Edison to Pay Renewable Energy Firms

Southern California Edison reached an agreement Monday to repay most of the $400 million it owes providers of wind, geothermal and other forms of renewable energy.

A squabble over the utility’s plan for paying off the energy companies escalated last month when CalEnergy, an Imperial Valley geothermal energy producer, filed a lawsuit against the utility, seeking repayment of $100 million in debts.

CalEnergy dropped the lawsuit Monday after the utility, a unit of Edison International in Rosemead, agreed to pay the producers during the first quarter of next year. Additionally, the utility agreed to a five-year contract to buy electricity from the companies at a rate of 5.37 cents a kilowatt-hour starting in May--high enough to provide them with a steady profit, according to industry executives.

Although the lawsuit was dropped, some of the agreement’s elements still require the approval of the California Public Utilities Commission.