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Today's presentation also includes references to non-GAAP financial measures. You should refer to the information contained in the slides accompanying today's presentation for definitional information and reconciliations of historical non-GAAP measures to the closest GAAP financial measure. With that, I will turn the call over to John.

John W. Ketchum -- Chair, President, and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Mark, and good morning, everyone. NextEra Energy had strong operational and financial performance in 2024, delivering full year adjusted earnings per share of $3.43, up over 8% from 2023, once again at the high end of our adjusted EPS expectations range. Since 2021, we have delivered compound annual growth in adjusted EPS of over 10%, which is the highest among all top 10 power companies. In fact, if you look over the last five, 10, 15 and 20 years, you will see the same absolute and relative performance.

Our consistent financial outperformance is due, first and foremost, to the efforts and execution by our team. I couldn't be more proud of how our team has continued to deliver, and I firmly believe that our track record of execution positions us to lead the build out of energy infrastructure across the country in the coming years. NextEra Energy offers a unique value proposition with two strong businesses that we believe are strategically well positioned to meet the growing needs of our customers with outstanding prospects for future growth. FPL is the largest electric utility in the U.S., and Energy Resources is the world's leader in renewables and storage.

Together, we operate the largest natural gas-fired generation fleet in the country, are one of the largest nuclear operators in the U.S., and are widely viewed as an industry leader in transmission. We are one of the top five infrastructure investors in the United States, and we have invested more than $150 billion in our nation's energy infrastructure over the last decade building everything from nuclear uprates, natural gas pipelines, and natural gas-fired generation to battery storage and renewables. Over the next four years alone, we plan to invest roughly $120 billion across the country, which would allow us to grow our combined fleet to roughly 121 gigawatts. FPL and Energy Resources individually have executed well, delivering value for our customers and shareholders.

We have one of the sector's strongest balance sheets and, between the two companies, we placed into service approximately 8.7 gigawatts of new renewables and storage projects in 2024. Let me start by giving you an update on each of our businesses and then provide you with some comments on the state of our industry. FPL continued to deliver what we believe is the best customer value proposition in one of the fastest-growing states in the U.S. As we approach our 100-year anniversary at FPL, our vision remains the same: to continue making smart capital investments for the benefit of our customers, be an industry leader on costs, and deliver high reliability and outstanding customer service while keeping bills as low as possible for our customers.

In 2024, we continued to see the fruits of that smart capital spend. For nearly two decades, FPL has invested in building a stronger, smarter, and more storm-resilient grid. The performance of our system demonstrates that FPL's hardening, undergrounding, automation, and smart grid investments are providing significant benefits to our customers. Our investments in smart grid technology enabled us to avoid more than 2.7 million outages in 2024.

And those investments paid off, as our team responded exceptionally well in response to Hurricanes Debby, Helene, and Milton. We are able to deliver this performance and keep our bills 40% below the national average because of our focus on capital and operating efficiency and innovation. FPL continued to make smart capital investments in low-cost solar generation and battery storage, further reducing our overall fuel cost. During the year, we placed into service more than 2.2 gigawatts of new, cost-effective solar, and we expect to add more than 15 gigawatts by 2033.

When combined with generation modernizations, these additions have saved customers more than $16 billion since 2001. We also continued to focus on running the business more efficiently. In 2024, we improved upon our best-in-class nonfuel O&M cost per customer, which was already 70% better than the industry's national average, saving customers over $3 billion per year versus an average- performing utility. Innovation has been one of the keys to our operating efficiency.

FPL is the only utility in the nation to remotely operate its fossil fleet. Our fleet control center is one of the world's largest monitoring and diagnostic centers and the first in the industry to remotely operate a more than 20- gigawatt natural gas combined cycle fleet from a single location, providing real-time troubleshooting with engineering, maintenance, and operations support and delivering world-class predictive analytics and diagnostics. This is just one example of the innovative efforts by FPL to reduce costs for our customers while continuing to provide exceptional service. Late last year, FPL filed a test year letter with the Florida Public Service Commission to initiate a rate proceeding for new rates beginning in January 2026.

The stability of multiyear rate plans has allowed FPL to focus on efficiency in the business, which is critical to keeping customer bills as low as possible, and has enabled FPL to maintain a strong balance sheet, which allows for consistent access to the capital markets. We look forward to the opportunity to showcase our long-term track record of providing low bills and high reliability for Floridians and our plans to build an even more resilient energy future for Florida. We believe FPL is strategically well positioned as Florida remains one of the fastest growing states in the U.S. with a population growth rate that is expected to grow 60% more than the national average by 2030.

We plan to meet Florida's long-term growth outlook with investments in generation, transmission, and distribution infrastructure, which we believe will further enhance our best-in-class customer value proposition. Energy Resources had another record year of new renewables and storage origination, adding more than 12 gigawatts to our backlog, which includes approximately 3.3 gigawatts since our last call, a sign of the momentum of demand for new generation and renewables and storage in particular. These additions to our backlog increased 30% from the 9 gigawatts we originated in 2023, our second-best year ever. To put that into context, 12 gigawatts is the size of a large utility in the U.S.

