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Can we afford to not place utility lines underground?

After most disasters, one of the longest lasting issues for most people is loss of power. What we see in Lahaina now as crews work to restore power poles is the same problem we saw in Puna after Hurricane Iselle in 2014. Same with Hurricane Iniki on Kauai in the 90’s.

Restoring power can take days, weeks, or months. During this time life is not normal, safe or healthy, as refrigerators don’t work, internet doesn’t work, medical devices won’t function, and many other creature comforts and safety systems are lacking.

Power companies often say that they just can’t afford to put utilities underground. It’s too expensive they say. In the past this may have been true, though short-sighted.

I would say, expensive compared to what? Compared to the massive cost of replacing all the poles in an emergency? Compared to the economic and personal loss for those people and businesses doing without power?

While I don’t have reliable figures for you (no one does), it seems the cost of doing things as we do now is 10 times to 100 times what underground utilities would cost.

In any wealthy new development, utilities are put underground. This improves the view as well as the safety and the resilience of the development. In many many other countries — and some states and counties — underground utilities are standard.

It may be easier to repair lines the old-fashioned way, the way we’ve done it for a long time. Or maybe not, we don’t know.

But if the lines were underground, most repairs would be unnecessary right now, businesses could reopen, homes can be made livable again quickly.

My question is: when will we learn?

In some places, the ground is rocky and making the change is costly and time consuming. In other places, it’s really no big deal. And in all places, we utility consumers deserve the best, most reliable, and most reasonable utilities possible.

All these calculations assume that power lines did not cause fires on Maui, and still — undergrounding of utilities is the best, most economical option.

Now what happens if power lines did cause some of the fires? In that case, these calculations become trivial compared to the actual cost — $5 billion in losses on Maui, and hundreds of homes gone, in addition to the many, many deaths? The economic devastation that will last years? One doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to see the economic benefits of underground utilities anymore.

Wildfires, hurricanes and other natural disasters are increasing in frequency and severity due to climate change, and this is not going to get better.

The people of Maui deserve all our support. But let’s also take concrete action to prevent a reoccurrence. Put the lines in the ground like modern, safety-oriented utilities do.