From: Ted
Date: 9/27/2004 12:13 AM


dadiOH wrote:

JerryL wrote:
"Rich Greenberg" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Amy D wrote:


Are underground utilities common in the FL area? Does that help
reduce the outages when Mother Nature strikes back?

In some areas of GA, all utilities are underground and power
outages are rare in storms. I haven't had an outage of more than
a few minutes since the ice storm in Jan 2000 when I was out a few
hours.


Undergroung lines are a rarity in Florida. They'd rather spend 3
billion dollars four times to repair the lines than 12 billion to
bury them and not have anymore problems.

The recent problems have less to do with low voltage lines to homes (what
could be underground) than high voltage transmission lines and
sub-stations.
Can't put those underground.

Yes you can. For example, a Massachusetts electric utility (NSTAR) is
preparing
to build an 345 kilovolt underground transmission line.
http://www.nstaronline.com/construction/summary.asp
Of course local conditions (e.g. high water table) might not be condusive to
underground electric lines.

Water tables schmwater tables.
They put many of these transmission lines right on the ocean/river/lake/sound
floor!