Energy Resources also had a record year in solar origination and a record year in battery storage origination, again demonstrating the strong demand for renewables and storage because they are low cost and can be deployed now. Focusing for a moment on battery storage, we have deployed more than 3.4 gigawatts in total and currently have more than 7.2 gigawatts in our backlog. Our extensive portfolio of existing operating sites, which have excess transmission capacity, and our nearly 30 gigawatts of stand-alone storage interconnection queue positions, means we can dramatically speed up our deployments, a distinct competitive advantage that no one else in this industry has. We also continue to be a leader in serving data center customers, with our total renewables portfolio, including assets in operation and in backlog, at 8.3 gigawatts.

However, one point that I believe is being overlooked is that power demand is everywhere, across all sectors and increasingly across utilities, municipalities, and electric cooperatives, as our 12-gigawatt year of backlog additions reflects. And as demand for power increases across all customer classes as we advance our domestic economic agenda, so does the potential price of power unless we bring new generation online quickly to meet that demand. Customers of all types are looking for low-cost ways to meet their growing power needs while reducing their exposure to higher power prices over time. Given the current power demand environment, it is more important than ever to unleash all forms of electric generation starting with renewables, which are ready now, as I will discuss more in a minute.

There is no better example of this than our own portfolio. We have originated more than 3 gigawatts in three of the last five quarters. And assuming we achieve the midpoint of our development expectations range, Energy Resources will be operating a roughly 75-gigawatt renewables portfolio by the end of 2027, which would be larger than the installed renewables capacity of all but seven countries. In 2024, we continued to demonstrate our leadership as the supplier of choice for buyers of new generation.

We announced two framework agreements with two Fortune 50 companies that have the potential to develop renewables and storage projects totaling up to 10.5 gigawatts between now and 2030, as well as a joint development agreement with Entergy. When combined, our announced framework agreements total up to a potential 15 gigawatts, demonstrating our unique position in the market and our customers' confidence in our ability to help meet the nation's need for power. And we are not sitting still as we think about our value proposition for our customers. We are constantly looking to make sure we have the most comprehensive solution set.

That is why, today, we are pleased to announce a framework agreement with GE Vernova, where we will partner to build natural gas-powered generation solutions. This agreement has the potential to support multiple gigawatts for data centers, the reshoring of manufacturing, and the electrification of industry, as well as serve investor-owned utilities, municipalities, cooperatives, and commercial and industrial customers. Nobody has built more gas-fired generation over the last decade than NextEra Energy, and nobody has sold more gas turbines than GE Vernova. This collaboration brings together the nation's leading operator of natural gas-fired generation in NextEra Energy and the world's leader in natural gas and electrification technology in GE Vernova to jointly develop opportunities that we believe will enable significantly more renewables to meet growing power demand by pairing low-cost renewables for energy with gas-fired generation for capacity.

Over the next four years, the companies plan to collaborate to identify key locations on the energy grid that would benefit from new generation. GE Vernova will incorporate its world-class natural gas generation technologies and critical electrification solutions, while leveraging its financial services capabilities. NextEra Energy expects to provide customers with integrated renewable, storage, and gas-fired generation solutions for large loads, something we can uniquely deliver with our scale, experience, technology, and unmatched development skills. This framework agreement is just another example of why we believe Energy Resources has the most comprehensive power generation business in the world and is better positioned than ever to capitalize on long-term growth prospects.

Before I turn it over to Brian, I want to take a moment to make some comments regarding the industry as we look to the years ahead. The need to add to the country's power infrastructure is no longer in doubt. Our industry's mandate is to deliver new generation and capacity solutions at the lowest cost possible in order for the U.S. to achieve the new administration's energy dominance agenda.

As a leading American energy producer, this is an agenda that we support and believe we are well positioned to deliver on. At NextEra Energy, we know all forms of energy will be required to meet that mandate. If we don't build new generation to keep up with increasing demand for electricity, power prices are going to go up. Or, perhaps, worse, new technology or manufacturing load won't be able to connect to the grid, which would slow economic growth, and we could miss opportunities to further our leadership in AI.

Renewables and storage are ready now to meet that demand and will help lower power prices. Gas-fired generation is moving forward but won't be available at scale until 2030 and then, only in certain pockets of the U.S. In addition, gas-fired generation is more expensive than it's been, with costs having more than doubled over the last five years due to the limited supply of gas turbines, a constrained supply chain, and much higher EPC costs. Nuclear continues to be a much longer-term option in our opinion due to first-of-a-kind risks and uncertainty, with nearer term opportunities centered on recommissioning and uprate projects.

Nuclear plants across the country are already serving existing demand, and there are only a few nuclear plants that can be recommissioned in the near term in an economic way. We are continuing to make progress in evaluating the recommissioning of our Duane Arnold nuclear plant in Iowa. Recently, we filed notice with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to request a licensing change, an important first step in establishing the regulatory pathway to restore the facility's operating license and potentially restart plant operations as early as the end of 2028. While this is just one part of our broader efforts with regulators, government officials, potential customers, and other stakeholders, we are encouraged by the positive responses we have received so far from all parties involved.

We also continue to evaluate alternatives such as SMRs. However, due to the risks and uncertainty, the practical reality is we are unlikely to add multiple gigawatts of new nuclear to the grid over the next decade. That means we need renewables and storage to meet demand that is here today, and as we move toward the next decade, we can supplement renewables and storage with natural gas-fired generation and, to a more limited extent, nuclear given the time it will take to develop and build. We know this because we have experience across the entire energy value chain.

