You are given a text that consists of multiple sentences. Your task is to perform abstractive summarization on this text. Use your understanding of the content to express the main ideas and crucial details in a shorter, coherent, and natural sounding text. 
Text: The factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially are discussed in the company's most recent 10-K filed with the SEC.
We also encourage you to review our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021.
In 2021, we delivered another year of strong performance.
We'll discuss some of the operating highlights in a moment.
But on the financial side, we invested over $7 billion in critical energy infrastructure, a record amount for our company, and we delivered full year 2021 adjusted earnings per share of $8.43 well above our increased adjusted earnings per share guidance range of $7.75 to $8.35 per share.
The strength of that performance, together with a portfolio of investment opportunities across all three of our growth platforms gives us a lot of confidence in the future.
Today, we're announcing approval by our board of directors of an increased annualized dividend of $4.58 per share, consistent with our long-standing commitment to return value to our shareholders, record five-year capital plan of $36 billion with nearly 94% dedicated to our utilities, continued confidence in our full year 2022 earnings per share guidance range and the issuance of our full year 2023 earnings per share guidance range.
And finally, we're announcing a projected long-term earnings per share growth rate for the company of 6% to 8%.
Please turn to the next slide.
Next, I'd like to highlight a few of our accomplishments.
From a strategic standpoint, we've made great progress over the last four years in updating our portfolio with three goals in mind: first, prioritizing markets with strong fundamentals and constructive regulation; second, simplifying our business model to improve execution; and third, building scale, financial strength and a high-performing culture to deliver improved financial results.
2021 was another key milestone in that journey.
We've completed a series of transactions to form Sempra Infrastructure, a simplified growth platform with scale and portfolio synergies, all while generating over $3 billion by selling a noncontrolling interest to support growth and the return of capital to our owners.
Furthermore, these transactions highlight the underlying market value of this business and demonstrate Sempra's continued ability to source lower cost of capital and recycle it into organic growth at our utilities.
Moving on, we continue to advance our capital plan in 2021, deploying over $7 billion with a continued focus on supporting the strong growth at our utilities.
From a safety standpoint, we had record employee safety results at Sempra California and Sempra Infrastructure also had a great year, advancing construction at ECA LNG Phase 1 on time and on budget with over 1 million hours worked without a lost time injury.
Taken together, these accomplishments and the quality of execution we're seeing across our businesses, gives us confidence in our ability to capitalize on future growth opportunities.
Please turn to the next slide.
Sempra's growth platforms are strategically positioned in highly attractive and contiguous markets in North America where we serve one of the largest utility consumer bases in the United States.
Each of these growth platforms have both scale and a leadership position in our core markets, and that is central to our strategic execution.
Please turn to the next slide.
Our growth platforms benefit from three main competitive advantages.
Size and scale in attractive markets, lower risk and strong recurring cash flows associated with T&D investments and positive growth trends centered on the expansion of energy networks to support cleaner forms of energy, improve safety and reliability and the continued integration of North American energy markets.
Our three platforms combined for nearly 300,000 miles of transmission and distribution lines, all in key markets in North America, while serving nearly 40 million consumers.
These integrated growth platforms generated approximately $2.6 billion in 2021 full year adjusted earnings and position us to grow earnings well into the future.
But at a high level, our projected growth of 6% to 8% is supported by strong continued investment at Sempra California to support safety, reliability and the state's ambitious energy transition goals; investment in our Texas utilities to support strong economic growth and a significant interconnection queue loaded with renewables; and, disciplined investments at Sempra Infrastructure for fully contracted assets currently under construction; and, potential upside to projected growth from projects we currently have in development.
Finally, I think it's worth noting that the vast majority of our assets have some form of inflation protections built into them, either through regulatory constructs such as upcoming rate cases or pass-through mechanisms on our Infrastructure projects.
Additionally, given our strategic focus on T&D Infrastructure, the lower risk section of the energy value chain, we believe we've reduced our exposure to many of the traditional risks in the energy space whether it's commodity exposure, extreme weather, retail credit or stranded generation investments.
Please turn to the next slide.
For two decades, Sempra has been on a sustained path to decarbonize our business operations and the markets we serve.
Innovation and new technologies are central to a clean energy future, enabled by investments in three key capabilities: decarbonization, diversification and digitalization.
This past year, we summarized our aspirations in each of these areas as part of Sempra's Energy Transition action plan, and I'm pleased to update you that we're making great progress.
Here are a few examples.
In California, SDG&E completed its inaugural issuance of $750 million in green bonds and secured regulatory approval for three new energy storage projects expected to total 161 megawatts.
Additionally, SoCalGas achieved over 4% renewable natural gas deliveries to core customers in 2021.
Oncor is doing an excellent job connecting customers to cleaner renewable sources of energy by expanding and modernizing Texas' vast transmission and distribution network.
In 2021, Oncor connected nearly 2,200 megawatts of wind and solar generation, bringing the total renewables connected to Oncor system to approximately 15,500 megawatts.
In addition to progress on its operations, Oncor has also entered into a new $2 billion revolving credit facility with sustainability-linked performance metrics.
