Dive Brief:
- Edison International, parent to utility Southern California Edison (SCE), reported earnings of $536 million for Q2 2014, well above the $94 million loss Edison sustained over the same period in 2013.
- While last year's Q2 earnings were hit by a $575 million pretax impairment charge for the shuttering of the San Onofre nuclear plant, Edison's earnings for Q2 this year were positively impacted by rate base growth and "favorable tax items," CEO Ted Craver said in a press release.
Dive Insight:
In an earnings call with investors, Craver said the utility is moving ahead with the decommissioning of the San Onofre nuclear plant. SCE is awaiting an administrative law judge's decision on the utility's proposed settlement with the California Public Utilities Commission and will file an initial plan with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission later this year. SCE estimates its share of the decommissioning costs will come out to $2.9 billion, which is covered by the $3.1 billion it has in decommissioning trust funds.
Looking ahead beyond the 2015-2017 forecast, SCE is "bullish about our long-term growth opportunities," Craver said on the call.
"We continue to believe that for the foreseeable future the electric grid is critical to facilitating public policy goals, including those to reduce greenhouse gases," Craver explained. "That said, the distribution grid needs additional capital expenditure to support two-way flows of electricity created by distributed generation as well as new technologies such as electric vehicles and energy storage. This is by far the largest additional future investment in the grid not currently contemplated by the general rate case process."