I don’t understand why most power lines are above ground in suburban areas when we know it leads to power outages from high wind and fallen trees. Why do urban areas usually have power lines below ground? Limited space?
In: Engineering
Because water gets into everything when you bury things in the ground. You don’t want to have to pinpoint where a cable is shorted because there’s hundreds of miles of it buried under ground. Then you have to tear up the road to repair the cable.
Underground cables cost a lot more to install. Some of this is made up for by the fact that underground cables are less prone to damage, but that isn’t enough to make them cheaper in the long run.
Cost.
It’s cheaper to design and install the lines and maintain them afterwards. It also requires a much less obstructive right of way from landholders, as the power poles and bucket truck access isn’t the sort of access you need with underground lines (which need manholes and underground access points).
Lower installation cost and lower maintenance cost means that underground lines are only for dense cities and expensive neighborhoods.
It’s way, way cheaper. For better or worse, a lot of design and engineering decisions are made on the basis of “what’s the cheapest way that works?” In places like downtown NYC, where space is at a premium, it starts making more sense to bury everything.
In Florida FPL wants to install power lines above ground. Because it is much quicker and cheaper. . But during hurricanes The branches and trees fall on the lines. However customers vote and they want the lines to be buried so that an area is not out of power for two weeks. They make this known to their elected representatives and a few more areas get buried each year. The electric companies want cheaper lines on poles so the elected representatives take pay offs and the people in Florida suffer until the bums are thrown out of office.
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