February 25, 2004
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) today issued its decision on Southern California Edison’s request for approval of a power purchase agreement between the utility and the Mountainview Project, a partially constructed power plant located in the Inland Empire that SCE has an option to purchase. The commission granted conditional approval of the project, subject to certain modifications to the Mountainview power purchase agreement relating to FERC accounting and pass-through of actual operating costs. In response, SCE Chairman John Bryson issued the following statement.
ROSEMEAD, Calif., Feb. 25, 2004 —With this decision, the stage is set for SCE to move forward on this major, vitally needed power facility.
Great credit should be given to the California Public Utilities Commission and FERC for supporting the Mountainview Project and working together effectively to provide timely state and federal approvals.
The state-of-the-art Mountainview plant will add much-needed generation for California consumers at significantly less cost than it would take to site a plant from scratch, and at stable, cost-based, rather than market, rates. State agencies and Edison have expressed concern that as early as 2006 there could be insufficient new generation to meet the growing needs of our customers if new plants such as Mountainview are not built.
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An Edison International company, Southern California Edison is one of the nation’s largest electric utilities, serving a population of more than 12 million via 4.5 million customer accounts in a 50,000-square-mile service area within central, coastal and Southern California.