Edison International - Q4 2025

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Edison International Fourth Quarter 2025 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 one on your phone. Today's call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Sam Ramraj, Vice President of Investor Relations. Mr. Ramraj, you may begin your conference.

Sam Ramraj (VP of Investor Relations)

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, Maria Rigatti. 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-K, prepared remarks from Pedro and Maria, and the teleconference presentation. Tomorrow, we will distribute our regular business update presentation. During this call, we'll 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.

I will now turn the call over to Pedro.

Pedro Pizarro (President and CEO)

Oh, thanks a lot, Sam, and good afternoon, everyone. Edison International's 2025 core earnings per share of $6.55 was above our guidance range. That extends our two-decade track record of meeting or exceeding annual EPS guidance. Importantly, this also marks the successful delivery of the long-term core EPS growth target that we established in 2021. Our performance reflects disciplined execution across the enterprise and continued focus on cost management, operational performance, and capital efficiency. Maria will provide more details in her remarks. Today, I'll focus on three themes: Our commitments to customers, communities, and investors, our strength in regulatory visibility, and our confidence in our multi-year plan. Starting with the first theme, we are committed to the customers and communities who count on safe, reliable, and increasingly clean energy.

Safety remains our top value, and SCE continues to carry out extensive work to strengthen the electric system and reduce wildfire risk. We are proud that in the Q4 2025 Residential Customer Engagement Survey by Escalent, SCE had the highest absolute brand trust score among the large California investor-owned utilities. Customers and public trust remain the core of SCE's mission. The utility has now installed more than 7,000 miles of covered conductor in high fire risk areas, representing over 90% of its planned grid hardening effort. This work continues to play a critical role in reducing ignition risk and strengthening reliability for the communities we serve. SCE now has fast curve settings on 93% of its distribution circuits in high fire risk areas, a prime example of how it is using technology to reduce risk by detecting and addressing faults even more quickly.

All of this work demonstrates SCE's ongoing wildfire risk reduction leadership. This progress benefits not just the utility's own customers and communities who fund this critical work, but also many peers across the nation. Safety and affordability remain at the core of our commitment to customers. Earlier this year, SCE announced a 2.3% rate decrease for residential customers and a 5.3% decrease for small and medium-sized business customers. This is starting from a place of having the lowest system average rate by a margin of 20% among California's major investor-owned utilities. SCE has invested more than $12 billion for customer safety and reliability over the last two years. Currently, a typical non-CARE residential customer pays about $188 per month, which is modestly higher than the $180 paid two years ago.

This reflects the utility's disciplined cost management to support customer affordability. We will continue to work to keep rates affordable for customers. We are also committed to the investors whose capital makes it possible to build the infrastructure that is essential to deliver safe, reliable, affordable electricity. Our commitment begins with a regulatory framework that enables SCE to consistently earn its authorized returns, which supports a strong investment-grade balance sheet and lower financing costs for customers. Our capital contributors, including pension funds, mutual funds, and insurers, depend on stable, transparent, long-term performance. Credit rating agencies continue to evaluate California-specific risk factors, underscoring the importance of maintaining a durable and predictable regulatory environment that provides confidence for long-term investment and protects customers from higher costs.

To that end, we are actively engaging with policymakers and state leaders to reinforce the value of a stable framework, and the SB 254 process will be a central venue in 2026 for strengthening the regulatory durability that supports both capital contributors and customers. SCE remains committed to resolving wildfire-related claims fairly, prudently, and responsibly. To date, more than 2,300 claims have been submitted under the Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program, with associated payments underway. As always, we are guided by our commitment to transparency, accountability, and customer trust. Building upon this, today, SCE announced enhancements to the program, providing stronger support for displaced renters and increasing coverage for legal expenses. Regarding the Eaton Fire, as you see on page four, the investigations remain ongoing.

