A method to estimate the costs and benefits of undergrounding electricity transmission and distribution lines

- Policymakers have not always considered societal costs and benefits in investment decisions.
- Paper estimates societal costs and benefits of a strategy to improve electricity reliability.
- A general policy mandating utilities to underground power lines had a net social loss.
- An undergrounding policy targeting urban areas could be cost-effective if key criteria are met.

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.