Our mission is to provide our customers with the lowest cost, most reliable energy no matter where they are located. We've been doing it for decades in Florida and across the country and are positioned to keep doing it for years to come. Our scale and experience tells us that all forms of power generation and capacity will be needed as the U.S. tries to keep up with demand.

And that same scale and experience also tells us that renewables and storage should continue to be a critical source of new energy and capacity across the country because they are lowest cost and can be deployed now. With that, let me turn it over to Brian who will review the 2024 results in more detail.

Brian Bolster -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, John. Let's begin with FPL's detailed results. For the full year 2024, FPL's adjusted earnings per share increased $0.12 versus 2023. The principal driver of FPL's 2024 full year performance was regulatory capital employed growth of approximately 10%.

We continue to expect FPL's average annual growth in regulatory capital employed to be roughly 10% over the four-year term of our current rate agreement, which runs through 2025. For the full year 2024, FPL's reported ROE for regulatory purposes will be approximately 11.4%. During the full year 2024, we used $328 million of reserve amortization, leaving FPL with a year-end 2024 balance of $895 million. FPL's capital expenditures were approximately $1.8 billion in the fourth quarter, bringing its full-year capital investments to a total of roughly $8.2 billion.

Key indicators show that the Florida economy remains strong, and Florida's population continues to be one of the fastest growing in the country. Its GDP is now roughly $1.7 trillion, an increase of approximately 7% over last year. For the fourth quarter of 2024, FPL's retail sales increased 1.1% from the prior year on a weather-normalized basis, driven primarily by continued strong customer growth. In the fourth quarter of 2024, we added nearly 119,000 customers as compared to the prior-year comparable quarter, bringing our total customer accounts to over 6 million.

For full year 2024, FPL's retail sales increased 1.9% from the prior year on a weather-normalized basis, also driven primarily by the strong customer growth in our service territory. As John mentioned, FPL is preparing to file a base rate case proposal that would cover the four years, beginning 2026 through 2029, and provide customers longer-term visibility to the cost of electricity. As a reminder, for the period 2022 through the end of 2025, FPL plans to invest approximately $36 billion, with additional significant investments expected in 2026 and beyond to continue to meet the growing needs of Florida's economy. This capital will allow FPL to continue delivering outstanding value for Florida customers by keeping reliability high and fuel and other costs as low as possible.

While the benefits of building a stronger, smarter grid and a cleaner, more efficient generation fleet are passed along regularly to customers through higher service reliability and lower bills, we must periodically seek recovery for these long-term investments through base rates. While the details are still being finalized, we expect the proposal to include base rate adjustments of approximately $1.55 billion starting in January of 2026 and $930 million starting in January of 2027. We also expect the proposal to request support for continued deployment of low-cost generation and capacity additions and the continuation of our solar and battery base rate adjustment, or SoBRA mechanism, to recover the revenue requirements of these cost-effective projects. FPL plans to propose an ROE midpoint at 11.9% with an allowed ROE band of plus or minus 1%.

The 11.9% estimated cost of equity reflects appreciably higher interest rates and other capital market factors we have experienced since our last rate case and which we expect to continue during the term of the proposed four-year rate plan. FPL also expects to propose maintaining FPL's long-standing equity ratio approved in prior base rate cases, which is intended to keep it in a position to continue to access capital as needed through 2029. We continue to believe that a strong balance sheet, which starts with an appropriate equity layer and which supports strong credit ratings, remains critical to ensure FPL maintains uninterrupted access to the capital markets even in times of significant market disruption. It also allows us to attract capital to support the investments FPL is making to further improve the value we offer customers.

FPL estimates that its proposal, along with projections for fuel and other costs, will grow a typical residential customer bill by an average annual rate of approximately 2.5% from January 2025 through 2029. If the full amount of the requests were granted under our proposal, and assuming other utilities experience bill increases only at their historical rates of increase, we expect FPL's typical customer bills would continue to remain significantly lower than the national average through 2029. To put this proposal in context, it would result in a typical customer bill in January 2026 that is nearly 21% less than it was in real terms 20 years ago, even with our proposed base rate increases. We look forward to the opportunity to present the details of our case and expect to make our formal filing, with testimony and required detailed data, in February.

The timeline for the proceeding will ultimately be determined by the commission, but we currently expect that we will have hearings in the third quarter and a final commission decision in the fourth quarter, in time for new rates to go into effect in January 2026. We are open to the possibility of resolving our rate request through a fair settlement agreement. During the course of the past 22 years, FPL has entered into five multiyear settlement agreements that have provided customers with a high degree of rate stability and certainty and helped FPL execute to deliver its best-in-class customer value proposition. Our core focus will be to pursue a fair and objective review of our case that supports continued execution of our successful strategy for customers, and we plan to continue to provide updates throughout the process.

Now, let's turn to Energy Resources, which reported full-year adjusted earnings growth of more than 13% year over year. For the full year, contributions from new investments increased by $0.48 per share reflecting continued growth of demand for our renewables and storage portfolio. Contributions from our existing clean energy assets increased by $0.03 per share, primarily reflecting improved wind resource during the year and the impact of certain revenue and PTC escalation benefits inherent in our existing assets. Contributions from our gas infrastructure businesses decreased by $0.08 per share, most of which was recognized in the second quarter.

