Operating earnings were $0.59 per share, which is above the top end of our earnings guidance.
I'll start our call today with an update on the DOJ and other investigations related to House Bill 6 and John Somerhalder will join us for a brief discussion on board activity and the progress of our compliance program.
Under the three-year deferred prosecution agreement, we agreed to pay $230 million, which will be funded with cash on hand.
We also continue to strengthen our leadership team with two more new hires, Michael Montaque joined us earlier this month as Vice President, Internal Audit and yesterday we announced that Soubhagya Parija has been named Vice President and Chief Risk Officer effective August 16.
Yesterday, we published our updated internal Code of Business Conduct, The Power of Integrity, which will be supported by ongoing education around behaviors and the importance of reporting ethical violations and we have continued to strengthen our policies, processes and internal controls including those around 501(c)(4)s, other corporate engagement and advocacy and business disbursements.
The program is expected to deliver value and resilience including cumulative free cash flow improvements of approximately $800 million from 2021 through 2023 and an annual run rate capex efficiencies of about $300 million in 2024 and beyond.
First, in July, the PUCO approved our filing to return approximately $27 million to our Ohio utility customers, representing all revenues that were previously collected through the decoupling mechanism plus interest.
Finally, in April, the New Jersey BPU approved JCP&L's three year $203 million energy efficiency and conservation plan, which includes a return on certain costs, as well as the ability to recover lost distribution revenues.
We are reaffirming our 2021 operating earnings guidance of $2.40 to $2.60 per share and we expect to be at the top half of that range.
We are also introducing third quarter guidance of $0.70 to $0.80 per share.
Yesterday, we announced GAAP earnings of $0.11 per share for the second quarter of 2021 and operating earnings of $0.59 per share.
Second quarter 2021 weather-adjusted residential sales were 6% lower than the same period last year when many of our customers were under strict stay at home orders.
However, as we look at trends, weather-adjusted residential usage over the past few quarters has been on average about 4% higher than pre-pandemic levels and in fact, the second quarter of this year was close to 8% higher than weather-adjusted usage we saw in the second quarter of 2019.
Weather-adjusted deliveries to commercial customers increased 8% and industrial load increased 11% as compared to the second quarter of 2020.
Despite the increase in commercial activity this spring, weather-adjusted demand in this customer class continues to lag pre-pandemic levels by an average of about 6%.
Our transmission investments drove year-over-year rate base growth of 7%.
For the first half of 2021, operating earnings were $1.28 per share compared to $1.23 per share in the first half of 2020.
This increase was the result of continued investments in our transmission and distribution systems, weather-related sales and lower expenses and consistent with our second quarter results, the positive drivers for the first half of this year more than offset the absence of $0.13 of decoupling and lost distribution revenues that were recognized in the first half of 2020 that are no longer in place this year.
Additionally, our continued focus on financial discipline together with strong financial results helped drive a $196 million increase in adjusted cash from operations versus our internal plan and a $264 million increase above the first six months of last year, building on the improvements we noted on our first quarter earnings call.
In May, we issued a $150 million in senior notes at Toledo Edison and MAIT with pricing at 2.65% and 2.55% respectively.
And in June, we issued $500 million in senior notes at JCP&L that priced at 2.75%.
In addition, we made progress on our commitment to reduce short-term debt during the second quarter by repaying $950 million under our revolving credit facilities bringing our borrowings down to $500 million as of June 30.
And earlier this week, we repaid the remaining $500 million under these facilities.

Summary:
Operating earnings were $0.59 per share, which is above the top end of our earnings guidance.
We are reaffirming our 2021 operating earnings guidance of $2.40 to $2.60 per share and we expect to be at the top half of that range.
We are also introducing third quarter guidance of $0.70 to $0.80 per share.
Yesterday, we announced GAAP earnings of $0.11 per share for the second quarter of 2021 and operating earnings of $0.59 per share.
In May, we issued a $150 million in senior notes at Toledo Edison and MAIT with pricing at 2.65% and 2.55% respectively.