NES says burying power lines is the way to go after January's historic ice storm

It could become the future of how Nashville gets its power- burying power lines underground.

Nashville Electric Service moved forward this week with a plan to explore burying power lines- a move aimed at reducing widespread outages during severe weather.

If power lines are buried, they are far less likely to be knocked down by ice, wind or falling trees- issues that caused prolonged outages during this winter’s devastating ice storm.

Three months after the catastrophic storm left about 230,000 NES customers without power, some for nearly two weeks, the utility is now considering long-term solutions.

The NES board voted unanimously Wednesday to study undergrounding power lines. The board approved $3 million for a systemwide study, which could focus on either the entire service area or neighborhoods most prone to outages.

Research is expected to begin in just over two months.

“We’ve identified four locations where we’re going to do some pilot projects,” said NES CEO Teresa Broyles-Aplin. “Those will be in the budget recommendation for next month that we’ll bring to the board, so that we can get started on those in July.”

Broyles-Aplin did not specify which neighborhoods would be included in the pilot program.

The concept is not new. Major and mid-sized cities across the United States have buried sections of power lines two to four feet underground, protecting them from storm-related damage.

“We’ll test out different technologies and approaches for doing that undergrounding, and that will help inform our systemwide undergrounding study,” Broyles-Aplin said.

The move comes after an independent review released last week found NES was not fully prepared for January’s ice storm.

The engineering firm Burns & McDonnell, which NES hired for the study, has handled similar projects in major cities, including Los Angeles.

Cities comparable in size to Nashville, such as Austin, Charlotte, Raleigh, Orlando and San Diego, have already implemented underground power systems in some areas.

NES officials also noted that all new subdivisions are already required to install underground power lines.