As we discussed at the time, a combination of higher depletion expense related to an expectation for lower production, certain nonrecurring items, and the sale of the Texas pipeline portfolio resulted in lower relative earnings in that quarter. Contributions since that time have been effectively flat, consistent with the expectations we provided in the second quarter. Our customer supply and trading business, which you will recall had strong earnings in 2023, decreased results by $0.04 per share, driven by normalization of origination activity and margins, which is consistent with our expectations. Other impacts decreased results by $0.24 per share year-over-year.

This decline reflects higher interest costs of $0.13 per share, nearly half of which is new borrowing to support our build and half of which reflects increased borrowing costs on existing debt. Energy Resources again, for the third year in a row, delivered our best year ever for origination, adding more than 12 gigawatts of new renewables and battery storage projects to our backlog, which includes approximately 3.3 gigawatts since our last call. Our 2024 origination performance reflects continued strong demand from power and commercial and industrial customers looking for the least cost alternative to serve load and meet increasing demand. Our renewables backlog now stands at more than 25 gigawatts, after taking into account roughly 2.4 gigawatts of new projects placed into service since our third quarter call.

We believe our more than 25-gigawatt backlog provides terrific visibility into Energy Resources' ability to deliver attractive growth in the years ahead. Turning now to the consolidated results for NextEra Energy. For the full year, adjusted earnings per share from our corporate and other segment decreased by $0.01 per share year over year. We successfully supported the growth in our underlying businesses from our strong operating cash flows and grew 2024 cash flow from operations by more than 17%, well in excess of adjusted earnings.

We also continue to focus on protecting our project economics at Energy Resources, as well as minimizing the cost of refinancing at the parent. We now have $28.5 billion of interest rate hedges in place. To put this all in perspective, NextEra Energy's sensitivity for an immediate 50 basis point upward shift in the yield curve has, on average, $0.01 to $0.03 of expected adjusted EPS impact in 2025, 2026, and 2027, which is equivalent to less than 1% of our adjusted EPS expectations. This sensitivity, of course, assumes we do not implement other offsetting initiatives including, among others, our normal process of cost reductions and capital efficiency opportunities.

As a reminder, the current interest rate environment is taken into account in our financial expectations. Overall, our funding plans for 2024 through 2027 remain consistent with the information we shared previously. For each of the last 15 years, NextEra Energy has met or exceeded its financial expectations, which is a record we are proud of. And once again, our long-term financial expectations remain unchanged.

We will be disappointed if we are not able to deliver financial results at or near the top end of our adjusted EPS expectations ranges in 2025, 2026, and 2027. From 2023 to 2027, we continue to expect that our average annual growth in operating cash flow will be at or above our adjusted EPS compound annual growth rate range. And we also continue to expect to grow our dividends per share at roughly 10% per year through at least 2026, off a 2024 base. As always, our expectations assume our caveats.

That concludes our prepared remarks. And with that, we will open the line for questions.

Questions & Answers:

Operator

[Operator instructions] Our first question today comes from Steve Fleishman from Wolfe Research. Please go ahead with your question.

Steve Fleishman -- Analyst

Yeah. Hi, good morning. Thanks. Just a couple of high-level questions.

So, on the GEV framework agreement announcement, could you maybe give a little more color on -- would you co-own projects with them? And also, just -- would you only be doing contracted uh projects, long-term contracts? Or would you consider doing kind of new build merchant, you know, like in ERCOT or PJM? Thanks.

John W. Ketchum -- Chair, President, and Chief Executive Officer

Steve, thanks for the question. You know, first of all, we're very excited about this framework agreement with GE Vernova. You know, again, as I said in the prepared remarks, nobody has built more gas-fired generation, you know, in this country really not only over the last decade, but the last two decades, then the next year. We've got significant experience.

We have an 80-year relationship with GE, just terrific relationship, not only on the renewables side but also on the gas-fired generation side with all that build that we have historically done. So, I think you're bringing, you know, two powerhouses together with experience in gas-fired generation. The idea would be to go after and target, you know, large load customers and do it in an integrated way where we can combine gas-fired generation with renewable battery storage solutions. And each party would bring the expertise that you would expect to the table.

In terms of the ownership, yes, they would be co-owned, you know, as part of a 50-50, you know, joint venture. These would be long-term contracted assets as well. You know, we could contemplate in the right situation with the right customer also, potentially, a build own transfer on gas-fired generation as well if it was part of a larger transaction that included renewables and other growth opportunities. But we're very excited about this.

I think it, you know, enables us to bring a comprehensive solution set that is right down our alley.

Steve Fleishman -- Analyst

Yeah, no, it makes a lot of sense. I assume it gets you access to turbines, you know, kind of relatively quickly as well. Just one other question on, I think we call it the elephant in the room, the new administration and just the -- you know, kind of I guess the announcement on the wind, limits on wind leases on federal lands, and then also views on kind of where things stand on IRA risks. Would love any commentary on those topics.

Thanks.

John W. Ketchum -- Chair, President, and Chief Executive Officer

Sure, Steve. Let me go ahead and take that. You know, first of all, with the executive orders as a whole, you know, very consistent with our beliefs that, you know, we need electrons, we need electrons right now. And we need to unleash, you know, the American energy industry and achieve energy dominance.

So, we embrace the new administration's, you know, mandates that have come out in these executive orders. And as part of achieving energy dominance, we're going to need all of the above solutions. We can't afford to take any options off the table. We're going to need gas, we're going to need nuclear, we're going to need renewables.

