re: “The state won’t allow a rate increase for burial of lines like we do elsewhere so you pay for lawsuits and power loss.”
NOT an option for HV transmission lines; the line ‘load’ become highly capacitive (with AC) with a really out-of-whack “power factor” ...
Also, repair of buried lines is s NIGHTMARE compared to simple overhead construction.
Additional aerial marker balls in between the supports would prevent lines from slapping together in the wind. The equal wind drag created would stabilize them, and prevent them from swinging around towards each other. But do you think they would spend any money on this? I don’t think so, corporate officers might not get their bonuses because of this additional cost.
Man I have run underground distribution all over air bases and the like. I think I had a secondary feed from a transformer that was well over 3000 amps and it only used about a third of the transformer capacity we set.
I will agree, over head is cheapest and fastest but if you can’t do line clearance you’re looking for a nightmare in wind or ice country.