Dive Brief:
- Sempra Energy, parent company to utility San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), reported earnings of $269 million for Q2 2014, up from $245 million over the same period last year.
- SDG&E's earnings rose from $65 million for Q2 last year to $123 million for Q2 2014, "due primarily to higher [California Public Utilities Commission] base margin and improved operating results," according to a release.
- SDG&E's Q2 earnings take into account the $69 million earned retroactively from a General Rate Case decision and the $119 million loss incurred in the shuttering of the San Onofre nuclear plant.
Dive Insight:
The closure of the San Onofre nuclear plant and the planned closure of NRG Energy's 965 MW Ecina power plant have led SDG&E to seek out additional capacity. The utility has filed with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to buy 633 MW from NRG Energy's planned natural gas peaker plant.
Meanwhile, rooftop solar is growing fast in the San Diego area. SDG&E had about 39,000 solar installations totaling 270 MW of nameplate capacity in its territory at the beginning of July, Tom Bialek, the utility’s chief engineer, told Utility Dive in a recent interview. That's the equivalent of 5.9% of SDG&E’s 4,600 MW peak load. The number of solar installations are set to double by the end of 2015, according to Bialek, which does not make the problem any easier.
“How we look at the world is changing,” Bialek said. “Customers are changing how we view the world just because they are making choices. They are making choices to put solar on the roof; they are making choices to buy an electric vehicle.”