Working together, we delivered strong operational and financial results, and we serve record peak customer loads, and we delivered quarter-over-quarter earnings that were up 21% compared to last year.
Our Board recently approved a 5.3% increase in our dividend, achieving 51 consecutive years of dividend increases.
Given our success in delivering strong operational, financial and regulatory performance in the second and third quarters, we're increasing the lower end of our 2021 earnings guidance range by $0.05 per share.
We're also maintaining our 2022 earnings guidance range, and we continue to target a 5% to 7% average earnings growth for 2023 through 2025, and at least 5% annual dividend growth.
We've reached a unanimous settlement agreement with all parties for our Colorado natural gas rate review that will provide $6.5 million in new annual revenue.
We have refreshed and increased our 2021 through 2025 capital investment program by $149 million, to a total of $3.2 billion.
In doing so, we firmed up nearly $300 million in projects that were placeholders in last quarter's forecast.
This $3.2 billion forecast includes incremental investment for the Ready Wyoming project.
For perspective, the peak demand day for Wyoming Electric increased from 192 megawatts in 2014 to 274 megawatts this past summer.
That's a 43% increase during that period.
In 2020, we already achieved a 30% reduction at our electric operations and a 33% reduction in our gas utility since 2005.
One of our defined steps to meet our 40% reduction goal by 2030 within our electric operations will be the conversion of our Neil Simpson II coal-fired power plant to natural gas.
For our natural gas utility, we expect to reach to 50% reduction by 2035.
We've been upgrading our fleet for nearly a decade, beginning with the retirement of 123 megawatts of four older coal-fired power plants in 2013 and 2014.
Since that time, we've added 282 megawatts of owned wind generation and another 132 megawatts of wind energy through power purchase agreements with a number of other renewable projects in flight.
Also, our year-to-date Net Promoter Score through mid-October was approximately 64, an improvement from 60 in 2020 and notable improvement from a score of 42 four years ago.
I'm pleased to report we were named for the second consecutive year to Achievers 50 Most Engaged Workplaces.
We survey our employees about every 18 months to understand how we're doing and how we can improve as a team.
We delivered earnings per share of $0.70 compared to $0.58 in Q3 2020, a 21% increase.
On a consolidated basis, weather was not a major driver of earnings compared to normal, but was unfavorable compared to Q3 2020, which experienced a $0.05 benefit compared to normal.
The main drivers compared to last year were $1.5 million of gross margin improvement from new rates and riders, $2.8 million of increased margin from customer growth and higher usage per customer, especially in our electric utilities, and $4.8 million mark-to-market gains for both wholesale energy and natural gas commodity contracts.
At the end of September, we had more than $500 million of available liquidity on our revolving credit facility.
And in August, we issued $600 million of notes due in 2024.
The weighted average length of recovery we requested in our regulatory plans is 3.7 years.
New debt and deferred recovery of fuel cost for Winter Storm Uri temporarily increased our debt to total capitalization ratio to 62% at the end of March, and it remained at that level through the end of September.
During the third quarter, we issued $23 million through our at-the-market equity offering program for a total of $63 million year-to-date.
We expect to issue a total of $100 million to $120 million in both 2021 and 2022.
Last week, we delivered on our dividend growth target with our Board approving a 5.3% increase in our quarterly dividend.
For 2021, the quarterly dividend achieved 51 consecutive years of dividend increases, one of the longest track records in our industry and a record we're quite proud of.
Over the last five years, we have increased our dividend at an average annual rate of 6.4%, and we anticipate increasing our dividend by more than 5% annually through 2025, while maintaining our 50% to 60% payout ratio.

Summary:
We delivered earnings per share of $0.70 compared to $0.58 in Q3 2020, a 21% increase.