I think it's time for the city and county to finally pass an ordinance requiring that all power lines be buried. The last major hurricane to hit Houston was Alicia in 1983. If such an ordinance had been passed then, giving the power companies a 25-year window to complete the task, we wouldn't be in this situation today.
There's no excuse. The phone lines are buried. Lots of coastal cities have buried their power lines. Is it the expense? I think the cost to bury the lines when expensed over 25 years is cheaper than having to bring in thousands of crews from out of state every time a tropical storm hits.
One week after Ike, half of Houston still does not have power. Unfortunately, the pleasant weather has been replaced by typical late September weather. Hot and humid. I bet those people who continue to swelter in their houses would like to see these ordinances passed.
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One of the things that surprised me when I moved to the US was precisely the fact that the power lines are above ground even in many urban and suburban areas. It's not just a safety issue -it's also an aesthetic problem.
Fixing underground power lines is a huge PITA to even locate the problem and remains much more expensive to install & repair than using aerial lines.
Power lines are buried on new construction sites primarily for aesthetic reasons.
After seeing what Ike did to Ohio (and Texas), I've come to the conclusion one had better make their own provision if they want to be assured of electrical power.
I'm planning on spending several thousand for a _permanently installed_ natural gas-powered standby generator (no natural disaster has ever interrupted natural gas flow in my area)
Better than standing in line for a day trying to get enough fuel to run a gasoline-powered portable generator!
Lou -- the phone lines aren't buried, either, not in my inner-loop neighborhood. The wires are in pretty much the same configuration as when electricity and telephones came to the neighborhood however many decades ago. the only difference is that now there are Comcast cables in the air, too. My house used to have three sets of lines coming to it: electric, telephone, and cable (unused). Ike took the cable line down, but it wasn't being used anyway, so it doesn't bother me.
It's way more expensive. Harder to find breaks, and more expensive to repair them. Electricity like to 'go to ground'. It leaks out more. You have to burn more fuel. The coatings have to be more expenive, thicker, that means more trucks carrying less length of cable.
Everything's buried in my subdivision. The power and phone lines are all underground. The weak points are the above ground lines leading in.
Other cities require this. Houston should have a similar ordinance.
It's way more expensive. Harder to find breaks, and more expensive to repair them.
If they were buried we'd have a fraction of the breaks we've seen due to Ike. When hurricanes hit neighborhoods would still have power.
Expense it over 25 years.
Paul writes,
The transformer on the pole next to your house is, at least, 13,000 volts. That's a lot of force that wants to 'go to ground' Air is a fairly good insulator, and in the early days, electrical wire wasn't even sheathed. The increase loss of electricity to grounding( leaks ) requires more plants( tried to get one of those built lately?), more fuel( you know, Arabs), higher operating cost, forever. Also, the wetter the soil, the more grounding.
The cost of trashing the existing paid system, permitting the new, the time and labor, and then the higher operating costs are way more than hurricanes every 25 years.
By the way, most newer homes in Florida come with propane stand by generators. Your home owner insurance and even mortgage holder sometimes now requires it.
Honda sells generators that run both gas and propane. A good portable one would be under 2K. That’s, what 5$ a month over 25 years?
Lines are above ground because it is more expensive
I looked around a little on the internet and I found this which explains things fairly well:
"From a line loss perspective, the underground circuit is more efficient. There are fewer line losses on an underground circuit due to the tight spacing of the conductors. On an overhead line, the bare wires are spaced far apart. This spacing combined with the sinusoidal AC power creates extra losses know as reactance. (referred to as X) The wider the conductor spacing the higher the X. The conductor resistance (R) and the reactance are combined into an overall impedance.
Underground cables need a larger conductor to handle the same amperage as a smaller overhead conductor. This is due to the difficulty of dissipating heat to the earth. Larger conductors means higher cost.
The cost of construction for an underground transmission line is 5 to 10 times that of an equivalent overhead circuit.
Overhead distribution circuits are much easier to modify to serve customers or make change other changes. A simple set of fuses on an overhead circuit might cost $200, yet the underground equivalent costs over $10,000.
Underground cables are manufactured with a specific voltage rating. Overhead wire has no voltage rating. That is determined by the insulators and ratings of all the other equipment in the circuit. Over the years many distribution systems have “grown” from 2.4 kV up to 12.47 kV (or higher) all the while using the same wire.
Overhead circuits can often be worked on while they are still energized. Nearly all work on underground circuits is performed while things are de-energized and grounded."
Aslak, another thing to consider: Houston is dense with trees. Centerpoint employs hundreds of people just to trim branches.
Most subdivisions built over the past 30 years have underground utilities. It is the connections to these neighborhoods that need to be buried.
I live in a subdivision where all the utilities are underground. The houses, and thus the utilities are about 25 years old. Apparently the design life of such things are about 25 years.
Now, every winter, when things get really cold (below 0 F) something in the street fails, and out come the backhoes. Seems like a different one, or two every year now.
Phone lines are also buried. The climate here is normally very, very dry. Normally the phone works fine. But when it does rain, and the soils get wet, my phone buzzes.
My opinion is that underground utilities certainly have some advantages, all is not peaches and cream.
- Cassandra
Great post. underground utility location is an interesting topic these days.
I am looking for info on sheathing above ground electrical power lines to protect them so that tree branches touching them won't cause power outages. The purpose is to save our canopy trees from constant butchering by power companies (severe line clearing). I'm also looking for costs of products and installation.
I am almost sure that some politicians or someone with power should be the contratist of this kind of workers.
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