Posted on 07/05/2012 4:45:55 PM PDT by robowombat
15 million is probably a low estimate. Underground might be fine and dandy in your subdivision, but transmission lines are another thing. No way are you going through mountains and valleys underground
Maybe I missed it but I don’t think they are talking about putting high tension underground. Around here, the power companies take pretty good care of the tower lines as far as tree incursion and maintenance of way goes.
The overhead residential lines are the ones neglected when it comes to trees. I still say $15 mil a mile is BS for putting medium voltage (~13kv.) underground.
The tree line is cut about fifty yards either side of the power lines. It would take a damned tall tree to take one out by falling, but they do become debris in a windstorm
And then there is the matter of burying the lines to the each house, which is a personal expense, and also expensive.
Burying pre-existing lines is expensive, but doing it from the very beginning isn’t too bad.
All of the new developments here have the lines buried.
Yea, when you get to those voltages underground isn’t much worse than above ground. But like you say, the above-ground infrastructure is there in most of the country - so it will be very costly to move them underground.
It’s the old question:
Do you believe in higher taxes to help the homeless? Answer: Sure, we need to do what we can to pull them out of their situation.
Would you be willing to pay higher taxes to help the homeless? NO WAY!!! The government steals enough of my money already.
Sure, people want reliable power, as long as they don’t have to pay for it. What should be done is a serious cost-benefit study of options. Maybe doubling the size of the truck fleet and clearing trees more often and with wider berths would help a lot, and not cost too much. And then that fleet could also respond to outages much more effectively. That is one option.
Yes, I concur.
I appears here locally (no rock to deal with) that the cost/benefit is hit when the lines can be dropped in before building begins in a new neiborhood.
The other cost is that electrical is not the only line hanging on those poles. Cable TV and telephone lines must also be put underground and they cannot all be put together inside one conduit, due to interference and differing responsibilities.
As nice as underground lines are, I’m not willing to pay the 20k required to do it (just on my property, nor would I be willing to vote to force someone else to do it, even if I was willing to spend the money.
Just looking at what’s running above ground in my neighborhood, it would be a freaking nightmare to do it
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