No easy fix for eastern US storm power outages as heat wave persists

[phantom power]

Climate change and economic collapse are beginning to push our ability to respond to these events.

In the aftermath of violent storms that knocked out power to millions from the Midwest to the Mid-Atlantic, sweltering residents and elected officials are demanding to know why it's taking so long to restring power lines and why they're not more resilient in the first place.

The answer, it turns out, is complicated: Above-ground lines are vulnerable to lashing winds and falling trees, but relocating them underground involves huge costs — as much as $15 million per mile of buried line — and that gets passed onto consumers.

With memories of other extended outages fresh in the minds of many of the more than 735,000 customers who still lacked electricity Wednesday, some question whether the delivery of power is more precarious than it used to be.
Advertise | AdChoices

"It's a system that from an infrastructure point of view is beginning to age, has been aging," said Gregory Reed, a professor of electric power engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. "We haven't expanded and modernized the bulk of the transmission and distribution network."The ongoing outage meant no July 4 holiday for thousands of utility workers who scrambled to restore power across the region.

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/04/12561717-no-easy-fix-for-eastern-us-storm-power-outages-as-heat-wave-persists?lite