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

Date Published
09/2016
Publication Type
Journal Article
Author
DOI
10.1016/j.eneco.2016.09.011
LBL Report Number
LBNL-1006394
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. 

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.

Journal
Energy Economics
Volume
60
Year of Publication
2016
Issue
November 2016
Pagination
47-61
Publisher
Elsevier
Organizations
Research Areas
File(s)
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