To recap our prior statements, while SCE has not conclusively determined that its equipment caused the ignition of the Eaton Fire, a viable explanation is that a de-energized idle SCE transmission facility in the preliminary area, preliminary area of origin was associated with the ignition of the fire, and SCE is not aware of evidence pointing to another possible source of ignition. Absent additional evidence, SCE believes that it is likely that its equipment could have been associated with the ignition of the Eaton Fire. Given the complexities associated with estimating damages, we currently are unable to reasonably estimate a range of potential losses. Nonetheless, based on the information we have reviewed thus far, we remain confident that SCE will be able to make a good-faith showing that its conduct with respect to its transmission facilities in the Eaton Canyon area was consistent with actions of a reasonable utility.

The company continues to prioritize the recovery of impacted community members. Edison International is donating $2 million to the Pasadena Community Foundation to help meet the needs of community members in the Altadena area recovering from the Eaton Fire. My second theme today is our strengthened regulatory visibility, given 2025 was a significant regulatory year for SCE, which you see on page five. With the GRC cost of capital proceeding, TKM and Woolsey Settlement Agreements, and other wildfire proceedings concluded, SCE enters 2026 with substantially greater clarity into capital plans, revenue requirement, and operational priorities, not only for the GRC period, but into the next decade. Our team members across Edison International and SCE continue to demonstrate their ability to execute through complexity, respond to evolving conditions, and stay focused on long-term goals.

Turning to the legislative front, the upcoming session will be pivotal for shaping the next phase of California's energy and resiliency policy. A central focus this year is the SB 254 natural catastrophe resiliency study being authored by the California Earthquake Authority and subsequent legislation. Our focus remains on a whole-of-society solution to mitigate and respond to catastrophic wildfires that enhances public safety, improves affordability, and supports predictable, long-term investment in a clean, reliable energy system for California. In December, SCE and the other IOUs jointly submitted white papers, along with dozens of other stakeholders, providing input into the CEA's process. We continue to be actively engaged with relevant stakeholders, the governor's office, and legislative leaders about the potential for enhancements to the policy framework. Moving on to my third theme today, our confidence in our multiyear financial outlook.

We are introducing core EPS guidance for 2026 and 2027, reaffirming our 2028 outlook, and extending our expected core EPS growth rate target through 2030. Maintaining the 2028 target while extending the horizon underscores the growing clarity and stability in our multiyear plan, supported by a constructive regulatory foundation and a robust pipeline of necessary investments at the utility. With an attractive dividend yield of approximately 5% and a long-term core EPS growth rate target of 5%-7%, EIX shares offer a compelling case for total shareholder returns of 10%-12%. This combination of income and growth reflects the strength of our regulated business model and our commitment to delivering sustainable value for customers and capital providers. Let me close where I began, with commitment.

Our commitment to communities and customers, and to the capital contributors whose support makes our work possible. Our commitment to strengthening the grid, enhancing safety, improving reliability, and supporting affordability. Our commitment to clarity and transparency as we move into a period of greater regulatory stability, and our commitment to deliver on the objectives we have shared with you today. We have the right strategy, the right plan, and the right team in place, and we are confident in our ability to execute that plan through 2030. With that, Maria, let me turn it over to you.

Maria Rigatti (EVP and CFO)

Thanks, Pedro. In my comments today, I will discuss fourth quarter and full-year financial results, our focus areas for 2026, provide an update on our refreshed capital, rate base, and EPS growth guidance, and discuss other financial topics. For the fourth quarter, EIX reported core EPS of $1.86. Full-year 2025 core EPS of $6.55 exceeded the high end of our EPS guidance range. Pages six and seven provide the year-over-year variance analysis. I would like to note two items embedded in our results. First, fourth quarter core EPS includes $0.06 of costs attributed to the preferred stock tender offers and redemption at EIX and SCE completed in December. Second, we recorded a $0.46 true-up following the final decision in the Woolsey cost recovery proceeding.

