SoCal Edison Proposes Rate Discounts

Businesses planning to leave California and those that have nixed expansion or been scared away from the state because of high electricity bills could get rate discounts under a plan proposed by Southern California Edison Co.

The Rosemead company’s plan, which must be approved by the California Public Utilities Commission, would give qualified businesses five years of discounts, 25% the first year and rate cuts of 5% in each of the four years after that.

Edison International’s Southern California Edison, which serves southern and central California, said it hoped to sign up manufacturers and other businesses that consistently use at least 200 kilowatts of power.

-- Elizabeth Douglass