SCE Customer Bills to Decrease in January

Following a 2-percent decrease in November, an average Southern California Edison customer’s bill will go down another 6 percent in January. The California Public Utilities Commission recently approved SCE’s 2016 costs for energy sources the utility needs to supply electricity, which is the main factor in January’s rate decrease. These costs are approved annually. SCE generates about 20 percent of its own power and buys the rest through contracts and short-term markets. “Southern California Edison is working hard to keep rates reasonable for our customers,” SCE President Pedro Pizarro said. “With lower prices forecast over the coming months for energy sources that provide electricity, we’re able to reduce customer bills.” Part of the January reduction is the implementation of a settlement with Nuclear Electric Insurance Limited for the San Onofre outages caused by the failures of replacement steam generators. SCE’s customers’ share of the settlement is $312.8 million. SCE’s residential customers will benefit next year through increases in the twice yearly climate credits on their April and October bills — those credits are increasing from $29 twice a year to $38 twice a year. In late November, an average customer’s bill decreased about 2 percent because of the commission’s Oct. 22 approval of the 2015 costs for energy sources. Another rate change taking effect on Jan. 1 is the commission’s decision authorizing recovery of costs reviewed in SCE’s General Rate Case, which includes inspecting, repairing and replacing infrastructure that will make it easier to restore power after an emergency outage in the future. It also funds the people SCE employs, such as the workers who climb the poles to restore electric service in storms and answer customer service calls. Every three years, the commission reviews a request from SCE for the next three-year spending cycle. The General Rate Case makes up more than 40 percent of rates for the nearly 14 million people SCE serves. About half of customer rates comes from the cost of energy sources for power. The remaining portion comes from a variety of other factors, such as large transmission projects regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and programs for energy efficiency and to protect low-income customers.