Edison International on Tuesday reported lower third-quarter 2019 income for itself and subsidiary Southern California Edison, taking hits from increased costs for fighting wildfires linked to its power lines.
Company-wide net income came in at $471 million, $1.36 per share, dropping from $513 million, $1.57 per share, in the same quarter of 2018. However, adjusted core earnings rose on a year-over-year basis from $510 million, $1.56 per share, to $519 million, $1.50 per share.
At Southern California Edison, earnings per share (EPS) dipped by $0.19 in third-quarter 2019 to $0.03 core EPS and $0.16 non-core EPS.
In a press release, Edison attributed the drop at SCE to higher number of shares outstanding following an equity offering in July and increased wildfire mitigation expenses. Those expenses were partly balanced by decisions in state and federal rate cases used in setting user fees.
The reduction in non-core earnings per share was driven by amortization of the utility’s financial support for California’s wildfire insurance fund, the release says.
In its 10-Q filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday, Edison affirmed plans for major decommissioning starting next year of SCE’s retired San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). The California Coastal Commission earlier this month issued the last permit needed for the work to begin.
Decommissioning is scheduled for completion by 2028, but could be “subject to any legal challenges that may be raised by interested parties,” the 10-Q says.
The advocacy group Public Watchdogs in September filed a federal lawsuit seeking a halt to decommissioning and the on-site transfer of used fuel from two SONGS reactors from cooling pools into dry storage. It focused on a series of problems with the fuel offload, including an August 2018 incident in which one canister was at risk of an 18-foot drop for nearly an hour while being lowered into its storage slot.
