As California wildfires flare throughout the state, critics are renewing focus on public utilities’ fire-risk management and prevention strategies. While power shutoffs and vegetation management are being used in the short term, communities are increasingly asking that power lines—the source of several recent wildfires—be buried underground.
Though utility PG&E is burying distribution lines in Paradise, Calif., a town all but destroyed by the 2018 fires, utilities themselves say the cost to bury all lines is prohibitive. According to PG&E estimates, it costs approximately $3 million per mile to convert underground electric distribution lines from overhead, compared with the $800,000-per-mile cost of building overhead lines. Additionally, the underground lines are still at risk from earthquakes, flooding and excavation work. Still, as the damage mounts in California, the option has begun to look more attractive.