Southern California Edison, primary owner and operator of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), this week announced $30 million net income growth in the third quarter of 2017 compared to the same period of last year.
The boost was announced in the third-quarter earnings filing from SCE’s parent company, Edison International. The Southern California utility earned a net income of $465 million during the quarter, making up the bulk of Edison International’s $470 million net. SCE earned $1.43 per share and Edison earned $1.44 per share; up respectively from $1.34 and $1.29 on a year-over-year basis.
Among its regulatory assets, SCE counted $730 million it expects to recover as part of the contested settlement for SONGS’ early permanent closure in 2013. The California Public Utilities Commission in 2014 approved a $4.7 billion settlement, which would require ratepayers to pay $3.3 billion of the closure costs, but reopened it last year in the wake of ex-parte talks between CPUC’s former president and an SCE executive.
There is no set date for CPUC to decide on a new settlement, but the schedule issued earlier this month involves a series of meetings, hearings, document submissions, and other activities through the end of March by SCE and the other parties.
The $730 million regulatory asset from SONGS is down from $857 million listed on the company’s consolidated balance sheets as of the end of 2016. In its 10-Q filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the utility said “SCE continues to conclude that the asset is probable, though not certain, of recovery based on SCE’s knowledge of facts and judgment in applying the relevant regulatory principles to the issue.”
Edison International reported a year-to-date profit of $1.1 billion, an increase of more than $20 million and $0.40 per share compared to 2016. SCE operations brought in the majority of that, measuring over $1 billion. SCE increased its earnings per share by $0.23 so far in 2017. The company attributed the uptick in earnings to rate escalations allowed in a 2015 decision by the California Public Utilities Commission.
