Good morning and welcome to the PPL Corporation Annual Meeting of Shareholders. Copies of the PPL Corporation Proxy Statement, Annual Report, and Rules of Conduct are available at the links on the meeting site. If you experience any technical issues, we strongly encourage that you check your internet connection, close and restart your browser, or try another internet browser. The presentation today may include forward-looking statements based on currently available information, which involve risk and uncertainties. The presentation may also refer to non-GAAP measures when discussing the company's financial results and earnings forecast. Before we begin, please take note of PPL's cautionary statement and non-GAAP information posted on the meeting site. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Craig Rogerson, Independent Chair of the Board of Directors of PPL Corporation. Please go ahead, Mr. Rogerson.
Good morning. I'm Craig Rogerson, and I serve as the Independent Chair of the PPL Board of Directors. It is my pleasure to welcome you to our 2024 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. We are pleased to again hold our Annual Meeting of Shareholders in a virtual format to increase access and participation. The virtual format offers an efficient and effective means to host the meeting, allows more shareholders to attend the meeting from any location, and afford shareholders the same rights if the meeting were held in person. This includes the ability to vote your shares electronically during the meeting and ask questions in accordance with our rules of conduct.
I'm joined today by PPL's Corporate Leadership Council, including Vince Sorgi, President and Chief Executive Officer, Joe Bergstein, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Dean Del Vecchio, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, Angie Gosman, Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, Wendy Stark, Executive Vice President Utilities, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, who will serve as the Secretary of today's meeting, and Fran Sullivan, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. The heads of our major operating subsidiaries are also on the phone with us today. We also have our Judge of Election and representatives from Deloitte & Touche LLP, our independent registered public accounting firm, on the line with us.
Also joining Vince and me on today's call are our fellow members of the Board of Directors as follows: Arthur Beattie, retired Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Risk Officer of Southern Company; Raja Rajamannar, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer and President of Healthcare for Mastercard Incorporated; Heather Redman, co-founder and managing partner of Flying Fish Partners; Linda Sullivan, retired Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of American Water Works Company Incorporated; Natica von Althann, retired financial and risk executive at Bank of America and Citigroup; Keith Williamson, President and Director of the Centene Foundation and former Executive Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel of Centene Corporation; Phoebe Wood, Principal of CompaniesWood and retired Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer of Brown-Forman Corporation; and Armando Zagalo de Lima, retired Executive Vice President of Xerox Corporation. And now I am pleased to call the meeting to order.
I will preside over the meeting, and Wendy Stark, our Corporate Secretary, will act as Secretary of the meeting. The polls are now open and will close after the presentation of the last proposal. Only shareholders who held shares as of February 28, 2024, the record date for this meeting, are entitled to vote shares. If you have already voted your shares, there is no need to vote again unless you wish to change your vote. If you would like to vote your shares or change your vote, you may do so while the polls are open by following the instructions on your screen. At today's meeting, we will first conduct the business portion, which involves three management proposals as described in the proxy statement. After the polls close for voting on these proposals, Vince Sorgi will provide an update of the company's performance and business strategy.
If we experience a technical malfunction or other disruption that is not resolved within a reasonable time, then as Chair of the meeting, I may deem the official business complete, the polls closed, and the meeting adjourned. We will then answer questions submitted on the annual meeting website at www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/ppl2024. Shareholders who have logged into the website may ask a question at any time during the meeting by navigating to the Ask a Question field and clicking Submit. We will conduct the meeting consistent with the rules of conduct posted on the PPL website and available through the link at the lower right corner of your screen. Now let's move ahead with our meeting. At this time, we will appoint a Judge of Election for today's meeting. Tracy Oats, who represents Broadridge, will serve as our Judge of Election.
I will now ask Wendy Stark to confirm the notice and quorum. To present the business matters of the meeting, please go ahead, Wendy.
Thank you, Craig. I have been informed that notice of this meeting was properly mailed to the shareholders of the company. Our Judge of Election has taken the oath and has informed me that sufficient shares are represented at this meeting, in person or by proxy, and therefore a quorum is present. I will now present the matters to be voted on. The first proposal to be considered at this meeting is the election of the 10 directors nominated by the Board of Directors as disclosed in our Proxy Statement. The Board recommends a vote for each of the nominees. Proposal 2 is an advisory vote to approve compensation of the named executive officers as disclosed in our Proxy Statement. The Board recommends a vote for this proposal.
