The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) announced Monday that it is reopening the settlement case that resulted in state ratepayers shouldering $3.3 billion of the $4.7 billion cost to prematurely shut down the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in San Diego County.
CPUC said it will re-evaluate whether the settlement is still reasonable, in light of ex parte communications between an executive for the plant’s majority owner, Southern California Edison (SCE), and former CPUC President Michael Peevey. With the settlement, SCE parent company Edison International and minority owner San Diego Gas & Electric were on the hook for the remaining $1.4 billion in shut-down costs.
CPUC levied a nearly $17 million fine against SCE in December 2015 for the company’s failure to report closed-door communications between Peevey and former SCE executive Stephen Pickett at a 2013 meeting in Warsaw, Poland.
SCE in a statement Tuesday said it “continues to strongly believe that the settlement, reached among owners SCE and San Diego Gas & Electric Co. and consumer, environmental and labor advocates, remains fair, lawful and in the public interest.”
CPUC is requesting comment from both parties involved in the case, with Edison scheduled on June 2 to file a summary of the settlement agreement, which will include a status report on implementation of the deal, as well as details on accounting and rate-making actions taken to date and planned for the future. The parties are set to file opening briefs on whether the settlement meets CPUC standards on July 7, and reply briefs and recommendations are scheduled to be filed July 21.
SONGS began operating in 1968, and Unit 1 was retired in 1992. SCE retired Units 2 and 3 went offline in 2013, when issues with replacement steam generators proved too expensive to fix.
“In light of our December 2015 penalty levied against Edison for failing to disclose ex parte communications relevant to this proceeding, it is prudent to review whether the settlement reached before those disclosures remains in the public interest and in accordance with our settlement rules,” CPUC Commissioner Catherine J.K. Sandoval said in a statement. “It is important to reopen the record and hear from the parties through their filings in the CPUC’s proceeding.”
