Electric power delivery from the community point of view

Recent technical studies and political developments in Florida are beginning to show that, from the overall community point of view, underground systems, though more costly to install, result in significantly lower total costs. Documented evidence shows underground systems to be superior to overhead systems in terms of safety and storm damage resistance and recovery. There is also evidence that underground is at least equivalent to overhead and may be superior in terms of operations and maintenance costs. There are benefits not yet quantified for the underground systems over the overhead systems in regard to public health (magnetic field exposure) and the environment (leaching of toxic chemicals from preservative-treated poles and the disposal of the poles). Evidence to date indicates that the savings from just the reduced economic losses associated with weather-induced outages or from reduced loss of life would each be enough to make underground systems most cost effective