Finally, Proposal 3 is the request by the company to ratify the audit committee's appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the independent registered public accounting firm of PPL and its subsidiaries for 2024. We are pleased to have representatives of Deloitte & Touche with us today on the phone. The Board recommends a vote for this proposal.
Thank you, Wendy. If you have not yet voted your shares or if you wish to change your vote, you may vote now by clicking on the Vote Here button on your screen. We'll now pause to allow shareholders to vote. Thank you for voting. I now declare the polls closed. Next on our agenda is a brief business update of PPL CEO Vince Sorgi.
Thank you, Craig. Thank you to all who have joined us for today's annual meeting of shareholders. As always, I'm honored to be here today representing our PPL team of more than 6,500 employees. I have the good fortune to see this team in action every day as I travel about the regions we serve. I'm here to tell you they are tremendous people. They care deeply about our mission to provide safe, affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy to our customers and competitive long-term returns to our shareholders. They have a strong work ethic. They're innovative, caring, and committed to continuous improvement. Simply put, they are among the best in the business, and it's a joy to lead and work alongside them each day. Together, our vision is to make PPL the best utility company in the U.S.
To us, that means delivering top quartile reliability, customer satisfaction, and cost efficiency for our customers, top decile safety performance for our employees, and a premium valuation for our shareholders. In my remarks today, I'll highlight our progress in pursuit of this vision and briefly recap our prior year performance. I'll address our strategy to grow PPL and lead the clean energy transition while keeping energy safe, reliable, and affordable. I'll highlight our 2024 priorities and business outlook, and I'll close with a few thoughts on PPL's future and our commitment to you, our shareholders. To begin, I'm very proud of what our PPL team was able to accomplish over the past year. In short, 2023 was a year of challenges met and promises kept. Most importantly, we delivered electricity and natural gas safely and reliably to our more than 3.5 million customers.
Specifically, we achieved top quartile transmission and distribution reliability at each of our utilities, including record reliability for our companies in Kentucky and Rhode Island, and top decile performance in Pennsylvania. At our Kentucky utilities, the only ones at which we generate power, our generation reliability was once again among the nation's best. We achieved this outstanding reliability in terms of both generation and delivery despite increased storm activity in the regions we serve. This is a testament to our employees, to our ongoing investments in system hardening and grid resiliency, and to our unwavering focus on reliability given how essential electricity service is to our customers and communities we serve. Turning to our 2023 financial performance, we exceeded the midpoint of our ongoing earnings forecast despite more than $100 million in mild weather and storm impacts.
We achieved our projected 6%-8% annual earnings and dividend growth targets while maintaining a strong balance sheet and excellent credit metrics. To help keep energy affordable, we exceeded our 2023 O&M savings target of $50 million-$60 million, ultimately achieving $75 million in annual savings compared to our 2021 baseline. And as we focused on investing in a safe, reliable, affordable, and cleaner energy future, we executed $2.4 billion of planned infrastructure investments on time and on budget. Rounding out our 2023 highlights and progress, we secured constructive outcomes in key regulatory proceedings, outcomes that will benefit both customers and shareholders. This included obtaining regulatory approval in Kentucky for generation investments that will enable us to responsibly replace aging, uneconomic coal-fired power plants with a safe, reliable, affordable, and cleaner energy mix.
In addition, we received the green light in Rhode Island to deploy advanced meters across the state, laying a foundation for a smarter, more resilient, more reliable, and more dynamic electric grid capable of supporting the state's ambitious climate goals. Lastly, we continue to invest in research and development, partnering on more than 150 projects with industry, academia, the Electric Power Research Institute, and others to drive clean energy innovation. We continue to provide a smooth and seamless transition to PPL ownership for Rhode Island Energy customers and employees. We continue to develop our diverse talent here at PPL. And once again, along with our affiliated foundations, we've provided strong support to our local communities, contributing nearly $14 million to nonprofit programs and organizations, improving the lives of those we serve.
All of these achievements reflect our strong focus on execution, our disciplined investment strategy, our ability to adjust when challenges arise, our strong leadership team, and our clarity of purpose across PPL. Looking ahead, we still have room for improvement as we pursue our vision to be the best utility company in the U.S. I'm confident we have the plans, people, and strategy to get us there. To grow and succeed in the changing energy landscape and to deliver long-term value for both customers and shareholders, our strategy is to create the utilities of the future.
