[BC] Electrical Code

[Paul Christensen]

> General repairs to overhead lines is a few hour process as opposed to 
> potentially days with underground.

U/G electrical plant is fine for last-mile applications in gated 
communities, but there's a significant capital and operating cost 
differential per mile of U/G versus aerial plant.  When I was responsible 
for the AT&T Broadband upgrades in North Florida, the capital cost 
differential for U/G was in the order of 4-5 times that of aerial in some 
locations.

As Mike points out, locating faults with any U/G service can be a nightmare. 
And the occurrence of faults to other services over the life of the cabling 
in a joint-trench installation is particularly high.  When you have an U/G 
outage, folks don't want to be without services for hours, let alone days. 
As more splices are placed U/G. the more long terms problems develop.

In my community, the power company just replace all U/G cabling to ~ 500 
homes as a result of repeated U/G splices that have failed through the 
years.  It took the better part of the summer to complete.  An aerial 
upgrade would have taken a fraction of the time and cost.

I can't tell you how many times I had to answer to the local city council 
over U/G fiber and coaxial outages as the result of U/G contractor 
trenching.  Locates are not 100% effective and there's always someone 
striking an U/G line somewhere.

So, while the extent of damage during a hurricane is high with aerial 
cabling, the ongoing pain of outages with U/G, together with the high 
capital and operating maintenance costs make aerial more attractive 
overall - for both the customer and the operator.

Paul


====================================
Paul Christensen, CPBE, CBNT
LAW OFFICE OF PAUL B. CHRISTENSEN, P.A.
3749 Southern Hills,  Jacksonville, Florida 32225
Office: (904) 379-7802    Facsimile: (904) 212-0050
pchristensen at ieee.org