Southern California Edison submits $6.2 billion wildfire mitigation plan to regulator

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(Reuters) -Southern California Edison (SCE), a unit of utility Edison International, said on Friday it had submitted a three-year wildfire mitigation plan to California’s Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety.

The plan builds on efforts to address immediate and long-term wildfire risks in response to evolving customer needs and extreme weather events, SCE said.

The company expects an investment of $6.2 billion over three years from 2026 to 2028, which includes installation of at least additional 440 circuit miles of covered conductor and nearly 260 circuit miles of underground distribution lines.

“With drought conditions across the state, we are preparing for another busy year,” said Brian Fennessy, fire chief of the Orange County Fire Authority.

Southern California Edison has been facing multiple lawsuits alleging that its electrical equipment started one of the major wildfires in the Los Angeles area – the Eaton fire.

In April, the utility submitted an initial plan to rebuild the areas within its service territory that were devastated by the Los Angeles wildfires, where it estimated the cost to be between $860 million and $925 million.

“While wildfire risk can never be fully eliminated, we continue to harden the grid and invest in innovative approaches to bring us as close to zero as possible,” said Southern California Edison CEO Steven Powell.

The wildfires tore across Los Angeles starting on January 7, leading to dozens of deaths and destroying thousands of homes. It is estimated to be the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history.

The plan includes safety tools and methodologies, such as AI and machine learning detection, early fault detection and alternative undergrounding approaches, SCE said.

Shares of the company slipped nearly 1.6% in extended trading.

(Reporting by Pooja Menon in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Mohammed Safi Shamsi)