the topic won majority votes at Western Union, Ryder Systems and BorgWarner Inc. 100 of major companies enable shareholders to act by written consent, including 64% of S and P 500 and 55% of S and P 1500. Please vote yes.
Right to act written consent. Proposal 4.
Number 4 is properly presented. Item number 5 is proposed by the comptroller of the state of New York as the trustee of the New York State Common Retirement Funds. Please step to the microphone and introduce yourself and present your proposal.
Hello. My name is Jan Bryan. I'm a financial advisor. I live in Prescott, Arizona and I'm representing the New York State Comptroller's Office today. Good morning, everyone.
Mr. Chairman, my name is Jan Bryan. I'm here today on behalf of the New York State Common Retirement Fund to present the fund's resolution calling on NextEra Energy to fully report on its political spending and its process and procedures for making political contributions with corporate funds. As long term shareholders of NextEra Energy, the fund supports policies that apply transparency and accountability to corporate political giving. In its view, such disclosure is fully consistent with public policy in regard to public company disclosures.
Company executives exercise wide discretion over the use of corporate resources for political purposes and relying only on the limited data available from the Federal Election Commission and the Internal Revenue Service can give shareholders an incomplete picture of the company's political spending. The New York State Fund believes that a complete disclosure by the company is necessary for shareholders to be able to fully evaluate the political use of corporate assets and therefore on behalf of the New York State Common Retirement Fund holder of 1,407,200 NextEra Energy Shares, I submit the resolution on political disclosure found in your proxy materials. Thank you.
Thank you. I declare that item number 5 is properly presented. We will now have a discussion on these 5 items of business only. If you're a shareholder and have a comment or question on these items of business, please come to the microphone, state your name and the number of shares you own and ask your question. As a reminder, there'll be an additional opportunity for general discussion after we finish the formal business of the meeting.
Are there any comments or questions on these items of business? Okay, seeing none and since under our bylaws no other nominations or proposals would be timely, we'll now conduct the vote. Those who want to cast a ballot or submit a proxy, please raise your hand and a balloting representative will assist you. If you've already sent in your proxy or you're submitting it now, you do not need to fill out a ballot. It appears that all shareholders wishing to vote by ballot have done so.
I hereby declare the polls closed. I believe that the Inspector of Election has provided the preliminary results of the vote to the General Counsel. Bichara, would you please announce the preliminary results?
Sure. Mr. Chairman, the preliminary results are as follows. On Item 1, the election of directors, all nominees received at least 90% of the votes cast and therefore all of them have been elected. On Item 2, approximately 97% of the votes cast have approved to Lloyd and Touche as our independent registered public accounting firm for 2018.
So the appointment has been ratified. On item 3, approximately 95% of those cast approved by non binding advisory vote for the compensation of our named executive officers, so the compensation has been approved. On Item 4, approximately 57% of those cast are against the shareholder proposal by Myra Young, so that proposal has not been approved. And on Item 5, approximately 57% of the votes cast are against the shareholder proposal related to political contributions disclosure. So that proposal also has not been approved.
Thank you, Charlie. As we have completed our formal business, I hereby declare the NextEra Energy Annual Meeting of Shareholders to be adjourned. I would now like to briefly review our 2017 results as well as the transactions we announced earlier this week following which there will be additional time for questions if needed. You should be aware that this discussion could include forward looking statements that are based on current expectations and assumptions, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. You can find our risk factors in our annual report, which is available in this room in our Investor Relations website when you click on SEC filings.
As I mentioned earlier, the company you own had a terrific year in 2017. At Florida Power and Light, we delivered our best ever service reliability performance while maintaining a typical customer build that is more than 25% below the national average and the lowest among the top 10 investor owned utilities by market cap. We completed construction on schedule and under budget of the first 4 74.5 Megawatt Solar Energy Centers governed by the solar base rate adjustment mechanism of our rate case settlement agreement and we secured potential sites that could support more than 5 gigawatts of FPL's ongoing solar expansion. We remained on schedule and on budget for the approximately 17 50 Megawatt Okeechobee Clean Energy Center. We made progress in securing regulatory approval for the Dania Beach Clean Energy Center.
