Why don't we have more nuclear power?

We put a man on the moon 50 years ago, you'd think we could figure out how to hang some power lines so they don't blow down in the wind.

Maybe you should hire FPL. Our infrastructure is designed for hurricanes. Usually when the power is out, it is because something other than the wind damaged the equipment. They still turn the power off before the storm, mostly for liability reasons but also to protect equipment.

As Ron White says it is not that the wind is blowing it is what the wind is blowing.

We have a similar problem except it's usually half-dead tree branches. Wind blows, branch breaks, falls on power line and snap, out goes the electric for 1-3 days. In our locale, the lines would survive the winds if not for all the f****ng trees the f****ng tree-huggers planted under the power lines.

That's your first problem. Have you ever been to california?

Don't be silly.

Exactly!

It is the opposite in some old cities. Trees were planted before power lines were run down the street. A few years back there was a big uproar when the power company wanted to take down some 150 year old trees.

A lot of money is spent on tree trimming and the tree huggers still bitch about it.

Some are going underground but that is a different set of problems.

It's difficult to bury 115kv lines. Especially when you have several tens of thousands of miles of transmission lines.

But, maintining the lines so they don't fall down during a 50mph gust doesn't seem overly burdonsome.

Yes I have, many times and I've lived there for months at a time too. I used to love to go to San Francisco, but now that the streets are covered in s*it and they let criminal illegal aliens loose instead of turning them over to ICE as requested so that they can kill tourists, I've stayed away.

Next!

You're the one that complained that there would be no need to turn off the power when it's dry and windy, that's on solution. I clearly said it was impractical. But impractical would include a lot of other stupid things CA does, like being a sanctuary state. So, IDK the limits of your stupidity. And we're still waiting to hear from you how some dividend money could have eliminated the need to turn off the power in high winds and tinder box conditions. You already told us you're paying 25 cents kwh for minimal electricity and it goes up from there. Here the utilites charge half that and pay dividends, like most utilities. WTF is wrong with CA?

Or... an _immediate_ "this line just snapped; cut the power before the wire hits the ground" thingamajig might be practical.

Or should at least be researched.

(If this has been... I'm sure someone will provide me with the embarassment I deserve...)

Mostly the residential areas that are being buried, not the high voltage. Not a wire to be seen in my neighborhood that is only a couple of years old.

The main lines here in FL though, do seem to be on more substantial towers than other parts of the country. Local building code is 135 mph.

Transmission line protective relaying is quite sophisticated, but I don't know of any schemes that are THAT predictive.

Sub-transmission and local feeder relaying < sometimes only fuses ! > is not nearly as fancy.

John T.

Nobody would be willing to pay the price to put those lines underground. To start with the wire itself would have to be much larger to carry the current and a lot of the places where the wires run would have to have the trench blasted out of solid rock most of the way. Wires underground in a place with earthquakes presents it's own problems. A failure of a 230kv line is still likely to start a fire. It would just look more like a volcano than a shower of sparks.

The wind code is 150 MPH here and a mile west of me is 160.

I will investigate further I'm in Manatee county.

You are in the 140 zone.

It should also be pointed out that for the most part FPL is not regulated by the Florida code. They use the NESC in their domain (the right of ways and up to the service point on drops)

Most of the long distance transmission lines here are in a wide clear-cut swath. They may grow back enough to be a problem in 50 years or so. A tree did blow down across a line last month but power was restored in a couple of hours.

I'm in an electric co-op and they are proactive in their maintenance schedules, including keeping the ospreys out of trouble.