[geeks] power (was Mr. Bill)

[Barry Keeney]

On Wed, 17 Sep 2008, John Francini wrote:
> 
> > Heart-breaking tales of lost homes, cherished possessions and  
> > injured loved-ones break hearts and evoke strong emotions. In the  
> > midst of all this tragedy I began to wonder about a practical and  
> > mundane matter; electricity. We have overhead power lines across  
> > much of the United States, and as we've seen they're extremely  
> > vulnerable to the elements and even an errant motorist. Given we've  
> > had about a century to perfect electric generation and transmission  
> > in this country why can't we bury power lines to ensure continuous  
> > operation in times of peril? The cost of constant repairs after  
> > storms should balance the cost on the burial and management of the  
> > cables. Additionally, continual electrical service will enable water  
> > treatment plants, gas stations, and other essentials key to modern  
> > living to continue operations throughout disasters. Why can't this  
> > vulnerability in our infrastructure be fixed?
> 
> I don't understand this either. The only places that seem to  
> consistently bury utilities are planned upscale housing developments,  
> condo complexes, and the downtown/central areas of cities.  The rest  
> of the country's utility companies seem to be content with putting  
> wires on sticks and wondering why they come down in hurricanes/ 
> tornadoes/ice storms.

  Answer $$$$ and LOTS of it. 

  It costs more to install and repair underground power systems. It's
not so bad when you're building lots of new homes. You going to install
some kind of power infrastructure anyway. So for new stuff, yea, should
put it underground, where possible.

  Retro fitting existing areas isn't going to be cheap. We had a large
fire burn 200+ homes and they spent millions installing underground
utilities in the burn areas and remaining homes in the areas near by. 
Never would have happened if it wasn't a fire caused by a goverment run
controlled burn gone bad. They had to replace a large part of the power
system in the area anyway and the goverment was willing paid to put it
underground. It would have been a lot cheaper and faster to replace the
above ground system.

  Power companies are regulated in the US and spending millions to
overhaul/replace WORKING systems isn't something they can do with the
money they get from customers. They would either have to raise rates for
years to cover these costs (it would take years to replace) or get 
goverment to help cover the costs. Either way it's your money.

  Now look at the damage. It's a little bit here, a little bit there. 
For most weather damage it's just lots of little repairs, they don't 
need to replace 100's of miles of everything power related they can 
repair most of the damage with much cheaper repairs (patch/splice a
cable, replace a power poll/transformer, etc). If the weather/storm 
is so big/bad it destroys lot of buildings it's still going to damage 
the underground power systems, just not as bad as above ground. 

  If flooding is a problem, or part of it, underground isn't going 
to help as much. Power would have to be turned off until the water is 
gone from equipment. My area could be flooded but your area, without 
flood waters, has it's power off because the underground lines pass thru
equipment in my area. Above ground lines might be okay.

  Mostly they have to get the power back on as quickly as possible and 
rebuilding everything instead of repairing would take weeks, months
or years.... without power. Fixing takes hours/days in most cases and
once fixed why spend even more to replace it.

  Do you want your power bill to double for something that happens only
to a few people... for a short time... most of the time? If the power   
is out for 7 full days a year it's only 2% of the time. When was the last 
time it was out 7 days in a row? Or a year? I wouldn't be happy if it was
my house, but I'd live, maybe... No internet? maybe not :^) 

  No such thing as a perfect solution, Something that works ALMOST all 
the time is good enough, we can deal with the few exceptions.

Barry Keeney
Chaos Consulting
email barryk at chaoscon.com

"Rap is Square Dancing gone terribly, terribly Wrong...."