With this in mind, we're focused on enhancing the reliability and resiliency of our electric and gas networks through innovation and strategic infrastructure investments, advancing the clean energy transition reliably and affordably for our customers, delivering operational efficiencies to support affordability, building scale to enable our strategy and drive sustainable growth for stakeholders, and empowering customers through digital solutions and better customer service. How are we translating these strategic objectives into action? For starters, we are updating our design criteria and hardening our networks with stronger poles, wires, and equipment that are less susceptible to more powerful, frequent storms. At the same time, we are continuing to expand our industry-leading use of sensors, smart grid technology, data analytics, and artificial intelligence.
All of this to enable a self-healing grid, to predict and address failing equipment before problems occur, to ensure we can reliably manage two-way power flows as we connect more and more behind-the-meter resources, and to improve overall situational awareness and forecasting. In addition, we are expanding our transmission networks as needed to connect more renewables, support the growth of data centers that are the lifeblood of a digital economy, and help drive economic growth as electrification doubles or triples demand. We are incorporating grid-enhancing technologies that enable us to get the most from our existing grid before costly upgrades are needed. We are executing plans to responsibly replace aging, uneconomic coal plants with a safe, reliable, affordable, and cleaner energy mix. We continue to invest in the research, development, and commercialization of clean energy technologies to help us achieve our goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
We are expanding our engagement with a wide variety of stakeholders to drive legislative, regulatory, and market design changes needed to ensure there's sufficient dispatchable generation to meet our customers' growing energy needs all the time. And last but not least, we are expanding self-service options for customers and using digital tools to improve the customer experience. Ultimately, we believe our utility of the future strategy is the right approach in an increasingly dynamic energy landscape, and we've built our business plan to support this strategy. As we set our sights on our priorities in 2024 and beyond, we're well positioned to deliver 6%-8% annual earnings per share and dividend growth through at least 2027.
We expect to invest more than $3 billion this year and more than $14 billion from 2024 to 2027 to strengthen grid reliability and resiliency and advance a cleaner energy mix without compromising on affordability. Meanwhile, we continue to make steady progress toward our target of at least $175 million in O&M savings by 2026 from our 2021 baseline. We plan to achieve $120 million-$130 million of those annual savings by the end of this year. As we invest in the future, our business plan maintains our exceptional balance sheet, funding growth without the need for equity issuances through at least 2027. And finally, we're well positioned to complete our integration of Rhode Island Energy into PPL this year. In closing, as we advance our utility of the future strategy, we're built to lead from a position of strength.
We've structured ourselves in a way that will drive even greater operational efficiency, improve our agility, and enable us to implement new and advanced technology more quickly. I'm incredibly excited about the opportunities ahead for our company, and I thank you for your continued investment and trust in our management team. That concludes my business update. With that, Craig, I'll now turn the call back over to you.
Thank you, Vince. I now ask the judge of election to submit her report.
Mr. Chair, the judge of election of the 2024 annual meeting of shareholders of PPL. Can you hear me?
Yes.
Mr. Chair? Mr. Chair, the judge of election of the 2024 annual meeting of shareholders of PPL Corporation hereby reports that the individuals listed in the company's proxy statement as nominees for directors each received more than 548 million votes, and that the nominees Arthur P. Beattie, Raja Rajamannar, Heather B. Redman, Craig A. Rogerson, Vincent Sorgi, Linda G. Sullivan, Natica von Althann, Keith H. Williamson, Phoebe A. Wood, and Armando de Lima have been duly elected directors of the company to hold office until the next annual meeting of shareholders. The judge of election reports that the company's proposal to approve the compensation of named executive officers has been approved by shareholders receiving more than 546 million votes.
The judge of election reports that the action of the board of directors in the appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP, as independent registered public accounting firm for the year ending December 31, 2024, has been duly ratified.
Thank you very much for the report and for assisting us today. We'd like to take your questions now. As a reminder, shareholders who would like to ask a question may do so by navigating to the Ask Your Question field of the virtual meeting website. As noted in our rules of conduct, we ask that each question be limited to a single topic and be succinct. We have allotted approximately 20 minutes to answer questions today. Any questions pertinent to the meeting and not answered during or prior to the meeting will be posted with answers on our website as soon as practicable after the meeting and will remain available until one week after posting. Ryan Hill, Vice President of Corporate Communications, will read questions submitted by shareholders. Ryan, do we have any questions?
Thank you, Craig. We have several questions. The first deals with today's format, with the shareholder asking, "Why haven't we moved back to in-person format to an in-person format for our annual meetings?
