Is Burying Power Lines in Durham a Pipe Dream?

We all know the drill - a gust of strong wind, an unexpected ice storm or a hurricane blow past our neighborhood and a few hours later the lights go dark. If we are lucky, we get the power back in the few hours, although sometimes the power does not come on until days later. This happens every year and while some neighborhoods are luckier than others, everyone has experienced power outages at some point. But it does not have to be this way! Duke University, for example, rarely if ever experienced a power failure no matter what the weather. This is because the University had the foresight to bury their power lines, thus removing a visual nuisance while at the same time ensuring a degree of protection from inclement weather. So why don't cities like Durham follow suit?

The obvious answer is money. It would be a tremendous immediate capital cost for the likes of Duke Energy to  move their electrical infrastructure underground. But the long-term savings will accrue overtime and inure to the customers rather that the energy company itself. In an interesting interview on NPR,   Ted Kurry, the director of at the Public Utility Research Center at the University of Florida discusses the possible cost-benefit analysis of such a move. 

In short: his conclusion is that none has undertaken the regions examination of the long-term benefits of burying power lines, mostly because energy company see no particular benefit to such an expensive move in the absence of government incentives. It is a short interview well worth a read.

In addition to inconvenience, the aesthetic effect of power line-manged trees is rarely attractive (see below). The visual impact of city pruning was well covered by Bullcityrising a few years ago, so I won't repeat the arguments therein. It is a worthwhile read.