Oh my gosh, please don't let every major city in the industrialized world find this out! They'll be clearing the world's forests for poles and digging billions of holes in the sidewalks. I grew up in New York-I'm 72-and the only overhead power lines we had when I was a tot were for the trollies. There are Con Edison manhole covers almost 100 years old in New York. The first power distribution pole I ever saw was in Hicksville. I was there to observe nature and barefoot people. It was a school trip or something. Oh please don't stop telling me fairy tales from the CFOs of Utility companies. They're so fun.Oh, oh got to go. I think I hear Nikola Tesla spinning in his grave.

Conversion of Overhead to Underground It seems that after every major storm (hurricanes in particular), we see interest in converting overhead systems to underground. Here are a number of points made by utilities when confronted by the daunting costs associated with this endeavor: • Cost of putting distribution underground would be between $.5 million and $5.4 million per mile. Average underground about $1 million per mile. Average overhead about $120,000. • Cost of putting transmission underground would be about $10 million per mile • Service continuity could actually diminish • Virtually all jurisdictions conclude that conversion is prohibitive • Primary driver is aesthetics, not reliability • Repair time for underground is about 60% longer than overhead • Underground is still vulnerable to lightning • Underground lines are more susceptible to rodents, corrosion, tree roots and accidental digging • Outages per year would drop by 70% • System longevity for overhead is 50 years but only 30 for underground • Maintenance costs are about the same. • 70% of US system is overhead • Underground conversion cost per residential customer is approximately $20K