DAVIS SEEKS UTILITY RATE CUT EDISON ALSO CALLS FOR REDUCTION AFTER ITS DEBTS PAID OFF.Byline: Staff and Wire Services SACRAMENTO - Gov. Gray Davis asked electricity regulators Tuesday to grant a $1 billion rate reduction for utility customers. The rate cut would affect 9 million California homes and businesses supplied by Pacific Gas and Electric Co., San Diego San Diego (săn dēā`gō), city (1990 pop. 1,110,549), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1850. San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Valley. Coronado is across the bay. Gas and Electric and Southern California Edison Southern California Edison (or SCE Corp), the largest subsidiary of Edison International (NYSE: EIX), is the primary electricity supply company for much of Southern California. It provides 11 million people with electricity. , which includes the Santa Clarita Santa Clarita, city (1990 pop. 110,642), Los Angeles co., S Calif., suburb 30 mi (48 km) NW of downtown Los Angeles, on the Santa Clara River; inc. 1987. Situated in the Santa Clara valley and nearby canyons, Santa Clarita includes the former towns of Canyon Country, and Antelope valleys This article is about the Los Angeles County region. For the census-designated place in Wyoming, see Antelope Valley-Crestview, Wyoming. The Antelope Valley . Officials were unable to say how much the proposed reduction might save individual customers, because the precise savings depends on how the Public Utilities Commission designs a plan to implement the rate cut. Since the state's energy crisis three years ago, utility customers have paid according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a complicated rate structure that varies according to consumption and other factors. ``In our hot climate where we have a higher usage in the summer, it should help quite a bit, especially for our small- and medium-size business customers,'' Edison spokeswoman Alis Clausen said. ``They took a proportionately pro·por·tion·ate adj. Being in due proportion; proportional. tr.v. pro·por·tion·at·ed, pro·por·tion·at·ing, pro·por·tion·ates To make proportionate. higher amount of the increase.'' Edison has already filed a rate-reduction plan for when it finishes paying off debt that mounted from purchasing electricity at high prices during the crisis. The debt is expected to be paid by August, Clausen said. Edison proposed rate reductions of 8 percent for residential customers and up to 19 percent for businesses, which paid higher surcharges during the crisis. The state stepped in to temporarily buy power for Edison and the other utilities in January 2001, when record wholesale prices had driven the utilities to the brink of bankruptcy. But California stopped buying power Buying Power The money an investor has available to buy securities. In a margin account, the buying power is the total cash held in the brokerage account plus maximum margin available. Also referred to as "Excess Equity. for those utilities at the end of last year and no longer has to arrange for large reserves of electricity. The utilities now have the responsibility to arrange for enough electricity and they don't have to maintain reserves as large as the state did. That means the state's estimate of how much it needs from ratepayers can be lowered from $5.5 billion to $4.5 billion, the official said. The commission could act on the governor's request within two months, officials said. Ratepayers, both residential and commercial, could see their bills decline as early as this fall. |
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