Southern California Edison will credit $3.1 million to residential customers it billed for service deposits on or after April 1, 2020, under a $7.7 million settlement the California Public Utilities Commission approved Oct. 29. Customers who paid a deposit are due $100 each, and those who were billed but never paid are due $25, according to the consent order filed in the case. Edison’s shareholders, not ratepayers, cover the full amount.
For anyone with an Edison account, the practical question is whether their own bills carried a deposit line after April 2020. The order covers residential customers only, and it counts a customer as covered if SCE billed the deposit, whether or not the money was ever paid. A look back through old statements, or a call to Edison’s customer service line, is how a household finds out which group it falls in.
Retirement deadlines, in your inbox: Miss an enrollment or claim deadline and the money can be gone. Join the Retirement Money Brief and we’ll send you our 2026 Government Check Reality Tracker as a welcome gift.
Get the Brief + the check tracker →
We may earn a commission from links on this page.
Who gets $100 and who gets $25?
The consent order sets two tiers. Residential customers who were assessed and paid a deposit receive $100. Residential customers who were assessed but did not pay receive $25.
Those tiers line up with the figures in the agreement. Edison billed 65,773 residential customers deposits totaling $10,484,895, and 19,667 of them paid some or all of the deposit. Paying $100 to those 19,667 and $25 to the other 46,106 comes to $3,119,350, the exact figure behind the rounded $3.1 million in the commission’s announcement.
Will the money show up as a credit or as a check?
The order calls for a credit, not a check. The $3,119,350 “will be credited to customer accounts,” and SCE does the crediting. The agreement describes no application process for customers, so a household has nothing to file to be included.
The timing is tied to the order’s effective date, which the agreement links to the commission approval becoming final. From that date, Edison has 120 days to apply the credits. The commission’s announcement does not give a calendar date for the credits or say how they will appear on a bill.
A customer who sees no credit once that window has passed can ask Edison to confirm whether the account was among those billed a deposit. The CPUC announcement lists no separate claim form, hotline or deadline for the restitution, so the account itself is where the credit is meant to appear.
What did Edison do wrong?
California’s governor declared a state of emergency on March 4, 2020, and the commission moved to protect customers during the pandemic. On June 11, 2020, regulators adopted Decision 20-06-003, which bars the large utilities, including Edison, from requiring a deposit from residential customers to establish or reestablish service.
The commission issued Resolution M-4842 on April 17, 2020, and says Edison could not stop deposit requests for customers who signed up between that date and April 6, 2021. Edison kept sending deposit requests to residential customers from June 11, 2020 through the end of February 2021, the commission says. The utility reported the problem to regulators on March 10, 2021, and put a permanent fix in place on Aug. 30, 2021.
“Today’s outcome resolves serious compliance issues by SCE,” CPUC President John Reynolds said in the announcement. Commissioner Christine Harada added, “Every dollar matters to families struggling to keep the lights on.”
Where does the rest of the $7.7 million go?
Restitution is less than half of the total. Edison also pays $3.9 million into its Energy Assistance Fund, which helps customers who are struggling with their bills, and a $700,000 penalty to the state’s General Fund.
Customers who have closed their Edison accounts are not left out. The agreement says SCE will try to find former customers using available identifiers. Any credit it cannot match to a person within the 120 days goes to the Energy Assistance Fund instead.
Was a deposit on an Edison bill ever refunded?
A $25 or $100 credit that lands on an account without notice is easy to miss, and a household that moved or closed its account may never see it. Edison has 120 days after the order takes effect to apply the credits, and the order sends unmatched money to the Energy Assistance Fund.
“The Money Owed to You Bundle” includes “Open Settlements: How to File: the four-date rule, the two claim tiers, proof without receipts, and chasing a payment.” It also carries a Utility & Deposit Refunds guide covering utility and rental deposits and credit balances, among eight guides in 71 pages.
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
