SCE customers to see rate increases

Electric cusomers in Southern California will get an unpleasant surprise when their heating (or given the weather lately, air conditioning) bills come due.

Electricity rates for more than two-thirds of Southern California Edison's customers will rise as much as 18% in the new year, the company said Tuesday.

With winter starting today, the utility's 4.6 million residential and commercial customers can expect three increases in coming months. The company, a unit of Edison International in Rosemead, said soaring prices for natural gas, which fuels most of the state's power plants, were the main culprit.