Hello, and welcome to the WEC Energy Group annual meeting of stockholders. Please note that today's meeting is being recorded. During the meeting, we'll have a question and answer session. Stockholders who have entered the meeting using their control number can submit questions or comments at any time by selecting the Q&A icon. It is now my pleasure to turn today's meeting over to Gale Klappa. Mr. Klappa, the floor is yours.
Thank you, and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. It's just past 1:30 P.M. Central Daylight Time, the time set for convening WEC Energy Group's 2026 annual meeting of stockholders. I'm Gale Klappa, Chairman of the Board of WEC Energy Group, and I will serve as chairman for today's meeting. Before we begin, I'd like to call your attention to the rules of conduct for our meeting. They're available by clicking on the documents icon, and that's at the top right of your screen. A copy of the proxy material can be found there as well. Now it's time to call our 2026 annual meeting to order. I've been given the inspector's report, which indicates that more than 88% of the company's outstanding shares are represented. This constitutes a quorum under the company's bylaws, and this meeting, therefore, is duly convened to conduct business.
At the end of the formal program, we will be happy to answer your questions. As always, some of the information you will receive at this meeting is forward-looking in nature and is based on our current expectations. Our projections, of course, involve risks and uncertainties. Factors discussed in the company's latest Form 10-K and in subsequent reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission could cause our actual results to differ materially from those discussed today. Now we'll begin our business session. All members of our board of directors who are standing for election are joining us today. Also attending is Abby Cowart from Computershare. That's the company that serves as our transfer agent and registrar. Abby has been appointed as the Inspector of Election for our meeting. Also with us today are Brian Dowse and Tyler Call. They're from Deloitte & Touche, our Independent Auditors.
Now I'll call on our Executive Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary, Peggy Kelsey, to discuss the proposals that we have before us and to conduct the voting. Peggy.
Thank you, Gale. On March 26th, 2026, a notice of this meeting was sent to all stockholders of record as of March 4th, 2026. The polls for the 2026 annual meeting remain open. If you previously voted your proxy, your vote has already been recorded. If you entered the meeting using your control number and have not yet voted or you wish to change your vote, you may do so now by clicking on the Vote icon at the top right of your screen. We will close the polls shortly. As set forth in your proxy statement, there are 5 management proposals and 1 stockholder proposal on which stockholders have been asked to vote.
The five management proposals are: number 1, election of 12 Directors to serve for terms expiring at the annual meeting of stockholders in 2027, including Warner Baxter, Ave M. Bie, Danny Cunningham, William Farrow III, Cristy Garcia-Thomas, Maria Green, Thomas Lane, John D. Lange, Scott Lauber, Ulice Payne Jr., Mary Ellen Stanek, and Glen E. Tellock. Number 2, ratification of Deloitte & Touche LLP as Independent Auditors for 2026. Number 3, an advisory vote to approve compensation of the named executive officers, otherwise known as Say-on-Pay . Number 4, amendments to our restated articles of incorporation to eliminate supermajority voting requirements. Number 5, amendments to our bylaws to eliminate supermajority voting requirements. Finally, there is 1 stockholder proposal to govern by majority vote. At this time, I invite Mr. John Chevedden to present his proposal. Mr. Chevedden, you will be allowed up to 3 minutes for this presentation.
After your remarks, we will proceed to the proxy vote. Mr. Chevedden, the floor is yours.
Hello, this is John Chevedden. Proposal 6, govern by majority vote. The board is requested the Board of Directors take the necessary steps so that each voting requirement in our charter and bylaws that calls for a greater than simple majority vote be replaced by a requirement for a majority of the votes cast for and against proposals or a simple majority. This proposal topic, as a shareholder proposal, won 95% of the for and against votes at the 2024 WEC annual shareholder meeting. WEC has since been playing games with this 95% vote, and WEC shareholders need to be outraged at this. After this 95% vote, WEC did the bare minimum and put this topic on the 2025 WEC ballot as a binding WEC proposal.
As a binding proposal, this topic needed an 80% vote from all WEC shares outstanding, and it came so close with a 77% vote. WEC could have easily made a small effort to get more shares to vote as the incoming votes were at an overwhelming pace of 98% in favor. WEC has another chance at this meeting today to obtain the 80% vote from the WEC statement.
From the WEC statement next to this proposal, WEC is apparently dead set committed to make no extra effort in regard to its proposals 4 and 5 on the same topic as this proposal. It's like throwing a drink in the face of WEC shareholders when WEC shareholders give 98% support to a proposal topic, and WEC will not make any extra effort to simply get more shares to vote in order to equal the required 80% support from all shares outstanding. The ultimate blame for this insensitivity to overwhelming shareholder votes of more than 95% falls on William Farrow III, who chairs the WEC Corporate Governance Committee. Mr. Farrow III is apparently retired from a day job, and his most recent day job was 13 years with Winston & Strawn LLP.
I asked my computer about the number of employees at Winston & Strawn, and the answer was 1 employee. This compares to 7,000 employees for WEC. Perhaps Mr. Farrow can give an update on the number of employees at Winston & Strawn during his 13 years of experience and how his experience with the staff at Winston & Strawn qualifies him to be a chair of a board committee at a company that has 7,000 employees like WEC. Please vote for all 3 of the govern by majority vote proposals on the ballot today, proposals 4, 5, and 6.
