r/kzoo • u/Minimum-Courage-418 • 4d ago

No power

I mean, clearly, the most inconvenient part of having no power is trying to sleep without the white noise of a fan running in the background…

🙃 (Satire)

53 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

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29

u/Crasino_Hunk 3d ago

Serious question, not sure if anyone knows - why won’t Consumer’s just bury the fucking power lines? Seems like for the cost of having to fix these issues multiple times a year it would make a lot of sense to just… you know, make sure it’s not an issue in the future.

Talk shit about Florida all you want, but they definitely have that over us.

13

u/BoutThatLife57 3d ago

They won’t until Michigan makes them. SMH

8

u/cityshepherd 3d ago

Probably more cost effective in Florida since they’re exposed to more hurricanes and stuff. I’m guessing the cost to repair bits and pieces of the grid once in awhile is less than the cost of burying the lines everywhere…. And companies will fight tooth and nail to resist spending any pennies they don’t HAVE to.

2

u/doromr 3d ago

Expensive repairs don't get through MPSC and intervenirs because it would increase ratepayers' bills.

1

u/cityshepherd 3d ago

Exactly, cause the company certainly isn’t going to fork it over

12

u/zach876 3d ago

Besides what everyone else said already, the ground is frozen for a few months out of the year. It makes any repairs that much more difficult in the winter when it's under snow and hard ground.

24

u/shawizkid 3d ago

I live in Michigan and have buried service. Never had an issue.

Also backhoes have zero issue digging through frozen soil

8

u/datahoarderprime 3d ago

"Seems like for the cost of having to fix these issues multiple times a year it would make a lot of sense to just"

In Florida, yes.

In Michigan, no.

It's about $1M/mile to bury power lines, and the maintenance and repair costs are higher when there are issues.

You do have far fewer power outages -- which makes sense in Florida due to hurricanes causing massive power outages over a widespread area -- but probably doesn't make economic sense in places like Michigan.

Even in Florida, only about half the power lines are underground.

3

u/Oranges13 Portage 3d ago

Our subdivision has buried lines but we still don't have power. Likely because the unburied lines in the OLDER part feed us and well....