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Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
4,960
14,330
Humansville Missouri
If money was not a concern, the utility companies would bury all the power lines.

In our little town the power company has been burying wires as funds allow for all the forty years I’ve lived here and there’s no end in sight.

Xxxx

Cost to run power underground vs. above ground​

The average cost to run power underground is $10 to $25 per foot, or $5,000 to $12,500 for 500' of new electrical lines. Overhead power line installation costs $5 to $15 per foot, or $4,000 to $7,500 for 500'. The cost to bury existing power lines is $2,000 to $6,000.

Xxxx

Here is the chance to bury a lot of downed power lines.

But they’ll have to get power back as quickly as possible, so they’ll patch up the old and wait to bury the lines as money allows.
 

woodsroad

Lifer
Oct 10, 2013
12,674
20,289
SE PA USA
If your power has come back on, put your porch light on to let the repair teams know and save them the job of coming to ask, they say. Jolly sensible.
People do run generators, and then leave the porch light on, so.....

My house is three from the end of a long string. My next door neighbor, two from the end of the string, was eternally angry at the power company and would call them every time the lights flickered. He had his pole number memorized, and would rant at the power company customer service people. This was 25 years ago, before any of my neighbors had generators. So when the power went out after dark, I'd quick set up all the Coleman lanterns we owned in the windows on one side of out house. Within a minute our phone would ring "How come your power is on, and mine isn't?" he'd bellow. I'd calmly answer "I dunno, Andy, our power never went out". He's spend the next hour replacing fuses and flipping breakers, never able to figure out what was going on.
 

SmokingInTheWind

Starting to Get Obsessed
Mar 24, 2024
295
1,783
New Mexico
If money was not a concern, the utility companies would bury all the power lines.

In our little town the power company has been burying wires as funds allow for all the forty years I’ve lived here and there’s no end in sight.

Xxxx

Cost to run power underground vs. above ground​

The average cost to run power underground is $10 to $25 per foot, or $5,000 to $12,500 for 500' of new electrical lines. Overhead power line installation costs $5 to $15 per foot, or $4,000 to $7,500 for 500'. The cost to bury existing power lines is $2,000 to $6,000.

Xxxx

Here is the chance to bury a lot of downed power lines.

But they’ll have to get power back as quickly as possible, so they’ll patch up the old and wait to bury the lines as money allows.

I hope that when we rebuild the power grid in Ukraine that we pay the extra for underground.
 
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SmokingInTheWind

Starting to Get Obsessed
Mar 24, 2024
295
1,783
New Mexico
People do run generators, and then leave the porch light on, so.....

My house is three from the end of a long string. My next door neighbor, two from the end of the string, was eternally angry at the power company and would call them every time the lights flickered. He had his pole number memorized, and would rant at the power company customer service people. This was 25 years ago, before any of my neighbors had generators. So when the power went out after dark, I'd quick set up all the Coleman lanterns we owned in the windows on one side of out house. Within a minute our phone would ring "How come your power is on, and mine isn't?" he'd bellow. I'd calmly answer "I dunno, Andy, our power never went out". He's spend the next hour replacing fuses and flipping breakers, never able to figure out what was going on.

When I was as a substation technician for an electric utility company we would do switching and line assessment for the line crews during storm recovery. After a major ice storm we told a guy who lived near the end of a sparsely populated circuit that it would be days, maybe weeks, before the line crews got to his lines. He went off on us so we drove away with him running after us screaming and cursing. Not sure if he had a generator.

I have nothing but respect for the line crews.
 
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Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
4,960
14,330
Humansville Missouri
I hope that when we rebuild the power grid in Ukraine that we pay the extra for underground.

In America (and likely Ukraine and Russia) the rate payers pay for the power lines.

All civilized nations that have universal public power are set up nearly the same.

When peace comes to Ukraine, whether the Kremlin or the Free World and NATO wins, it will cost about twice as much to bury the electricity as to use overhead wires.

When Harry S Truman ordered Hiroshima destroyed with an atomic bomb, the Japanese had most of the city’s utilities working again in undamaged areas the next day:

Xxxx
Power in undamaged areas of the city was even restored on August 7th, with limited rail service resuming the following day. Several days after the blast, however, medical staff began to recognize the first symptoms of radiation sickness among the survivors.



Civilizations must keep the power on.

And the poorest old lady living on a pension in a little white cottage has to be able to pay the light bill.

Which is why it’s going to take some time, to bury all the power lines.
 
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georged

Lifer
Mar 7, 2013
6,016
16,319
So when the power went out after dark, I'd quick set up all the Coleman lanterns we owned in the windows on one side of out house. Within a minute our phone would ring "How come your power is on, and mine isn't?" he'd bellow. I'd calmly answer "I dunno, Andy, our power never went out". He's spend the next hour replacing fuses and flipping breakers, never able to figure out what was going on.

Screenshot 2024-09-29 at 6.45.56 PM.png
 
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georged

Lifer
Mar 7, 2013
6,016
16,319
Look for a huge increase in births in 9 months.

One of the funny-but-literally-true things.

The combination of crisis-activated brain chemistry (an uncontrollable response to a survival threat), and extended periods of enforced (so to speak) low activity from nothing around the house works, results in more bedroom playtime than normal.
 
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