And lastly, at Sempra Infrastructure, the newly consolidated platform is advancing opportunities in renewables, hydrogen, ammonia, LNG and carbon capture infrastructure.
The company recently filed an amendment with FERC to incorporate electric drives at our proposed Cameron LNG Phase 2 project, which could help reduce facility emissions by up to 40% while continuing to help decarbonize global markets.
Earlier this year, the company also announced an MOU with Entergy to develop options intended to accelerate deployment of renewable energy to power primarily LNG facilities.
Across our industry, companies are adjusting their business models to meet customer demands for increasingly cleaner sources of energy.
At Sempra, we think these trends play to the strength of our company and effectively create a tailwind for new and cleaner investments across our platforms.
Please turn to the next slide, where I'll hand the call over to Trevor to provide business and financial updates.
To begin, we've had several positive developments at our operating companies.
In the third quarter, SDG&E filed an application with the CPUC to assess its cost of capital for 2022 as a result of the extraordinary event of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In December, the CPUC issued a scoping memo with a final decision expected later this year.
Also, the CPUC authorized a memorandum account effective January 1, 2022, to track any differences in revenue requirements resulting from the interim cost of capital decision expected later this year.
Additionally, the CPUC is working through the implementation of a renewable natural gas procurement standard.
We're excited about this development and view it as a significant step forward in advancing the future of cleaner fuels here in California.
Lastly, SoCalGas recently announced a bold new vision to develop a proposed green hydrogen infrastructure system to serve the Los Angeles Basin called Angeles Link.
As contemplated, this project would be the nation's largest green hydrogen infrastructure system and will deliver green hydrogen to the country's largest manufacturing hub to help decarbonize electric generation, industrial processes, heavy-duty trucking and other sectors that are challenging to fully electrify.
Oncor set a company record for the number of new and active requests received for transmission interconnections in 2021 demonstrating the rapid growth in Texas and continuing opportunities for Oncor to grow its system.
Oncor service territory continued to grow as well, with Oncor connecting approximately 70,000 additional premises in 2021.
At Sempra Infrastructure, we signed two MOUs to advance our unique capability of delivering LNG into both the Atlantic and Pacific basins.
The first with Entergy that Lisa discussed earlier and the second, an MOU with CFE to jointly develop Vista Pacifico LNG, as well as a new regasification project in La Paz, Baja California Sur.
Additionally, Sempra Infrastructure established a new credit facility in the fourth quarter and issued its inaugural investment-grade bonds last month, all with the intention of efficiently financing its growth along with internally generated cash flows.
Please turn to the next slide where I'd like to go into additional detail on an update relating to Sempra Infrastructure.
Here, the key takeaway is that we're making progress on our announced sale of an additional 10% interest in the business to ADIA.
This transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions and third-party and regulatory approvals, valued Sempra Infrastructure at an enterprise value of approximately $26.5 billion, which was $1 billion higher than the KKR transaction.
We expect to use the proceeds to fund utility capital, execute share repurchases and continue supporting improvements in the balance sheet.
Please turn to the next slide where I'll review the financial results.
This compares to fourth quarter 2020 GAAP earnings of $414 million or $1.43 per share.
On an adjusted basis, fourth quarter 2021 earnings were $688 million or $2.16 per share.
This compares to our fourth quarter 2020 earnings of $668 million or $2.28 per share.
Full year 2021 GAAP earnings were $1.254 billion or $4.01 per share.
This compares to 2020 GAAP earnings of $3.764 billion or $12.88 per share.
On an adjusted basis, full year 2021 earnings were $2.637 million or $8.43 per share.
This compares favorably to our previous full year 2020 adjusted earnings of $2.342 billion or $8 per share.
Please turn to the next slide.
The variance in full year 2021 adjusted earnings compared to the prior year was affected by the following key items: $78 million of lower earnings due to the sales of our Peruvian and Chilean utilities in April and June of 2020, respectively.
$126 million of lower earnings from a CPUC decision in 2020 that resulted in the release of regulatory liabilities at Sempra California related to prior year's forecasting differences that are not subject to tracking in the income tax expense memorandum account.
This was offset by $216 million due to higher earnings from Cameron LNG JV primarily due to Phase 1 achieving full commercial operations in August of 2020, and asset and supply optimization primarily driven by changes in natural gas prices and higher volumes.
$139 million of lower losses at Parent and Other, primarily due to the lower preferred dividends from the mandatory conversion of preferred stock and lower net interest expense.
$52 million of higher CPUC base operating margin, net of operating expenses at SDG&E and SoCalGas, $44 million charge in 2020 for amounts to be refunded to customers related to the energy efficiency program at SDG&E, $37 million of higher earnings at Sempra Texas Utilities, primarily due to increased revenues from rate updates to reflect increases in invested capital and customer growth.
Please turn to the next slide.
We continue to see robust opportunities to invest in our Utilities and Infrastructure businesses, resulting in a $36 billion five-year capital plan, the largest in our history.
And notably, a $4 billion increase over the prior plan we announced last year.
This plan is anchored by $33 billion of Utility investments, representing nearly 94% of the total capital plan.
