idleprocess
Flashaholic
Just digger fade and shifting soil.My internet is going from elevated pole cable to buried fiber optic soon. Then no more worries about my property line trees or tree rats taking out my CPF fix.
#1 CAUSE OF BLACKOUTS
- Thread starter IMA SOL MAN
- Start date
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IMA SOL MAN
Flashlight Enthusiast
Excellent point that I unfortunately missed.
The big power company in my area is burying out lying lines so that when a big storm hits they can focus on the larger lines where more $ are lost while the power is out.
Between the cost of keeping easements cleaned, tree hugger regs and crews fixing the over head lines after a storm they figure burying in the long run is less costly as well.
bigburly912
Flashlight Enthusiast
Underground is astronomically expensive and harder to repair when there is damage. Throw in the problem that nobody can get padmount transformers right now and you are in a bit of a pickle. Would be nice if we could go all underground but it's just not feasible most of the time. Louisville or Lexington was looking into it a few months back and it was billions of dollars for a problem section they had. 😐
One day……
idleprocess
Flashaholic
My neighborhood is underground. They replaced the transformers and intermediate wiring in 2021 and each ~120' wire pull took the better part of a day. Somewhat disappointed that the old 50KVA transformer in front of my house serving five other locations was replaced with ... a new 50KVA transformer. Ah well.
IMA SOL MAN
Flashlight Enthusiast
Wait, what? Why can't you get pad mount transformers now?
bigburly912
Flashlight Enthusiast
hard to get. Blame covid, blame factories telling people they don't need to work, blame lack of components, blame natural disasters. Several reasons they are hard to get. I don't really have a good answer.
bigburly912
Flashlight Enthusiast
Wow. 6 houses on a 50kva? Do you all have heat pumps? No hard winters or hot summers? Honestly it's probably the only thing they could get. I'd love to see a LD sheet on that.
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IMA SOL MAN
Flashlight Enthusiast
Seems like I heard recently that all the new housing developments in my town are going with buried power lines. I guess that is the new thing aesthetically. Our town is trying to improve its image, and attract people and businesses, so I guess that is part of it. I need to check on that, but it sounds right.
idleprocess
Flashaholic
Dallas area. Mild winters, intense summers. HVAC abounds - I've got a 5 ton compressor, most neighbors have multizone setups with two smaller compressors. Oddly enough other streets have 75KVA units serving 4 locations.
Almost all of the power lines where I live are buried. I've only needed to utilize my generator twice since 2000.
bigburly912
Flashlight Enthusiast
Most are. It's really the best way to go. It would be nice if anytime there was a gas line or water line project they'd dig a little extra and run some conduit for cable pulls.
I've seen the conduit get placed but not the cable pulled. Sometimes when the gubment has a capital improvement project they pay to have "future" items installed like conduits for electricity and communication lines. Also casings for future water/sewer lines crossing main roads.
IMA SOL MAN
Flashlight Enthusiast
Seems to me that putting such things in place would save time and money down the road.
jtr1962
Flashaholic
They did that on my block a number of years ago. Still waiting for the buried lines....
I did a project in a small town a few years back and the concept had been devised 25 years prior. Some 7 years after the right of way two blocks away was acquired and conduits were built. See, the concept was sound but the funds were lacking. A new city council was voted in but they had other priorities. Yet another council later there were some grants given by the state government to upgrade the lines to underground so they bought right of way, buried conduits and ran out of money.
The next decade they hired a consultant to find federal grant monies for various things like pollution reduction and block grants to improve down town. That was partly how they moved the overhead lines to underground. More money was found to improve two city blocks. When I arrived the overhead utility lines had been buried and the street was getting a face lift. When that was complete the consultant was tasked with trying to build phase 3, another city block but those lines were still over head.
Another council was elected and they decided to revamp another part of downtown instead. An old shopping area where the lines had been buried decades before. The consultant went to work for another small town in another state.
I guess what I'm saying is it's not as easy as just deciding to move things underground. It took $5 million to relocate the lines underground and $1 million to revamp those two blocks. Those two blocks were lawyers, a courthouse and a hardware store. The other area was all retail centers. Probably a better bang for the buck for that town.
Dave_H
Flashlight Enthusiast
The number of outages in my area with above-ground, caused by tree branches etc. falling, is
small; even compared to areas with buried wiring, for whatever reasons.
Dave
small; even compared to areas with buried wiring, for whatever reasons.
Dave
bigburly912
Flashlight Enthusiast
Maybe not a lot of straight line winds in your area or your utility is smart enough to keep their right of ways clean. Most don't
knucklegary
Flashlight Enthusiast
Same modus operandi in my area. Job security?
