Edison Sues California Energy Panel

Southern California Edison Co. sued state energy regulators Friday, escalating a dispute over public disclosure of the utility’s forecasts for electricity demand.

In a complaint filed in Sacramento County Superior Court against the California Energy Commission, Edison in essence argues that an informational blackout is preferable to risking inappropriate use of its figures in a market still recuperating from the energy crisis of 2000 and 2001.

The utility, a Rosemead-based unit of Edison International, contends that revealing the figures -- which show its estimated peak usage during the summers from 2006 to 2016 -- could give an unfair market advantage to private power generators and other suppliers.

The information could boost generators’ bargaining power to force Edison into signing high-priced contracts and, in turn, lead to higher rates for the utility’s 4.6 million residential and business customers, said Stuart Hemphill, Edison’s director of resource planning and strategy.

“We’re doing all we can to assure that price manipulation does not take place by power generators again like it did in 2000 and 2001,” he said.

Hemphill likened the state’s demand for release of the data to “playing poker with our cards face up, and everyone else’s face down.”

The energy commission has repeatedly denied confidentiality requests from Edison and the state’s two other investor-owned electricity utilities.

The commission says a free flow of information must be available to all interested parties so that California can plan correctly and ensure adequate electricity supplies for the next 10 years.

Regulators at another state agency, the Public Utilities Commission, use the numbers to evaluate procurement requests, including contracts with generators, submitted by the state’s utilities.

Further, the administration of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has made competitive bidding a cornerstone of its efforts to create an efficient wholesale electricity market.

“This information is supposed to be in the public domain,” said John L. Geesman, the energy commission member in charge of putting together the 2005 state Integrated Energy Policy Report.

Geesman said a full airing of a utility’s power needs during brief, crucial periods of peak summer demand “is the core of our planning process ... because that’s when the system is most strained.”

He dismissed as groundless Edison’s fears of being manipulated by independent generating companies, citing changes in California’s electricity market since the failure of the 1996 deregulation law. Rather, he accused the company of wanting to limit access to its data so it can avoid having “their arithmetic challenged.”

A representative of independent electricity generators called “irresponsible” Edison’s allegations that they would misuse energy commission data.

“The reality is the more information that is publicly available to everyone in the market, the better the market works,” said Jan Smutny-Jones, director of the Independent Energy Producers Assn.

Edison’s suit is the first by a regulated California electricity utility against the energy commission since 1978, according to commission records.

San Diego Gas & Electric Co., which serves part of Orange County, and Pacific Gas & Electric Co. earlier sought confidentiality protections from the energy commission but have opted not to sue the state.