Edison International Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
July 30, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Second-quarter core EPS rose to $1.54 from $0.97 a year earlier, and Edison reaffirmed its 2026 core EPS guidance of $5.90–$6.20 and long-term growth target of 5%–7%.
  • Positive Sentiment: SCE completed approximately $2 billion of Woolsey Fire cost-recovery securitization, with proceeds expected to fund claims, retire related debt, and strengthen the balance sheet.
  • Positive Sentiment: Wildfire mitigation remains a major investment priority, with about 90% of distribution lines in high-fire-risk areas hardened; the next plan preliminarily includes roughly 450 miles of covered conductor and 190 miles of targeted undergrounding.
  • Neutral Sentiment: SCE has extended more than 2,200 Eaton Fire compensation offers totaling over $775 million, but management said it still lacks enough claims and settlement data to estimate the low end of potential liability under GAAP.
  • Negative Sentiment: The outcome of California wildfire-reform legislation remains uncertain, and management warned that an insufficiently predictable or financeable framework could raise borrowing and equity costs, potentially affecting future capital deployment and customer affordability.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Edison International Q2 2026
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Edison International 2nd Quarter 2026 financial teleconference. My name is Michelle, and I will be your operator today. When we get to the Q&A session, if you have a question, press star 1 on your phone. This call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Sam Ramraj, Vice President of Investor Relations. Mr. Ramraj, you may begin your conference.

Sam Ramraj
Sam Ramraj
VP of Investor Relations at Edison International

Thank you, Michelle, and welcome everyone. Our speakers today are President and Chief Executive Officer Pedro Pizarro, and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Aaron Moss. Also on the call are other members of the management team. Materials supporting today's call are available at www.edisoninvestor.com. These include a Form 10-Q, prepared remarks from Pedro and Aaron, and the teleconference presentation. Tomorrow we will distribute a regular business update presentation. During this call, we will make forward-looking statements about the outlook for Edison International and its subsidiaries. Actual results could differ materially from current expectations. Important factors that could cause different results are set forth in our SEC filings. Please read these carefully. The presentation includes certain outlook assumptions as well as reconciliation of non-GAAP measures to the nearest GAAP measure. During the Q&A session, please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up.

Sam Ramraj
Sam Ramraj
VP of Investor Relations at Edison International

I will now turn the call over to Pedro.

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

Thank you, Sam, and good afternoon, everyone. My comments today focus on three areas: a legislation update, our continued work to make communities safer and more resilient, including wildfire mitigation and recovery efforts, and our broader progress in supporting a reliable, affordable, and clean energy future. Starting with a brief comment on earnings, Edison International's 2nd Quarter 2026 core EPS was $1.54, bringing year-to-date core EPS to $2.97. With this strong start to the first half of the year, we are confident in reaffirming our 2026 core EPS guidance and other financial targets, including our 5%-7% core EPS growth over the long term. Aaron will discuss our financial performance in his remarks. On the legislative front, we're actively engaged with the Governor's Office, legislators, and key stakeholders on both wildfire reform and affordability.

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

There is continued recognition that the current framework is placing increasing pressure on customers, communities, and the cost of financing the investments utilities are making to support California's climate goals. Consistent with the themes we have highlighted, discussions center on aligning risk, supporting affordability, and maintaining access to capital at a reasonable cost. This is about more than utility finance. Moody's recently highlighted that the implications extend beyond utilities. They note that wildfire-related costs can affect electricity rates, affordability, and California's broader economic competitiveness. S&P has also observed that wildfire-related financial risks increasingly extend beyond investor-owned utilities to public utilities, local governments, insurers, and the communities they serve. That is why establishing a durable, long-term solution matters not only for utilities, but for customers, businesses, and the state's economy as a whole.

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

While we are encouraged by Sacramento leadership's focus on this important topic, we also recognize that the outcome remains uncertain. We will be thoughtful about the implications of what the legislature ultimately enacts. SCE's current GRC authorization supports the utility's plan for 2028, and future investments will continue to be evaluated through a disciplined benefit-cost lens. SCE will continue to safely serve customers and maintain its unwavering focus on safety. The clarity and quality of the legislative outcome will influence the cost of capital available to support future investment. A durable and financeable framework will help maintain access to lower-cost capital, supporting affordability for customers, and continued infrastructure investment. Conversely, a framework without sufficient predictability will increase Edison's financing costs, making SCE's investments for customers' benefit more expensive. It will also influence how we prioritize and deploy future capital.

