An important gene sale of EnerBank at 3 times book value, moving from noncore to the core business with a strong focus on regulated utility growth.
Furthermore, with the filing of our integrated resource plan, you can see the path for more than $1 billion into the utility, again, without equity issuance.
All of this supports our long-term adjusted earnings per share growth of 6% to 8%, and combined with our dividend, provides a premium total shareholder return of 9% to 11%.
As I mentioned, our integrated resource plan provides the proof points to our investment thesis, our net zero commitments and highlights our commitment to the triple bottom line by accelerating our decarbonization efforts, making us one of the first utility in the nation to exit coal or increasing our renewable build-out, adding about eight gigawatts of solar by 2040, two gigawatts from the previous plan.
It is also thoughtful and that is not a 40- to 50-year commitment that you would get with a new asset, which we believe is important, as we transition to net zero carbon.
It will generate $650 million of savings, essentially paying for our transition to clean energy.
Our current five-year plan, which we'll update on our year-end call includes $13.2 billion of needed customer investment.
The IRP provides a clear line of sight to the timing and composition of an incremental $1.3 billion of opportunity.
Our backlog of needing investments is as vast as our system, which serves nearly seven million people in all 68 counties of Michigan's Lower Peninsula.
For 2021, we are focused on delivering adjusted earnings from continuing operations of $2.61 to $2.65 per share, and we expect to deliver toward the high end of that range.
For 2022, we are reaffirming our adjusted full year guidance of $2.85 to $2.87 per share.
We are reaffirming again no change to the $1.74 dividend for 2021.
As we move forward, we are committed to growing the dividend in line with earnings with a target payout ratio of about 60%.
Finally, I want to touch on long-term growth rate, which is 6% to 8%.
Historically, we've grown at 7%.
For the second quarter, we delivered adjusted net income of $158 million or $0.55 per share, which excludes $0.07 from EnerBank.
For comparative purposes, our second quarter adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations was $0.09 above our second quarter 2020 results, exclusive of EnerBank's earnings per share contribution last year.
Year-to-date, we delivered adjusted net income from continuing operations of $472 million or $1.64 per share, which excludes $0.19 per share from EnerBank and is up $0.37 per share versus the first half of 2020, assuming a comparable adjustment for discontinued operations.
For the first half of 2021, rate relief has been the primary driver of our positive year-over-year variance to the tune of $0.36 per share given the constructive regulatory outcomes achieved in the second half of 2020 for electric and gas businesses.
As a reminder, these expenses align with our recent rate orders and equate to $0.06 per share of negative variance versus 2020.
We also benefited in the first half of 2021 from favorable weather relative to 2020 in the amount of $0.06 per share and recovering commercial and industrial sales, which coupled with solid tax planning provided $0.01 per share of positive variance in aggregate.
As always, we plan for normal weather, which in this case, translates to $0.02 per share of negative variance, given the absence of the favorable weather experienced in the second half of 2020.
We'll continue to benefit from the residual impact of rate relief, which equates to $0.12 per share of pickup.
We also continue to execute on our operational and customer-related projects, which we estimate will have a financial impact of $0.21 per share of negative variance versus the comparable period in 2020 given anticipated reinvestments in the second half of the year.
I'm pleased to highlight our recent successful issuance of $230 million of preferred stock at an annual rate of 4.2%, one of the lowest rates ever achieved for a preferred offering of its kind.
This transaction satisfies the vast majority of funding needs of CMS Energy, our parent company for the year and given the high level of equity content ascribed to the security by the rating agencies, we have reduced our planned equity issuance needs for the year to up to $100 million from up to $250 million.
As a reminder, over half of the $100 million of revised equity issuance needs for the year are already contracted via equity forwards.
Glenn announced his retirement earlier this year after serving admirably for nearly 25 years at CMS, which included him signing over 75 quarterly SEC filings during his tenure.

Summary:
For 2021, we are focused on delivering adjusted earnings from continuing operations of $2.61 to $2.65 per share, and we expect to deliver toward the high end of that range.
For 2022, we are reaffirming our adjusted full year guidance of $2.85 to $2.87 per share.
For the second quarter, we delivered adjusted net income of $158 million or $0.55 per share, which excludes $0.07 from EnerBank.