Thank you, Mr. Chevedden. As noted, the board is recommending a vote against this proposal as described in the board's response to proposal six on page 77 of the proxy statement. I have been appointed to vote all of the shares represented by the proxy votes sent in by our stockholders. I have submitted the proxy ballot that reflects your instructions to the Inspector of Election. The polls are about to close, so if you have not finished voting, please do so now. Thank you. The online voting is now closed. The preliminary Inspector's report has been completed, and the preliminary results show that each of the nominees for the board of directors has been elected to serve a one-year term expiring at next year's annual meeting. The appointment of Deloitte & Touche as independent auditors for 2026 has been ratified.
The advisory vote to approve the compensation of the named executive officers has passed. The proposals to amend our restated articles of incorporation and our bylaws to eliminate super majority voting did not receive the required shareholder vote and therefore have not passed. The stockholder advisory proposal to govern by majority vote has not passed. A final report on our meeting will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the next few days. Gale, back to you.
Peggy, thank you very much. On a personal note, today's session marks my last annual meeting as Chairman of WEC Energy Group. It has truly been a privilege to help lead this company over the past 23 years, and I know that our future will be shaped by strong and experienced hands. After today's meeting, Scott Lauber, our President and Chief Executive, will serve as Chairman. I'd like to thank the literally thousands of men and women across our family of companies who are striving every day to deliver the best care anywhere. I'd like to thank all of you for your investment, your support, and your continued confidence in our company. Formal business portion of our meeting is adjourned. Now I'll turn the meeting over to Scott for an update on our progress. Scott, all yours.
Thank you, Gale, and thank you for your service to our company. Your vision, dedication, and leadership have been key to bringing us to a strong position we are in today. I'd also like to share that in recognition of all of his accomplishments, the board has given Gale the honorary title of Chairman Emeritus following today's meeting. This is the first such honor in the company's more than a 125-year history. Again, Gale, thank you for all your contributions to our company and our community. Turning now to our progress over the past year. As you know, we delivered another year of solid results, from customer satisfaction to financial performance to steady execution of our capital plan. First, I'd like to provide you with an update on our dividend.
In January of this year, the board of directors raised our dividend by 6.7%. This marks the 23rd consecutive year that our company has rewarded shareholders with higher dividends. The board's action is consistent with our plan to grow the dividend at a rate of 6.5%-7%. Turning now to our earnings. As you may have seen earlier this week, we reported first quarter 2026 earnings of $2.45 a share. We're off to a good start to the year. We remain laser-focused on reliability, financial discipline, and customer satisfaction, and we're on track to deliver another year of strong results in line with our earnings guidance for 2026.
As a reminder, we're guiding to a range of $5.51 to $5.61 a share, assuming normal weather for the rest of the year. Turning now to economic development opportunities that point to significant growth and demand for electricity in the years ahead. Along the I-94 corridor between Milwaukee and Chicago, Microsoft is making good progress on its large data center complex. The more than 2,200 acres purchased to date, we have energy flowing to the site, and the first data center is now online ahead of schedule. Microsoft released plans in January to expand the campus further with 15 additional data center buildings. In total, this would bring Microsoft's investment to more than $20 billion in the area, including $7.3 billion in phases 1 and 2 of the campus.
Turning north of Milwaukee to the city of Port Washington, Vantage Data Centers has signed on to develop facilities for Oracle on approximately 1,900 acres. Last December, Vantage broke ground on the initial phase of the project, which is planned for 670 acres. Vantage has stated that it is expected to invest $15 billion to complete this phase in 2028. The first facility could come on line later next year. We currently have 1.3GW of demand for this Vantage site in our forecast over the next 5 years. Looking to the future, this site has the potential to reach 3.5GW of demand over time. We are also seeing an increase in local investments by other large companies such as Rockwell Automation, Foxconn, Uline, Eli Lilly, and Milwaukee Tool.
These are just a few of the exciting projects driving the need for investment in our infrastructure. To that end, we have announced a $37.5 billion capital plan to support safety, reliability, and growth between 2026 and 2030. It's the largest 5-year investment plan in our company's history. A balanced power generation mix is a significant focus for our electric utilities. Our plan calls for us to invest a total of $7.4 billion in modern, efficient natural gas generation and LNG storage. In renewables, over the next 5 years, we expect to invest $12.6 billion to add approximately 6,500MW to our generation fleet. To help ensure the energy security for our customers, we're also focused on strengthening our distribution network and investing in needed transmission across the region.
This plan supports our pledged or projected long-term earnings per share growth of 7% - 8% a year on a compound annual basis between 2026 and 2030. This is based on the midpoint of our 2025 adjusted guidance. We expect that growth rate to accelerate to the upper half of the range starting in 2028 as we place more projects into service. Overall, we are very confident in our ability to execute on our capital plan and continue our growth trajectory. Our future is bright, our investment opportunity has never been greater, and we're focused on execution. Now it's time for the question and answer portion of the meeting. Stockholders may submit questions online by clicking on the Q&A icon, and Margaret Kelsey has agreed to read them to us.
Yeah, we'll give it just a few more seconds, but at this time there are no more questions in the queue. Again, we'll just give it a few seconds in case anybody submits one. Scott, I confirm still no questions in the queue, so I'll turn it back to you.
Thank you, Peggy. This concludes our 2026 annual meeting. If you have any questions or would like more information, feel free to email us at wec.stockholder-services.contact@wecenergygroup.com. Thank you again for your confidence and your support. Good afternoon, everyone.
You may now disconnect.