FPL also responded to the largest hurricane event our company had ever faced. Hurricane Irma impacted all 35 counties and 27,000 square miles of FPL service territory causing more than 4,400,000 customers to lose power. Thanks in part to our investments since 2006 in hardening and automation to build a stronger, smarter and more storm reliant resilient energy grid, we were able to restore power to more than 2,000,000 customers in one day and to restore power to all 4,400,000 customers impacted by Irma in 10 days. The efforts of our team resulted in the fastest restoration of the largest amount of people by any one utility in U. S.
History. At NextEra Energy Resources, 2017 was the best period for new wind and solar origination in our history. The Energy Resources team added more than 2,700 megawatts of new renewable projects to our backlog, including the largest combined solar and storage facility in the United States announced at that time and roughly 700 megawatts of additional wind repowering added to our backlog. Over the course of the year, we commissioned roughly 2,150 megawatts of wind and solar projects in the U. S, including the first approximately 1600 megawatts of our repowering program.
2017 was also an excellent year for Energy Resources natural Gas Pipeline activities. During the year, both the Sable Trail Transmission and Florida Southeast Connection Natural Gas Pipeline projects achieved successfully achieved commercial operation, both on budget and on schedule. The Mountain Valley Pipeline also made excellent progress over the year and we remain on track to achieve a year end 2018 commercial operations date. Financially, Nextera Energy was able to grow 2017 adjusted EPS by 8.2% and extend our long term track record of delivering results for shareholders. Dating back to 2,005, we've delivered compound annual growth and adjusted EPS of over 8%, which is the highest among all top 10 power companies in the U.
S. Who've achieved on average compound annual growth of 2.9% over the same period. In 2017, we delivered a total shareholder return of over 34%, outperforming the S and P 500 by roughly 15 percent and the S and P 500 Utilities Index by more than 25%. Over the last 10 years, we've outperformed 79% of the S and P 500 Utilities Index Companies and 63% of the companies in the S and P 500. We are once again honored to be named for the 11th time in 12 years number 1 in the electric and gas utilities industry on Fortune's 2018 list of world's most admired companies.
NextEra Energy was the 4th largest capital investor in any industry in the United States in 2017, and we believe we are well positioned as the largest, most capable clean energy infrastructure company in North America. Shareholders can read more about our 2017 results in the annual report and on our website. NextEra Energy is off to a strong start in 2018 and I'd like to take a few moments to discuss the transactions we announced Monday with Southern Company to acquire Gulf Power, Florida City Gas and ownership stakes in 2 natural gas plants in Florida. Subject to regulatory approvals, we expect the transactions will provide substantial benefits to both customers and shareholders. These attractive electric and natural gas franchises are an excellent complement to our existing operations within the state of Florida.
We expect that these transactions will expand our regulated business operations and over time allow us to extend our best in class value proposition of low bills, clean energy, high reliability and outstanding customer service to roughly 600,000 additional customers in floor. For shareholders, as we announced on Monday, we expect that the transactions will be accretive to NextEra Energy's adjusted EPS expectations in 2020 2021. And we anticipate further favorable adjustments to our credit metric thresholds as a result of the expansion of our company's regulated operations, which will allow us to continue to maintain our $5,000,000,000 to $7,000,000,000 of excess balance sheet capacity while preserving NextEra Energy's strong current credit ratings going forward. With that, I'll now open the floor for questions if there are any about our 2017 performance, the proposed transactions or any issue of concern to shareholders. The same rules apply that we followed earlier.
Please state your name and the number of shares you own, address your question to me in the interest of fairness, limit your questions or comments to no more than 2 minutes. Are there any comments or questions? In that case, thank you very much for being with us today. Please travel safely as you head home and enjoy the rest of your day. Thank you.