Quote:
Originally Posted by Concrete
[SIZE="5"]
Duffman
why don't they bury high power lines?
I always assumed it was technical
like 6" thick insulation required to keep from shorting to ground
or capacitive coupling wasting power etc.
and yes I do know that buried cable is ~6 time the installed cost
but it is obviously affordable enough for water - and there is not much profit there  |
You pretty much have all the answers right there. Wiki as always is also a great resource:
Electric power transmission - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
What is not in the article though is: If you are going to transmit power over long distances you are going to maximise your voltage, since the lines would be underground you need insulation as stated, the higher the voltage the more you need. But what else does insulation do? I'll give you a hint, go for a 5 mile run on the hottest day in summer while wearing your winter jacket.
Also while you have solved your terrorism issue with a buried line they do fail on their own from time to time especially as they get older. Finding the break on a line that is 1 mile long is a S.O.B., now imagine if your crew was responsible for 200 miles of it in each direction.
It is like everything else in this argument, it's not that it isn’t possible, it's that we just won’t do it.
P.S. There will be some locales that you will be forced to bury your lines into rock, not really too likely.