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

Turning to operations, SCE took the first step in the next GRC process and filed its Risk Assessment Mitigation Phase, or RAMP, application in May. This outlines the risk mitigations that guide proposed investments across wildfire risk, transmission and distribution reliability, cybersecurity, climate adaptation, and other safety-related measures. For context, the investments identified in past RAMP filings accounted for about a third of the total capital requested in the GRC. As in prior cycles, this process provides a clear, safety- and risk-driven framework for evaluating capital needs and supports consistent engagement with regulators and stakeholders on safety and risk priorities. A key topic in RAMP is wildfire mitigation. SCE's strategy continues to be comprehensive, as noted on page three. What is increasingly important is execution and prioritization. SCE is using more advanced wildfire modeling, improved data, and climate-informed analysis to better identify where wildfire consequences could be greatest.

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

SCE has developed an enhanced wildfire risk model that combines multiple data sources to improve how it identifies, prioritizes, and plans safety measures, while accounting for high-impact wildfire events that may not be reflected in historical data. The utility is also broadening the range of risks and failure scenarios it evaluates, reflecting both lessons learned and a more comprehensive understanding of how wildfire risk can develop. That includes looking beyond individual equipment incidents and assessing how multiple conditions and events can combine to influence safety consequences. All this will inform SCE's mitigation investments in the next GRC, which will include continued grid hardening with additional covered conductor and targeted undergrounding during the 2029 to 2032 period. SCE's preliminary estimates in the RAMP application for continued hardening are about 450 miles of covered conductor and approximately 190 miles of targeted undergrounding. To summarize, SCE's approach is increasingly location-specific, consequence-informed, and adaptive.

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

This builds on the substantial progress SCE has already made hardening its system, including the deployment of about 800 miles of covered conductor and about 90 miles of undergrounding, including all rebuild areas, since January 2025. Importantly, SCE has not experienced a covered conductor failure associated with the risks that that technology is designed to mitigate. Combined with millions of inspections and vegetation management activities, as well as expanded situational awareness capabilities, these efforts have materially strengthened the grid and reduced wildfire risk. As a result, SCE is continuing to sharpen how it prioritizes mitigation, not only by looking at where the likelihood of ignition is highest, but also by identifying where the potential consequences to communities could be greatest.

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

The utility is directing mitigation to areas where it can provide the greatest safety benefit, using better data and ongoing learning to adjust as conditions change, all while focusing on affordability for customers. I'd now like to highlight an initiative I'm personally really excited about as we think about Edison's future. We are increasingly combining operating experience with richer data, advanced analytics, and AI-enabled capabilities to improve how risks are identified, prioritized, and managed. Advances in AI will be among the most important tools available to utilities over the next decade. For SCE, the opportunity extends well beyond individual use cases. AI is an important enabler of the utility's long-term transformation, helping accelerate operational excellence, improve how the grid is planned and operated, and strengthen wildfire mitigation efforts. The focus is on delivering tangible outcomes: better decisions, faster execution, lower costs, and improved customer value.

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

As these capabilities continue to mature, SCE expects them to become an increasingly important driver of safety, reliability, affordability, and overall business performance. Aaron will provide some examples of in-flight activities shortly. Moving on to the Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program, or WRCP, there is continued community interest in the voluntary program. SCE has now extended more than 2,200 offers, totaling over $775 million, to over 12,300 community members impacted by the Eaton Fire. SCE remains committed to providing information to community members to make informed decisions about what is best for their situation. Taking a broader view on sustainability, we remain committed to supporting the clean energy transition while maintaining the safety, reliability, and affordability that our customers expect. Our 2025 sustainability report has details about our accomplishments, goals, and long-term commitments. Here's a couple of examples.

