It will happen because storm frequency and outages will rise throughout the century. It is a capital investment that will sharply reduce outages. Florida is on the verge of putting their long-haul power underground. Texas is primed for storms due to the high and growing humidity in the Gulf. Finally, capital costs - interest - is low. Both governments and big corporates pay very little to borrow so it is not onerous. May be it is time to make America great again. 😉
Nor does it have to be mandatory for all systems. But there should be at least one power network in the ground as well as one telco network. Regards, Roderick. ________________________________ From: Jared Mauch <ja...@puck.nether.net> Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2021 3:38 PM To: Mike Hammett <na...@ics-il.net> Cc: Rod Beck <rod.b...@unitedcablecompany.com>; nanog@nanog.org <nanog@nanog.org> Subject: Re: Texas internet connectivity declining due to blackouts > On Feb 16, 2021, at 8:25 AM, Mike Hammett <na...@ics-il.net> wrote: > > It's cheaper to build 2x, 3x, 4x the aerial plant than to build 1x the > underground plant. > > The actual cost per foot is more like 10x difference, but there are right of > way, maintenance, etc. costs to factor in as well. > Labor is something in 8x but the permit/engineering cost is usually the same per foot, but the make-ready on poles can make underground competitive or more like 1.5x when you fully bake the costs. Really depends on pole distances and quality. O&M long-term is lower on underground vs aerial. - Jared
