The holding company for Southern California Edison is committing about $1 billion to accelerate its buildout of utility-owned storage capacity as part of a broader push to better mitigate power outages caused by extreme weather.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom this summer issued an emergency proclamation asking the California Public Utilities Commission to orchestrate faster construction of energy storage this year and next. Pedro Pizarro, president and CEO of Edison International, says his team will build the roughly 535 MW of storage by mid-summer and is also working on securing more than 230 MW of capacity from third parties. SCE, which serves more than 15 million people across Southern, Central and Coastal California, has contracted with Ameresco and filed papers with the CPUC outlining plans to build the capacity at its Springville (225 MW), Hinson (200 MW) and Etiwanda (112 MW) substations.
Maria Rigatti, Edison International’s CFO, told analysts and investors Nov. 2 that SCE is looking to recover $1 billion of capital spending. The company has raised its 2022 capital spending budget by about $900 million and slightly lowered its forecasts for 2023 through 2025 to account for the energy storage investments. Those plans also will pull forward some of Edison International’s planned equity raises: For 2022, the company plans to raise between $300 million and $400 million while the annual average through 2025 is likely to be closer to $250 million.
Shares of Edison International (Ticker: EIX) fell about 1% Nov. 3 after Pizarro and Rigatti reported a third-quarter net loss of $341 million – thanks to a $1.2 billion charge related to costs from wildfire and mudslide events in 2017 and 2018 – and core earnings of $644 million. The shares are up slightly over the past six months, growing the company’s market capitalization to nearly $24 billion.
