3 ms·
It is beyond incredibly expensive to bury 138/345/720kV transmission lines. Orders of magnitude more expensive than running structures. With that said the vege
by solarhoma 6y ago
It is beyond incredibly expensive to bury 138/345/720kV transmission lines. Orders of magnitude more expensive than running structures. With that said the vegetation surrounding the lines should be trimmed.
- carlob 6y agoI don't think OP was talking about high-voltage lines: in most of Europe high voltage is way higher than most vegetation and within cities lines run underground.
- hippich 6y agoI recently built a house and had to work with power company to bury the cable instead of running it on poles (for the view mostly, not reliability). From what I hear - they prefer to run low voltage (keep in mind, we run 110V vs 220V in Europe) up-to 150ft. From there it is either a significant voltage drop or expensive thick cable. Hence all these wires on these wooden poles - they are actually high voltage. I lived in ex-USSR country where 220V were distributed through the street over steel (and corroded) wires on poles. Running a stick welder meant lights flickering for the whole street. Flickering to the point where TVs and computers would restart. (With my current setup, with high voltage running within 75ft off the meter, I can run up to 400 Amps without affecting anyone around me.) And yeah, it cost me total about $15k for a total of 300ft of the high voltage line to be buried. Vs. $2,400 for two poles of overhead lines.
- formerly_proven 6y agoThis is a misunderstanding due to a mix-up of terminology. In power distribution "high voltage" means >50-100 kV. Extra high voltage is everything >200 kV. Low voltage is everything below <50 kV. Low voltage is what is delivered to neighbourhoods and then stepped down to the end user voltages (230 / 400 V). The power lines that run in streets are never high voltage in the sense utilities use that word.