After seeing all the devastation in Louisiana, I have been wondering if having underground electrical lines would have kept the electricity on?

I have wondered that, but the water table is so high that it might not be feasible. Up here in New England, though, I believe it would really help.

Around here, it would be a big help. I believe it’s money that prevents them switching. This Spring the power company instead cut down a number of trees that overhung power lines! :-(

It absolutely helps. It’s expensive, especially if you are converting a community to underground. I grew up in a city that was fully underground except for the main huge grid line that runs through the state. I can barely remember losing power ever. My parents still live there and I can’t remember the last time my mom mentioned losing power.

My current area, The Villages, has the same situation, we rarely lose power. My specific part of The Villages we are connected to above ground lines very close by and we did lose power during Irma for a day, but the majority of The Villages didn’t lose power.

When an underground wire has a problem it’s more of a hassle to fix it.

Some side notes:

During hurricanes sometimes parts off the grid are purposely shut down by the power company. If there is reason to believe live wires are down they cut the power to reduce the chance of people getting electrocuted. So, you might actually have the ability to have power, but several blocks away the dangerous situation causes the power company to cut off that section of the grid.

Worth mentioning it is so much prettier not having power lines everywhere.

I think they’re slowly moving in that direction.

Solar roofs make sense too in my opinion. If a house has it’s own solar power it isn’t dependent on the grid. In extreme winds the roof could be damaged, but most often the roof holds up if it’s within the last 20 years, unless directly in the eye wall near the coastline at a hurricane 3 or more.

It’s not so easy to run 500KV transmission lines under ground. It’s the main lines that were lost. Some of their towers were 200ft tall.

Probably underground would be more resilient.

BUT it is at least three times as expensive to do the initial construction, and most utilities don’t want to spend the money.

^I get that. But in the long run wouldn’t it be cheaper than repairing lines over and over? Especially in hurricane or tornado prone areas?

Would it, though? ^^^ Probably in some areas, but in Mew Orleans and similar parishes, the city is actually sinking. It is a specialized environment that would call for a specialized solution.

That’s a good point I hadn’t thought of @canidmajor.

It’s cheaper by orders of magnitude to run the lines on above ground towers. Repairs are easier and more swift as well. That is outside of a cat 4 hurricane. Here is a good overview of underground transmission line installations.

Regarding the sinking I can’t comment directly to that, but I will say the underground wires are set up to sustain wet conditions just like above ground are.

I guess in the US we need to figure out if some coastline and barrier islands are eventually going to just disappear and is it worth putting new infrastructure in.

From a reliability issue, underground is more reliable. I live in a neighborhood that has it. Some of the surrounding neighborhoods do not and they lose power far more than we do. However if a substation goes down, where the lines are really doesn’t matter.

@JLeslie Solar COULD be a help, but you need to check with your local electric company to see how they view them. I looked at solar and having power after a storm was one of the big reasons. But the way my local company deals with electric is odd. If you get panels put up, they put a separate meter on your house. All the power you make goes out onto the grid and all the power you use comes off the grid. They buy the power you make and you buy the power you use. But I asked about using the power I make following a storm and they said no…I can only get the power off the grid. So if their power goes away, so does mine and my solar panels are just decorative at that point.

@seawulf575 Are you saying the panels don’t work to power your house unless the grid is working? I know nothing about that, I’ll do some research. Where I live the electric company does buy electricity off of the panels, which is exactly what most people want. If the grid is down, it should mean electricity only works in your house during daylight hours from the panels but that is better than nothing.

People can get battery back-up instead of connecting to the grid, or maybe in addition to, I’m not sure how that works. Unless, you are saying people are forced to connect to the grid if available? That would be a horrific law if it exists in some places. We actually voted on something like that a few years ago, I don’t remember exactly what it was.

Edit: I found this link. Very interesting. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.paradisesolarenergy.com/blog/will-solar-panels-work-during-a-power-outage%3fhs_amp=true

I’m still not clear if you can just switch to daylight hour usage even if tied to the grid and you don’t have batteries.

Where I live, it’s an older area (many houses are 100 years old or more) with lots of trees. People will often ask why it’s not converted to underground utilities, and what we hear is that it’s very expensive to do. I forgot what the dollar figure is, but they have it down to the mile, and per mile, a ton of money.

After Hurricane Sandy, in this area of the NY/CT border they did extensive tree work, cutting lots of trees that are near power lines. That is a help.

New construction areas that don’t have phone poles and lots of lines hanging do look more attractive and it’s probably cheaper to put in underground utilities right from the get-go.

It’s not just the dollar aspect, although that is immense.

There is a lot of hassle with getting permits, making sure they don’t cut existing water / natural gas / sewer / fiberoptic lines, and then there is the major issue of people not wanting their roads and lawns dug up.

@JLeslie Solar panels will work just great when the grid is down. But they have no place to send their power…in the area controlled by our electric company. And they have the requirement of installing a separate meter so the panels aren’t hooked into your house at all. Nearby there is an area controlled by a different electric company. They utilize a single meter and the panels CAN be used to power your house in the event of a power outage. That’s why I cautioned to check with your local company. In my current condition, if I wanted my panels to supply power to my house, I’d have to install an entire battery back-up system and have the panels routed to first go to the batteries and then go to the meter. But the battery system brings its own downside. Cost, upkeep, space, and available power time are the biggest ones.

@seawulf575 Thanks. I need to read about it more to take it all in. I might call my electric company out of curiosity or see if I still have the email of a person who is sort of our local expert on solar panels.

@JLeslie There are a lot of oddities with how private solar panels are used by electric companies. I pointed out the availability issue. Also, my electric company limits the number of panels I am allowed to have. I could probably get 20 panels onto my room, but I am limited to 9 so I am limited on the electricity I am allowed to get from them. The other electric company doesn’t actually buy your electricity, they give you vouchers to account for them. But the catch there is that these vouchers have an expiration date. So if you have a lot of panels, you could conceivably get money from them every month. Instead they give vouchers that you won’t need and therefore they will never have to pay. If you are thinking of solar, do your homework.

Sooner or later, somewhere along the line, water would get into some conduit and short out the system.

There are many reasons utilities may not be underground. It isn’t just about cost. It isn’t even possible in some places that are near sea level. New Orleans is one of those place….........they don’t even bury the dead. Graves are above ground.