Why I love underground power lines …..
October 1st, 2008 categories: Discover Spring Texas | 325 views
Power lines …. Above ground or underground …. it’s not something I gave a lot of thought to. That is until recently. After Hurricane IKE blew through Houston and the Spring Texas area knocking out electrical service to 93% of CenterPoint energy’s customers, I had some time in the dark to ponder power and its delivery systems.
When my husband and I purchased our home almost 5 years ago in a newer subdivision in Spring Texas, we did not say “we only want a home with underground power lines”. We did not like the “look” of above ground power lines, but if the house matched our other desires we would be happy to call it “our home”. The house that we wound up purchasing was on an interior lot and it has underground power lines.
Besides not having to look at the power lines, I never gave any thought to the benefit of underground power lines until Hurricane IKE knocked out our electrical service. I consider us to be one of the lucky homeowners because our power was restored by CenterPoint energy around 8 pm on Day 5 post-IKE. As of yesterday on Day 17, CenterPoint energy still had 114,000 customers without power with the cause being damage to transformers and lines serving individual homes.
Damage that was caused by fallen trees and thrown debris to above ground power lines. Now would we still be in the dark if our home has above ground power lines? Who knows?? What I do know is I love power and the modern conveniences it supports such as A/C which is why I LOVE underground power lines.
Next time we are in the real estate market for a home will underground power lines be a “must have” criteria for our home? Probably not. But if our next home DOES has above ground power lines, I will be buying a generator.
Read also:
I agree that underground lines may be a good idea to help when bad storms happen. But something I am currently fighting is that according to Centerpoint the underground line from the transformer to your residential meter is the home owners responsibility. and this line runs about 1800$ to be installed not to mention the headache and other expenses you have to go through to get the problem resolved. If this line is damaged the home owner is stuck with this expense in order to restore power. Just my two cents and the experience and the past week i have been dealing with
That’s a big OUCH!!!, Chris. I was aware that the customer is responsible for the line from the transformer to the meter which is true whether its above or below ground.
There’s just less opportunity for damage to underground lines than overhead lines which is why I prefer underground lines