SDG&E; Chief Ignores ‘Gossip’ of His Ouster : Utility: Tom Page plans to stay on as chairman despite stunning blow dealt by PUC to proposed union with Southern California Edison.

San Diego Gas & Electric Chairman Tom Page said Friday that he intends to remain at the helm of the utility despite allegations that he has lost credibility among his employees, customers and San Diegans in general.

Page’s credibility has come under attack in recent days because of his staunch and continued defense of SDG&E;’s planned merger with Southern California Edison.

The state Public Utilities Commission on Wednesday voted 5-0 to prohibit the deal that would create the nation’s largest investor-owned utility. Edison and SDG&E; are now awaiting a written PUC report before determining if an appeal will be lodged.

Page said that within hours of the stunning PUC vote, he received telephone calls from San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor, County Supervisor Susan Golding and Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce President Lee Grissom.

Page described those brief conversations as “positive.” He dismissed newspaper reports of growing tension between his office and community leaders as “gossip . . . I’ve got a really full schedule and I don’t have a lot of time for gossip and vindictiveness.”

Community leaders who called on Wednesday expressed their hope to get on with business should the merger indeed be dead, said Page, adding, “I intend to do that.” Page said that community leaders acknowledge SDG&E;’s unique role as “the leadership company” in a city that has but a handful of large companies.

While Page acknowledged that “there are a lot of (SDG&E;) employees who are really quite happy” with the PUC vote, he remains adamant that the merger is the “avenue of choice” for SDG&E.;

“My job is to carry out the business plan of the corporation,” Page said during a telephone interview from New York, where he met with electric utility industry analysts. “The merger is what owners of this corporation want . . . this is the direction of this corporation.”

Page expressed frustration with media attempts to plumb his reaction to the decidedly negative PUC vote. “My job is not to look happy or sad. (Displaying) emotions of ‘Oh, gee whiz’ or ‘Hurray’ really aren’t part of my style,” Page said.

While SDG&E;’s board of directors still hopes to complete the merger, Page detailed some of the plans if the merger bid is abandoned.

As an independent company, Page said, SDG&E; would build upon its recent past as an energy management company that bypassed construction of expensive power plants and instead wheeled and dealed for electricity needed to meet growing customer demand. SDG&E; now imports electrical power over transmission lines that extend east to Arizona and north to Canada.

Page is credited with drafting the energy management strategy that helped SDG&E; evolve from a struggling utility with exorbitantly high rates into a highly profitable company with some of the lowest electric rates in the state.

“We’re an energy management company right now but we’ll change to something I really haven’t defined yet,” Page said. As part of that evolving strategy, SDG&E; would continue with its energy-producing negotiations to try to remain “the low-cost producer” of electricity, Page said.

As the highly regulated utility industry evolves, there will be more options for SDG&E;’s non-traditional approaches, Page said.

“There are going to be further developments in transmission and generation that will give access to new players,” Page said. “So we won’t commit ourselves (needlessly) to any one thing.”