Southern California Edison registers new suppliers in SAP Ariba, at sce.supplier.ariba.com/register. Registration is free. It does not, on its own, get you invited to bid: SCE's bid page says any interested company must register in Ariba and contact SCE's Supplier Diversity & Development team at least 30 days before a bid's estimated launch date to be considered as a potential bidder. That team's address is SCEsupplierdiversitydevelopment@sce.com.
That second step is the one most suppliers skip. The rest of this guide covers both, plus the certification question that matters more at a California utility than almost anywhere else.
Why SCE is different from most corporate buyers
SCE is one of the investor-owned utilities that report to the California Public Utilities Commission under General Order 156. The CPUC describes GO 156 as a program that encourages utilities and their prime contractors to include women-, minority-, LGBT-, disabled veteran- and disability-owned businesses in procurement. More than 30 utilities participate, among them SCE, PG&E, SDG&E, SoCalGas, AT&T, Comcast and Verizon.
GO 156 is why a utility program in California still runs while many corporate supplier diversity programs elsewhere were renamed or wound down in 2025. It is also why certification is worth more here. SCE says you do not have to be certified to do business with it, but only transactions with a certified Diverse Business Enterprise count toward its GO 156 spend. A certified firm gives an SCE buyer, or an SCE prime contractor, something they can report. An uncertified one does not.
How to register with SCE, step by step
- Gather your documents first. SCE's Ariba FAQ asks you to have these on hand before you start: company contact details and a short summary of your capabilities, your tax ID number and Dun & Bradstreet number, your certificates (diverse business enterprise, insurance, business licenses) and your EMR (Experience Modification Rate) if your crews may work on an SCE job site.
- Create your Ariba account at sce.supplier.ariba.com/register. This is part one: general company information. Ariba emails you a registration confirmation.
- Log back in and complete the SCE Profile Questionnaire. This is part two, and it is the part SCE's procurement agents actually search. SCE notifies you when the submission is received and again when it has reviewed your information and the registration is complete.
- Email Supplier Diversity & Development. Introduce your company, your certification and the categories you serve. If you are watching a particular bid on SCE's dashboard, write at least 30 days before its estimated launch date.
- Watch the bid dashboard on SCE's Bid Opportunities page. SCE says the listings are for planning purposes, can change without notice, and that it decides at its sole discretion which companies receive RFIs and RFPs.
- Keep your profile current. SCE says some documents (diverse business certificate, certificates of insurance, licenses) may need updating annually, and that Ariba sends a reminder a few months before a document expires.
There is no fee to register in Ariba. SCE notes there may be fees related to transacting orders and processing invoices through the system, set by Ariba.
What registering does and does not do
Registering makes your company visible to SCE procurement agents and other authorized SCE staff. It does not start a stream of RFPs. SCE's FAQ is direct about this: suppliers invited to a sourcing event are chosen by category, timing and other factors, and agents typically publish an event only to the suppliers that meet its qualification criteria. Once an event closes, information about it may be limited to the companies that responded.
If you believe you are qualified for sourcing events you are not seeing, SCE asks you to write to Aribateam@sce.com.
Which certifications SCE accepts
SCE defines a Diverse Business Enterprise as a business at least 51% owned by women, minorities, disabled veterans, LGBT persons or persons with disabilities (or, for a publicly owned business, 51% of the stock), with management and daily operations controlled by those owners, who must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
SCE accepts certifications from three sources:
| Certification | Who issues it | For |
|---|---|---|
| Supplier Clearinghouse | The CPUC's clearinghouse | Minority-, women-, LGBT- and disability-owned businesses |
| DVBE | California Department of General Services (Office of Small Business and DVBE Services) | Disabled veteran-owned businesses |
| SBA 8(a) | U.S. Small Business Administration | Firms in the 8(a) Business Development program |
Notice what is not on the list. SCE names no national private certifier such as NMSDC or WBENC as an accepted source. If you hold one of those, the Clearinghouse is the credential that counts at SCE and at the other GO 156 utilities. The CPUC says the Clearinghouse verifies status for women-, minority-, LGBT- and disability-owned businesses, and that disabled veteran businesses are certified by DGS. Our California MBE certification guide and the SDVBE guide cover those applications.
Where small suppliers actually start
For many small firms the first SCE dollar comes through a prime contractor rather than a direct award, because GO 156 also covers what primes subcontract to diverse firms. The CPUC runs two free public events each year that put you in a room with both: the Small and Diverse Business Expo, where utilities, primes and community choice aggregators staff booths, and the annual GO 156 Supplier Diversity En Banc, a public hearing where the utilities report on their programs. The CPUC's supplier diversity page lists the dates and its program contacts.
One registration also travels further than SCE. Every GO 156 utility counts the same Clearinghouse certification, so the same paperwork positions you for PG&E and the other California utilities. Our energy and utilities supplier guide and the California programs page cover the wider market.
What SCE does not publish
SCE's public pages do not list category buyers by name, a spend figure for the current year, or a timeline for how long registration review takes. We did not read SCE's annual GO 156 report for this guide, so it states no spend or goal percentage. If you need those figures for a pitch, take them from SCE's own most recent report to the CPUC.
Your next step: register at sce.supplier.ariba.com/register, finish the Profile Questionnaire the same day, then send one short email to SCEsupplierdiversitydevelopment@sce.com with your certification number attached.
Sources
Checked November 6, 2026: SCE, Bid Opportunities and Supplier Registration (sce.com/partners/partner-resources/buying-selling/bid-opportunities) and its Ariba Supplier Registration FAQ; SCE, Supplying Products and Services (sce.com/partners/partner-resources/buying-selling, where sce.com/sd now redirects); California Public Utilities Commission, Supplier Diversity Program (cpuc.ca.gov/supplierdiversity).