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

SCE delivered at least 60% carbon-free power to customers, over 70% cleaner than the national average. SCE contracted approximately 900 megawatts of energy storage, bringing the total at year-end to about 9,200 megawatts owned or under contract, one of the largest storage portfolios in the nation. I'm proud of our team, and I'm proud of the progress that we continue to make toward a clean energy future that benefits everyone. We have, and we will always put customers first by strengthening the grid, mitigating wildfire risk, and advancing clean energy to support affordability and community resilience for generations to come. With that, I'm very excited to turn it over to Aaron for his first financial report as our new CFO. All right, Aaron.

Aaron D. Moss
Aaron D. Moss
EVP and CFO at Edison International

Thanks, Pedro. Good afternoon, everyone. It's great to be with you today. During my prior roles at Edison, I've had the chance to get to know many of you over the years. As I step into this role, I'm looking forward to continuing those conversations and discussing how we are executing on our strategy, investing in the business, and creating long-term value for all of our stakeholders. In my comments today, I will cover our 2nd Quarter 2026 results, capital plans, and reaffirmed earnings guidance. EIX reported 2nd Quarter earnings per share of $1.54, compared to $0.97 last year. Page 6 provides the year-over-year quarterly variance analysis. The quarter reflects continued stability in our core operations. Results benefited from regulatory decisions last year, including the GRC decision, as well as the ongoing reduction in interest expense associated with the Woolsey cost recovery. Let me reinforce what Pedro said.

Aaron D. Moss
Aaron D. Moss
EVP and CFO at Edison International

With this strong start to the first half of the year, we are confident in reaffirming our 2026 core EPS guidance. We are also reaffirming our long-term core EPS growth rate of 5%-7%. This outlook is supported by our capital investment plan, constructive regulatory framework, and continued focus on operational excellence. At SCE, results for the quarter were primarily driven by the timing of the GRC decision last year, along with continued focus on strong performance across our core operations. We continue to optimize how we approach O&M spending over the course of the year. This allows us to prioritize our work to address operational needs as they arise while maintaining overall cost control. This approach supports both near-term performance and long-term value creation for customers and capital providers.

Aaron D. Moss
Aaron D. Moss
EVP and CFO at Edison International

The parent and other core loss was favorable by $0.06, primarily driven by the net financing benefits of the preferred stock redemptions we initiated at the end of 2025 and completed in the first quarter of this year. Turning to SCE's capital plan, we continue to see strong investment opportunities across the business, driven by infrastructure replacement, wildfire mitigation, and growing demand for electrification. Our plan is centered around these priorities and supports long-term rate-based growth of about 7%. We remain focused on optimizing these investments in a way that balances system needs with customer affordability. As part of that execution, we are pleased with SCE's progress on its wildfire mitigation investments. Of SCE's roughly 16,800 distribution line miles in high-fire risk areas, SCE has successfully hardened about 90%, including nearly 7,200 miles of covered conductor.

Aaron D. Moss
Aaron D. Moss
EVP and CFO at Edison International

These investments remain a central part of our capital plan and are key to reducing wildfire risk and improving system resilience over time. Moving to financing activities, SCE successfully completed the Woolsey Fire cost recovery securitization earlier this week, generating approximately $2 billion in proceeds. We were pleased with the outcome and the strong demand we saw from capital providers. The proceeds will be used to recover claims and other costs, including retiring related debt, further strengthening our balance sheet. Let me transition to operational excellence, which benefits customer affordability and long-term performance. This is an area where I spent significant time in my prior roles within the utility and will remain an ongoing focus as we look to enhance both efficiency and execution across the business.

Aaron D. Moss
Aaron D. Moss
EVP and CFO at Edison International

As part of that effort, we are continuing to simplify processes and expand the use of emerging technologies, including targeted AI applications, in areas where they can improve productivity and quality. Our efforts are focused on high-volume, repeatable work where we see meaningful opportunities to drive productivity and quality. For example, our planning organizations produce on the order of 100,000 project designs each year, and we are deploying tools to help automate initial design generation and the validation of final designs against our standards. We expect these improvements to accelerate design cycles by 20%-30%. Similarly, we process approximately 40,000 permits annually across multiple agencies and systems. We see opportunities to streamline this process, reduce cycle times by approximately 20%, and improve throughput. Efforts like these are intended to create additional capacity in the system, support timely execution of our capital program, and improve cost performance over time.

