SAN DIEGO, Feb. 7, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Sempra Energy (NYSE:
SRE) today announced that its California utilities – San Diego Gas &
Electric (SDG&E) and Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) –
have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with other
parties for a two-year extension for the utilities to file their
next applications in the Cost-of-Capital proceeding at the
California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).
The MOU was entered into today by SDG&E, SoCalGas, Pacific
Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison with the CPUC's
Office of Ratepayer Advocates and The Utility Reform Network for
the Cost-of-Capital application extension through 2018 and
2019.
The MOU calls for SDG&E to reduce its return on equity to
10.2 percent from 10.3 percent and SoCalGas to reduce its return on
equity to 10.05 percent from 10.1 percent for 2018 and 2019. While
the return on equity for both SDG&E and SoCalGas is fixed for
2018, the return on equity for 2019 is subject to a Cost-of-Capital
adjustment mechanism. If approved, the terms of the MOU will not
take effect until Jan. 1, 2018. These
MOU terms are materially consistent with the Cost-of-Capital
assumptions provided for SDG&E and SoCalGas in the five-year
financial plan at Sempra Energy's 2016 Analyst Conference.
SDG&E, SoCalGas and the other parties to the MOU have filed
a Joint Petition for Modification with the CPUC. The petition is
subject to final approval by the CPUC.
The Cost-of-Capital proceeding determines utility rates of
return on their investments.
Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE), based in San Diego, is a Fortune 500 energy services
holding company with 2015 revenues of more than $10 billion. The Sempra Energy companies' 17,000
employees serve more than 32 million consumers worldwide.
This press release contains statements that are not
historical fact and constitute forward-looking statements within
the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. These statements can be identified by words like
"believes," "expects," "anticipates," "plans," "estimates,"
"projects," "forecasts," "contemplates," "intends," "assumes,"
"depends," "should," "could," "would," "will," "confident," "may,"
"potential," "possible," "proposed," "target,"
"pursue," "goals," "outlook," "maintain," or similar expressions or
discussions of guidance, strategies, plans, goals, opportunities,
projections, initiatives, objectives or intentions.
Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance.
They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Future
results may differ materially from those expressed in the
forward-looking statements.
Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon various
assumptions involving judgments with respect to the future and
other risks, including, among others: local, regional,
national and international economic, competitive, political,
legislative, legal and regulatory conditions, decisions and
developments; actions and the timing of actions, including general
rate case decisions, new regulations, issuances of permits to
construct, operate and maintain facilities and equipment and to use
land, franchise agreements and licenses for operation, by the
California Public Utilities Commission, California State
Legislature, U.S. Department of Energy, California Division of Oil,
Gas, and Geothermal Resources, Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, California Energy
Commission, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Pipeline and
Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, California Air Resources
Board, South Coast Air Quality Management District, Los Angeles
County Department of Public Health, Mexican Competition Commission,
states, cities and counties, and other regulatory and governmental
bodies in the countries in which we operate; the timing and
success of business development efforts and construction,
maintenance and capital projects, including risks in obtaining,
maintaining or extending permits, licenses, certificates and other
authorizations on a timely basis, risks in obtaining the consent of
our partners, and risks in obtaining adequate and competitive
financing for such projects; the resolution of civil and criminal
litigation and regulatory investigations; deviations from
regulatory precedent or practice that result in a reallocation of
benefits or burdens among shareholders and ratepayers, and delays
in, or disallowance or denial of, regulatory agency
authorization to recover costs in rates from customers or
regulatory agency approval for projects required to enhance safety
and reliability; the availability of electric power, natural gas
and liquefied natural gas, and natural gas pipeline and storage
capacity, including disruptions caused by failures in the North
American transmission grid, moratoriums on the ability to withdraw
natural gas from or inject natural gas into storage facilities,
pipeline explosions and equipment failures; energy markets; the
timing and extent of changes and volatility in commodity prices;
moves to reduce or eliminate reliance on natural gas as an energy
source; the impact on the value of our natural gas storage and
related assets and our investments from low natural gas prices, low
volatility of natural gas prices and the inability to procure
favorable long-term contracts for natural gas storage services;
risks posed by decisions and actions of third parties who control
the operations of investments in which we do not have a controlling
interest, and risks that our partners or counterparties will be
unable (due to liquidity issues, bankruptcy or otherwise) or
unwilling to fulfill their contractual commitments; weather
conditions, natural disasters, catastrophic accidents, equipment
failures, terrorist attacks and other events that may disrupt our
operations, damage our facilities and systems, cause the release of
greenhouse gasses, radioactive materials and harmful emissions, and
subject us to third-party liability for property damage or personal
injuries, fines and penalties, some of which may not be covered by
insurance (including costs in excess of applicable policy limits)
or may be disputed by insurers; cybersecurity threats to the energy
grid, natural gas storage and pipeline infrastructure, the
information and systems used to operate our businesses and the
confidentiality of our proprietary information and the personal
information of our customers and employees; the ability to win
competitively bid infrastructure projects against a number of
strong competitors willing to aggressively bid for these projects;
capital markets conditions, including the availability of credit
and liquidity of our investments, and inflation, interest and
currency exchange rates; disallowance of regulatory assets
associated with, or decommissioning costs of, the San Onofre
Nuclear Generating Station facility due to increased regulatory
oversight, including motions to modify settlements; expropriation
of assets by foreign governments and title and other property
disputes; the impact on reliability of San Diego Gas & Electric
Company's (SDG&E) electric transmission and distribution system
due to increased amount and variability of power supply from
renewable energy sources and increased reliance on natural gas and
natural gas transmission systems; the impact on competitive
customer rates due to the growth in distributed and local power
generation and the corresponding decrease in demand for power
delivered through SDG&E's electric transmission and
distribution system; the impact on customer rates and other adverse
consequences due to possible departing retail load resulting from
customers transferring to Direct Access and Community Choice
Aggregation; the inability or determination not to enter into
long-term supply and sales agreements or long-term firm capacity
agreements due to insufficient market interest, unattractive
pricing or other factors; and other uncertainties, all of which are
difficult to predict and many of which are beyond our
control.
These risks and uncertainties are further discussed in the
reports that Sempra Energy has filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission. These reports are available through the EDGAR
system free-of-charge on the SEC's
website, www.sec.gov, and on the company's
website at www.sempra.com. Investors should
not rely unduly on any forward-looking statements. These
forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof, and
the company undertakes no obligation to update or revise these
forecasts or projections or other forward-looking statements,
whether as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise.
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SOURCE Sempra Energy