Edison is an unincorporated community and census designated place in the Tehachapi mountains of Kern County, California. It is located 7.5 miles east-southeast of downtown Bakersfield, at an elevation of 571 feet. In 1902, the Edison Electric Company built a substation on the site. The Southern Pacific Railroad arrived at Wade in 1903, and changed the name to Edison. In 1928 oil was found nearby, and the Edison Oil Field gradually developed, peaking in the 1950s.