Washington (Platts)--24Jul2008

Southern California Edison leads all US utilities in the amount of solar
power it has integrated into its system, according to the Solar Electric Power
Association, which on Thursday reported that SoCal Ed has both the most
overall solar capacity and the most solar capacity per customer.

California utilities generally occupy the top ranks of solar development,
SEPA said.

SoCal Ed's long-standing contracts with the Solar Energy Generating
Systems, a group of nine solar plants in California's Mojave Desert, account
for its large solar portfolio, SEPA said in a Top-10 rankings report, adding
that other utilities could take over the megawatt-leadership position as more
such facilities are built.

Based on company announcements and discussions with utilities, the
organization expects "utilities will quickly become the largest and one of the
most important customers for the solar industry," Executive Director Julia
Hamm said in a statement.

In addition to overall rankings, SEPA released other top-10 lists based
on the amount of solar power interconnected to a utility in two different
configurations -- customer side of the meter and utility side of the meter.

On the customer side, Pacific Gas and Electric, also in California, led
for both the largest amount of solar capacity and highest amount per customer.
SoCal Ed is the highest-ranking on the utility side of
the meter.

On the customer side of the meter for public power utilities, Los Angeles
Department of Water & Power is the most solar-integrated in overall capacity.
Kauai Island Utility Cooperative in Hawaii leads in the capacity-per-customer
category.

While California leads states in solar deployment, SEPA said utilities in
Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Texas,
Washington and Wisconsin also made the top 10 in many categories. "Solar
markets are expanding rapidly beyond California and when standardized by the
number of customers, interesting results will continue to emerge in the coming
years," SEPA said. Next year's survey will "no doubt show a reordering of many
of these rankings," it said.

The report is available at the organization's web site,
www.solarelectricpower.org.