Today’s NY Times has a great article about the choices we face in whether we upgrade our power system to withstand storms or just continue to mop up afterward.
Yesterday, the proposed Champlain Hudson Power Express 1000 MW line cleared a major hurdle, when two judges issued a key ruling favorable to the project’s proceeding.
The CHP Express submerged power line would cost $2.2 billion to construct–using 100% private sector debt financing–and run 333 miles from Quebec to New York City using natural and manmade waterways as well as existing rail and transmission right of ways in between.
According to ConEdison’s CEO Kevin Burke, stormproofing our local grid is much more expensive than mopping up after a storm.
The utility estimates that burying its grid in NYC and Westchester would cost $40 billion. (Ironically, by 2017 the proposed CHP Express line would do exactly that–lie safely underground out of harm’s way. That’s why I mention it here: The private sector will fund undergrounding of major transmission infrastructure.)
The post-Sandy clean up may cost ConEdison about $450 million–far less than hardening its infrastructure against future storms.
After the worst storms, the government often helps to pay for the clean up, and–in addition–allows the utility’s costs to be recovered through rate increases in subsequent years. Either way, we rate payers pay.
The Times estimates our electric rates will rise 3% for three years to pay for the post-Sandy power line clean up alone.
So, why shouldn’t utilities just mop up now and continue to sit tight for the next storm?
Because the actual cost of a major outage may 50 times higher than that of the lost electricity, according to a recent report from the National Academy of Sciences.
As we all know, the actual cost of power outages goes well beyond restoring the power. To include the societal cost, we have to include the regional economic impact of lost business, destroyed inventory, and non-utility damage recovery costs, such as local public works and first responders turning out for ‘downed lines’ calls.
When we take the full cost of blackouts into account, more proactive investment in local energy resiliency is a no-brainer.
Well with all the clean power coming into NY, Indian Point may become irrelevant.
People woke up and now realize have to take responsibility for emergency electricity during this area's regular outages. Not going to get any better given cost to make more reliable. Good news about Champlain Hudson Power Express project. Progress is always opposed.
Nonetheless, whether NY or LA -- doesn't matter in this country -- we are backwards thinking, that is our default m.o. Let the next teacher deal with problem students, let the next Congress solve fiscal cliff, let the next CEO / board of directors handle toxic waste flowing into a stream from our plant -- and let someone else deal with upgrading our electric.... or bridge or buildings or healthcare system or general I.Q. level of voters. I no longer hold any hope for forward thinking and leadership in the U.S. All we have are OpEds. Our grid won't be upgraded until it collapses entirely and all of us dear readers will have to wait three months for a rebuild, from scratch, (probably at taxpayer's expense to boost shareholders' earnings) as we live by candlelight and bbq for the only way to cook. Then local politicians will express outrage and demand action....repeat.
All upgrades and investments by ConEd get paid for by rate payers--that's us. There is no infrastructure tooth-fairy. I believe ConEd would be delighted to embark on an buried infrastructure upgrade over 10 years. None of us could bear the cost. As it is, today we pay among the highest electricity prices in the US. Last time i checked, my electric bill was about 24 cents per kilowatt hour (big chuck of that is taxes). When we left maryland 15 years ago, our cost was about 7 cents. It's no wonder businesses that are electricity intensive cannot operate in NY State. And, in Maryland, most of the utilities were underground.
As a way to prevent storm related outages and also to beautify the area, Winter Park, Florida is working on a long-term project to bury power lines underground. However, the project that may last 17 years. So far, about 79 miles of electrical cables have been buried. That number includes subdivisions and condominiums built with underground lines from the start. The project is funded by profits from the utility, the city formed in 2005 when residents voted to break away from Progress Energy. The utility manages electrical service but buys power from other utilities.
Putting lines underground is not the panacea most people and politicians think it is Not only is it costly in a direct way but you have to add the cost of lengthy disruption to a community. Street and highway traffic would be severely impacted and businesses would suffer. This is not a matter of simply digging a ditch and laying down wires along side a road and moving on. Each ditch or tunnel would have to be interconnected and would have to cross at major intersections to say nothing to each building with the connection cost being the responsibility of each owner As we have seen in many storms underground systems can be overwhelmed by flooding and excessive heat and restoring power to them is a far more lengthy, complicated costly proposition than restoring overhead lines.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/22/opinion/kristof-a-failed-experiment.html?_r=0
@Bjorn: New development typically requires burying of power lines. The challenge is we have so much older development with above ground infrastructure. We certainly saw a number of ground-mounted or buried transformers short out in the aftermath of Sandy. The good news is that in about 50 years time we will have replaced more than 50% of the current commercial building stock, bringing buried lines along. Residential building stock will be replaced more slowly, but over time these too will be burying more power lines. The upgrades I alluding to include adding solar and other renewables with energy storage systems so that more locations can weather a grid outage.
Starting tomorrow, no new construction...residential or commercial...will be serviced with above-ground utilities. After that, lets see what we as rate-payers can afford.
A 330 mile power line from out side the US, passing right by the sites of our gone generation plants , and a line with only a 12 year life span is a foolish short term bandaid. Any thing that can be built in Canada like hydro can be built here on the Hudson