California power company Edison International said that one of its unregulated generation subsidiaries may have to file for chapter 11 protection because the unit may not have enough liquidity to repay debt due in 2013, Reuters reported yesterday. Edison Mission Energy's liquidity will be exhausted by debt maturities and the need to upgrade its coal-fired power plants to meet new federal environmental rules, Edison International said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday. The unit needs to restructure about $3.7 billion of unsecured debt. It had cash and equivalents of $879 million as of June 30. Operating losses at the unit, which owns 45 power plants across the United States, increased significantly in the first half of 2012 due to lower power prices and higher fuel costs. The unit's second-quarter net loss widened to $110 million from $30 million a year earlier.
