Edison wants to raise rates to pay for wildfires linked to its equipment

Southern California Edison is asking authorities regulators to marque its customers screen much than $7 cardinal successful damages it paid to the victims of 2 devastating wildfires successful 2017 and 2018.

At its gathering Thursday, the California Public Utilities Commission volition see Edison’s petition to walk connected to its ratepayers $1.6 cardinal successful damages from the 2017 Thomas wildfire successful Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, 1 of the largest fires successful authorities history.

The committee astatine a aboriginal day volition see a akin enactment that would pat Edison customers to screen $5.4 cardinal successful damages from the 2018 Woolsey occurrence successful Ventura and Los Angeles counties, which killed 3 people.

If some measures are approved, Edison customers volition person a astir 2% surcharge connected their bills for the adjacent 30 years, according to regulatory documents. That means the mean monthly measure for a residential customer, present $177, would emergence to $181.

Investigators recovered that Edison’s instrumentality ignited the Thomas and Woolsey wildfires. Utility information regulators recovered that successful each lawsuit Edison had violated aggregate authorities information regulations, including impeding their investigations.

Edison, which is contesting claims that its instrumentality besides ignited this month’s deadly Eaton fire, said successful a connection past twelvemonth that transferring Thomas occurrence harm costs to customers would alteration it to “continue doing indispensable enactment to mitigate the effects of clime change.”

The institution said it had “prudently operated its system, managing it astatine oregon supra what is required by regulators.”

Dozens of radical person written to the authorities commission, asking the sheet to contradict the request. Theresa Serventi of Hemet said arsenic a retired idiosyncratic she was already struggling to wage her rising electrical measure connected a fixed income.

“They cannot and indispensable not beryllium allowed to punish their customers for their wrongdoing,” Serventi wrote aft Edison filed its petition to rise electrical rates to screen the Thomas occurrence claims.

The Thomas occurrence killed 2 radical and besides helped origin the debris flows successful Montecito that killed 23 more.

Fadia Khoury, Edison’s adjunct wide counsel, noted that nether the colony negotiated with the commission’s nationalist advocates bureau the institution would get lone astir 60% of the $2.4 cardinal it primitively requested for the Thomas fire. About 40% — oregon astir $1 cardinal — would beryllium picked up by the institution and its shareholders.

Low-income customers volition spot nary increases to their bills for the betterment of costs from either fire, Khoury said.

The Wild Tree Foundation, an biology group, besides is calling connected the committee to ballot against the Thomas occurrence colony agreement. The radical says that documents from investigators astatine the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the Ventura County Fire Department and the commission’s information and enforcement part amusement that Edison “failed to enactment reasonably and prudently.”

“This is not the archetypal clip the committee has bailed retired utilities for catastrophic wildfires and it volition apt not beryllium the last,” said April Maurath Sommer, the foundation’s enforcement director.

If the committee approves the program Thursday, Sommer said, Edison would retrieve astir of what it paid to victims of the Thomas occurrence “by raising energy rates connected those precise victims themselves.”

The Thomas occurrence swept done astir 282,000 acres successful Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, destroying 1,063 structures.

Investigators said Edison’s instrumentality was the origin of 2 abstracted ignitions Dec. 4, 2017, adjacent Santa Paula. The 2 fires past dispersed and yet merged.

Cal Fire and Ventura County occurrence investigators said 1 ignition was caused by an electrical ligament falling and igniting adust brush. The different ignition happened, the investigators said, erstwhile 2 wires slapped together, releasing molten metallic into the vegetation.

The commission’s information and enforcement part aboriginal said the institution had violated 5 rules and regulations, including nonaccomplishment to cooperate with investigators. The part said Edison had failed to supply each the photos, notes and texts taken by the Edison employees who were the archetypal astatine the scene.

Khoury said Edison disagreed with investigators that the institution was negligent successful causing the Thomas fire. The institution besides disagrees that its instrumentality sparked 1 of the ignition sites, she said.

“We are operating a analyzable concern arsenic safely arsenic we can,” she said.

Terrie Prosper, a spokeswoman for the utilities commission, said that though the agency’s enforcement unit identified the violations, the five-member committee aboriginal did not find immoderate violations related to the Thomas fire.

The Thomas and Woolsey fires occurred earlier the authorities Legislature created a wildfire security fund. That money would assistance to screen immoderate costs if investigators find that Edison’s instrumentality sparked the firestorm that started successful Eaton Canyon connected Jan. 7. At slightest 17 radical person died.

The institution says that its archetypal interior probe did not find that its instrumentality started the fire, and that the probe is continuing. Lawyers representing victims of the occurrence disagree. They constituent to videos of the occurrence starting beneath 1 of the company’s transmission towers built precocious successful the canyon.

Edison’s exertion to transportation $5.4 cardinal it paid retired to victims of the Woolsey occurrence to customers is inactive being reviewed by authorities officials.

The Woolsey occurrence started Nov. 8, 2018, connected the tract of the aged Santa Susana trial laboratory adjacent Simi Valley. High winds sent it raging crossed astir 97,000 acres, destroying 1,643 structures and sidesplitting 3 people.

Investigators determined that a escaped down feline ligament attached to a alloy rod contacted a jumper wire, creating an arc flash. The arc flash caused blistery metallic fragments to driblet and ignite dried brush, the investigators said.

Prosper astatine the committee said that Edison had contested each 26 violations recovered by its information and enforcement part aft its probe into the Woolsey fire.

Edison says that successful caller years it has spent heavy connected enactment to mitigate wildfires, including trimming trees and putting successful wires with a coating that greatly reduces the hazard of fire.

That wildfire mitigation enactment present makes up astir 11% of the mean measure for an Edison customer, according to the commission’s nationalist advocates office.

The institution says that enactment has reduced the hazard of a catastrophic wildfire ignited by its instrumentality by 85% to 90% compared with what it was earlier 2018.

The fig of ignitions involving its instrumentality person not fallen arsenic much, according to information the institution reported to the commission.

In 2017, determination were 105 ignitions involving Edison’s equipment. That fig roseate to 173 ignitions successful 2021. Last year, determination were 90 ignitions — a 14% diminution since 2017.

Khoury said the reduced hazard of catastrophic wildfire should not beryllium compared with reductions successful the fig of ignitions, which would see adjacent those happening successful rainy weather.

The commission’s gathering is scheduled for 11 a.m. Thursday. The five-member sheet has enactment the determination connected the consent agenda, which means it is expected to walk without discussion. The sheet allows the nationalist to talk astatine the commencement of the meeting.

People tin besides remark astatine the commission’s website nether proceeding 23-08-013.