Aaron D. Moss
Aaron D. Moss
EVP and CFO at Edison International

Our focus on operational excellence is one of the important ways we deliver consistent financial results. Looking at our year-to-date performance reinforces our confidence in the outlook for the business. We see continued momentum in our capital program, strong regulatory visibility, and stable operational performance, all of which position us well for the rest of the year. Consequently, we are reaffirming our 2026 core EPS guidance range of $5.90-$6.20. Our priorities remain consistent: delivering on our operational commitments, advancing our capital plan, and maintaining a strong cost framework, all while supporting a safe and reliable system for customers. Let me conclude by saying that we are pleased with our results. The business is performing as expected, our capital plan remains on track, and we are well positioned to deliver on our financial commitments for 2026 and beyond. That concludes my remarks. Back to Sam.

Sam Ramraj
Sam Ramraj
VP of Investor Relations at Edison International

Michelle, please open the call for questions. As a reminder, we request you to limit yourself to one question and one follow-up so everyone in line has the opportunity to ask questions.

Operator

Thank you, sir. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your phone. One moment for the first question, please. Nick Campanella with Barclays, your line is open, sir.

Nick Campanella
Nick Campanella
Analyst at Barclays

Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for the time. I know that everyone's working to get to a, you know, a financeable solution for the Wildfire Fund, and you acknowledge in your comments that it's a broader state issue, obviously, with a range of stakeholders being impacted. At the same time, you're kind of saying that future investments will be evaluated and there's some uncertainty. Can you just maybe kind of talk about what's on the table from the utility side and how you're thinking about weighing things like, you know, future securitization of capital or upfront contributions like in last year's legislation? I know that you're in the early stage of the GRC with visibility, but is there scenarios where we could expect a new plan come 3rd quarter? Thank you.

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

Yeah. Nick, thanks for the question. Maybe reiterating a little bit of what I was sharing earlier. We are in a unique position in that we have a GRC in hand at SCE. It's been approved. You know, we have full visibility, line-of-sight visibility through 2028 on our capital spending. You know from what I've shared with you all over the past while that we can execute on that capital plan without any equity needs. You know, we've gone further, right, that extended guidance beyond that rate case to provide some insights on where we think 2029 and 2030 are headed and, you know, committed to guidance that, you know, continues the need for growth, capital investment for our customers, and still don't see a need for equity through that 2030 time period.

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

Particularly as we talk about the period through 2028, we have just firm line-of-sight and, you know, that's already approved by the PUC. Now, we don't know what's going to happen in Sacramento. I appreciate all the efforts of everybody who's engaged there. By the way, I appreciate the efforts of investors who are weighing in and providing your perspectives. It's really important that our policymakers understand what's at stake here and the fact that they have a lot of opportunities to invest capital. California, those of us in California are competing with other states and really with other, you know, global locations. That's a quick segue tangent. Say thank you for those efforts. We don't know what's going to happen ultimately. You know, ideally, we would see a comprehensive solution. We may not, right? There's four weeks left. We haven't seen language yet.

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

We know people are working hard, but this is not just a utility issue. It's a big cross-economy issue. You know, there's certainly a possibility that we might not see a complete answer. We might see a partial answer. We might see some work done in 2026 and then some work left for 2027 in the legislature with, you know, a new governor and a number of new legislators. It's really hard to sit here and say, well, without understanding what the answer might be, here's what some of our reaction to that might be. Clearly, if we saw that whatever the answer in 2026 is, it was not viewed favorably by the market, and that dramatically changed the inherent cost of our equity, then we would want to be thoughtful about making sure we're not, you know, making negative NPV decisions on the behalf of investors.

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

At the same time, upholding our obligations to safety and reliability, you know, that are set in PUC regulations. That's going to be the balancing act. That's a lot of words. I don't think I gave you the sort of specific answer you wanted, Nick, but that's where we are today. You know, when we see what happens as of August 31, then, you know, September 1, actually, probably later that night of August 31, we'll start working on what the implications are and whether there's any near-term actions that are needed or more, you know, impacts in the longer term. We'll keep you all posted.