We're going to need storage as well. But we can't wait because that demand is here today. I mean, if you think about it, power demand is higher than it's ever been in this country. The only close analogy you could draw is to the last, you know, industrial revolution.

And, you know, we're expecting load demand to increase over 80% over the next five years, sixfold over the next 20 years. And if you think about generation types and needing all of the above, they're not all created equally in terms of timing, which is one of the things that I hit in my prepared remarks. Renewables are here today. You know, you can build a wind project in 12 months, a storage facility in 15, and, you know, a solar project in 18 months.

With gas-fired generation -- you know, we're pleased with our announcement with GE Vernova. With gas-fired generation, the country is starting from a standing start. And we've got to go find the sites, we've got to develop these sites, we've got to get gas to those sites. We've got to get hands on gas turbines.

If you take all those things together and you think about when is gas really going to be able to contribute at scale, I mean, we're looking to looking at 2030, and nuclear, you know, later than that. And we need shovels in the ground today because our customers need the power right now. I mean, if you think about it from a customer standpoint, they have already built -- you know, new manufacturing facilities are well down the road that are going to need electrons. Our utility customers have already shut down existing generation.

They're counting on these renewable projects, some of which include wind to show up to be able to provide the electrons. So, we don't have reliability issues with their customers because, right now, we are short power in this country. And so, when I think about wind and I think about our own portfolio, you know, we don't have any offshore wind, as you all know. We've never been in the offshore wind business.

And we only -- we -- all of our onshore projects are on private land except for one. And that's a very positive fact. And the permitting process is rather limited for, you know, onshore private land, you know, solutions. And I go back to, you know, our customers need the power right now.

They're building new manufacturing, utilities have already planned for. And I know this administration, they support low-cost energy, they support domestic job creation. So, I remain very optimistic that we're going to be able to work through any issues, you know, that may come up along the way and, you know, feel good about the future of our program.

Steve Fleishman -- Analyst

Great. Thank you very much.

John W. Ketchum -- Chair, President, and Chief Executive Officer

And, Steve, on IRA, let me hit your last one on IRA.

Steve Fleishman -- Analyst

OK, good.

John W. Ketchum -- Chair, President, and Chief Executive Officer

It's really a lot of the same points. I mean, obviously, we've been spending a lot of time in Washington on advocacy around IRA. And what I will say there is, again, it's all about electrons and needing electrons right now. The power demand is here today.

We need to serve it. Renewables play a very important role in all forms of energy solution. You know, we're going to need gas to back up renewables. We'll have nuclear, you know, later next decade.

But right now, if we need -- we need solutions that are going to deliver electrons to the grid so we don't have a power crisis. And, you know, that is the thing that is not being overlooked at all by folks that we're meeting with in Congress. And then, there's the other factor that, you know, look, this is a terrific American industry. You know, we are creating a substantial number of jobs right here in our backyard.

And 80% of those jobs are -- in investments are occurring in Republican states. Take our own capex. You know, we've been top five infrastructure investor over the last five years, fully expect that to be the case over the next four years. NextEra is going to invest $120 billion over the next four years.

That's our expectation. And, you know, again 80% of those dollars is going into Republican states. There's a lot of manufacturing, a lot of job creation, a lot of property taxes, a lot of economic benefits. So, those are the messages that, you know, we're trying to make sure we get across in Washington around the IRA discussion.

Steve Fleishman -- Analyst

Great. Very helpful. Thank you.

John W. Ketchum -- Chair, President, and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Steve.

Operator

Our next question comes from Shar Pourreza from Guggenheim Partners. Please go ahead with your question.

Shahriar Pourreza -- Analyst

Hey, guys. Good morning.

John W. Ketchum -- Chair, President, and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning, Shar.

Shahriar Pourreza -- Analyst

Good morning. Just real quick, John, I know you noted the time to market for nuclear is between the '27, '30 time frame. I guess, where does Duane Arnold fall within that time frame? And also, you know, there's obviously one restart out there, and there's a cost estimate. Is there anything you can provide just directionally for Duane Arnold restart versus the comp that's out there? And would you potentially look to expand the site if there's support from a counterparty or the federal government? Thanks.

John W. Ketchum -- Chair, President, and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. Hey, thanks, Shar, for the question. So, you know, happy to say that, you know, we have made our filing with the NRC around the licensing to recommission, you know, that facility. We have more work to do.

You know, some of that work includes work with customers. I'm certainly not going to put the cost estimate out there. That would hurt our, you know, negotiating position in those discussions. And you can rest assured that we are in active discussions with customers today.

There's a lot of interest in the plant as we look forward. But my comments around nuclear are really, look, you know, as one of the largest nuclear operators in the country, we know obviously know a lot about it. I think the near-term opportunities are around the recommissioning with Palisades [Inaudible] Duane Arnold as well. And those are really the ones that I think I would confine to the time frame of being, you know, over the next, you know, three, four, you know, five years.

You know, as you think about next decade of -- my comments around next decade, those are really more around the small modular reactors, which are still a first-of-a-kind technology, have some uncertainty in terms of developing and permitting and the ability, you know, of them to be able to deliver -- be delivered to market on time and on schedule. And so, as we think about small modular reactors, we have a team internally at NextEra Energy that is focusing on nothing but small modular reactors. We'd love to be able to develop them. But as we get into them, you know, there are, you know, some practical limitations.

