Converting existing (and i hope working) infra has its own problems too and unless its absolutelly necessary it often gets sidelined.

You cant just dig a trench and drop the lines there. You need to make sure roadsides have enough space and if at any point it would require purchasing or getting permit from land owners it will get quickly complicate. Especially if there are many different owners on the stretch.

There needs to also be plans and precautions to secure that the electricity wont be cut for too long time during the work.

Also the road sides migh need to be cleaned from any vegetation and stones that might be big enough to be problem, not to mention the road it self might need additional work if its badly kept or if they need to widen it and that all rounds back to making sure there is enough space.

Its much easier to build underground cables from the get go, than change infrastructure that was build with telephone poles in mind.

1. 5-7 Sweden
2. 5 to 6. UK
3. 4.5 UK

https://www.svk.se/om-kraftsystemet/om-transmissionsnatet/teknik/fragor-och-svar-teknik/faq-teknik/vad-kostar-nergravd-kabel-jamfort-med-ledningar-i-luften/

https://benhopkinson.substack.com/p/the-cost-of-burying-our-grid

https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/costs-and-benefits-of-overhead-underground-offshore-power-transmission-weighed-up-by-iet-29-04-2025/

I approve of this meme.

It can be done, but the people paying for it need a compelling reason. Just saying "It's kind of primitive ya know." isn't enough.

Japan is one of the exceptions though, they get a lot of earthquakes.

i mean we still have aerial lines for high voltage.

idk where that place pulls from but i pay $.08/kWh. when i lived further north it was $0.02.

there was a period where the prices went to what you quoted but that was in connection to the nord stream sabotage where germany's prices skyrocketed and ours were dragged up along with them.

The price of electricity in a country usually has nothing to do with whether power lines are run above or below the ground. Very often a large part of your electricity price is determined by taxes and subsidies for example. And in my country (the Netherlands) the suppliers of electricity are different companies than the ones responsible for the power network too. Like Sweden we haven't had residential power lines running above ground for half a century or so, it's pretty uncommon in (Western?) Europe.

Well yeah, it's quite easy to keep your energy prices low when you

• have a wealth of hydrocarbon sources in-country
• supplement them by bombing other nations until they give you there's
• don't give a flying fuch about the planet

That could be it.

Digging isn't free in Sweden either, right? Maybe OP thinks they're ugly, but sometimes good enough is good enough.

Sweden has residential electricity prices at $0.2768/kWh.

The US averages $0.1798/kWh.

I accept the cost-benefits analysis and wish to proceed on this quote.

That has nothing to do with the power lines

Population of Sweden: 10.6 million

Population of the USA: 340.1 million

So the population density is very similar and I therefore don't understand what you're getting at.

okay? we don't bury high-voltage lines, if that's what you're implying.

Yes, do people in power care though?

Please provide the research you are basing that claim on.

You would pay thousands for each meter of duct built including resurfacing whereas you would likely stand two poles with the same distance for less than a grand.

Take it that overhead is more likely to cause future issues, they would need to be significantly more for that to be the case. Where this comes in is regulations on SLAs and fines, loss of service costs. But on a pure cost basis it likely would take a long time for underground to balance out.

Companies also dont care and would prefer to lower build costs at the risk of future operational costs

Louisiana?