A Method to Estimate the Costs and Benefits of Undergrounding Electricity Transmission and Distribution lines

Publication Type

Journal Article

Date Published

09/2016

Authors

DOI

Abstract

There has been a general shortfall of peer-reviewed literature identifying methods to estimate the costs and benefits of strategies employed by electric utilities to improve grid resilience. This paper introduces—for the first time—a comprehensive analysis framework to estimate the societal costs and benefits of implementing one strategy to improve power system reliability: undergrounding power transmission and distribution lines. It is shown that undergrounding transmission and distribution lines can be a cost-effective strategy to improve reliability, but only if certain criteria are met before the decision to underground is made. 

Journal

Energy Economics

Volume

60

Year of Publication

2016

Issue

November 2016

Notes

The attached report is a pre-print version of an article accepted for publication by Energy Economics. To view the Energy Economics article, click here.

Organization

Research Areas

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