Dive Brief:

• Edison International, parent to Southern California Edison (SCE), plans to be active in emerging utility markets like distributed generation, company officials said during an earnings conference call.
• In the next four years, SCE expects to spend about $17.2 billion on capital projects, with most of the spending going towards the utility's distribution system.
• SCE has more customers than ever, but electric sales fell to 87.7 million MWh last year from 91.7 million MWh in 2009. The utility's revenue is unaffected by its sales because California has a decoupling policy.

Dive Insight:

Edison plans to take advantage of emerging business opportunities. “Whether its distributed solar, or let's call it more broadly, distributed energy resources, that would include solar, include efficiency programs, include storage, all of those things,” Ted Craver, Edison chairman, president and CEO, said. “We see, actually, a significant investment that needs to be made in the distribution system here in California, to really prepare the system for integrating an increase in distributing energy resources.”

Edison might also have a direct stake in distributed resources around the U.S. “We are certainly working on that,” Craver said. “We have what we think are some interesting beginnings in that area. I have kind of taken pains in the past to say, we are doing this kind of one step at a time -- it's not a bet the ranch type of deal. But I think we do see some interesting opportunities there primarily aimed at commercial and industrial customers, and would be not just in our territory, but outside.”