Excluding the Woolsey true-up, EIX's full year 2025 core EPS still exceeded the midpoint of our guidance. I will echo Pedro's comments that this marks the successful delivery of the long-term core EPS target we established for 2021 through 2025. Over that period, we successfully managed a number of unforeseen headwinds: record inflation, the first rising interest rate environment in over 15 years, growing wildfire claims-related debt, several changes to SCE's authorized cost of capital, and additional cost pressures, yet we delivered on our commitments. Today, we are reaffirming our 2028 guidance and extending our 5%-7% EPS growth target to 2030. You should share this leadership team's confidence that we will continue to deliver on these commitments and build on your trust.

You can see on page eight that delivering strong financial results was just one accomplishment in another year of strong execution in 2025. Page nine summarizes the key management focus areas for 2026. SCE continues to execute its wildfire mitigation plan and its focus on operational excellence to reduce costs for customers. The utility also plans to execute on its $7 billion capital plan for the year to meet customers' needs. As Pedro mentioned, the legislative process will be a major focus for the year. In the regulatory area, the utility will be driving toward a final decision on its next-gen ERP program and filing an application for its advanced metering infrastructure, or AMI 2.0, program. Both of these are large programs that provide significant long-term customer benefits.

Lastly, we look forward to another year of delivering on our annual core EPS guidance and executing efficient financings across the enterprise. Let's turn to SCE's updated capital and rate base forecast, shown on pages 10 and 11. The extended capital plan of $38 billion-$41 billion from 2026 through 2030 continues the company's essential work in load growth-driven programs, infrastructure replacement, and wildfire mitigation. Additionally, our updated forecast now includes nearly $1.5 billion of capital expenditures through 2030 from SCE's upcoming AMI 2.0 application. The total request will exceed $3 billion, with spending expected to continue through 2033. We forecast a step-up in our capital deployment opportunities to as high as $9 billion per year in the next GRC cycle.

This is driven by the essential investments in the grid to meet customer needs and support California's clean energy objectives. The resulting projected rate base growth is approximately 7% from 2025 to 2030. Page 12 shows our 2026 and 2027 core EPS guidance. We have also provided modeling considerations on page 15. Our core EPS guidance for 2026 is $5.90-$6.20, and for 2027, it is $6.25-$6.65. As you're aware, Edison's core EPS over the years has not been linear. Let me provide some additional insight into our outlook and trajectory toward achieving our longer-term targets.

You will see that 2026 core EPS represents growth of about 3.5% at the midpoint compared to the $5.84 baseline. We have provided a bridge on page 13 to help you understand the puts and takes. This muted growth is driven by three items, which amount to $0.25. First, SCE has fewer regulatory decisions in 2026 than last year. Therefore, the associated earnings contribution from recognizing prior year earnings is about $0.11 lower. Second, asset mix differences versus the original GRC forecast create depreciation and property tax-related variances of about $0.07. Third, financing-related variances, tax law changes, and other items reduce core EPS by approximately $0.07. The drivers behind the $0.25 impact are baked into 2026 and, thus, are not expected to result in negative variances in later periods.

Consequently, we expect EPS growth in 2027 to be at the high end of our 5%-7% range. This is supported by SCE's 7% rate base growth, and we do not expect any large, discrete variances from the rest of SCE's operations. Turning to page 16, we are extending our 5%-7% EPS growth target to 2030. We are also reaffirming our 2028 guidance, and both of these are measured from the $5.84 baseline for 2025. On the financing front, I want to emphasize that we project no equity needs for the next five years through 2030. Our balance sheet remains strong, and we continue to finance the business efficiently within our 15%-17% FFO to debt framework. Last month, the utility filed its Woolsey securitization application with the CPUC.

Once approved, the utility will securitize about $2 billion in costs associated with the approved Woolsey settlement agreement. SCE's proposed schedule would allow for this transaction to close in mid-2026. As we have shared before, proceeds from this transaction would be used to offset normal course debt issuances at SCE rather than paying down specific issuances. I will conclude by echoing Pedro's earlier comments about commitment and trust. Deploying capital for the resilience, reliability, and readiness of the grid helps deliver on our commitments to customers and maintain their trust. We are committed to collaborating with stakeholders to advance a clear, durable, and predictable framework. To our capital contributors, you have seen us deliver consistently on our annual and long-term commitments to earn your trust. This leadership team remains committed and confident in continuing to do just that going forward. That concludes my remarks.