Thanks, Ryan. As I touched on briefly at the outset of our meeting, we believe conducting our annual meeting virtually makes it easier for shareholders to access and participate in the meeting. Prior meetings were mostly held near PPL's headquarters in Allentown, Pennsylvania, attracting a relatively small local audience and making it difficult for shareholders from elsewhere to participate, hear the business update and ask questions. Importantly, our virtual format offers the same rights as if the meeting were held in person. This includes the ability to vote your shares electronically and to ask questions. In short, we believe it's more efficient and effective, and this more efficient, effective means to engage with shareholders.
Thank you, Craig. Our next question deals with the size of PPL's board and asks, "Why do we have so many directors?
Thanks again, Ryan. Before I comment on board size, I just want to say how proud I am of the strong, engaged, and diverse mix of independent directors we've assembled here at PPL. Together, I think we have an excellent blend of experience, skills, and perspectives to oversee the company's continued growth and success. Collectively, we have extensive knowledge of the regulated utility industry, strategic planning, corporate finance, risk management, operations, technology, sustainability matters, and more. In addition, we have significant executive leadership experience, with 100% of our board having served in an executive role either in the public or private sector. Moreover, we have a nice blend of newer directors as well as directors who have helped to lead the company through its various stages of transformation over the past decade. This allows for new perspectives and supports continuity.
I would also note that PPL is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and the listing rules require committees of these independent directors. Our board is the right size to populate the audit, nominating, and governance and compensations committees required by the exchange. On balance, I believe our current size allows for the right mix of skills and perspectives as well as appropriate representation across our various board committees. Having said that, our governance, nominating, and sustainability committee frequently reviews the skill sets of the board, as well as the size of the board and may adjust the board size in the future if we feel it's in the best interests of our shareholders.
Thanks, Craig. Our next question deals with electric vehicles or EVs and data centers. The shareholder asks, "How is PPL positioned to capitalize on growth projected from EV charger and AI data center buildouts?
Vince, I'll turn this one over to you.
Sure. Thanks, Craig. I'll tackle electric vehicles first, and then I'll address the rapid rise of data centers, which is certainly a hot topic in our industry today. Regarding EVs, a key component of our clean energy strategy is positioning the grid as an enabler of clean energy resources, and that includes supporting the adoption of electric vehicles. The U.S. has set a very clear goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Achieving that goal will require electrification of not just transportation but also other sectors of the economy as well. Setting aside the whole topic of data centers, electrification alone is expected to result in a two to three fold increase in electricity demand.
Meeting this increasing demand will require investments in new and cleaner generation, investments in transmission to increase capacity and connect more renewables, and continued investments in technology on our distribution networks to manage two-way power flows to connect more behind-the-meter resources. The increased demand generated by EVs and the increased investments needed to facilitate that electrification more broadly will support future earnings growth. As I highlighted earlier in my remarks, our strategy is all about creating the utilities of the future. We're absolutely convinced this strategy will best position us to advance the clean energy transition safely, reliably, and affordably to our customers while at the same time delivering competitive long-term returns for our shareholders. Shifting to data centers, we continue to advance plans to support prospective data center development in both Pennsylvania and Kentucky.
In our Pennsylvania service territory, for example, we're currently engaged in advanced discussions with developers proposing approximately three gigawatts of potential data center demand. As we work with these data center companies, we feel we are very well positioned to serve their needs, and that's for a variety of reasons. First, we have capacity on our grid such that the needed investment by these data center companies is not too significant. This also enables connection to the grid in a timely manner, which supports their desired commercial operation dates. In addition, our reliability is very strong across all of our utilities, where we're delivering top quartile reliability. Our states have an abundance of reasonably priced land, which is available for these data centers. We're also close to large metropolitan markets in New England and the Mid-Atlantic regions.
And finally, our states also have programs in both Kentucky and Pennsylvania that provide incentives, mostly in the form of sales and use tax exemptions, for data centers to locate in our service territories. Bottom line, we're well positioned to support data center growth, and any meaningful deployment in this space would represent upside to our current business plan. That potential upside would result from returns on additional transmission investments that would be required, and in the case of our Kentucky utilities, any incremental generation investment that may be needed. Ultimately, data centers are key to American competitiveness and large-scale deployment of artificial intelligence moving forward, and we are actively working to enable that expansion.
Thanks, Vince. Craig, we have no further questions at this time.
Very good. Thanks, Ryan. With that question, the Q&A portion of our meeting is concluded. I thank all of you for participating in today's meeting and for your continued support of PPL Corporation. The meeting is now adjourned.