Consumers wants to test burying power lines to combat outages
DTE says burying older electric lines is cost-prohibitive
With nearly a million people losing electricity over the past couple weeks due to severe weather, DTE is under more pressure to find a mroe permanent solution to outages - like burying the lines. But that's way too expensive, DTE says.
JACKSON, Mich. (FOX 2) - Parts of Michigan that experience persistent power outages could be part of a pilot project to bury electrical lines in the near future.
Consumer's Energy, one of the state's largest utilities that provides electricity to much of the west and northern regions of the lower peninsula said it was seeking approval from a state commission to test how burying electrical lines could increase resilience.
Grids in Genesee, Livingston, Allegan, Ottawa, Montcalm, and Iosco counties are part of the proposed pilot.
Residents in Michigan have come to almost expect periods of no power due to extreme weather. Utilities like Consumers and DTE are frequent targets of criticism for the rates of power outages among both lawmakers and consumers.
Often times it's strong winds and heavy precipitation that knock down power lines. One solution would be to bury the lines underground and out of the way of falling branches and ice, though utilities have resisted this remedy due to the cost.
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Why DTE doesn't bury power lines in older neighborhoods
Roughly 1/3 of DTE's power grid is underground but the energy provider says it's not feasibile to bury lines in older neighborhoods.
According to Consumers, burying its electrical lines would improve its grid resiliency by 90%.
"Historically the costs to bury lines have been too expensive, but we have driven down the cost per mile to be equivalent to above-ground hardening costs," said Greg Salisbury, vice president of electric distribution engineering. "This pilot will help us learn even more about how to bury lines in ways that keep costs as low as possible, allowing us to bury additional lines in the future."
The utility says it's aiming to bury 400 miles of electrical lines a year. Currently, about 15% of its lines are underground - mostly in areas with high population density.