Back to you, Sam.

Sam Ramraj (VP of Investor Relations)

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 (participant)

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

Pedro Pizarro (President and CEO)

Hi, Nick.

Nick Campanella (Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. So I guess just on the, on the Eaton losses, I think you disclosed that you recorded about $1.1 billion of losses so far, just from the settlements under the Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program. And I guess just as you're continuing to get more visibility on the total liability, like, when do you think you would potentially have the low end of losses for the, for the total event? And, you know, what is kind of the complicating factor at this point, if you could kind of maybe expand on that at all? Thank you.

Pedro Pizarro (President and CEO)

Yeah, thanks, Nick, for the question. I'll, I'll start on this one. Let me share some reinforce some numbers for perspective. I think I mentioned that we've had, SCE has had over 2,300 claims submitted so far. There are 18,000 properties that are eligible for the program. You might have multiple claimants per property. There's, for example, if you have a, you know, multiple tenant kind of property. So we could certainly see, you know, a few tens of thousands of claims ultimately, you know, if everybody were to participate through the program. And so in that context, 2,300 claim applications, and we're now, I think I checked this morning, SCE has now crossed the 590 offer mark. Those are That's a really good, strong start.

Those are good numbers for just, you know, three months into the program, but it's just a, you know, minuscule number compared to the potential pool here. And so, in terms of when we would be able to estimate, we really don't have an estimate for that yet because it really depends on, the pace of this.

Maria Rigatti (EVP and CFO)

Nick, maybe just a clarification. You referenced $1 billion or so that we've recorded. That's a combination of what we've paid under the WRCP program, which Pedro just described. That is a very minor part of the total.

Pedro Pizarro (President and CEO)

Yep.

Maria Rigatti (EVP and CFO)

The rest of it is associated with subrogation claim settlements that the company's entered into. So it's, it's both of those things.

Pedro Pizarro (President and CEO)

Yeah, thanks for the clarification, Maria. We've announced a couple of subrogation settlements so far. So, so that's why.

Nick Campanella (Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Thanks for that clarification.

Pedro Pizarro (President and CEO)

On the insurance side, the subrogation side, similarly, there's been two, two settlements at around an average of $0.55 on the dollar, but, you know, there's many more insurance companies than that, so we really can't estimate when we might have enough critical volume to be able to have a, you know, even a low end of the estimable range with the confidence required by GAAP.

Nick Campanella (Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Okay, thank you. Thanks for the clarification. And then just maybe expanding on the comments about, you know, the 5%-7% and being at the high end in 2027. I know your rate base growth is 7%, and you're not issuing any equity, which is great, but I assume you do have some financing drag. Just what are kind of the considerations and nonlinearity to think about for 2028 and 2029? And do you kind of plan to be at the high end in those years, in the 5%-7% range, or are there just further considerations there? Thank you.

Maria Rigatti (EVP and CFO)

Thanks, Nick. So you can see sort of through the 2028 period, again, 2026, some muted growth due to variances that are now in the year and will not create variances on a go-forward basis, which then does mean that we're at the high end of the range for the next couple of years. We don't really see any large discrete activities that are driving things in one direction or the other over the course of those years. It's really rate-based growth. Obviously, you know, we're still gonna continue to see things like AFUDC come through. We're going to continue to manage the business across all the different elements and areas, similar to what we've done in the past. Then as you get out to 2029 and 2030, again, right back down to rate-based growth.

I mean, that is really the driver here, and you can see the potential step up in 2029 and 2030 as we file for a new general rate case decision. That'll be filed actually in May of 2027, so we're, we're closing in on that now.

Nick Campanella (Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Okay, thanks.

Operator (participant)

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

Carly Davenport (VP of Equity Research)

Hey, good afternoon.

Pedro Pizarro (President and CEO)

Hi, Carly.

