Investigators are eying the Lahaina wildfire as yet another deadly blaze started by electrical equipment. Putting lines underground would help—at a steep cost.
For utilities, the calculus for whether to underground electrical infrastructure is more complex than you might think. PG&E has set out to undergroundof its lines by the end of this year. By 2026, the utility plans to have 2,000 miles done. “Not only is it effective mitigation for wildfire risk, but it also actually provides the opportunity for reliability,” says Sumeet Singh, PG&E’s chief operating officer.
But digging thousands of miles of trenches and laying lines comes at a steep cost. Singh says they started out at $5 million per mile, but are down to $3.3 million this year and are on track to shave off another half-million by 2026. The utility also doesn’t have to spend as much to maintain overhead wires and to constantly clear brush around equipment.
Buried lines may be immune to the wind, but they’re not indestructible. Earthquakes can jostle that piping, and water can also intrude. On Maui, any efforts to underground lines would have to contend with rising sea levels that could eat at the soil supporting the pipes. “It all comes down to this overarching problem, that there is no place to locate power lines where there is zero threat of environmental interaction,” says Kury.
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