Nick Campanella
Nick Campanella
Analyst at Barclays

I appreciate you running through that. Thank you. Then just my second question is just the slight change in the 10-Q language around Eaton and that you believe the equipment was associated versus could have been. I understand that you've previously been saying you're not aware of any other evidence, but can you frame how that disclosure fits into the context of the Wildfire Compensation Program and getting, like, greater visibility eventually on what the low end of Eaton could be from a liability standpoint?

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

Yeah. Thanks, Nick, for the question. Just briefly, look, we always look at our language and want to make sure that it's as streamlined and straightforward as possible, both for investors and for the community. This is, you know, a little bit of just streamlining the language, but also recognizing that there's been the passage of time. As the fuller disclosure, you know, acknowledges us, our view on this is based on the information we have in hand today and absent additional information. The reality is since last quarter, 3 more months passed, you know, there are no other, you know, no viable alternatives have appeared. We thought that the slight streamlining that we did there was appropriate in terms of just saying that SCE's equipment likely was associated, you know, with the events.

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

We also recognize that there are a number of other factors that have impacted ultimately the extent of the Eaton Fire and, you know, not only the weather, but some of the factors that you saw show up in the cross-claims that, you know, SCE filed against a number of entities. That's all that the language is about. Going to your question about how does this all dovetail with WRCP and ability to estimate potential liability. You know, again, we said for a long time now that liability is probable, given everything here. We have taken accountability. We want to help the community by launching the WRCP.

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

The numbers I shared with you earlier of over 2,200, you know, offers provided, even the claims numbers themselves, when you think about over 12,300 individuals represented in those claims, that is still a small number relative to, for example, in litigation, we now have, and I'm looking at Shawn Danois and Warren GEC, I believe we have over 30,000 claims that have been filed. We just don't have the volume for the WRCP yet to use that to, you know, provide an estimate of the low end of the estimable range under GAAP principles. Similarly, if you look at subrogation claims, you saw in our disclosures that we repeated this from prior quarters. SCE has now entered settlements with two insurers at around $0.55 on the dollar, but that's two subrogation claims that were settled out of what may likely be, you know, many.

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

There, again, we just don't have sufficient volume to yield an estimate. Hopefully, I covered all the parts of your question there, Nick.

Nick Campanella
Nick Campanella
Analyst at Barclays

Thank you. Thank you for the thoughts.

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

Thanks. You bet.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from Carly Davenport with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.

Carly Davenport
Carly Davenport
VP of Equity Research at Goldman Sachs

Hey, good afternoon. Hey, thank you so much for taking the questions. Maybe just a follow-up on the wildfire side. You know, you continue to work through the claims on the Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program. Just curious if you have any view on timing to sort of crossing that $1 billion threshold and when you might envision sort of making first filings to tap into the California Wildfire Fund for reimbursement.

Aaron D. Moss
Aaron D. Moss
EVP and CFO at Edison International

Yeah, Carly, between the subrogation settlements that we've made and the WRCP settlements that we're making, we are crossing that $1 billion threshold. We've worked out with the CEA, who's the administrator of the California Wildfire Fund, pre-funding mechanisms so that we don't come out of pocket for any of those dollars there, and we're working through with them that process to fund the claims now.

Carly Davenport
Carly Davenport
VP of Equity Research at Goldman Sachs

Got it. Okay. Really helpful. Thank you for that. Then maybe just as we think about, you know, the potential outcomes in the legislative session and, you know, potential action plan on the back of that, could you maybe just talk a little bit about, you know, potential options on the table in the event that reform does not move forward this session? Maybe specifically, you referenced, obviously, the RAMP filing for the next GRC, you know, any potential changes that you might expect to see on the next GRC filing in the event that we don't see reform move forward this session.

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

Well, I mean, just to maybe reemphasize a point I made in my prepared remarks, right, and like I said, I was responding to Nick's questions here. We don't know what we're going to see, it's really difficult to say, you know, what the reactions might be. I did acknowledge, though, that if whatever comes out ends up significantly impacting the, you know, underlying cost of equity, that will have some influence on future investments. Again, there's things that are sacrosanct, right, around safety, reliability. We have obligations under, you know, the PUC code. Where there are places where there might be some more flexibility, latitude, this could be candidates for rethinking or, you know, factoring that into future capital programs. Aaron, anything you'd add or Steve? No. Okay. Yeah, sorry. Carly, I know you all want more specifics, we're just not there yet.

