San Diego Gas & Electric made $891 million in profit last year, according to financial numbers filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by SDG&E’s parent company.
That’s $45 million lower than the earnings SDG&E recorded in 2023, when the utility reported an all-time high of $936 million. In 2022, SDG&E made a profit of $915 million.
SDG&E is a subsidiary of the San Diego-based Fortune 500 energy company Sempra, which had its annual 10-K report posted by the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday afternoon.
Profits earned by investor-owned utilities have drawn increasing scrutiny as many customers across California have seen their monthly bills rise steadily.
Earlier this month, the largest utility in the Golden State — Pacific Gas & Electric, which serves Central and Northern California — reported a 2024 profit of $2.48 billion.
Officials at Sempra declined comment to the Union-Tribune on SDG&E’s 2024 earnings.
While the utility’s returns were lower than the previous year, $891 million “is still a lot of money,” said Bill Powers, who has long advocated for San Diego to establish a municipally owned power company.
“SDG&E’s profit of $891 million a year is $891 million that could go into the pockets of San Diegans if they were served by a public utility,” said Powers, who is also a board member of the Protect Our Communities Foundation.
TURN (The Utility Reform Network), a San Francisco-based consumer group, also took a jab.
“Today, SDG&E reported near-record profits off the backs of customers,” the group’s spokesman Lee Trotman said in an email. “This blatant profiteering at the expense of hardworking families demands immediate action from legislators and regulators to put an end to excessive profits and reckless spending.”
According to an annual report from the California Public Utilities Commission, the average per kilowatt-hour price for electricity has roughly doubled since 2013 for all three of the big investor-owned utilities in California — SDG&E, PG&E and Southern California Edison.
The report predicts electric rates will rise 5.6% to 10.8% annually through 2027, well over the rate of inflation.
Multiple reports have looked into the reasons why California rates are so high.
Last month, the independent Legislative Analyst’s Office said key factors include “significant and increasing wildfire-related costs, the state’s ambitious greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction programs and policies,” and laws passed by the Legislature in Sacramento that the utilities commission instructs power companies to implement.
Tuesday turned out to be a rough day for Sempra.
The company’s stock price slumped after executives reported weaker than expected earnings in the fourth quarter of 2024 and reduced the company’s financial guidance for this year.
Sempra stock dropped 18.97% Tuesday, finishing the trading day at $70.64 per share.
The company blamed the lower numbers on a host of reasons, including the California Public Utilities Commission approving the General Rate Case for SDG&E and fellow Sempra subsidiary Southern California Gas in late December with figures that were “below our planning assumptions,” Sempra president and CEO Jeff Martin said.
Sempra’s Texas-based utility, Oncor, also missed Wall Street estimates. But Martin said Sempra’s long-range prospects remain solid.
“What we have to do a better job of is, in the near-term, producing results that exceed expectations,” Martin said during the earnings call with analysts. “We’ve got a track record of doing that and there’s a commitment on our management team to get back to that.”
