Rate hike helps lift net income at Edison

Utility owner Edison International said Wednesday that higher wholesale electricity prices and a rate hike in California helped boost first-quarter earnings nearly 30%.

The company, based in Rosemead, said the strong results and expectations for increases in wholesale power prices would push Edison’s full-year operating earnings toward the high end of its previous estimate of $3.05 to $3.45 a share.

Edison shares rose $1.09 to $56.11, an all-time high. The stock has surged 23% this year.

Edison posted net income of $333 million, or $1.01 a share, compared with $258 million, or 78 cents, a year earlier. Excluding discontinued operations and special items, the company earned 90 cents a share, up from 56 cents in the same quarter a year earlier and well above analysts’ average estimate of 64 cents, according to Thomson Financial.

“The outlook for the year is positive,” Chief Executive John Bryson told analysts Wednesday. He noted that the company’s utility, Southern California Edison, would add 610 megawatts of power capacity in the coming months. “We feel ready to meet peak demand levels this summer,” he said.

Bryson also said the company’s recent wind-energy deals strengthen Edison’s pipeline of wind projects and could allow the company to add 400 megawatts to 700 megawatts of wind power a year for a total of more than 2,000 megawatts by the end of 2009.

First-quarter revenue rose to $2.9 billion in the first three months of the 2007, up almost 6% from $2.75 billion in last year’s first quarter.

Southern California Edison posted first-quarter earnings from continuing operations of $180 million, up from $121 million. The utility’s first-quarter results benefited from a tax-related gain this year and a rate increase that didn’t kick in until the second quarter of 2006.

The company’s Edison Mission Group, which operates coal-fired plants in Illinois and Pennsylvania, produced more power and got higher prices for the electricity, Edison said. Operating income there rose to $155 million from $73 million a year earlier.

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elizabeth.douglass@latimes.com