Across our generation fleet, we're targeting a 60% reduction by 2025 and then 80% reduction by 2030, both from a 2005 baseline.
So today, we're announcing that our use of coal will continue to decline to a level that we expect will be immaterial by the end of 2030.
By the end of 2030, we expect our use of coal will account for less than 5% of the power we supply to customers.
We believe we'll be in a position to eliminate coal as an energy source by the year 2035.
These Power the Future units rank as some of the most efficient in the country, among the top 5% of all coal-fired plants in heat rate performance over the past decade and they're strategically -- as we've discussed, they are strategically located to support reliability on the Midwestern transmission grid.
So subject to the receipt of an environmental permit, we plan to make operating refinements over the next two years that will allow a fuel blend of up to 30% on natural gas.
For the period 2022 through 2026, we expect to invest $17.7 billion.
This ESG Progress Plan is the largest capital plan in our history, an increase of $1.6 billion or nearly 10% above our previous five-year plan.
We expect this plan to support compound earnings growth of 6% to 7% a year over the next five years without any need to issue new equity.
We'll be increasing our investment in renewables for our regulated utilities from 1,800 megawatts of capacity in our previous plan to nearly 2,400 megawatts in this brand-new plan.
As a reminder, we're targeting net zero methane emissions by 2030.
At the end of September, our utilities were serving approximately 8,000 more electric customers and 15,000 more natural gas customers compared to a year ago.
Retail electric and natural gas sales volumes are shown on a comparative basis beginning on Page 13 of the earnings packet.
Overall, retail deliveries of electricity, excluding the iron ore mine, were up 2.4% from the third quarter of 2020 and on a weather normal basis were up 2.5%.
For example, small commercial and industrial electric sales were up 3.5% from last year's third quarter and on a weather normal basis, they were up 4.2%.
Meanwhile, large commercial and industrial sales, excluding the iron ore mine, were up 3.8% from the third quarter of 2020 and on a weather normal basis were up 3.5%.
Natural gas deliveries in Wisconsin were up 1%.
And on a weather normal basis natural gas deliveries in Wisconsin grew by 2.5%.
Turning now to our Infrastructure segment, our new capital plan calls for the investment of $1.9 billion between 2022 and 2026.
Considering the three projects that are currently under development, we expect to invest an additional $1.1 billion at that timeframe.
Announced through an operation in our Infrastructure segment, this represents approximately $2.3 billion of investments.
You'll recall that we own 100 megawatts of this project in Southwest Wisconsin.
They are projected to save our We Energies customers approximately $200 million over time.
The order authorizes a rate increase of 4.5%, including an ROE of 9.67% and an equity ratio of 51.58%.
The settlement authorizes a rate increase of 6.35%, including an ROE of 9.85% and an equity ratio of 51.5%.
Our 2021 third quarter earnings of $0.92 per share increased $0.08 per share compared to the third quarter of 2020.
Starting with our utility operations, we grew our earnings by $0.05 compared to the third quarter of 2020.
First, continued economic recovery from the pandemic and stronger weather normalized sales drove a $0.03 increase in earnings.
Also, rate relief and additional capital investment added $0.04 compared to the third quarter of 2020 and lower day-to-day O&M contributed $0.04.
These favorable factors were partially offset by $0.04 of higher depreciation and amortization expense and $0.02 of increased fuel costs related to higher natural gas prices.
It's worth noting that we estimate weather was $0.05 favorable compared to normal in the third quarters of both 2021 and 2020.
Overall, we added $0.05 quarter-over-quarter from utility operations.
Moving on to our investment in American Transmission Company, earnings increased $0.01 compared to the third quarter of 2020 driven by continued capital investment.
Earnings at our Energy Infrastructure segment improved $0.01 in the third quarter of 2021 compared to the third quarter of 2020.
Finally, we saw a $0.01 improvement in the Corporate and Other segment.
In summary, we improved on our third quarter 2020 performance by $0.08 a share.
For the full-year, we expect our effective income tax rate to be between 13% and 14%.
Excluding the benefit of unprotected taxes flowing to customers, we project our 2021 effective tax rate will be between 19% and 20%.
Looking now at the cash flow statement on Page 6 of the earnings package.
Net cash provided by operating activities increased $57 million.
Total capital expenditures and asset acquisitions were $1.7 billion for the first nine months of 2021, a $129 million increase as compared with the first nine months of 2020.
Looking forward, as Gale outlined earlier, we're excited about our plans to invest $17.7 billion over the next five years in key infrastructure.
This ESG Progress Plan supports 7% annual growth in our asset base.
Pages 18 and 19 of the earnings packet provide more details of the breakdown of the plan, which I will highlight here.
As we continue to make our energy transition, nearly 70% of our capital plan is dedicated to sustainability, including $5.4 billion in renewable investment and $6.8 billion in grid and fleet reliability.
Additionally, we dedicated $2.8 billion to support our strong customer growth.
We also plan to invest $2.7 billion in technology and modernization of our infrastructure to further generate long-term operating efficiency.
We're raising our earnings guidance again for 2021 to a range of $4.05 to $4.07 per share with an expectation of reaching the top end of the range.
If you recall, our original guidance was $3.99 to $4.03 per share.
Again, in light of our strong performance, our guidance range now stands at $4.05 to $4.07 a share.
We're also tightening our projection of long-term earnings growth to a range of 6% to 7% a year.
We continue to target a payout ratio of 65% to 70% of earnings.

Summary:
Our 2021 third quarter earnings of $0.92 per share increased $0.08 per share compared to the third quarter of 2020.
We're raising our earnings guidance again for 2021 to a range of $4.05 to $4.07 per share with an expectation of reaching the top end of the range.
Again, in light of our strong performance, our guidance range now stands at $4.05 to $4.07 a share.