Thomas Gardiner
The California Public Utilities Commission this week laid out an open-ended schedule for finally resolving the settlement over the premature retirement of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) after parties failed to reach an agreement by the August deadline.
The ruling sets forth an expedited schedule for hearings and filings to speed what Commissioner Michael Picker and Administrative Law Judge Darcie Houck wrote is a matter “long overdue for resolution.” However, the date of the proposed decision is listed only as “TBD.”
SONGS halted operations permanently in 2013 due to problems with new steam generators, and the commission in 2014 approved a $4.7 billion settlement that would require ratepayers to pay $3.3 billion of the closure costs. However, CPUC reopened the settlement in May 2016 when it was found that former commission President Michael Peevey had prior to the settlement conducted ex-parte talks on the matter with a then-executive for SONGS majority owner Southern California Edison (SCE).
The parties to the settlement — including SCE, the state Office of Ratepayer Advocates, and nongovernmental groups The Utility Reform Network (TURN) and the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility (A4NR) — have since then tried to agree on a new deal, but failed to come to consensus the Aug. 15 deadline set by CPUC. Now, Picker and Houck said they “will set a status conference to address outstanding issues for additional evidentiary hearings to reassess the costs allocated between ratepayers and shareholders in this proceeding,” according to their Oct. 10 order.
The commissioner and administrative law judge said they also will work to determine cost responsibilities to be shared by ratepayers and shareholders for the failures of SONGS’ replacement steam generators.
The decision limited the information to be considered to what was already filed or kept on record, with a few exceptions. The officials will hear testimony to consider refunding expenses for the new steam generators collected prior to 2012, whether to approve nearly $87 million in additional refunds from SONGS expenses in 2012, and whether it will allow $54 million in recovery of nuclear fuel cancellation costs, among a number of other issues.
A status conference is scheduled for Nov. 7 in Los Angeles, followed by submission of documents, testimony from the parties, hearings, and brief filings through March 29 of next year.
Ron Nichols, president of Southern California Edison, said the utility will actively participate in the expedited process ordered this week. Since plant operations were halted, SCE and SONGS partner San Diego Gas & Electric have returned more than $2 billion to customers, according to a press release from the utility.
