Pedro Pizarro
President and Chief Executive Officer at Edison International
Thanks a lot, Sam, and good afternoon, everyone.
Edison International reported core earnings per share of $0.94 compared to $0.94 a year ago. Based on our year-to-date performance and outlook for the remainder of the year, we are reaffirming our 2022 core EPS guidance range of $4.40 to $4.70. I also want to emphasize that we remain fully confident in our long-term EPS growth target of 5% to 7% through 2025. Maria will discuss our financial performance in her remarks.
I would like to begin with an update on the tremendous progress SCE has made in wildfire mitigation. In preparing for this year's peak wildfire season, SCE has a higher level of confidence in its ability to mitigate wildfires associated with its equipment. During the quarter, SCE achieved a significant grid hardening milestone. It has now replaced over 3,500 circuit miles of bare wire with covered conductor in just over three and a half years. SCE expects to have covered approximately 40% of its overhead distribution power lines in high fire risk areas, or HFRA, by the end of 2022. In many locations throughout SCE's service area, covered conductor is the primary grid hardening tool since it balances risk reduction, cost and timely execution. SCE plans to continue its current pace of installing about 1,200 miles per year of covered conductor for the next couple of years. I am pleased with the utility's execution of this program, which has and will continue to substantially improve safety for customers.
SCE has achieved the majority of wildfire risk reduction through covered conductor and other system hardening measures, vegetation management and equipment inspections. Public Safety Power Shutoffs, or PSPS, provide additional risk reduction that is critical during extreme weather and fuel conditions. SCE also continues to implement cutting-edge technologies to mitigate against high impact wildfires. For example, the utility is leveraging machine learning to improve the accuracy of wind-speed forecasts at around 500 SCE weather station locations, and this will help better predict, which areas may reach or exceed PSPS thresholds.
The state of California continues to allocate substantial funding in support of forest resiliency and fire suppression, including CAL FIRE crews and aerial resources. SCE is also supporting the readiness and response efforts of our local fire agencies. For the fourth consecutive year, SCE is providing aerial suppression resources to local fire agencies to help quickly extinguish wildfires when they do start.
SCE is contributing $18 million to lease the Quick Reaction Force of water and retardant dropping helitankers to Orange, Los Angeles, and Ventura County fire agencies. The QRF's most critical feature is that it can continue to hover-fill and make retardant drops at night, making it the world's first fully nocturnal aerial task force. In addition, SCE's wildfire camera network provides visibility to growing wildfires for fire agencies, and the utility continues to explore adding artificial intelligence technology and new data sources that can detect and confirm new ignitions.
Before I leave this topic, I would like to remind investors that we are hosting an in-person meeting on August 18th at SCE's Emergency Operations Center and Energy Education Center. Our leadership team and I look forward to discussing ongoing wildfire mitigation activities and SCE's opportunities in California's clean energy transition. [Speech Overlap].
Last week, SCE received a final decision from the Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety approving its 2022 Wildfire Mitigation Plan Update. This is a prerequisite to submit the annual safety certification request, which allows SCE to benefit from the presumption of prudency and the liability cap under AB 1054. This decision recognized the progress SCE has made in mitigating wildfire risk and in increasing the overall maturity of its wildfire mitigation portfolio and strategies.
Turning to wildfire-related settlements, we are pleased with SCE's progress in further resolving 2017 and 2018 Wildfire and Mudslide Events claims. In the second quarter, SCE resolved approximately $400 million of claims. In total, the utility has resolved nearly 90% of its best estimate of expected losses and continues to make steady progress in resolving remaining claims. SCE is well on its way to reaching substantial resolution of claims in the TKM matter and remains on track to file the first application for cost recovery by late 2023. I would like to be clear that SCE currently expects to seek full CPUC cost recovery of claims payments, excluding amounts recoverable from insurance or FERC, or foregone under the agreement with the Safety Enforcement Division. We will keep you updated on our progress on this front.
Shifting topics, I would like to briefly address a lawsuit brought by two former employees of Southern California Edison. As some of you may be aware, a jury awarded substantial damages to the plaintiffs. We don't believe that the jury's decision was consistent with the facts and the law, and it certainly does not reflect who we are or what we stand for, but rather than engage in a protracted legal challenge, we reached a settlement in July, for which we took a net after-tax charge of $16 million. Edison International and SCE did not admit liability or fault as part of the settlement.
Most of my comments covered a lot about wildfire risk mitigation, which is a core component in adapting to climate change. I also want to emphasize our continuing focus on sustainability because this underlies our company's strategy. We recently published our annual Sustainability Report, which details 2021 achievements. These are covered on Pages 5 and 6. Let me highlight especially that SCE has the lowest system average rate among the large California IOUs, and that's primarily due to more than a decade of committed focus on operational excellence and cost management. Further, as you see on Page 7, the total energy burden in 2021 that is the total cost of electricity, natural gas and gasoline relative to median household income for customers in SCE's service area was below the median for customers in other states across the country.
We see the potential for that to continue to decline with increasing levels of electrification. Our Pathway 2045 analysis shows that the greater efficiency of electric motors and appliances will reduce customers' total costs across all energy commodities by one-third by 2045.
Let me conclude by saying that Edison International is a nationally recognized leader in the clean energy transition. In alignment with climate actions planned by the state of California, as we announced last year, our goal is to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across Scopes 1, 2, and 3 by 2045, and that will cover the power SCE delivers to customers as well as Edison International's enterprise-wide operations, including supply chain.
With that, let me turn it over to Maria for her financial report.
