March 20, 2001
During a news conference today, Governor Davis expressed concerns about utilities collecting revenues from existing rates that include funds intended to pay "Qualifying Facilities" (QF) power providers while not paying those generators. Edison Senior Vice President Thomas Higgins responded as follows.
ROSEMEAD, Calif., March 20, 2001-SCE has been working with representatives of Governor Davis' office to find a mechanism by which we can reasonably make some payments to QFs on a going-forward basis in order to help stabilize electricity supplies.
We will do what we can to be helpful, and we are intent on paying all our creditors as soon as we have the ability to do so. We are in financial distress at this time precisely because there are not sufficient funds available in current rates for utilities to meet their obligations. Restoring the financial health of the state's utilities is an essential requirement to resolve California's electricity crisis.
Under the law, of course, utilities make no profit on the procurement of power for customers.
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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 11 million via 4.3 million customer accounts in a 50,000-square-mile service area within central, coastal and Southern California.