So, if we're thinking as a country about their ability to contribute to all the power demand that we see that's here right now, my only comment is that I would think about them more as a next-decade solution, probably middle of the latter part of the next decade, if we're thinking about small modular reactors at scale. And cost, you know, continues to remain a wild card.

Shahriar Pourreza -- Analyst

Got it. Maybe just -- I'll just ask it a slightly different way. Just what's the condition of the plant right now, I guess, on Duane Arnold?

John W. Ketchum -- Chair, President, and Chief Executive Officer

You know, the Duane Arnold plant is really in good shape. I mean, the only issue that we had -- if I think about the facility and the condition that it's in, I mean, I think about the reactor itself and the very good condition, the only damage that we ever sustained at Duane Arnold was the derecho that took down the cooling tower. But building a cooling tower is run of the mill. I mean, you build them at, you know, gas plants.

You build them at, you know, nuclear facilities as well. So, that's pretty conventional construction, so not a whole lot of risk there.

Shahriar Pourreza -- Analyst

Got it. All right, that's perfect. And then, just lastly on -- just to follow up on Steve's gas question there, 2030-plus just, to me, seems a little far out, just given the hyperscalers needs, including just the trends around additionality and speed to market. I think supply chains should start to ease in the next couple of years.

I guess, just directionally, this could be pretty, I guess, sizable opportunity for NextEra. I guess, when can this sort of start to become accretive to growth and hit the backlog? Thanks.

John W. Ketchum -- Chair, President, and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. Hey, thanks, Shar, for the question. So, you know, my comments, you know, on gas are, you know, when you look at finding a site, getting it permitted, getting gas to the facility, getting it interconnected, and then the equipment limitations of actually getting a turbine slot, getting access to that turbine, and then the EPC labor, remember, we -- this is an industry, you know, that really hasn't seen any active development or construction in years. And so, that's my comment, you know, earlier about really beginning from a standing start.

And so, all of that puts pressure on cost. I mean, we've seen enormous demand, as you know, from GE Vernova's, you know, commentary for gas turbines. And it's not only domestic, it's international. And that's, you know, more than double the cost of a gas turbine.

And EPC labor is in such short supply that the cost there have tripled. And I look back to just our last gas-fired facility that we built here in Florida, Dania Beach. If we take the cost we paid for that facility on a dollar per kW basis to today, I mean, we've -- the cost has tripled in price. And so, those are some of the sensitivities.

So, it's not only time, but it's money as well and making sure that we can put an economic solution in front of the customer. In terms of when it contributes, you know, consistent with that time frame. I mean, I think it's the -- that 2030 and beyond time frame. And don't get me wrong.

There are probably some pockets of the country that would be an exception. You know, ERCOT, you know, you can build more quickly than you can in other parts of the country. Other parts of the country are just more difficult, right, because you have to deal with the courts. You know, we know from our own experience with what it took to get the MVP pipeline built in the mid-Atlantic region, if you think about PJM in particular.

I's just not easy to get the gas to those facilities and to get gas infrastructure built. This new administration certainly is, you know, undoubtedly going to move forward with reforms that will make that easier to achieve. But there could be litigations, you know, over those things as well. So, as we put all the pieces together, you know, we're just being practical, we're just being realistic.

You know, we see it more as a later-this-decade solution.

Shahriar Pourreza -- Analyst

Fantastic. Thanks again, John. Send my best to the team. Appreciate it.

John W. Ketchum -- Chair, President, and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you.

Operator

Our next question comes from Julien Dumoulin-Smith from Jefferies. Please go ahead with your question.

Julien Dumoulin-Smith -- Jefferies -- Analyst

Hey, good morning, team. Thank you guys very much. Appreciate it. Hey, so maybe to follow up a little bit on some of the core questions here.

How do you think about getting into this gas business? I know you talk about development kind of in the 2030-plus. Any thoughts about strategically entering into it in a proactive way from an acquisition perspective to create some, you know, origination prospects, right, to leverage off of? And then related, how are you thinking about, you know, this XPLR pivot and having sort of a development sell-down partner? I know for instance your comment earlier about a 50-50 development effort with GEV using their financial services effort. How do you think about the renewables side of that equation in terms of no longer having this same sell-down vehicle as you did before? Thoughts about the monetization factor.

John W. Ketchum -- Chair, President, and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, let me take those in pieces. So, if I think about the gas business and your question about whether or not, you know, we would look to do something through acquisition, I don't think we need to do that. And here's why we don't need to do that, Julien, is we are a giant development company, right? That is our business. We are a massive development company that's been up and running for, you know, the better part of a couple of decades.

We have all the pieces in place already. We have a land team, we have a permitting team. We have gas infrastructure capability to build gas pipeline laterals to build new gas pipelines. We have a transmission business.

There wouldn't be a whole lot to be gained, you know, for us, you know, adding a piece, you know, through an acquisition, given that we already have all those components in place internally. It's an easy pivot for us to move into gas, and we've already been, you know, up and running in that and already have put together a nice pipeline. And we'll continue to grow that as we move forward. On the XPLR side, I really don't want to answer any questions about XPLR on this call, given that we have a call scheduled for Tuesday.

