Essential Utilities — Nov 4, 2024 release

The company continues to be a leader in the country at replacing miles of aged underground utility pipe and is committed to maintaining elevated levels of infrastructure investment. The company is on track to invest between $1.3 to $1.4 billion in needed infrastructure investments in 2024. From 2025 through 2029, the company plans to invest approximately $8.0 billion to improve water and natural gas systems and better serve customers through improved information technology. Essential’s investments include addressing PFAS with at least $450.0 million in capital projects, replacing and expanding its water and wastewater utility infrastructure, and replacing and upgrading its natural gas utility infrastructure, with the latter leading to significant reductions in methane emissions that occur in aged gas pipes. The company is a leader in remediating PFAS and will comply with the finalized EPA rule. The capital investments made to rehabilitate and expand the infrastructure of the communities Essential serves are critical to its mission of safely and reliably delivering Earth’s most essential resources.   Water Utility Growth by Acquisition   Essential’s continued growth by acquisition allows the company to provide safe and reliable water and wastewater service to a larger customer base than it could from organic customer growth alone. Since 2015, Essential collectively has acquired over $500.0 million in rate base and more than 129,000 new customers or equivalent dwelling units to the company’s footprint.   The company has seven s