WASHINGTON — In the aftermath of storms that knocked out power to millions, sweltering residents and elected officials are demanding to know why it’s taking so long to restring power lines and why they’re not more resilient in the first place.
The answer, it turns out, is complicated: Above-ground lines are vulnerable to lashing winds and falling trees, but relocating them underground incurs huge costs — as much as $15 million per mile of buried line — and that gets passed onto consumers.
With memories of other extended outages fresh in the minds of many of the 1.26 million customers who still lack electricity, some question whether the delivery of power is more precarious than it used to be. The storms that began Friday killed 24 people in seven states and the District of Columbia.
“It’s a system that from an infrastructure point of view is beginning to age, has been aging,” said Gregory Reed, a professor of electric power engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. “We haven’t expanded and modernized the bulk of the transmission and distribution network.”
The powerful winds that swept from the Midwest to the Mid-Atlantic late Friday, toppling trees onto power lines and knocking out transmission towers and electrical substations, have renewed debate about whether to bury lines. District of Columbia Mayor Vincent Gray was among officials calling for the change this week and was seeking to meet with the chief executive of Pepco, the city’s dominant utility, to discuss what he called a slow and frustrating response.
“They obviously need to invest more in preparing for getting the power back on,” said Maryland state Sen. James Rosapepe, who is among those advocating for moving lines underground. “Every time this happens, they say they’re shocked — shocked that it rained or snowed or it was hot — which isn’t an acceptable excuse given that we all know about climate change.”
Though the newest communities do bury their power lines, many older ones have found that it’s too expensive to replace existing networks.
Pepco’s initial estimates are that it would be a $5.8 billion project to bury power lines in D.C. and would cost customers an extra $107 per month, said Michael Maxwell, vice president of asset management.
Though the country’s power infrastructure is reliable, it was mostly built between the 1930s and 1970s and is starting to age, said Reed of the University of Pittsburgh.
Residents’ complaints about the latest outages have increased with their duration. Kevin Fogg, a barber from the rural community of Jefferson, about 45 miles northwest of Washington, scoffed when asked if he’d be willing to pay Potomac Edison higher rates to prevent more outages.
“I think it’s more than it should be already,” Fogg said, adding that the utility company should do a better job of trimming trees and branches that threaten power lines.
Jean Cuseo, a middle-school teacher from Jefferson, said she’s not sure if she’s willing to pay more to prevent outages, even if that were an option.
“I’m pretty environmentally friendly. If I could live off the grid, I would,” she said.