Carly Davenport (VP of Equity Research)

Hey, thanks so much for taking the questions. Maybe just on some of the updates on the capital plan through 2030. On the AMI 2.0 application, just once you file that, what do you anticipate to be the timing on clarity of approvals? And then just how does that interplay with the timing of the capital dollars that are embedded in the plan through 2030?

Maria Rigatti (EVP and CFO)

Sure. So we'll be filing, you know, later, next few months, more likely, and we'll ask for a typical schedule, which would get us a decision, hopefully, in about 18 months or so. The capital that's embedded in the forecast right now, the total request will be in the neighborhood of $3 billion. About $1.5 billion is in the period that we have portrayed here through 2030, with another $1.5 billion that would get spent post that, by and large, through 2033. So that's sort of the pace of what we're anticipating.

Carly Davenport (VP of Equity Research)

Great. Okay, that, that's super helpful. And then maybe just on the SB 254 processes, you know, getting closer to the April 1 CEA report deadline, you know, any updates that you'd call out in terms of, you know, thematics that are coming out of the updates we've gotten so far, and just how you feel we're progressing into that deadline, and what that could mean for, you know, timing of getting some clarity on legislation?

Pedro Pizarro (President and CEO)

Yeah. Hey, thanks, Carly. I'd say, you know, the process is certainly underway. It's good to see robust participation from so many stakeholders across the economy. The legislature set this up. They set it up to be truly a cross-economy sort of exercise. And so that engagement is important. It's been important also to see the approach that the CEA is taking in marshaling the process, making sure that there's good participation, you know, good engagement, good transparency into the various positions that different parties are bringing in. You know, it's early in the process, so really not able to comment on specific solutions or potential solutions yet.

But seeing the recognition that this is an economy-wide issue, that, you know, really needs to touch all sectors, everything from upstream, securing the buildings, hardening the buildings, decreasing the risk of ignition, decreasing the risk of spread, and of consequence, focusing as well on shoring up the insurance market. Focusing on having, ultimately, solutions that if, you know, heaven forbid, there's another catastrophic fire in the state, that there's a way to equitably socialize that impact across the economy. You know, those are all constructive themes that keep coming up. I would also point to the report that the CPUC issued a couple of weeks ago.

We thought that that was, you know, very constructive and, you know, acknowledged that central theme that ultimately, utilities and therefore their customers and shareholders, simply cannot continue to be the insurers of last resort, the bearers of all of this risk, that even if you have a catastrophe that starts with a utility ignition, the catastrophe has so many other components, right? The tragedy, it can include weather conditions, can include challenges in mitigating the fire, can include, you know, issues that led to, you know, faster spread. And so, recognizing those kind of themes is really important, and it was good to see that, you know, show up in the CPUC's conclusions. Maria, anything to add?

Maria Rigatti (EVP and CFO)

I think maybe just one other thing, Carly, and it's really not an add. It's just an underscoring. You know, Pedro talked about, you know, sort of the focus on safety and risk reduction, on timely and fair recovery for the people who are impacted by an event. But also, it's very important, and part of the conversation that we're having, is that you need a predictable framework that supports access to well-priced capital. Because at the end of the day, it's about affordability for customers. And so, having that conversation and making sure that we are emphasizing that, is a really important part of what the IOUs are doing.

Carly Davenport (VP of Equity Research)

Got it. Really helpful. Thank you for all those comments.

Pedro Pizarro (President and CEO)

Yeah, thanks, Carly.

Operator (participant)

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

Paul Zimbardo (Equity Research Analyst)

Hi, good afternoon, team. Thanks for taking the question.

Pedro Pizarro (President and CEO)

Yeah.

Paul Zimbardo (Equity Research Analyst)

The first one I had was just to follow up on Nick's question a little bit. If I have the math right, and it's late in the day, so I might not, but if I have the math right, it looks like about an 8% rate base growth from that 2028 to 2030. So I didn't know if there's any other factors we should be considering, 'cause kind of your rate base growth is translating into the net income and earnings growth. Should we think about a potential faster trajectory in the back end of that plan from 2028 to 2030?