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

We want to be very thoughtful when we see what we see and work from there.

Carly Davenport
Carly Davenport
VP of Equity Research at Goldman Sachs

Got it. Nope. Understood. Thank you very much for the color.

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

Thanks, Carly.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from Richard Sunderland with Truist Securities. Your line is open, sir.

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

Hello, Rich.

Richard Sunderland
Richard Sunderland
Analyst at Truist Securities

Hey. Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for the time today. Pedro, I just wanted to go back to some of your comments in the script. You talked about a number of different issues in focus around the legislature, but, you know, affordability was certainly part of that. Given there's been attention broadly on affordability, call it the political backdrop in light of that, then more specific to this legislation, how do you think the affordability conversation stands right now, you know, whether in the context of that legislation or more broadly, and, you know, how has that tone changed over the past few months?

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

Yeah, that's a great question, Rich. I would start by saying this. It is a topic that just colors everything, not just in California, but really across the country, right? You know, we're in a period that, you know, has followed, well, frankly, some of the pressures you saw in COVID and, you know, moving on. You see now, particularly in, maybe even more so in other parts of the country, you know, significant pressures as you see dramatic growth in energy consumption and the driving infrastructure needs. You know, I think the industry as a whole is ready to meet those needs, but we recognize region by region, you know, there are, you know, pressures that are specific to those. Here in California, when you take a look at affordability, the reality is that energy, in many ways, is not the main driver.

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

One of the points that we continue to make is that for the average SCE customer, their total cost of energy is in the lowest cost quartile relative to the rest of the country. The challenge here, though, is that housing costs are, you know, really dominate affordability impacts for the average consumer along with other costs, right? In that environment, I think there's a tendency to go look for any levers that can be pulled. When you have a discussion going on in Sacramento around an important and very visible topic like wildfire, where, you know, there's utility cost recovery involved, where there's the connection to insurance rates and availability, right, there's just a lot around affordability that gets wrapped, you know, into all this.

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

One of the important points that we make to legislators is that this is really about customer affordability because the reality is if there is insufficient action in 2026, there's a strong likelihood that the day after or a few days after, you know, we could see credit rating downgrades for the investor in utilities in California and, you know, potentially for other sectors. I referenced the various, you know, Moody's and S&P reports recently that talk about, you know, multiple sectors. That could be a significant cost impact in, you know, through the cost of debt that gets passed through to SCE customers if we don't have a framework in the next four weeks that is credit supportive for our utility. If you look at just the S&P ratings, it's triple B minus for the utility. There's nowhere to go in investment grade, right?

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

The next step is non-investment grade, which adds a lot of cost. Affordability is really framed around, you know, the impact of the absence of legislation on customer costs. Hence, I think the great point that the CEA report made around the sense of urgency here. Aaron, anything you would add there?

Aaron D. Moss
Aaron D. Moss
EVP and CFO at Edison International

I just would say I think there's a little bit Rich asked about affordability measures. I just say as part of the legislative package, we're going to evaluate the totality of the package that comes to us and figure out our response that goes along with it.

Richard Sunderland
Richard Sunderland
Analyst at Truist Securities

Great. I'll leave it there. Thank you both.

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

Yeah. Thanks, Rich.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from Gregg Orrill with UBS. Your line is open, sir.

Gregg Orrill
Gregg Orrill
Analyst at UBS

Yeah. Hi. Congratulations on the result. I was just wondering if, you know, there was a way to, you know, get a sense of how much of the impact was timing and how, you know, how much of the upside is, you know, in your view, sort of normalized.

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

Yeah, Gregg. I'd say, you know, two quarters doesn't make a year. We're focused on delivering on our guidance for the year. The quarter is a data point, and it's important. Having a strong start to the year does give us the opportunity to invest in the business, to de-risk future periods and drive efficiency. We're very happy about that, but we reaffirmed our guidance at the $5.90-$6.20.

Gregg Orrill
Gregg Orrill
Analyst at UBS

Okay. Got it. Thank you.

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

Thanks, Gregg.

Operator

Thank you. Thank you. The next question comes from Paul Zimbardo with Jefferies. Your line is open, sir.

