Edison International recorded net income of $419 million, or $1.29 per share, for the third quarter of 2016, compared to $421 million, also $1.29 per share, in the same period for 2015, the California utility announced Tuesday in its latest earning report.
Based in Rosemead, Calif., Edison International is the parent company of Southern California Edison (SCE), majority owner of the closed San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS).
SCE’s third-quarter 2016 net income increased by $46 million from the same span in 2015, from $389 million to $435 million, the company said, “primarily due to the timing of the implementation of the 2015 General Rate Case (GRC) proposed decision and incremental return on pole loading rate base, partially offset by higher income tax expense.”
“Third quarter results reflect the ongoing strength of SCE’s earnings and we’ve reaffirmed our 2016 earnings guidance accordingly,” Edison International Chairman and CEO Pedro Pizarro said in a statement. “We continue to see a long-term opportunity for above-average earnings and dividend growth based on SCE infrastructure replacement and electric grid modernization helping achieve California’s vision for a low-carbon economy.”
Edison’s latest form 8-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission provides a general rate case summary. The 2018 GRC application, filed Sept. 1, requests a 2018 revenue requirement of $5.9 billion, a $222 million increase over presently authorized base rates and a 2.7 percent increase over total rates. The GRC requests post test year increases of $533 million in 2019 and $570 million in 2020, respective increases of 4.2 percent and 5.2 percent over presently authorized total rates. The company’s filing says the GRC request is consistent with SCE strategy.
Edison reported net income of $965 million, or $2.96 per share, for the first nine months of 2016, compared to $1 billion, or $3.37 per share, during the same period in 2015. On an adjusted basis, Edison’s core earnings were $961 million, or $2.95 per share, compared to $1 billion, or $3.22 per share, in the year-to-date period in 2015.
Pizarro, during Tuesday’s earnings call, touched on the California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC) reopening of the 2014 SONGS settlement, which resulted in state ratepayers covering $3.3 billion of the $4.7 billion cost to prematurely close the plant in 2013. CPUC reached the settlement a year after ex parte conversations between former then-CPUC President Michael Peevey and then-SCE executive Stephen Pickett in Warsaw, Poland, where the two discussed the settlement.
SCE continues to implement the settlement, Pizarro said, reducing rates and refunding nearly $1.6 billion under the terms of the deal.
“With respect to the pending appeals to the settlement, we can’t predict when the CPUC will act,” Pizarro said. “We continue to believe the settlement is lawful, fair, and in the best interest of our customers.”
