Edison International, awash with $2 billion in cash, is looking at opportunities in the independent power world, according to company officials March 11. ?We?re looking at some opportunity in the independent power world,? Edison brass said in a conference with the financial community on its recent earnings. Edison is the last California investor-owned utility to report 2004 earnings (<i>Circuit</i>, March 4, 2005). Edison International reported net income for 2004 of $916 million, compared to $821 million in 2003. Its utility subsidiary, Southern California Edison, reported 2004 year-end net earnings of $915 million, compared to $922 million in 2003. The earnings would have been $43 million more, but the subsidies for its San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station expired prior to the 2004 accounting year. For the fourth quarter of 2004, the parent company reported $379 million in net income, way up from $197 million in the same quarter of 2003. The utility placed $315 million in earnings in the fourth quarter of 2004, up from $222 million in the last quarter of 2003. The utility reported an increase of nearly 5 percent in sales on a kilowatt-hour basis. While Edison is looking into building its own new power plants for the longer term, in the short term, the lack of new generation will result in a ?tight but manageable? summer demand-and-supply outlook, according to Alan Fohrer, Edison chief executive officer.