But I will answer your question about sell-down vehicles and recycling capital generically for NextEra Energy. I think as you can see with our reaffirmation of our capital recycling, you know, plan and our equity plan that we've included in today's call, there are no changes, right? No changes at all. And so, we feel good about where we are in terms of our ability to recycle capital and has no impact again on our equity needs. And, you know, we have plenty of, you know, outlets, you know, available to be able to do that, whether, you know, that would be through XPLR or some other avenue as we've talked about in the past.

Brian Bolster -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Julien, I'll just remind you that over the past 18, 24 months, we've recycled several billion dollars of capital that had nothing to do with XPLR. So, not only are we very comfortable with our expectations, we've been recycling capital now for a good several years through other avenues.

John W. Ketchum -- Chair, President, and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah.

Julien Dumoulin-Smith -- Jefferies -- Analyst

All right, indeed. Alrighty, well, best of luck here. Appreciate it. Talk to you soon.

John W. Ketchum -- Chair, President, and Chief Executive Officer

Julien, thank you.

Operator

Our next question comes from Nick Campanella from Barclays. Please go ahead with your question.

Nicholas Campanella -- Analyst

Hey, good morning. Thanks for all the updates. So, hey, just a 2% change to customers for FPL in this upcoming rate case definitely stands out in a positive way. Just wanted to see if you had any updated thoughts on how you're thinking about the surplus reserve mechanism.

And then, also, just how are you kind of thinking about earned ROEs at P&L in '25. Thanks.

Brian Bolster -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Great. Thank you. So, we are -- you know, the growth that we saw this last quarter, the growth that we saw in -- in the year was -- was certainly positive. But it's not just this past year.

We've been seeing it really since the pandemic. Our expectations going into the next rate case over the next four years is that growth may come down a little bit over the next four years because of what we saw during the pandemic. But we still believe it's going to be fairly strong growth in our service territory. And that's why our expectations for the '26, '29 time period for capital investing in the business would be above the roughly $36 billion that we are going to put in over the four-year settlement agreement that ends at the end of of '25.

So, a lot of that detail will come out here in the next -- that's probably about six weeks now because we expect to file our rate case at the end of February. Your question regarding the reserve mechanism, we're sitting at roughly $800 million after using $400 million or so in 2024. So, we feel good. We're certainly not going into 2025 believing that all of the risks that we use with the surplus mechanism are behind us.

We've had to tap that reserve mechanism for a lot of inflation, higher interest rates, a lot more growth in our area, and, therefore, a lot more capex expenses that we expected. So, with the 11.4% ROE at the end of 2024, I expect there might be a little bit of upside to that 11.4% in 2025. But it's obviously early. We want to make sure that we get through this year in good shape.

And we feel really positive about the case that we are going to present to our regulators in February because we've been doing the right things for our customers. So, as long as we do that, I think we'll be OK.

Nicholas Campanella -- Analyst

Hey, thanks for all that information. And then, I'm sorry, but just to follow up on XPLR, just -- you're still including the proportional share of EBITDA and earnings in your own outlook from a NEE perspective. And I just wanted to confirm that you just continue to see that that that income stream consistent and preserved kind of regardless of, you know, the outcome.

Brian Bolster -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

I'll just say the accounting is unchanged around XPLR, and we'll discuss the outlook for that business on Tuesday.

Nicholas Campanella -- Analyst

All right. Thank you.

Operator

Our next question comes from Carly Davenport from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead with your question.

Carly Davenport -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst

Hey, good morning. Thanks so much for taking the questions. Just wanted to throw in a couple of follow-ups. The first one just on some of the renewables conversation.

Is there anything you can share on how this is or is not impacting the conversations that you're having with customers? Are they seeing any concern about the ability to build these projects or the economics of them going forward, if you see some change on the policy side?

John W. Ketchum -- Chair, President, and Chief Executive Officer

So, Carly, the answer to that question is, no, it hasn't hurt any of our discussions with customers. The only thing customers are concerned about is, you know, making sure that these projects get built because they need them. You know, they have made decisions to already shut down existing generation. If these projects were for any reason to be delayed, which we don't believe they will be, you know, that would have a significant impact on their ability to provide power to their own customer base.

I'm talking about utilities and co-ops and municipalities who need these electrons right now. And then, also with our C&I customers. I mean, these commercial and industrial customers have made investments in manufacturing facilities, semiconductor chip facilities, their chemical companies. I mean, you name it across the board, they've invested in infrastructure and are counting on the electrons to show up.

So, I think it's actually quite the opposite.

Rebecca Jones Kujawa -- President and Chief Executive Officer, NextEra Energy Resources

I'd echo that. And we've had quite a number of conversations just this week with customers across the board that John just mentioned. And top of mind to them is time and money. They don't have time to, you know, get other resources available to them in the time frames that they need.

And they know that without these renewable resources, storage resources, or other things that they have in the queue, it would cost more money and cost more money for their end customers. So, top of mind to them to make sure that that we meet the demands of the day, and we're excited to work with them, and all the stakeholders make sure that happens.

Carly Davenport -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst

Great. Really appreciate that color. And then, maybe just one on the rate side. It's become a little more topical in our conversations.

Can you just refresh us on the broader interest rate hedge program? It looks like some of the interest rate sensitivities moved just a bit relative to prior disclosure. So, just can you refresh us on the strategy to manage rate exposure.