Paul Zimbardo
Paul Zimbardo
Analyst at Jefferies

Hi. Good afternoon, team. Thanks for taking the question. The first I was going to ask, just following up on, Pedro, your response to the prior question around the rating agencies and the potential downgrades. I saw you tweak that language also. Is that something that the agencies have directly communicated, like something new, or are you just referencing some of their reports where they talk about those scenarios without legislation?

Aaron D. Moss
Aaron D. Moss
EVP and CFO at Edison International

A couple of things there, Paul. One, on our ratings or the utility California IOU ratings, just referencing prior reports. Pedro's prepared remarks did reference separate reports that both Moody's and S&P have issued over, I think, the past month about California, which IOUs are an important part of California, but it talks more broadly about the ramifications of wildfire across the California economy. Not quite sure what you were asking about, but neither one of those was intended to be, you know, kind of a breaking news of something that hasn't been published by the rating agencies.

Paul Zimbardo
Paul Zimbardo
Analyst at Jefferies

Okay. No, that's what I thought it was. I just wanted to clarify on that. That's helpful. The other was, again, I know everyone wants to talk about California and everything else, I saw that you sold Trio, I think that's old, as an energy. Just kind of why make that decision now?

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

Yeah. Thanks, Paul. Trio, we still believe in the underlying business. You know, given where we are today, we thought that, you know, with the focus that we have, you know, laser focus in Edison and with some of the ongoing needs that Trio may have, there's a different partner who's a better fit as an owner for them. The transaction made sense for us. As you know, it's not material, you know, has not been material to EIX throughout. You did notice it in our disclosures. We wish the team very well. That's a great team there, and I think they can continue to be successful.

Paul Zimbardo
Paul Zimbardo
Analyst at Jefferies

Okay. Well, thanks for the time.

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

Yeah. Thanks, Paul.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from Aidan Kelly with JPMorgan. Your line is open, sir.

Aidan Kelly
Aidan Kelly
Analyst at JPMorgan

Hey. Good afternoon. Appreciate the time today.

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

Yeah, you bet.

Aidan Kelly
Aidan Kelly
Analyst at JPMorgan

Thanks. Just wanted to come back to the RAMP application. Could you speak to the pace of mitigation span required across SCE service territories and how this might compare relative to last cycle? I know in the prepared remarks, you mentioned about 450 miles of covered conductor, 190 miles of undergrounding. If you were just to tee it up from a capital perspective, how would you frame the size relative to past applications?

Aaron D. Moss
Aaron D. Moss
EVP and CFO at Edison International

Yeah. I'd say in the past, about a third of our GRC requests has shown up in the RAMP application. This time around, it's about $2.5 billion. I'd say maybe slightly more than a third would be the translation. It ties in the level of spending that we have here, ties in with the $8 billion-$9 billion of CapEx that we have in our 2029 capital forecast that we share with you in the investor deck.

Aidan Kelly
Aidan Kelly
Analyst at JPMorgan

Got it. Appreciate the color there. For the Eaton Fire, just wondering if there's any update on the L.A. District Attorney's investigation. You'd be willing to share, you know, any sense on timeline or key milestones to be on the lookout for?

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

Yeah. No, we don't really have an update there. You might imagine we're not privy to what their timing might be or the like. Of course, we're ready to cooperate and have cooperated when they've asked for anything from our team. We have said in the past that typically for complex fires, you might see a report out in 12-18 months. Clearly, it's been more than 18 months now, but we don't really have an insight on when the report might come out.

Aidan Kelly
Aidan Kelly
Analyst at JPMorgan

Got it. Makes sense. Appreciate the time away from there.

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

Yeah, you bet. Take care.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Ryan Levine with Citi. Your line is open, sir.

Ryan Levine
Ryan Levine
Analyst at Citi

Good afternoon. Hi. Two questions. One, to the extent you're able to comment, how's the ramp of education efforts in Sacramento compared to the last year on the wildfire bill? Is this much broader in terms of given the complexity of the bill or any color you could share more broadly around the process?

