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Nothing, but migrating to it is very expensive. Centerpoint, the physical electricity provider in Houston, has said it would cost $2.5M per square mile. Housto
by bdcravens 2y ago
Nothing, but migrating to it is very expensive.
Centerpoint, the physical electricity provider in Houston, has said it would cost $2.5M per square mile. Houston is 640 square miles. Regulations allow them to claw back costs on the bills. (For example, repairs from past storms are often paid for over the course of several years in the form of a bond that is applied to customers as surcharges)
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/centerpoint-storm-repair-costs-consumer-bill-19473150.php https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/cen...
- tigerBL00D 2y agoIt seems like a lot, but a few billions of dollars also seems like a good deal to secure against increasing risks for severe weather. What's the total economic impact of future storms? To put it in perspective a single Patriot missile battery costs about a billion dollars and a single missile costs $4M.
- hedora 2y agoThere are about 3844 people per square mile in Houston, so that's $650 per person, amortized over at least 20 years, which would increase the monthly power bill by about $2.70 per person (~ $10 / subscriber?) I'd guess that's less expensive than throwing out everything in the fridge / freezer every few years.
- analog31 2y agoAlso less expensive than everybody going out and buying a generator, plus putting out fires from improperly stored gasoline.
- bryanlarsen 2y agoPenny-wise, pound foolish. This single 1 week power outage is going to cost Houston a lot more than $1.6B.
- _wire_ 2y agoFunny to think about these costs and the health of the national commons from a point of view of the Federal budget. For example, you point out it would cost 2 billion to migrate Houston's above-ground to storm proof below ground. If we could lop off 1/4 of the DoD and intelligence budget of $1T/yr and dedicate it to infrastructure, we could pay for 125 Huston-scale improvement projects per year. And still have the most expensive DoD in the world! But that would be misguided for "national security". Plus the Federal budget is essentially free money, constructed as needed, where such value is incarnated via the wealth of the commons, where such wealth is most truly incarnated by infrastructure. But for unknown reasons, such pragmatism is politically untenable.
- gunapologist99 2y ago> Plus the Federal budget is essentially free money, constructed as needed It's amusing and a bit scary that someone thinks the federal budget is essentially free money, constructed as needed.
- hedora 2y agoThe US dollar literally is constructed as needed. It's pretty darn close to free thanks to electronic banking. However, like all magic, using it has severe (and generally predictable) consequences. Unlike fictional magic, the consequences take 4 years to kick in like clockwork. That, and the US's two term limit meant that presidents get to print money without political consequence. Worst case, they lose the midterms, then run again while blaming the next guy for the problem they created. Hypothetically, of course.
- gunapologist99 2y agoPresidents don't print money. Congress approves stimuli in the form of spending. Spending is always inflationary in nature because it injects money into the economy. The Federal Reserve, nearly completely independent (for better or worse) from the Executive and Legislative branches, prints money in the form of quantitative easing and controls other levers through lending and interest rate strategies.
- nostrademons 2y agoThere actually are a few problems with underground power lines, notably that maintenance & upgrades are much harder and more expensive, they tend to get severed by construction, they tend to get severed by earthquakes, and bad things result if the waterproof conduit around them is punctured. On balance I think they're probably worth it for areas prone to wildfire, but undergrounding all power lines is not a panacea, and there are a lot of hidden costs to undergrounding that become apparent only after they get old and you have to do maintenance.
- Symbiote 2y agoIn European cities where underground power lines are normal these issues aren't a problem. There might be costs (checking before construction for example) and it being normal it helps.
- shiroiushi 2y agoEurope doesn't have earthquakes. (Neither does Houston, but the previous comment did mention it as an issue in general.)
- dx034 2y agoBut Europe has frequent floodings, they don't seem to be an issue with buried power lines.
- snowpid 2y agoEurope does regularly earth quakes in Italy. Maybe Turkey , Greece, Balkan counties, too.
- shiroiushi 2y agoTrue, I forgot about the earthquake in Italy that resulted in a bunch of seismologists being jailed and prosecuted for not predicting it. Still, it seems like those parts of Europe (outside of Turkey, which isn't really in Europe) don't have large earthquakes, otherwise all those ancient buildings like the Coliseum and Parthenon would have completely collapsed by now.
- ianburrell 2y agoIt is $2.5 million per mile. That is order of magnitude more expensive. Houston has 6200 miles of road compared to 640 square miles. I think $2.5 million is the high estimate, my city is estimating $1 million per mile. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/texas/article/centerpoint-s-2-billion-resiliency-plan-means-19564891.php https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/texas/ar...
- tstrimple 2y agoThere is no scenario where every mile of road is outfitted with buried power lines, especially considering not every mile of road has elevated power lines. What a nonsensical comment.
- Sam713 2y agoCenterpoint website states that they currently operate ~33,000 miles of above ground distribution/transmission lines. https://www.centerpointenergy.com/en-us/corporate/about-us/construction-projects/electric-construction-projects https://www.centerpointenergy.com/en-us/corporate/about-us/c...