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If US utilities were focused on reliability, they would have stopped putting power lines above ground a long time ago. The power grid in the US is way more unr
by lutorm 9y ago
If US utilities were focused on reliability, they would have stopped putting power lines above ground a long time ago.
The power grid in the US is way more unreliable than any other country I've experienced, and I can only think that it's because the utilities are so profit-focused that they put lowering infrastructure costs above losing a little revenue due to power outages here and there. After all, the real societal costs due to unreliable power are completely externalized onto their customers.
The utilities are fine talking about reliability when it comes to newfangled competitors like solar, but that's mostly because they're a threat to their bottom line, not because they actually care about reliability.
- Caveman_Coder 9y ago> "...and I can only think that it's because the utilities are so profit-focused that they put lowering infrastructure costs above losing a little revenue due to power outages here and there." There is more that goes into transmission line engineering than cost. "Agility" is important, and it is a lot harder to tap underground transmission lines than overhead lines. Outages, while less likely for underground, are actually, on average, longer than overhead line outages.
- snowwindwaves 9y agothe cost for overhead distribution might be $10,000 per km whereas best case underground (easy digging) is $30,000-$40,000. whatever your connection fee on your monthly bill is (mine is $10 CAD), would you like it to be 4x higher?