Today we are crafting the next horizon what I call CE Way 2.0, which layers in greater use of automation and analytics and begins to position CMS Energy, as a leader in digital.
This all leads to our adjusted earnings per share growth of 6% to 8% and combined with our dividend provides a premium total shareholder return of 9% to 11%.
In the first quarter, we delivered $1.21 of adjusted earnings per share.
This is up significantly, $0.35 from last year, primarily from incremental revenue to fund needed customer investments and sustained cost performance.
As a reminder, our full year dividend is $1.74, up 7% from last year.
We are reaffirming our 2021 guidance for the year of $2.83 to $2.87 of adjusted earnings per share and our long term earnings and dividend per share growth of 6% to 8% with the bias to the midpoint.
Our commitment -- our commitments to net zero methane emissions by 2030 and net zero carbon emissions by 2040 are among the most aggressive in the industry.
That work will continue with the retirement of Karn 1 and 2 in 2023.
In my 20 years of service, I believe our culture has never been stronger.
This project adds 201 megawatts of new capacity, as a part of our renewable portfolio standard earning a 10.7% return.
I'm also pleased to share that we received approval for the first tranche of our current Integrated Resource Plan, which adds nearly 300 megawatts of new solar through two projects that we expect to come online in 2022.
We are evaluating the second tranche of our current IRP, another 300 megawatts of solar expected to come online in 2023.
And the third tranche 500 megawatts of solar expected to come online in 2024 for a total of 1,100 megawatts.
The meaningful reduction of carbon emissions in our plan will drive our ability to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2040.
2020 proved this, 2021 will be no different marking 19 years of consistent, predictable financial performance.
In summary, we delivered adjusted net income of $348 million or $1.21 per share.
For comparative purposes, our first quarter adjusted earnings per share was $0.35 above our Q1, 2020 results, largely driven by rate relief, net of investment-related expenses, better weather and sustained cost performance from our 2020 efforts at the utility.
This modest negative variance was more than offset by strong origination growth at EnerBank, which exceeded its Q1, 2020 earnings per share contribution by $0.06 in 2021 as planned and is tracking toward the high end of our guidance for the year of $0.22 per share.
And the absence of that weather has led to $0.08 per share of positive variance period-over-period.
From a rates perspective, given the constructive regulatory outcomes achieved in the second half of 2020 for our electric and gas businesses, we're seeing $0.26 per share of positive variance.
As you can see, we're $0.02 per share above our spend rate in the first quarter of 2020 as planned, and I'm pleased to report that we're seeing sustained cost performance from 2020, as well as increased productivity in 2021, largely attributable to the CE Way.
The balance of our year-to-date performance is driven by the aforementioned drivers at our non-utility segment and non-weather sales, which though slightly down at about 1% below the first quarter 2020 continue to exhibit favorable mix with the higher margin residential class, up 2% versus Q1 of 2020.
As always, we plan for normal weather, which in this case translates to $0.12 per share of negative variance given the above normal weather experienced in the second and third quarters of 2020.
The residual impact of the aforementioned rate relief, which equates to $0.22 per share of pickup and is not subject to any further MPSC actions.
And the continued execution of our operational and customer-related projects, which we estimate as an incremental $0.18 per share of spend versus the comparable period in 2020.
As we look out over the long term, we are in the early stages of executing our $13.2 billion five-year customer investment plan at the utility, which is highlighted on slide 11 and will provide significant benefits for our customers, the communities we serve and our investors.
As a reminder, we have budgeted over $2.5 billion of investments in 2021.
In fact from 2017 to 2019, we reduced utility bills, as a percentage of customer wallet by 1%, while investing roughly $19 billion of capital in the utility over that timeframe.
The planned expiration of our Palisades power purchase agreement and the recently approved amendment to our MCV PPA will collectively generate roughly $150 million of power supply cost recovery savings.
And as you'll note, our initial estimates for the potential savings for the MCV contract amendment of approximately $50 million proved conservative with the revised estimate of over $60 million in savings, per the commission's order in March.
Also the planned retirements of our five remaining coal unit should provide another $90 million of savings in aggregate, exclusive of any potential fuel cost savings, which will create meaningful headroom and bills for future customer investments.
Lastly, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention our annual O&M productivity delivered through the CE Way, which last year generated roughly $45 million of savings and serves as a critical tool to our long term and intra-year financial planning.

Summary:
In the first quarter, we delivered $1.21 of adjusted earnings per share.
We are reaffirming our 2021 guidance for the year of $2.83 to $2.87 of adjusted earnings per share and our long term earnings and dividend per share growth of 6% to 8% with the bias to the midpoint.
In summary, we delivered adjusted net income of $348 million or $1.21 per share.