From the Times Newsweekly:As the city embarks on rebuilding from the damage left behind by Hurricane Sandy, Con Edison is reportedly warming up to the idea of burying overhead utility wires into underground ducts.
“Putting major overhead power lines underground is ... a consideration and will be examined in greater detail,” said a statement from Con Edison in announcing that it will invest $250 million on “measures that can help protect critical equipment from flood damage.”
Residents in Middle Village, Maspeth, Woodhaven, Forest Hills and other areas of Queens which are powered by overhead lines lost power for several days following Hurricane Sandy after wires and poles were knocked down either by the wind or by fallen trees and branches that were toppled by the gusts.
Con Edison’s announcement came last Thursday, Dec. 6, after Mayor Michael Bloomberg outlined a plan for reinforcing the city’s infrastructure during the rebuilding process to reduce the chances that the severe damages caused by Sandy will be repeated.
In his speech, Bloomberg said that he would work with Gov. Andrew Cuomo on finding ways to speed up the investment of “distributed energy, micro-grids, energy storage and smart grid technologies” in order to reduce the risk and length of power outages.
6 comments:
grids, schmids, ... The only way to have reliable "last mile" in power transmission is buried cable. No "smart" system is going to raise a downed outdoor power line.
The government should just mandate buried lines when the population density exceeds a threshold and stop over-thinking this.
Why not use Nikola Tesla's idea of wireless electrical transmission ?
Just kidding. Like Anonymous #1 said just bury the new lines in future upgrades.
Logic dictates:
Bury your lines but NOT in flood zones where salty water can corrode them.
Keep them above ground there.
1/3 of Long Island gets it power from buried cables across the Atlantic to Neptune New Jersey.
I think they use Teflon jackets. The splices are hard sealed on a special ship allegedly good for 200 years.
I guess you could bring primary power into flood zones but would have to be distributed to houses at roof level, also --no more breaker boxes in the basements.
It would save a huge headache.
The Rockaways get power via poles (and pole mounted transformers) all the way from Oceanside Long Island. Its one big rats nest to cleanup and get working again. National Grid still doesn't have enough poles or transformers this side the Mississippi river. This British owned company is putting every penny into killing & buying up American power company's so they can have have us by the balls.
Isn't both monopoly and sales of a public utility grid to a foreign another country illegal?
In this case THREE MARKETS, GAS, ELECTRIC AND DISTRIBUTION!!!
National Grid is the rogue parent company and root of this problem and not one public official including the president has gone after there them.
Why is Verizon replacing Manhatten copper with fiber but leaving us in Queens with crackling wet trunks?
If you can beam power from solar panels in space using microwaves, you can beam it across the sound. But whose brain gets fried in the process?
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