Southern California Edison (or SCE Corp), the largest subsidiary of
Edison International (
- redirect), is the primary electricity supply company for much of Southern California, USA. It provides 14 million people with electricity across a service territory of approximately 50,000 square miles. However, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, San Diego Gas & Electric, Imperial Irrigation District, and some smaller municipal utilities serve substantial portions of the southern California territory. The northern part of the state is generally served by the Pacific Gas & Electric Company of San Francisco.
Southern California Edison (SCE) still owns all of its
electrical transmission facilities and equipment, but the
deregulation of California's
electricity market in the late 1990s forced the company to sell many of its power plants, though some were probably sold by choice. In California, SCE retained only its
hydroelectric plants, totaling about 1,200 MW, and its 75% share of the 2,150-MW
San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, which has been shut down since January 2012; in June 2013 the company announced its intention to permanently close and decommission the nuclear plant. Also, SCE still owns about half of the 1,580-MW
coal-fired
Mohave Generating Station in
Laughlin, Nevada, which supplied electricity to California,
Nevada, and
Arizona; Mohave closed in December 2005, amid concerns regarding water rights and coal supplies. The utility lost all of its
natural gas-fired plants, which provided most of its electrical generation. The large, aging plants were bought by out-of-state companies such as
Mirant and
Reliant Energy, which allegedly used them to
manipulate the California energy market.