Maria Rigatti (EVP and CFO)

Paul, I think you know how we approach this. We definitely run a lot of different scenarios. We plan conservatively. Looking at all various outcomes and how they play together allows us to have confidence in the 5%-7%. I would focus on that now. I think we're, we're not seeing anything other than rate-based growth as we move out in time. We're always going to be doing things to help, you know, benefit the growth, but and also benefit affordability. So we'll be focusing on efficient financings. We'll be focusing on, over time, you know, further operational excellence efforts. But I, I think that's how I really view the entire five-year period. It's based on a lot of scenarios, a lot of scenario planning, a lot of scenario analysis, and some conservative evaluations.

Paul Zimbardo (Equity Research Analyst)

Okay. That, that is clear. And then I did want to follow up a little bit on the 2026 drivers and the variances you mentioned. I understand on the regulatory true-up, but could you elaborate a little bit on why we shouldn't think about the depreciation and kind of those tax other items, that $0.14 is recurring? That'd be helpful. Thanks.

Maria Rigatti (EVP and CFO)

Sure. So, what they are are variances in this year, like relative to 25, but now that they're built in, they're just gonna, you know, they continue on a go-forward basis, but they won't actually be affecting or diminishing the growth year-over-year. So maybe that's a clarification that might be helpful. You know, what are they, with more specificity? As you get into any rate case cycle, and I know we've chatted about this in the past, you know, you can start to deploy assets or invest in assets at a slightly different pace or in slightly different buckets than are in the GRC authorized revenue requirement. So you get those depreciation and then, and then also property tax-related variances. Again, built in now, so on a go-forward basis, they don't affect the year-over-year trajectory.

Tax and financing, there were some tax law changes last year around charitable contributions. There's a couple of pennies around that. And then because year-over-year, we have more wildfire debt outstanding, you see just a variance in the financing cost, again, because the average amount outstanding changes as we continue to pay claims back in 2025. Again, now built in, we also have a lot of visibility into that with the settlements behind us. So not a variance going forward, which brings you back to rate-based growth as the driver for our earnings growth.

Ryan Levine (Equity Research Analyst)

Okay. Very comprehensive, and, and thank you for, for giving the 2027 as well. Thanks a lot, team.

Maria Rigatti (EVP and CFO)

Thanks, Paul.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. The next question comes from Ryan Levine with Citi. Your line is open.

Pedro Pizarro (President and CEO)

Hello, Ryan.

Ryan Levine (Equity Research Analyst)

Hi, how are you? As the compensation program continues to execute, would you look to continue to tweak the program to achieve your objectives and any color you could share around the rationale for the recently announced changes?

Pedro Pizarro (President and CEO)

I had a little hard time picking up. Did you hear the question?

Maria Rigatti (EVP and CFO)

Yes. So, Ryan, Pedro did mention earlier some small changes or some changes we're making in the program. I think all of that ties to the information gathering and the community feedback we continue to get. But I think, Pedro, if you want to elaborate.

Pedro Pizarro (President and CEO)

Yeah, happy to. Sorry, Ryan, there was just a little bit of static when you were asking the question, so I had a hard time picking it up. Yeah, so we made a couple of modifications to the WRCP program. One is to provide some added support for tenants. The original protocol provided three months of compensation at the actual rent level that the tenants were paying prior to the event. But as we dug into this more and got more feedback, it became clear that there was at least some number of tenants in Altadena who perhaps had been longer-term tenants and were continuing to pay rents that were under market levels.

So now we're making an adjustment to use the calculator or the engine that we have to, you know, calculate or estimate fair market value for rent, and allowing tenants to recover three months of either the higher of their actual rent payments or that fair market value rent. The second adjustment we made was, you might recall that the program provided support for attorney fees. It's voluntary program. You can participate without an attorney, but if, you know, claimants choose to use an attorney, then the program provided 10% of net damages as an increment to help cover attorney fees.