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

It's a good question, Ryan. I would say this. Certainly, you know, we're very focused on that education effort. When you say about when you talk about the last time, I'm kind of tempted, just a little tongue-in-cheek, to ask which last time. Do you mean 254? Do you mean 1054? Do you mean the effort that led to 901? You know, if you don't mind, I should take in a little broader aperture. I mean, I go back to 2017 and 2018, right? We ended up with SB 901 was in 2018. That was a real ramp-up, right? Because it was a new topic in many ways for all of us, for the legislature, for the utilities. We were really focused on helping the state develop a brand new framework from whole cloth.

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

I would say 254 was different because last year, right, it was different in the sense that we had 1054. The question was, what needs improvement? How do you build from that? You saw that with 254, you know, we were all very engaged. The answer from the legislature was that they themselves needed more education, which they then passed to the CEA to produce a report, which, you know, I think you've heard me say before, I thought it was an excellent report, right? So the report came out in April. I'd say this year what's different is that we all are benefiting from having the basis of that report as the platform for the discussions. That's I think that's helpful.

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

You know, that said, a lot of legislators, you know, while they were there for the 254 cycle, they may not have been for 1054 or 901, right? You still have a range of starting points for individual policymakers. I feel for them. I think they have, you know, some of the hardest jobs in the state because, you know, listen, I think my job is hard and I get to focus on one sector. They're focusing on every sector across the world's fourth-largest economy. You know, I think having the CEA report as a platform to start, you know, it's been helpful to all of them and to us.

Ryan Levine
Ryan Levine
Analyst at Citi

Thanks. One more specific question around the RAMP process. How does the ongoing undergrounding cost-benefit analysis impact the decision around how much covered conductors or undergrounding you're planning to do and to the extent that there's any upside to the 190-mile undergrounding plan that you filed in your RAMP?

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

That's Steve Powell, Chip Edemerson.

Steven Powell
Steven Powell
President and CEO of Southern California Edison at Edison International

Hey, Ryan. Hey, Joan. Every time we go through the RAMP, you know, we're looking at the latest, I'll say, approved as well as our own risk frameworks and how that translates into the benefit-cost ratios. You know, at a lot of points, we're looking at finding the right portfolio that is, you know, above a 1.0 benefit-cost, we're looking project by project as well. The risk models have been refined to bring in the latest intel that we have on the level of risk. Given everything we've learned in the past, we've combined a number of models to better assess the actual risk there. When it comes to undergrounding, you know, we're looking at certainly the cost of that undergrounding, it varies segment by segment, and we use those estimates combined with the level of risk. There we'll calculate the benefit-cost.

Steven Powell
President and CEO at Southern California Edison

We're going to do projects that are above one. We'll then compare them on covered conductor versus just undergrounding. We'll look at other factors like the egress, the terrain, and other pieces to decide if where undergrounding is going to be the right solution. It has to be feasible as well. That's one of the constraints around it that also plays into cost. Based on what was in the RAMP, you know, we put in about 190 miles of undergrounding in sort of a base scenario. We'll continue to evaluate if there's other places that we need to do it, frankly, to reduce things like Public Safety Power Shutoff and other factors. The RAMP is a good starting point. We put in our BCR analysis. We'll get feedback in the process before we actually file our General Rate Case.

Steven Powell
President and CEO at Southern California Edison

We'll decide what actually goes into our general rate case as we get closer to next year.

Ryan Levine
Ryan Levine
Analyst at Citi

Great. Thanks for the time.

Pedro Pizarro
Pedro Pizarro
President and CEO at Edison International

Yeah. Take care, Ryan.

Operator

Thank you. That was our last question. I will now turn the call back over to Mr. Sam Ramraj.

Sam Ramraj
Sam Ramraj
VP of Investor Relations at Edison International

Thanks, everyone, for joining us. This concludes the conference call. Have a good rest of the day. You may now disconnect.

Operator

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. You may go ahead and disconnect at this time and have a great rest of your day. Thank you.

Executives
    • Sam Ramraj
      Sam Ramraj
      VP of Investor Relations
    • Pedro Pizarro
      Pedro Pizarro
      President and CEO
    • Aaron D. Moss
      Aaron D. Moss
      EVP and CFO
    • Steven Powell
      Steven Powell
      President and CEO of Southern California Edison
Analysts
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