Edison Says Customers Should Pay for San Onofre Closure

Patch editor Adam Townsend contributed to this report. 

Southern California Edison on Monday published a full-page ad in the Los Angeles Times, saying that they feel ratepayers should be on the hook for the more than $1 billion in remaining costs related to the shutdown of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in June. 

"If a utility asset must be retired before the end of its expected life, the utility recovers from customers its reasonable investment costs," Edison wrote.

See Edison's full letter to ratepayers here. 

Edison argued its case last week in front of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), claiming that certain fixed costs to keep nuclear fuel safe and maintain the now-retired nuclear plant should be borne by ratepayers, not the company’s shareholders.

Edison released the letter because "it was important to make sure our customers know about how the utility business works, and why there is such a thing as 'cost recovery," Ron Litzinger, president of Edison told the Los Angeles Times.

In August 2012, Joseph P. Como, the head of the CPUC's Division of Ratepayer Advocates, said Edison or San Diego Gas & Electric customers should not have to pay for the plant's closure.

Como sent a letter to the commission stating they should, "remove SONGS from Southern California Edison's... and San Diego Gas & Electric's... rate base now instead of waiting several more months and allowing hundreds of millions of dollars in needless costs to be borne by customers."

In addition to ratepayers, Edison is attempting to seek cost recovery from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, who supplied SONGS with nuclear generators that began leaking radioactive steam, revealing that the new steam generators at the plant were riddled with faulty components. 

That leak led to the plant closing in January 2012, and ultimately to the announcement of the costly shutdown in June 2013.

Meanwhile, Edison has started the long process of permanently retiring the plant, removing fuel from its reactors over the last week.


TELL US WHAT YOU THINK IN THE COMMENTS
Should Edison customers have to help cover the costs of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station closure?