PUC is urged to cut ratepayer costs in wake of San Onofre closure
The California Public Utility Commission’s ratepayer advocate division sent a letter Monday asking that the commission act immediately to lower Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric customers’ bills to remove the costs associated with the shuttered San Onofre nuclear plant.
Division of Ratepayer Advocates Acting Director Joseph Como asked the commission to act now rather than waiting until November, when the plant will have been out of service for nine months.
At that point, state law would trigger an investigation in which the commission must consider lowering the utility’s rates and potentially refunding money to customers so they would not be paying for the costs of a plant that is not producing power.
The commission had been slated to vote to open an investigation into the costs of the outage on Aug. 2, but the action was postponed.
San Onofre was shut down Jan. 31 after a tube in one of the plant’s recently replaced steam generators began to leak, releasing a small amount of radioactive steam. The incident led to the discovery that many more tubes were wearing out more quickly than expected and triggered an investigation by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Energy officials scrambled to put a plan in place to replace San Onofre’s 2,200 megawatts of power over the summer and are now confronting the possibility that the plant will not be back online at full power any time in the foreseeable future.
“The cost to ratepayers if the Commission does not act soon is substantial,” Como wrote, noting that the annual cost included in Edison’s rates for operating and maintenance, depreciation and return on investment at San Onofre is $650 million. “That translates to about $54 million per month that SCE is charging its customers for a plant that is no longer ‘used and useful.’ ”
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This story was reported by Times Staff Writer Abby Sewell.