John W. Ketchum -- Chair, President, and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. So, Carly, we put $32 billion of interest rate swaps in place with an average coupon of around 3.9%, so we feel very good about our hedge position. And that shows up in what we communicated today. So, if you look at our sensitivities for '25 and '26, it's about $0.01 to $0.03 in -- $0.01 to $0.03 on a EPS basis.

If you look at '27, it's $0.03 to $0.05. So, very manageable, and we keep a very close eye on interest rate risk exposure around the portfolio but feel good where we are with the 32 billion of interest rate swaps in place.

Carly Davenport -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst

Great. Thanks so much for the time.

John W. Ketchum -- Chair, President, and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Carly.

Operator

Our next question comes from Jeremy Tonet from JPMorgan. Please go ahead with your question.

Jeremy Tonet -- Analyst

Hi, good morning.

John W. Ketchum -- Chair, President, and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning.

Jeremy Tonet -- Analyst

I just want to continue with some of the themes you talked about before. Regarding your conversations with hyperscalers at this point, just wondering if you're seeing any, you know, kind of changes in the tone or thoughts as far as, you know, renewables. Clearly, still, you know, carbon-free premiums there, but as far as, you know, openness to gas, just wondering if there's any change in tone there or thoughts in your -- from your customers when you're talking about their -- what they're looking to achieve.

Rebecca Jones Kujawa -- President and Chief Executive Officer, NextEra Energy Resources

Yeah. Thanks for the question, Jeremy. I certainly appreciate it. And I think there's a lot of, you know, discussion about how do we get the resources that we need in the time frames in which we need it and matching that with some of the other goals that they may have, either at, you know, from corporate levels or certainly state levels.

I think top of mind continues to be what John highlighted, which is speed to market with the resources that are available today at the lowest cost with higher -- highest confidence and be able to meet those commitments, including to meet the commitments of those customers. So, we see demand across the board, where we've seen a lot of increase in demand for natural gas. It really is to enable that capacity value where energy still can be met in many places, least cost in terms of resource availability from wind and solar resources. So, there's a great pairing there that many of our customers are really interested in.

So, it's a real pragmatic view. I think it can't be underestimated how much this industry has changed in a very short amount of time in really the last 15 to 18 months, realizing that demand is significant. You all are well versed in knowing that it takes three to five years to develop resources. And, you know, we've talked a lot about demand, but it takes time to build all this back up.

So, what's available, as John highlighted, the renewables and storage is top of mind. What will be needed longer term are making sure that the capacity resources are there. And, of course, we and others are very interested in seeing continued diverse supply options available to our customers, including small modular reactors and other technologies that we hope to be more relevant and at bigger scale in the 2030 mid time frame and beyond.

Jeremy Tonet -- Analyst

Got it. That's very helpful there. I didn't know if behind-the-meter gas was coming up in conversation at all versus prior conversations.

Rebecca Jones Kujawa -- President and Chief Executive Officer, NextEra Energy Resources

It does, Jeremy. I think there's a novel -- you know, novelness to that about whether or not that can work and, you know, speed through some of these other issues. But you got to think about what does it take to produce reliable energy supply behind the meter without the benefit of a grid, and it's significantly more capacity, and other things you need to add to it in order to ensure that you have that uninterrupted supply that these customers are looking for. So, in mega-scale projects, you know, we certainly see the possibility that some of these could be developed, and we've had some conversations with customers along those lines.

But I don't know that that's going to be the prevalent way that resources are met across the country for a variety of different, you know, customer -- you know, customer scenarios. There's a huge value to the existing electric grid. There's no place better to see that than here in Florida and the low-cost, you know, power supply solutions that we can offer to our customers. So, there's a place for it.

I don't think it's the ultimate place where all demand is met, but customers need options. They need them now, and we're here to provide that broad set of solutions to make that happen.

Jeremy Tonet -- Analyst

Very helpful. Thanks. And if I could just one last quick one on XPLR. Thank you for your thoughts so far.

Just wondering if you could provide incremental thoughts from a NEE perspective, non-XPLR perspective. We would expect to hear that on Tuesday. But just as far as NEE views XPLR, is there any change in the strategic -- you know, how it fits into NEE strategic outlook going forward at this point?

John W. Ketchum -- Chair, President, and Chief Executive Officer

Jeremy, we're going to have a full conversation around XPLR on Tuesday. So, why don't we plan on having that conversation then?

Jeremy Tonet -- Analyst

Fair enough. Thank you.

Operator

And, ladies and gentlemen, with that, we're going to end today's question-and-answer session, as well as today's conference call. [Operator signoff]

Duration: 0 minutes

Call participants:

Mark Eidelman -- Director, Investor Relations

John W. Ketchum -- Chair, President, and Chief Executive Officer

Brian Bolster -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Steve Fleishman -- Analyst

John Ketchum -- Chair, President, and Chief Executive Officer

Shahriar Pourreza -- Analyst

Shar Pourreza -- Analyst

Julien Dumoulin-Smith -- Jefferies -- Analyst

Nicholas Campanella -- Analyst

Nick Campanella -- Analyst

Carly Davenport -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst

Rebecca Jones Kujawa -- President and Chief Executive Officer, NextEra Energy Resources

Jeremy Tonet -- Analyst

Rebecca Kujawa -- President and Chief Executive Officer, NextEra Energy Resources

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NextEra Energy (NEE) Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript was originally published by The Motley Fool