《EEI - Advantages of Undergrounding Utilities White Paper 05-》.pdf

Executive Summary More than 3 million miles of electrical cables are strung overhead across the country. Add to that at least 180 million telephone and cable TV lines, and it’s no wonder hurricanes, tornadoes, fires and ice storms are wreaking havoc on Americas electrical systems each year, causing utility outages that last days, weeks and longer. Power outages over extended periods present major health and safety concerns and economic losses. In the aftermath of these storms, there is invariably an outcry from the public, the government and the media to place overhead utilities underground. Concerns about the reliability of overhead lines, increases in their maintenance and operating costs, and issues of public safety and quality-of-life are leading more and more utilities and municipalities to the realization that converting overhead distribution lines to underground is the best way to provide high-quality service to their customers. According to a report by the Edison Electric Institute, “almost 70 percent of the nation’s distribution system has been built with overhead power lines.” Over the past 15 years or so, however, “approximately half the capital expenditures by U.S. investor-owned utilities for new transmission and distribution wires have been for underground wires.” Making such a conversion is rarely justified solely on the basis of costs. For utility companies, undergrounding provides potential benefits through reduced operations and maintenance (OM) costs, reduced tree trimming costs, less storm damage, reduced loss of day-to-day electricity sales, and reduced losses of electricity sales when customers lose power after storms. Creative funding options are often available to make the goal of undergrounding a reality. For some conversions, the evolution of horizontal directional drilling and the ability to physically locate underground utilities using vacuum have been key to the success of many of these projects. The Situation