upcoming regulatory proceedings, including 2021 GRC track 4 and the 2025 GRC, SCE will provide greater visibility into the near-term investments needed to ensure we remain on-track to help achieve the state’s climate goals.
To achieve our ambitious long-term goals, operational excellence is imperative and will be a constant focus. For over a decade, SCE has proactively pursued cost-reduction efforts to manage affordability for its customers. This focus on cost management has allowed the utility to absorb some of the rising cost to serve customers, which in recent years has largely been driven by investments to reduce wildfire risk and strengthen the grid’s reliability. I want to highlight that SCE’s system average rate has grown less than local inflation over the last 20 years, and SCE’s average rate is the lowest among the large California IOUs. Last year, SCE advanced its operational capabilities with new systems and digital tools deployed across the company that resulted in enhanced data quality, improved power line inspection and maintenance, and enriched abilities to gather and act on customer feedback. To further our capabilities and focus on operational excellence, we launched an employee-led continuous improvement program late last year. Employees have enthusiastically provided thousands of ideas that we believe will have positive, measurable impact on safety, affordability, and quality. We expect the ideas that SCE will implement over the next two years will enable delivering greater value for customers, investors, employees, and other stakeholders. I look forward to telling you about the results of this program in the future.
Maria Rigatti, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Edison International
My comments today will cover fourth quarter 2021 results, our capital expenditure and rate base forecasts, our 2022 guidance, and updates on other financial topics.
Edison International reported core earnings of $1.16 per share for the fourth quarter. Full year 2021 core EPS was $4.59, which exceeded our guidance range.