Some six years after the devastating Thomas and Woolsey wildfires began to wreak havoc on the bottom line of Southern California Edison, the end is finally in sight on two fronts for the utility subsidiary of Rosemead-based Edison International.
In its latest quarterly and annual earnings release last month, Edison revised upward once again by $67 million its estimate of the combined claims costs for both wildfires (and mudslides resulting from the Thomas Fire) to a new total of roughly $9.4 billion, with more than 90% of those claims expected to be resolved by the end of this year.
Edison also revealed that it plans to seek California Public Utility Commission approval to pass roughly $6.4 billion of that cost on to its ratepayers over the next several years. The company has already recovered from its insurers and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission some $2.4 billion of that $9.4 billion cost.
Edison also updated its progress on its main effort to prevent future wildfires sparking from its equipment: the installation of insulation on – or undergrounding of – nearly 17,000 miles of distribution wires in high-fire-risk areas. As of the end of last year, 76% of those wires had been hardened to resist sparking fires, including nearly 5,600 miles of covered conductor installation; by the end of next year, Edison expects that figure to rise to 90%.
“SCE’s industry-leading covered-conductor program continues to make tremendous progress,” said Pedro Pizarro, Edison’s chief executive. “In just five years, SCE has installed more than 5,580 circuit miles of covered conductor. When combined with enhanced vegetation management, asset inspections and other programs, this has significantly reduced the need for public safety power shutoffs.”
Edison’s progress on these two fronts prompted one of the major bond rating agencies to take notice.
In rating Edison’s plan to issue and refinance bonds, Fitch Ratings in January gave a stable rating…
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