We were also hoping that the attorney community would recognize that this program represents a fairly straightforward approach and hopefully less work for, you know, less effort, for them, and perhaps they could provide lower fees for, for clients. But as we got feedback from the clients themselves, from the claimants themselves, we decided that it was appropriate to increase the what we're providing for legal fees to 20% from the 10% of net damages. Both of these changes will be applied retroactively as well. So we have claimants who have already received their compensation or, you know, have already received an offer. We'll be making the adjustment for them automatically and won't require effort on their part.

Maria Rigatti (EVP and CFO)

Ryan, I think, you know, you asked about would we continue to tweak to meet our objectives. The objective here is to have fair, timely compensation, which also helps preserve the funds in the wildfire fund, you know, reducing interest costs, reducing escalation, et cetera. The objective, that is the objective. And then, in terms of additional changes, we really are trying to respond to the community, but we think we've gotten a lot of feedback at this point.

Ryan Levine (Equity Research Analyst)

Thank you.

Pedro Pizarro (President and CEO)

I think our advisors on this also, you know, have highlighted the importance of having a stable, understandable program. So, you know, I don't think it would be helpful to have a constant stream of changes either.

Ryan Levine (Equity Research Analyst)

Thank you.

Pedro Pizarro (President and CEO)

Yeah. Thanks, Ryan.

Maria Rigatti (EVP and CFO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

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

Aidan Kelly (Equity Research Associate)

Hey, good afternoon.

Pedro Pizarro (President and CEO)

Afternoon.

Aidan Kelly (Equity Research Associate)

Yeah, good afternoon. Just wondering if you could elaborate a bit more on the L.A. District Attorney's investigation to determine whether criminal violations occurred. I noticed the new 10-K disclosure here, so would appreciate any color on how you think about the scope of this investigation. Any thoughts on the potential magnitude?

Pedro Pizarro (President and CEO)

Yeah, thanks for the question. As you might imagine, you know, investigations, I think, are often to be expected when you have events of the scale of the Eaton Fire. We don't have a lot of visibility into timing, et cetera. Certainly, our team will be collaborating with the attorney's office as you know, as they ask for any steps. Importantly, as we continue our own investigation, you know, and I think as I said earlier, as we look at the events here, you know, we continue to be confident that SCE will be able to make a good faith showing that, you know, its actions were those of a reasonable utility operator.

So that gives us a lot of comfort as we, you know, look at, you know, whether it's that investigation you mentioned or just the broader investigations into the event and, you know, looking ahead to, you know, ultimately looking for the CPUC to affirm SCE's prudence in the future.

Aidan Kelly (Equity Research Associate)

Understood. Thanks for the color there. And just one last one for me. Can you confirm whether the out of service transmission tower in Eaton was grounded or not?

Pedro Pizarro (President and CEO)

We have, we have shared before that that transmission line, the idle line, was grounded at both ends. We have also shared that we had photographic evidence at the far end of the line that showed, some anomalies and potential issues with that grounding. And we've been transparent about all of this from, from early on. We have also shared that as you take a look at practices across the utility industry, there really is no common practice or standard for grounding of idle lines. In fact, we've identified at least a couple of utilities that, choose not to ground idle lines at all.

In an abundance of caution and in the spirit of continuous improvement, and it's one of our values as a company, as we continue to learn and or hypothesize, too, about what may or may not have happened here, you might also recall that, probably it was a month or two after the event, we also disclosed publicly that we were, that, in fact, we already did this, change SCE's protocols and policies to now require the grounding of idle lines at not only the endpoints, but for longer lines, at least every two miles. And that could be shorter, you know, depending on the particular topography, you know, of any line. It's probably more than you wanted on idle lines there, but I want to make sure you have the complete picture.

Aidan Kelly (Equity Research Associate)

No, I appreciate it. Appreciate it. Thank you. Always there. Thanks.

Pedro Pizarro (President and CEO)

Thanks, Aidan.

Operator (participant)

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

Sam Ramraj (VP of Investor Relations)

Thank you for joining us. This concludes the conference call. Have a good rest of the day. You may now disconnect.

Operator (participant)

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