Southern California Edison facts for kids
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Electric utilities |
| Headquarters | 2244 Walnut Grove Ave., Rosemead, CA 91770 |
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Area served
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Central, Coastal & Southern California |
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Key people
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Steven Powell CEO |
| Products | Electricity generation Electric power transmission Electric power distribution |
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Number of employees
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13,388 (2013) |
| Parent | Edison International |
Southern California Edison (SCE) is the main company that provides electricity to a large part of Southern California. It is the biggest part of a larger company called Edison International. SCE gives electricity to about 15 million people. Its service area covers about 50,000 square miles.
SCE still owns all of its equipment for sending electricity over long distances. However, in the late 1990s, rules changed in California's electricity market. This meant SCE had to sell many of its power plants. SCE kept only its hydroelectric plants, which make electricity using water. These plants can produce about 1,200 megawatts of power. SCE also owned 75% of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. This nuclear plant was shut down in 2012 and permanently closed in 2013. The company also lost its natural gas power plants. These plants used to make most of SCE's electricity. Other companies bought these plants.
Southern California Edison's power system is connected to another big power company called PG&E. They connect through special power lines called Path 26. These lines generally follow Interstate 5 over Tejon Pass. The connection happens at a large station in Buttonwillow, California. There are also other connections to power companies both inside and outside California.
SCE also runs a gas and water service. It is the only company that provides natural gas and fresh water to Santa Catalina Island. This includes the city of Avalon, California. SCE operates these services as Catalina Island Gas Company and Catalina Island Water Company.
Contents
How Southern California Edison Started
Southern California Edison began with a big plan around 1908. A businessman named Henry E. Huntington and an engineer named John S. Eastwood had an idea. They wanted to build many reservoirs in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of central California. Huntington started a company called Pacific Light and Power to do this. This project became one of the largest hydropower systems in the United States. It was called the Big Creek Hydroelectric Project. Pacific Light and Power was one of the first companies that later joined to form SCE. Other early companies included Edison Electric and Mt. Whitney Power & Electric Co.
Helping During the COVID-19 Pandemic
In March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, many SCE employees started working from home. About 8,000 out of 13,000 employees shifted to remote work. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said that utility companies like SCE are "critical infrastructure." This means they are very important for the country to run. The company set up remote work so it could keep operating even if many employees got sick or had to quarantine.
During this time, SCE also stopped disconnecting power for customers who could not pay their bills.
Powering with Clean Energy
Southern California Edison lets its customers choose to get all their electricity from clean, renewable energy sources. This is called a "green rate."
In 2006, SCE planned to get a lot more power from new projects. These projects would be built in the Tehachapi Pass Wind Farm area. The company planned to get 1,500 megawatts or more of wind power. This would make SCE's wind energy use more than double. The plan included building wind farms covering over 50 square miles (130 km2). This area is three times bigger than any other wind farm in the U.S.
In 2008, SCE announced a big project to build solar power plants. This $875 million project would create 250 megawatts of solar power. It was the biggest solar cell project in the nation at the time. The solar cells would cover 65,000,000 square feet (6,000,000 m2) of rooftops in Southern California. This would make enough power for 162,000 homes.
In 2009, SCE made a deal with Solar Millennium to buy solar thermal power. They also planned to buy electricity from a large solar power plant from Stirling Energy Systems. This plant would have used a special technology called dish Stirling systems. These systems use mirrors to focus sunlight and a Stirling heat engine to make electricity. However, this purchase was canceled in 2010. This was because other solar technologies became cheaper.
In 2014, SCE installed the Tehachapi Energy Storage Project. This project uses over 600,000 lithium-ion battery cells. They are located at a station in Tehachapi, California. The goal is to test how to store power from the area's 5,000 wind turbines.
By 2016, about 28.2% of SCE's power came from renewable sources.
Natural Gas and Energy Storage
In 2017, SCE opened two new power units. These units combine gas turbines with large storage batteries. They are called peaker plants. Each plant can deliver about 50 megawatts of power. The batteries can provide 10 megawatts for four hours. Both the turbines and batteries are made by General Electric.
These plants use the battery power first for short bursts of electricity. This saves natural gas for when power is needed for longer times. Using the battery first helps reduce pollution. This special setup by SCE was the first of its kind. It cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60%. It also saved 2 million gallons of water each year and reduced how often the gas turbines needed to start by 50%.
Electric Vehicles
Southern California Edison offers resources and special electricity rates for people who use electric vehicles (EVs).
As of 2018, SCE planned to add thousands of new charging stations for passenger EVs. This is part of their "Charge Ready" program. The goal is to make more charging spots available for EVs. Since 2016, SCE has installed 1,000 charging stations in its service area.
The company also has a rebate program for buying electric vehicles. People in SCE's service area who buy or lease a new or used EV can get a $450 rebate. This program was planned to run until 2020.
Energy Research and Policy
Southern California Edison has a long history of doing research in energy. They often work with other companies and government groups. One example was the SOLARII feasibility generator. This was a solar-powered plant that could make electricity 24 hours a day. It did this by heating special salts that would hold the heat during the day. This stored heat was then used to make power at night.
In 2014, SCE announced a partnership with Ice Energy. They aimed to store energy more efficiently by freezing water at night. This is when electricity is cheaper. (Ice Energy later went out of business in 2019.)
See also
- Energy use in California
- Solar power plants in the Mojave Desert
- Wind power in California
- List of articles associated with nuclear issues in California
