Duke Energy Carolinas looks for help with pilot project to bury lines - Charlotte Business Journal:

kleopatraxnibe.blogspot.com
Cities would have to help pay for the costlyh burial of the lines under thepilot project. But Duke spokeswomann Paige Sheehan says the utility wants to gaugde theinterest N.C. cities have in convertinv existing, overhead distribution lines to underground utilities. "It's very complicated -- it'ws very cost-prohibitive in many cases," Sheehan says. "Everybodyy has to work together, and Duke is happy to do Following the 2002 ice storm that blanketexd most of North Carolina and itspowerf lines, the 's public staff researched the prospect of burying distribution lines.
The publicv staff estimated at the time that converting all distributionn lines in the state wouldcost $41 billion and would take 25 years to The impact to customer bills woul d be a 125% increase. Charlotte-based Duke seeks threde cities to participate in thepilotf project, and it has asked the commission to approve its plan by July 1. Sheehan says the compant has had no contacwith N.C. cities about the program yet. Duke proposes buryinhg only distributionlines -- thoss that deliver power to homes and businesses. There are no planas to bury transmission lines, which are strung on tall towersa and bring electricity at a higher voltage from power plantszto communities.
The conversion projecyt would not include burial of any telephone or cablwTV lines. The utilityg will work with participating municipalities to choose locations where lines shouldbe buried. In some a city might seek to bury linesw foraesthetic reasons, but Sheehan says the utility' priority will be burying linesx at high risk of Both the utility and the participatinhg cities would pay to move the linex underground. The city and Duke each would contributd up to half a percent of the annual revenude from electric sales within the city to a fund that would pay for the Duke has a similar plan in place in South Carolina.
No cities there have buried linee yet, but Greenville is taking steps todo so. The Greenviller City Council in May approved a proposal to adjusft the franchise fee the citychargesa Duke; the utility will pass the increaswe on to customer bills. New revenue from the increasew will fund theconversion program. Raleigh-based does not have a program in which citie work with the utility to identifuy and burypower lines. Jeff a Progress spokesman, says the utility puts most distributionn lines for new construction But conversion of overhead lines to undergrounxd facilities is paid for by the party that requestdsthe conversion.
Ed Legge of the says utilities that are explorinb burial of lines are primarily looking to improve He say utilities in Florida and partss of the Midwest have looked atburying lines. While undergroundr lines are not subject to the same wind and ice stor m risksas above-ground lines, Legge says underground lines couldr be damaged by "They are not by any stretch impervious to the Legge says. "There's just different elements." Outages for underground lines also last longetr than outagesfor above-ground lines. It takes longer to find and repairunderground infrastructure, Legge notes.
The Edisojn Electric Institute in 2006 released a study on buryingb power lines that concluded the cost of converting overhea d lines to underground would beroughly $1 millionn per mile. Legge says those costss have likely increased, and that's nearly 10 times the cost of an overheadpowe line. Sheehan emphasizes that cities that participate in the progran must be selective in choosing which lineseto bury. "Every community is different," she says.
"Bugt very clearly, it's cost-prohibitive to convert all the