$1 BIL A YEAR ON WIRES

Edison Intl Unit Plans To Spend $1 Billion A Year On Transmission
Cassandra Sweet, May 4, 2010 (Dow Jones Newswires via Wall Street Journal)

"Edison International's (EIX) chief executive said…the company's utility plans to spend more than $1 billion a year over the next five years on transmission, including a half-completed $1.8 billion project in southern California."

"Southern California Edison recently completed the first leg of a 250-mile series of transmission lines and substations between the wind-swept Tehachapi Valley northeast of Los Angeles and Los Angeles and San Bernardino County. When completed, the Tehachapi Renewable Transmission project will be able to ship 4,500 megawatts of wind, solar and geothermal power from remote areas of southern California to population centers in and around Los Angeles…"

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"…[R]egulators approved Edison's plan to develop the project and recover the costs up-front from customers in a departure from conventional transmission financing…[The] novel financing approach allowed the project to move forward and could be instrumental in pushing future transmission projects forward…[A] ribbon-cutting ceremony in Mojave, Calif., [celebrated] e the opening of the first part of the Tehachapi line…SoCal Edison plans to start construction on the second half of the Tehachapi project later this year, pending approval of permits…The company expects to complete the project by 2015.

"The utility has other transmission projects in the pipeline, including a $537 million, 150-mile line between Desert Hot Springs and Romoland that state regulators have approved, and a 35-mile line between Blythe, Calif. and Boulder City, Nev. estimated to cost $450 million, which is awaiting approval. SoCal Edison plans to spend about $5.5 billion on those and other transmission projects over the next years."

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"…[T]he California Public Utilities Commission estimated that 11 new transmission lines will need to be built over the next several years for the state to meet its renewable-energy mandates…Edison plans to develop a good chunk of them. The company is focused on developing transmission, rather than renewable energy facilities, to meet growing California demand for renewables…Edison's wholesale power generation business, Edison Mission Group, is also considering developing transmission projects as part of plans to develop renewable energy facilities…

"California law requires the state's investor-owned utilities to use renewable sources for a fifth of the power they sell by the end of this year, with the mandate set to expand to one-third renewables for all the state's utilities by 2020…"