SoCal Edison Prepares to Buy Electricity Once Again

Closing a dark chapter from California’s electricity crisis, Southern California Edison Co. announced Friday that it was ready once again to do what utilities normally do: buy power for customers.

PG&E; Corp.’s Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and Sempra Energy’s San Diego Gas & Electric Co. also said they were poised to return to electricity buying after actions taken this week by the California Public Utilities Commission, although PG&E; still awaits Bankruptcy Court approval of electricity expenditures.

Rosemead-based Edison, with 12 million customers, said it would begin buying power Jan. 1 -- despite reservations about portions of the PUC orders that, among other things, restrict the utility’s ability to sign contracts with suppliers.

“We hope that over the months that come as we get into this business again that we can improve some of the procedures and processes that the commission has suggested,” said John Fielder, Edison senior vice president for regulatory policy and affairs. Southern California Edison is the primary subsidiary of Rosemead-based Edison International.

The state Department of Water Resources took over the electricity-purchasing job in January 2001 after skyrocketing electricity prices sucked so much cash out of Edison and PG&E; that power suppliers refused to do business with them. The department’s power-buying authority ends Dec. 31.

State electricity officials have expressed confidence that the three investor-owned utilities will be ready to buy power, largely through contracts with suppliers, to supplement electricity from the utilities’ own generation sources and the expensive long-term contracts signed by the water department. The amount of power that the utilities must buy is relatively small, about 5% to 10% of customer needs.

The PUC on Tuesday obligated customers of the three utilities to pay a $4.65-billion tab next year for the water department’s contracts. The commission on Thursday directed the utilities to use power from a mix of sources that is cheapest for customers rather than more profitable for the utilities’ shareholders. The commissioners agreed to penalize the utilities if they violate the order, but -- after heated discussion -- limited the size of the penalties in a 3-2 vote.

Separately, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gave PG&E; authority to resume trading electricity in California’s wholesale markets.