For SDG&E and SoCalGas, safety and reliability continue to be at the forefront of our planned expenditures.
Our investments in California centered around the state's regulatory priorities including wildfire safety and the integrity and safety of our gas infrastructure along with technology investments.
Additionally, at Oncor, the capital plan addresses the strong organic growth.
For example, the population of Texas increased more than any other state in 2021, continuing the need for further investments to support this growing demand.
Please turn to the next slide.
These capital investments in top-tier markets in North America are driving tremendous growth in our projected rate base.
In 2017, we had $14 billion of rate base at the California utilities.
And through adding our interest in Oncor, as well as organic growth at both our California and Texas utilities, we grew our rate base to $41 billion in 2021 and expect to grow it even further to $62 billion by 2026.
Just as importantly, we expect to support this strong projected growth without issuing common equity.
Notably, over the next five years, our rate base mix is not expected to change materially with approximately 70% of total rate base dedicated to electric infrastructure, which reflects how well-positioned we are to continue supporting strong trends in electrification in our core utility markets.
Please turn to the next slide where I'll provide additional details on the opportunities we have to efficiently fund our growing rate base.
As we think about our financing strategy, we have multiple opportunities to efficiently fund the expansive growth that we're experiencing at our utilities.
Over the past few years, you've seen us rotate capital to fund utility growth while also strengthening the balance sheet, finishing 2021 in a strong position with 47% total debt to capitalization and 18% FFO to debt.
Looking forward, our financial plan is underpinned by a portfolio of strong operating cash flows that are backed by regulated returns or long-term contracts.
Our robust utility capital plan is further supported by cash generated from Sempra Infrastructure where projected cash distributions to Sempra, combined with the proceeds from the sales to KKR and ADIA are expected to provide over $7 billion from 2021 through 2026.
Turning to the dividend.
We continue to target a payout ratio of approximately 50% to 60%, which allows us to aggressively invest in utility growth while supporting the dividend.
In addition to the dividend, we see opportunistic share repurchases as a way to efficiently return capital to shareholders from time to time.
We remain focused on delivering shareholder value.
And through this efficient financing strategy, we expect to deliver strong earnings per share and dividend growth without issuing external common equity.
Please turn to the next slide where I'll discuss our near-term earnings per share guidance ranges and projected long-term earnings per share growth rate.
We're reaffirming our 2022 earnings per share guidance range of $8.10 to $8.70 per share, and we're introducing our 2023 earnings per share guidance range of $8.60 to $9.20 per share.
The aforementioned guidance includes plans to continue returning capital to our owners in the form of $1 billion of share repurchases.
This would be an addition to the $500 million of share repurchases we recently completed.
Now let me talk about our longer-term growth.
Our historical execution, combined with the growth opportunities in front of us, give us confidence in providing a long-term earnings per share growth rate of an annual average of 6% to 8% starting at the midpoint of 2022 earnings per share guidance through 2026.
This 6% to 8% growth is driven by our five-year capital plan and continued operational excellence across our businesses.
It is anchored by an 8.5% projected rate base growth at our utilities and only includes projects currently in construction at Sempra Infrastructure.
Importantly, we see opportunities to outperform this projected growth rate through incremental investments across our three platforms.
A few examples would include additional spending on energy storage, wildfire mitigation, electric vehicle infrastructure and related make-ready work and pipeline safety and reliability in California, further economic growth driving transmission and distribution expansion in Texas and lastly, executing on incremental LNG and other development projects at Sempra Infrastructure that are currently outside the plan.
Please turn to the next slide where I'll highlight our historical execution.
This slide is a good depiction of how we've historically met or exceeded our published earnings per share guidance ranges and done so consistently, reflecting our long track record of disciplined capital allocation, thoughtful execution and a commitment to deliver on our financial projections.
Please turn to the next slide.
Let me summarize our investment proposition.
We've invested time and energy in building a high-performing infrastructure company that is well-positioned in some of the fastest-growing markets in North America, overlaid with a commitment to capital discipline, we have a track record of operational excellence, disciplined financial execution and dedication to consistently returning value to our shareholders in the form of dividends and opportunistic share repurchases.
Bottom line, we're excited about the future of Sempra and the critical role that our infrastructure will play in supporting future economic growth in the energy transition.
Please turn to the last slide.
Over the last four years, we've continued to update our portfolio with a view toward prioritizing markets with strong fundamentals and constructive regulation and simplifying our business model to improve execution and building scale, financial strength and a high-performing culture to deliver improved financial results.
With the benefit of those strategic efforts, it allowed us to end 2021 in a strong position and looking forward we have three integrated platforms with improved visibility to future growth.

user
reaffirms fy earnings per share view $8.60 to $9.20.
q4 adjusted earnings per share $2.16.
reaffirms 2022 and issues 2023 earnings per share guidance range.
announcing its full-year 2023 earnings per share guidance range of $8.60 to $9.20.
starting from midpoint of 2022 earnings per share guidance, sees to grow long-term earnings per share at compound annual growth rate of about 6% to 8% through 2026.

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