Could the power poles cluttering up the desert vistas ever move underground? Not any time soon, according to Southern California Edison.
Jeffrey Monford from SCE joined Gary Daigneault on the “Up Close Show” last week to field some questions from customers. Joshua Tree resident Christopher Claire asked about the possibility of moving electrical infrastructure underground in the Morongo Basin. Here is Daigneault and Monford with the answer.
Monford described the process as “extraordinarily expensive.”
Daingeault replied, “I spoke with the city manager of Twentynine Palms about this last year. He said that to build underground electricity infrastructure in the city, it would cost $1,000,000 per mile.”
Monford confirmed, saying, “That’s a good number for Twentynine Palms. It’s more in other places.
“If we were able to underground everything, it would cost a great deal, and it would represent a huge profit to the utilities. We don’t go around recommending undergrounding because we have a responsibility to customers to keep rates as affordable as possible. The cost of undergrounding is passed through to customers and is really expensive. We underground only when necessary.”
You can hear the full conversation between Daigneault and Monford by listening to the Z1077 Up Close show as a podcast on our website or wherever you get your podcasts.
