Plus ça change

Honolulu: as power needs grow, the tangles get worse.

Telephone poles and overhead power lines have been a ubiquitous part of the Honolulu landscape ever since I can remember. They're still in every neighborhood a half-century later despite the danger and poor esthetics. The cost of burying infrastructure (electricity, trains) is enormously expensive, so little has been done.

In Napa and Sonoma counties Pacific Gas and Electric faces similar costs to Hawaiian Electric and did not bury most of its power lines.  PG&E is being blamed for starting or at least exacerbating the fires that have raged for over two weeks. The property damage--estimated so far at well under $5 billion--is much less than putting power lines throughout Northern California:

A new underground distribution line across most of PG&E’s territory costs about $1.16 million per mile, according to data filed with state regulators during the utility’s most recent general rate case. That’s more than twice the price of a new overhead line, which costs about $448,800 per mile. Most of the difference comes from the expense of digging a trench for the cable.

Prices rise within cities, where the work is more complex. A 2015 San Francisco report found that recent costs for moving power lines underground in Oakland had averaged $2.8 million per mile, while similar work in San Jose had cost $4.6 million per mile.

And burying high-voltage transmission lines — the kind usually strung from immense steel towers across long distances — can cost as much as $5 million per mile, according to PG&E.

Overhead lines are also easier and cheaper to fix:

Repair crews have no trouble spotting a knocked-over power pole or downed line. But when an underground line fails, operators first have to figure out where the problem occurred, without being able to see it — though sensors attached to the power lines can help narrow things down. Then they have to dig.

After the fires are out, expect to see the usual kabuki: personal stories of loss, public chastisement of PG&E, damage assessments, lawsuits, and settlements paid years from now. By then the new overhead power lines should be up and running.