Edison International and subsidiary Southern California Edison on Tuesday reported a significant drop in earnings for the second quarter of 2020, even as the parent company remained firmly in the black.
Sale of fuel from the retired San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) helped offset the non-core loss per share at Southern California Edison (SCE), according to the earnings report.
Net income at Edison International dropped from $392 million in second-quarter 2019 to $318 million in the same three-month stretch of 2020. That pushed earnings per share down from $1.20 to $0.85.
Edison’s core earnings dropped from $515 million, $1.58 per share, to $375 million, an even $1 per share.
For the quarter, SCE earnings per share dropped by $0.26 on a year-over-year basis: from $1.28 to $1.02. Core earnings per share fell by $0.56, from $1.66 to $1.10. Non-core earnings per share improved, but remained in the red: a $0.08 per-share loss, up from $0.38 in the 2019 quarter.
Southern California Edison’s “lower non-core loss per share was mainly attributable to the absence of $0.38 of disallowed historical capital expenditures in SCE’s 2018 [general rate case] decision recorded in the second quarter 2019, and a charge recorded in 2020 of $0.16 from the amortization of SCE’s contributions to the Wildfire Insurance Fund,” Edison said in a press release. “These were partially offset by a gain of $0.10 recorded in 2020 for SCE’s sale of San Onofre nuclear fuel.”
The California utility, majority owner of SONGS, recorded a $52 million gain ($37 million after tax) this year on sales of the nuclear fuel.
SONGS’ last two operational reactors were permanently retired in 2013 after being equipped with faulty steam generators. The $4.4 billion decommissioning of the units began in earnest earlier this year under contractor SONGS Decommissioning Solutions. Work is scheduled to be completed by the end of this decade.
Edison slightly tweaked its core earnings guidance for the year: While the top amount remained steady from April at $4.62, the low-earnings projection rose from $4.32 to $4.37.
