In areas that get a lot of hurricanes like New Orleans, why isn’t most of the electricity run underground where it’s less vulnerable by now?
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So as someone who designs power utilities there are multiple reasons. Most new systems are going underground for looks and alot of cities require it, in some fire hazard areas it is safer to have underground lines.
Alot of existing stuff requires permits and right of ways, if something breaks we cannot just replace it with what we want. Most of the time the easement will only allow us to replace exactly what is there already.
Believe it or not most utilities prefer overhead equipment, it is easier and cheaper to maintain. If something goes bad you can drive from block to block patrolling the line looking for the problem. With underground you have to locate faults and bad equipment with the process of elimination its something that is not apparently damaged, this can sometimes take up to 10 times longer to locate and fix.
And like many others have stated. Alot of it is also geography, ground water, terrain. Is it rocky or high water table, is wind an issue, is ice an issue, heat in the summer causes some oh lines to sag way low so we have to use different wire to pull it tighter.
Really the bottom line is cost. All utilities care about is dollars, if a utility can do something cheaper and safer and more reliable they will most likely do it either as part of a budget upgrade or when something goes bad they replace it with better stuff. But also the utilities are not going to go out of the way to spend money unless they have a reason. It is really a double edged sword most of the time.
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