Earlier, we reported first quarter consolidated earnings of $0.26 per share, which includes utility earnings of $0.06 per share, earnings associated with our investment in Enable of $0.19 per share, and earnings at the holding company of $0.01 per share.
Importantly, we performed our work safely, improving our year-over-year first quarter safety results by 60%, which is a great accomplishment when you consider that 2020 was our second safest year on record.
This initiative enables us to essentially future-proof our communications network while saving more than 60% of our standard capital deployment and O&M costs.
We now have included $25 million to our 2021 capital investment forecast to reflect the inclusion of these two projects in the first quarter.
Last quarter, we stated our expectations for 2021 weather-normalized load being 2.4% above 2020 levels.
Adding to our confidence around the return of load is the fact that even during the pandemic, we've continued our trend of strong customer growth, which is up 1.4% over the same period in 2020, driven primarily in our residential and commercial classes.
Add to this, the fact that in Oklahoma, gross receipts are up 38% for the month of April, adding to the confidence we have in our business.
When adjusted for inflation, our rates are actually 14% below what they were in 2011.
So far, this year, those efforts expect to bring an additional 50 megawatts of load by the end of 2021.
This combination of strong customer growth and outstanding business and economic development activity puts us on track for sustained load growth of at least 1%.
We put in motion our vision to become a pure-play utility, targeting 5% earnings growth based off lower risk investments that will enhance our customers' experience.
For the first quarter of 2021, we achieved net income of $53 million or $0.26 per share as compared to a loss of $492 million or $2.46 per share in 2020.
At the utility, OG&E's first quarter results were $0.04 lower than 2020, primarily driven by the previously disclosed losses that occurred during the extreme winter weather from the Guaranteed Flat Bill program.
As I discussed during our fourth quarter call, the GFB program represents approximately 3% of our load, whereby variabilities in fuel and purchase power costs are not trued up.
Our natural gas midstream operations were income of $0.19 per share in the first quarter compared to a loss of $2.84 in 2020.
As Sean mentioned, we are seeing strong employment figures in our service territory, and we are especially pleased with the customer growth of 1.4% year-over-year, illustrating the attractiveness of living and working in Oklahoma and Arkansas.
Furthermore, our commercial segment is showing encouraging strength, with year-over-year load growth of approximately 6% in the month of March alone, leading to the 1.8% quarterly load increase figure you see on the slide.
For the full year, we continue to expect total weather normal load results to be approximately 2.4% higher than 2020 levels.
We've made outstanding progress in the quarter toward mitigating the aforementioned GFB program impacts and currently project OG&E full year 2021 results within the lower half of our original guidance range of $1.76 and to $1.86 per share.
On the fourth quarter call, we outlined our initial estimate of approximately $0.10 of headwinds associated with the weather event.
As I mentioned earlier, our estimates continue to come in at approximately this level, included in the $0.10 of headwinds was estimated financing costs associated with the incremental fuel and purchase power, which is no longer an earnings headwind as we were recently able to obtain regulatory orders in Oklahoma and Arkansas for the deferral of the financing cost.
The OG&E team has worked hard during the quarter to further mitigate these impacts and already has line of sight to $0.03 to $0.04 of favorable mitigations, including strong O&M management.
Thus, our current estimate of 2021 full year earnings per share is back in the lower half of guidance with three quarters in front of us.
As I mentioned to you on our fourth quarter call, our business fundamentals are strong, and we have great confidence in our ability to grow OG&E at a 5% long-term earnings per share growth rate through 2025 off the midpoint of our 2021 guidance of $1.81.
On slide 12 and 13, I'd like to update you on the fuel and purchase power costs, the status of our regulatory filings and the securitization path in Oklahoma and Arkansas.
As of March 31, fuel and purchase power costs of approximately $930 million were recorded on the balance sheet, consistent with the initial estimates.
In Oklahoma, approximately $830 million has been deferred to a regulatory asset with the initial carrying charge based on the effective cost of debt financing.
In Arkansas, we have incurred approximately $100 million of cost with the case pending that allows interim recovery of these costs over a 10-year period, including an initial carrying cost that approximates the effective cost of financing.
As we noted on our fourth quarter call, we closed on a $1 billion credit commitment agreement that provided short-term funding for our incurred fuel and purchase power costs.
While our credit metrics are expected to weaken temporarily due to the fuel and purchase power costs incurred, we believe the metrics will return to the targeted 18% to 20% level once the securitizations are complete.
Separately, as a procedural matter, later today, we will update our standard S-3 Chef filing with the SEC, which ensures our continued access to the capital markets.
Finally, we remain confident in our ability to drive long-term OG&E earnings per share growth of 5%, which when coupled with a stable and growing dividend, offers an investors an attractive total return proposition.

Summary:
Earlier, we reported first quarter consolidated earnings of $0.26 per share, which includes utility earnings of $0.06 per share, earnings associated with our investment in Enable of $0.19 per share, and earnings at the holding company of $0.01 per share.
At the utility, OG&E's first quarter results were $0.04 lower than 2020, primarily driven by the previously disclosed losses that occurred during the extreme winter weather from the Guaranteed Flat Bill program.
We've made outstanding progress in the quarter toward mitigating the aforementioned GFB program impacts and currently project OG&E full year 2021 results within the lower half of our original guidance range of $1.76 and to $1.86 per share.
Thus, our current estimate of 2021 full year earnings per share is back in the lower half of guidance with three quarters in front of us.