3 ms·

California power lines spark wildfires&prompt blackouts. Why not just bury them?

1 points by sahin-boydas 7y ago

aurizon 7y ago
Why not pay ten times the cost of overhead wires - to save on legal awards...
- rolph 7y ago
  why not pay a tenth the cost of legal awards to bury them?
  - aurizon 7y ago
    Costs are huge in rocky ground to bury high voltage wires. Low voltage (120 to 240) is less. This deals with it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undergrounding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undergrounding The largest barrier to safe rural wiring in California is the huge wage, benefits and pension costs which is on the order of $80-100 per hour, a position that politicians reached because the politicians did not care as long as they paid themselves very well. Huge areas are running huge unfunded pension positions cause by the lack of laws mandating 100% funding of all pensions every fiscal year end. Some states have these laws. These places are balanced and have lower pensions because the politicians were stiffened. Look at Detroit, Chicago and many others - dead men walking...
- stevespang 7y ago
  Actually, saving LIVES is more important the your 10x the legal cost . . .
tomohawk 7y ago
Underground lines are subject to animals burrowing through them, backhoes digging them up, etc. If the power is transmitted AC, then the insulation gets heated up as the alternating current interacts with the surrounding ground. If the ground is below the water table, the losses get high. The underground power cables in our neighborhood are in wet ground, and recently had to be dug up because the insulation failed. In Norway, they use DC to transmit power out to oil platforms as it does not have this problem.
m463 7y ago
I'm reminded of the awesome engineering story about replacing a high powered buried cable in Los Angeles years ago. Here's a link to the story (one step removed because of hacker news vs jwz) https://hackaday.com/2015/07/27/find-and-repair-a-230kv-800amp-oil-filled-power-cable-feels-like-mission-impossible/ https://hackaday.com/2015/07/27/find-and-repair-a-230kv-800a...

1 points by sahin-boydas 7y ago

aurizon 7y ago

Why not pay ten times the cost of overhead wires - to save on legal awards...

rolph 7y ago
why not pay a tenth the cost of legal awards to bury them?
- aurizon 7y ago
  Costs are huge in rocky ground to bury high voltage wires. Low voltage (120 to 240) is less. This deals with it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undergrounding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undergrounding The largest barrier to safe rural wiring in California is the huge wage, benefits and pension costs which is on the order of $80-100 per hour, a position that politicians reached because the politicians did not care as long as they paid themselves very well. Huge areas are running huge unfunded pension positions cause by the lack of laws mandating 100% funding of all pensions every fiscal year end. Some states have these laws. These places are balanced and have lower pensions because the politicians were stiffened. Look at Detroit, Chicago and many others - dead men walking...
stevespang 7y ago
Actually, saving LIVES is more important the your 10x the legal cost . . .

tomohawk 7y ago

Underground lines are subject to animals burrowing through them, backhoes digging them up, etc. If the power is transmitted AC, then the insulation gets heated up as the alternating current interacts with the surrounding ground. If the ground is below the water table, the losses get high. The underground power cables in our neighborhood are in wet ground, and recently had to be dug up because the insulation failed. In Norway, they use DC to transmit power out to oil platforms as it does not have this problem.

m463 7y ago

I'm reminded of the awesome engineering story about replacing a high powered buried cable in Los Angeles years ago. Here's a link to the story (one step removed because of hacker news vs jwz) https://hackaday.com/2015/07/27/find-and-repair-a-230kv-800amp-oil-filled-power-cable-feels-like-mission-impossible/ https://hackaday.com/2015/07/27/find-and-repair-a-230kv-800a...