3 ms·

> Nothing gets put underground That is too bad, I grew up in an desert locale that had all its power lines buried and I only experienced one power outage in fi

> Nothing gets put underground That is too bad, I grew up in an desert locale that had all its power lines buried and I only experienced one power outage in fifteen years. Then I moved out to a coastal area where burying the lines wasn’t really feasible and pretty much every time it rained someone would hydroplane into a utility poll and knock out the power for a couple hours, and it rained at least once a week. If the climate permits them to bury, they should go for it.

pfranz 6y ago
(I don't have any professional background in this) I believe in general above-ground lines are "less durable", but they're much easier to install and repair. Below-ground cost significantly more for both. They're also susceptible to different things; wind and tress for above-ground, earthquakes? high water-table? rock vs sand/clay? for below grown. For a few years I lived in a neighborhood that had above-ground lines, but further down the street they were below ground because that neighborhood was significantly richer. Our power went out fairly frequently. The neighbors told me it was because of the transition from below ground to above ground, but I also wouldn't have been surprised if NIMBYism kept older equipment in service.
IfOnlyYouKnew 6y ago
How does climate interfere with burying power lines? Germany's bad weather is only slightly less of a stereotype than the lack of humour and <you know what>, and all residential power lines are underground. Even the long-distance lines are moving underground lately.
- eitally 6y ago
  I think more than climate it tends to be 1) what does the current construction look like and is it feasible to move lines underground, 2) what is the soil like, and is it stable enough to bury cables, and 3) are current property owners willing to accommodate the disturbance to trench and replace the old cables. I grew up in an old (for the US), hilly east coast city and nothing was underground. Because it wasn't very dense and didn't have gridded neighborhoods, it would have been quite expensive to run utilities underground. I subsequently moved to a newer part of a different city and all the new construction had underground utilities. It still doesn't prevent outages at the substation or high voltage transfer line layers.
- noir_lord 6y ago
  UK as well, we bury all (well technically damn near all) our sub-station to residence cabling and we are a wet country. Power outages are a once ever few years or more thing.
Mister_X 6y ago
For the last 30 years I've lived all along the Mendocino coast, and every time one of the towns I lived in had a vote to underground the utilities, the NIMBY's killed it because it would cause much disruption, yet when the power went out due to weather related issues, they complained about the power outages.

pfranz 6y ago

(I don't have any professional background in this) I believe in general above-ground lines are "less durable", but they're much easier to install and repair. Below-ground cost significantly more for both. They're also susceptible to different things; wind and tress for above-ground, earthquakes? high water-table? rock vs sand/clay? for below grown. For a few years I lived in a neighborhood that had above-ground lines, but further down the street they were below ground because that neighborhood was significantly richer. Our power went out fairly frequently. The neighbors told me it was because of the transition from below ground to above ground, but I also wouldn't have been surprised if NIMBYism kept older equipment in service.

IfOnlyYouKnew 6y ago

How does climate interfere with burying power lines? Germany's bad weather is only slightly less of a stereotype than the lack of humour and <you know what>, and all residential power lines are underground. Even the long-distance lines are moving underground lately.

eitally 6y ago
I think more than climate it tends to be 1) what does the current construction look like and is it feasible to move lines underground, 2) what is the soil like, and is it stable enough to bury cables, and 3) are current property owners willing to accommodate the disturbance to trench and replace the old cables. I grew up in an old (for the US), hilly east coast city and nothing was underground. Because it wasn't very dense and didn't have gridded neighborhoods, it would have been quite expensive to run utilities underground. I subsequently moved to a newer part of a different city and all the new construction had underground utilities. It still doesn't prevent outages at the substation or high voltage transfer line layers.
noir_lord 6y ago
UK as well, we bury all (well technically damn near all) our sub-station to residence cabling and we are a wet country. Power outages are a once ever few years or more thing.

Mister_X 6y ago

For the last 30 years I've lived all along the Mendocino coast, and every time one of the towns I lived in had a vote to underground the utilities, the NIMBY's killed it because it would cause much disruption, yet when the power went out due to weather related issues, they complained about the power outages.