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posted by martyb on Thursday September 14 2017, @12:30AM   Printer-friendly
from the better-ask-Betteridge dept.

It is the height of a highly destructive hurricane season in the United States. The devastation of Harvey in Texas and Louisiana caused nearly 300,000 customers to lose electricity service, and Hurricane Irma has cut service to millions of people. Soon, winter storms will bring wind and snow to much of the country.

Anxious people everywhere worry about the impact these storms might have on their safety, comfort and convenience. Will they disrupt my commute to work? My children's ride to school? My electricity service?

When it comes to electricity, people turn their attention to the power lines overhead and wonder if their electricity service might be more secure if those lines were buried underground. But having studied this question for utilities and regulators, I can say the answer is not that straightforward. Burying power lines, also called undergrounding, is expensive, requires the involvement of many stakeholders and might not solve the problem at all.

Would burying power lines render them more weather-proof?

Read the full article on The Conversation.


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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday September 14 2017, @04:21PM (9 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday September 14 2017, @04:21PM (#567884) Journal

    Mostly because someone other than the power company had to pay astoundingly wasteful amounts for all those easily accessible, underground routes to be built.

    BS. I need only one counterexample to show you it can be done without astoundingly wasteful amounts; so, factually, here it is:
    where I live, they were placed at the same time as water, gas and sewage pipes and the comms cables; using exactly the simple trench digger I linked previously followed by another machine which dropped the segments of the conduit (prefab concrete)
    Done by the estate developer. Who would not get its development permit if it wouldn't do it this way.

    So, again, the truth of whom?

    Personally, I have better things to spend my money on than getting rid of something simple and cheap that works.

    1. until it doesn't work and costs an arm and a leg to repair in a short term, emergency situation
    2, suddenly is no longer about the advance of society, but the spending of personal money

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
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  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday September 14 2017, @04:57PM (3 children)

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday September 14 2017, @04:57PM (#567929) Homepage Journal

    And you don't think digging a trench, laying concrete pipe, and being unable to ever service it without a major undertaking didn't raise the cost of your home significantly? Dumbass.

    Having to spend your personal money on wasteful bullshit for aesthetic reasons is about the advancement of society. Society is improved markedly by people having more disposable income in their pockets. It is not improved by not having to look at power lines.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday September 14 2017, @05:19PM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday September 14 2017, @05:19PM (#567948) Journal

      And you don't think digging a trench, laying concrete pipe, and being unable to ever service it without a major undertaking didn't raise the cost of your home significantly?

      Nope, I don't.
      it's all about demand and supply - I'm amazed that you still think that the price you pay is in any relation with the production cost. Especially for non-captured markets.

      Having to spend your personal money on wasteful bullshit for aesthetic reasons is about the advancement of society.

      I may or may not give a dam about the aesthetics, but the tree in from of my home offers part of AC by the shadow it casts for 3hours/day and does not require extra money I need to pay for "vegetation management".
      Not to mention that underground power cabling is more secure and easier to maintain once in place

      So, the truth of whom, wisebutt?

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2017, @07:56PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2017, @07:56PM (#568049)

      this is hilarious

      I have never lived in a community in the US with exposed power lines. I live in a windy tornado prone area right now, and it isn't all double underground or something. everything is. the telco, even gigabit fiber internet offerings. it's all 100% underground. there are a few areas out of the substations where wires lead into the ground, but from there--they are still in the ground.

      Even the hook up to my home -- is underground. There are no exposed wires at all anywhere in my subdivision, except for people with an antenna on the roof and their antenna wire is exposed prior to going into the house.

      if we had to worry about what you are proposing to be the cheap way to do it, I'd go out of business because of the power outages, and things would break

      It's like you say no because you are not open to change. ya'll aint dumb so please consider views outside of your personal anecdotes. lots of businesses would like to pay their employees to work and make money to provide that jingle in the pockets you mention.

      no one here is worried about what the power lines we cant see look like

      so really have you never planned for failure, or do you just expect the employer to buy replacements? its really amazing how narrow of a view you have for this, and its so narrow i expect it to be political. but it doesnt make sense to make this political. blue AND red houses lose power when the lines fall down

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @04:15PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @04:15PM (#568515)

      And you don't think digging a trench, laying concrete pipe, and being unable to ever service it without a major undertaking didn't raise the cost of your home significantly? Dumbass."

      Hmm, let's consider homes with sewers. So... adding a couple more pipes into an already dug whole where you're already adding other pipes compared to putting in a bunch of telephone poles and running wire between them all and you think putting up the poles is cheaper? LOL! Oh and it might be harder to service, maybe, or it may actually be cheaper depending on how it's laid out. You don't know, I don't know, but I like your unbiased assumption.

      I'm not sure whether you're the mule or the donkey, but the prefix definitely fits you.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2017, @05:03PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2017, @05:03PM (#567933)

    Your example is NEW infrastructure, not replacing old infrastructure. There is a huge difference champ.

  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Friday September 15 2017, @11:13AM (3 children)

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 15 2017, @11:13AM (#568374)

    they were placed at the same time as water, gas and sewage pipes and the comms cables;

    Here that would not meet code for "safety" reasons. Not saying you're wrong because there's as many codes as municipalities (and there's a lot of those) but am making the point that we can also thank government regulation for making things expensive.

    The idea of running natgas pipes thru the same hole as power is kinda disturbing to me regardless of code.

    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday September 15 2017, @11:24AM (2 children)

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 15 2017, @11:24AM (#568379) Journal

      The idea of running natgas pipes thru the same hole as power is kinda disturbing to me regardless of code

      Heck, no, where did you get the idea they are in the same place?
      I said "in the same time" - different trenches, different trade persons, within the course of 1-2 weeks for a block.

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
      • (Score: 2) by VLM on Friday September 15 2017, @05:40PM (1 child)

        by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 15 2017, @05:40PM (#568570)

        OK sounds much better. Still an interesting topological puzzle to route four thingies separately without crossing over each other excessively...

        • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday September 16 2017, @06:08AM

          by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Saturday September 16 2017, @06:08AM (#568855) Journal

          Different depths, one would guess.

          --
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford