The recent power outages wrought by Hurricane Harvey in the US have reopened the debate surrounding burying electricity lines, or "undergrounding". While a study found millions of all new electricity cables in the US and in some parts of Europe are laid underground, burying existing power lines costs about $1m per mile, which cannot be passed on to the consumer. Instead, some US states are adopting a holistic approach, with improved vegetation management practices to avoid trees falling on power lines or transformers.
The recent power outages wrought by Hurricane Harvey in the US have reopened the debate surrounding burying electricity lines, or "undergrounding". While a study found a quarter of all new electricity cables in the US and in some parts of Europe are laid underground, burying existing power lines costs about $1m per mile, which cannot be passed on to the consumer. Instead, some US states are adopting a holistic approach, with improved vegetation management practices to avoid trees falling on power lines or transformers.