Winds up again

[samintx]

My kids off the generator but will be back on if winds continue in CA. BURY THE CABLES ELECTRIC COMPANY.

[DP]

Well, unfortunately, it's hard to bury cables in rock. Also, if a buried cable gets damaged by, say, a lightning ground strike, the damage has to be located first before the power line can be repaired. I'm sure some areas there may have soil above the rock where cables can be buried, but to retrofit the lines would be very costly.

One day, power will be transmitted by laser or some other non-wired method, or everyone's power will be self contained at their dwelling. But until that day...

[Markintosh]

Yup, there are a lot of areas in California where burying the cables is just not possible due to rock. You just develop a whole new set of problems due to water intrusion, rodents, earth movement etc. Then when a problem does occur, it is much more difficult to identify where the problem is.

Ultimately the future lies in microgrids where power is generated locally via hydro, wind or solar. Yes, some areas will still need smaller scale natural gas or biomass generation facilities.

If I knew i was staying in this house more than another year or two, solar and a Powerwall would be my next projects.

[Speedy]

Our entire neighborhood (several square miles) has buried cable and has for over 30 years. No problems yet. The higher voltage stuff is still on poles and trees are kept from under those lines. We don’t have rock like that described by other posters.

[freeradical]

This is just God's way of telling us that California is overcrowded, and that people need to leave.