San Diego Gas And Electric Co

Arguing that two local power companies have refused to pay the bill for putting out fires that they caused, lawyers for Orange County today will ask the Board of Supervisors to let them file suit in Superior Court. The lawsuits against San Diego Gas and Electric Co. and Southern California Edison Co. would seek to recover the fire-suppression costs for a pair of blazes in 1988 and 1989.

If the future is widespread use of electric cars, it may arrive in San Diego before other places in car-happy Southern California. Renault-Nissan and San Diego Gas & Electric Co. announced a deal Monday to deploy Nissan's new all-electric vehicle on the roads here before it hits the consumer market in 2012. The utility plans to lease 15 to 20 and urge its customers -- private, public and military -- to consider switching to electric vehicles.

San Diego Gas & Electric, which charges some of the highest residential electric rates in the country, said Monday that it will merge with Tucson Electric Power Co., an Arizona utility known as one of the lowest cost producers of electricity. The merger, which will involve a stock swap with no money changing hands, will create a new, San Diego-based utility with $5.7 billion in assets.

The gig: President and chief executive of Southern California Gas Co. and San Diego Gas & Electric Co., regulated utilities owned by San Diego-based Sempra Energy. SoCalGas is the nation's largest gas distribution utility, with 5.6 million business and residential meters. SDG&E supplies electricity to 3.4 million homes and businesses and is the natural gas provider for 825,000 customers in San Diego and southern Orange County. Background: Born in Long Beach.

When Sempra Energy Chief Executive Stephen Baum recently took stock of his years at the helm of the nation's largest utility owner, he was characteristically blunt about the milestones. "We didn't bankrupt the company," the ex-Marine said. Sempra is the parent of Southern California Gas Co. and San Diego Gas & Electric Co. -- two utilities that played key roles in California's 2000-01 energy crunch.

Gov. Gray Davis announced a $7-billion agreement Friday to buy electricity for 10 years from the most robust of California's utility companies, Sempra Energy, parent of San Diego Gas & Electric Co. In contrast, a decidedly more troubled Edison International launched a $3-million advertising campaign to build support for completion of its deal, brokered by Davis, to sell its transmission grid to the state for $2.76 billion.

Fuel-price increases, inflation and the continuing drought were blamed for utility rate increases announced Wednesday that will push the electric bills of Southern California Edison customers up 9.3% next month, the largest hike in three years. A residential customer who currently pays the typical bill of $55.37 monthly will be charged $4.97 more a month under the hikes approved by the California Public Utilities Commission. Overall, Edison was granted a 6.8% increase by the PUC, worth $458.

It has all the trappings of a parochial, not-in-my-backyard brouhaha: anxiety over property values, the environment and local business. But the subject of this particular debate--a proposed $270-million electricity transmission line starting in this scrubby outpost of chicken wire, strip mall churches and tumbleweeds--has ominous implications for all of California. Effectively using California's energy crisis as ammunition, San Diego Gas & Electric Co.

Rebate checks averaging $260 per household were mailed to San Diego Gas & Electric customers in south Orange County in the past week, a welcome respite from the rising bills that customers have been receiving from the utility this summer. All 100,000 SDG&E customers in the county should receive checks in the next five weeks, spokesman Art Larson said Tuesday. Small-business owners can expect a rebate of about $870, he said. Overall, SDG&E said that about 1.

In a twist to the controversy over the purported health risks caused by high-voltage power lines, a group of San Clemente homeowners is battling a major utility company in court, claiming the wires are ruining their property values. The case, to be heard Tuesday in Orange County Superior Court, pits 10 homeowners in the upscale Mariner's Point neighborhood against San Diego Gas & Electric Co., which owns three miles of high-voltage lines running within 10 feet of some property lines.

A bid by a San Diego Gas & Electric contractor to build a controversial power plant in Ladera Ranch in south Orange County has been shelved, according to legal documents filed Friday. Wellhead Power Margarita LLC has asked Orange County to rescind project approval that it had been granted by the county planning commission, handing a major victory to residents who had formed the group Ladera Hope. "We have won, and it's historic," said Jon Forrest, a Ladera Hope spokesman.

Judging from postings on a community website, it was a busy summer in Ladera Ranch. But amid news about concerts on the green, movies in the park and the Cycling Grand Prix, one headline went largely unnoticed: "New Energy for Ladera in June, 2008." The item was for a meeting at which residents of the tranquil south Orange County community could learn how a soon-to-be-built power plant would prevent blackouts during periods of high demand for electricity. About a dozen people attended.

Sempra Energy's San Diego Gas & Electric said it probably would fall short of California's renewable energy goals, which could subject it to fines of as much as $25 million. SDG&E, which provides electricity to 1.4 million homes and businesses in Southern California, will be unable to get 20% of its power supplies from renewable energy sources such as wind turbines and solar panels by 2010, as mandated by a state law, the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Southern California Gas Co. and San Diego Gas & Electric Co. have $5 million apiece burning a hole in their pockets that they want to lend, at no cost, to small businesses to buy energy-efficient equipment.

Sempra Energy's San Diego Gas & Electric utility got California regulatory approval for a $572-million plan to upgrade customer meters with equipment that will provide more data on energy consumption. San Diego Gas & Electric plans to install about 1.4 million advanced electric meters and upgrade 900,000 natural gas meters by the first quarter of 2011.

Sempra Energy's San Diego Gas & Electric said it reached a compromise with consumer advocates on a proposal to spend $572 million on advanced meters. Advanced meters contain communications equipment that enables the utility to record energy consumption data remotely, eliminating the need for workers to read the meters manually. The meters also may provide consumers with detailed data about power consumption.

City Atty. John Witt on Wednesday recommended that the City Council oppose San Diego Gas & Electric's proposed merger with Southern California Edison because the deal "is not in the best interests" of San Diegans. The merger would also have an impact on several South Orange County communities. In a memorandum circulated Wednesday, Witt suggested that the merger would eliminate local utility jobs, damage San Diego's civic pride and hurt the environment.

For Carol Vanderwende and her husband, who live on a budget as they try to pay for the care of their 24-year-old mentally disabled son, electric bills already run high. The Vanderwendes installed air conditioning two years ago in their Laguna Hills home to make their son, who is deaf and has a heart disorder, more comfortable. Last month, the electric bill was $220. This month, the bill jumped to a whopping $466. "I'm literally cooking on the outdoor grill tonight," Vanderwende said.

Sempra Energy said Friday it would pay customers of its San Diego Gas & Electric Co. subsidiary nearly $6 million and would give the utility a discounted option to buy a Nevada power plant as part of a broad settlement that ends a state lawsuit and two investigations into the company's actions during California's 2000-01 energy crisis. The agreement would "provide significant benefits to SDG&E's customers," said Michael Peevey, president of the California Public Utilities Commission.

Sempra Energy on Wednesday named Debra L. Reed as chief executive of Southern California Gas Co. and its smaller sister utility, San Diego Gas & Electric Co., marking the first time a woman has run the nation's largest natural gas utility. Reed, 50, who retains the title of president, replaces Edwin A. Guiles, 56. Guiles is becoming Sempra executive vice president of corporate development.