California regulators on Thursday gave the state's three largest utilities approval to spend a total of nearly $350 million on energy conservation measures called demand-response.

The California Public Utilities Commission voted to approve about $188.8 million for Edison International's (EIX) electric utility to spend on demand-response programs over the next three years, with approval for PG&E Corp.'s (PCG) utility to spend about $109 million and Sempra Energy's (SRE) electric utility to spend about $51.6 million.

Southern California Edison's budget includes contracts with demand-response providers EnerNOC (ENOC) and Comverge Inc. (COMV) for a total of $38.8 million, according to the CPUC.

Comverge President Mike Picchi said Comverge has other demand-response contracts with PG&E and San Diego Gas & Electric that, together with the SoCal Edison contract, are worth about $75 million.

-By Cassandra Sweet, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-439-6468; cassandra.sweet@dowjones.com