Edison International - Recent Moves

Recent Moves

In November 2010 Edison sold its 48% interest in the Four Corners coal-fired power plant in New Mexico (units 4 and 5 while units 1,2 and 3 will be closed because of being older) for $294 million to Pinnacle West Capital Corp (of Arizona Public Service). The move was the direct result of a new California law requiring utility companies to exit coal-fired power production (even the renewing of contracts is disallowed), and forces Edison to purchase more power from the market.

Later that month, on the 24th of November the Environmental Protection Agency (Illinois) approved a request made by Edison's Midwest business (Edison Mission Energy) to install pollution control equipment to its coal fired power plants (as a last resort to shutting down the plants; stricter rules and costly penalties related to air quality forced Edison into that position). The equipment makes use of a sodium based, dry scrubbing system intended to reduce SO₂ emissions (there's also the alternative, removing the sulfur components of coal before burning it as fuel). Edison hasn't made any final decisions but the EPA ruling gives Edison's Waukegan power plant (coal, unit 7) in Illinois an alternative to shutting down.

San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station Unit 2 shut in early January 2012 for refueling and replacement of the reactor vessel head. Both reactors at San Onofre have been shut since January 2012 due to premature wear found on tubes in massive steam generators installed in 2010 and 2011. Plant officials have pledged not to restart the units until the cause of the tube leak and tube degradation are understood, and the units are expected to be offline during the summer.

In April 2012, in a sign of mounting concern over the shutdown, the top U.S. nuclear official, Gregory Jaczko, toured the facility with Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, and U.S. Representative Darrell Issa, a Republican.