San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) made more than $936 million in profit in 2023, up $21 million from the $915 million the company made the year before.
The yearly earnings were part of the shareholders report released by SDG&E’s parent company, Sempra, a Fortune 500 energy company headquartered in San Diego.
Sempra made close to $3 billion in profits last year.
The release of the financial summaries caused a bit of a stir among protesters gathered outside company headquarters on Tuesday morning.
The shareholder report did not, as it had for decades, itemize SDG&E and Southern California Gas revenues and profits. The two subsidiaries were grouped together under the Sempra California banner. That combined entity made more than $1.7 billion in profits for the parent company.
“It’s a safe bet that they may have earned a billion or nearly a billion dollars from SDG&E overall,” said Craig Rose, a spokesman for Power San Diego. “And probably close to $450 million dollars from SDG&E operations in (the city of) San Diego.”
Rose works with a group trying to have SDG&E replaced with a municipal utility.
Power San Diego is circulating petitions to gather more than 80,000 signatures before the middle of May so an initiative to fire the investor-owner utility gets before voters in November.
The measure would direct the city of San Diego to buy all of the utility’s infrastructure and then serve customers like municipal utilities in Riverside, Los Angeles and Sacramento.
Backers said a municipal utility would be able to deliver cheaper electricity because it would not be sending profit to a parent company.
“The nonprofit will do what it says — eliminate the profit,” said Bill Powers, chair of Power San Diego.
SDG&E customer Essie Baradar does not have much good to say when she opens her utility bill each month.
“I heard what they do,” Baradar said. “They don’t do anything for San Diego. They only profit, profit, profit.”
Sempra officials told shareholders at the November 2023 quarterly conference call that the company would be simplifying financial reporting and combining the two Southern California utilities into one group, Sempra California.
Sempra said in a statement that the company would continue to electrify and decarbonize energy networks in California, Texas and Mexico all with an eye on affordability.
“Cost inflation is impacting customers from the gas station to the grocery store, and we are focused on doing our part to help affordability for consumers. Our utility subsidiaries are focused on delivering solutions to customers, including shareholder-funded assistance programs and income-qualified bill discounts for those with financial hardships,” the company said.
Sempra serves 25 million utility customers in Southern California.
