Overhead Power Lines: This is the 21st Century?

I had forgotten how your perspective changes when you walk instead of driving.  You notice things you sometimes don't while encased in an automobile.  I walked to Woodmoor Shopping Center a few days ago.  Pausing at Four Corners, I was struck by how frail our power lines appear.  The utility poles are warped and bent, like stooped elderly men.  I thought about how we lose electrical power when the wind blows over 10 mph these days, and how lucky we are that this hurricane season has been relatively mild.  I understood how one minor storm can wreak havoc on the electrical grid, and marveled that in the 21st century our infrastructure is so outmoded.  On the other hand, I know that underground utility lines are expensive and disruptive.  But the old system has to give at some point.  We want to do an ISCA event next Spring about green technologies and energy efficiency for our homes; it might also be a good time to discuss bringing our electrical infrastructure into this century.

Comments

[tony hausner]

Glad to see you have posted this blog. Hope it leads to good discussions.

[Allegra]

I'll have to ask my father inlaw (a former PEPCO exec.) what can be done about that, but I don't see any really high tech solutions on the horizon, since they tend to cost so much. Construction for conduit and lines would be really expensive, and there'd have to be a lot of re-routing of traffic during the digging up of the roads to place such conduit...