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AmerenUE puts $1 billion toward project to bury power lines
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By Kris Hilgedick khil@newstribune.com
As part of “Project Power On,” AmerenUE has selected two Jefferson City neighborhoods - Schellridge and Hayselton Drive - for underground wiring projects.
As part of the program, the utility company is hopeful its $1 billion investment will improve reliability, upgrade power delivery and enhance the environmental performance of its generating plants.
Although some residents may welcome getting rid of unsightly poles and wires, neighborhoods were selected because of the frequency of outages caused by leafy tree canopies and fallen limbs.
“It's not an aesthetic thing, it's reliability,” AmerenUE spokesman Mike Cleary said, adding many of those poles still will carry telephone and cable wires.
Ameren currently is working to obtain the easements needed for the underground lines and no work is going on in the targeted neighborhoods just yet, Cleary said.
But some other underground work is being performed around the city.
“We've replaced some of the older underground cables ... it's a reliability issue,” he said. “Some of those underground lines date from the 1960s.”
And, crews still work to hook up newly constructed homes and buildings to the grid.
AmerenUE plans to spend $300 million for 900 projects across the state to underground the lines most susceptible to outages.
The money is allocated based on the numbers of customers in a county. Cole County is home to one of the utility's larger customer bases, Cleary said, adding the new underground program is taking place in addition to the normal undergrounding the corporation completes.
“It's a reaction to the abnormal storms, and the unusually large number of severe storms we've experienced,” he said. “It's an effort to cope with that and harden our system.”
Cleary said many residents have asked if they'll have to pay for the work in their neighborhood. The answer, he said, is ,no.
The overhead wires AmerenUE is removing in Power On undergrounding projects are the spans of wire from pole to pole, not from pole to house.
“We cannot elect ‘on our own' to underground the service wires connected to individual houses and buildings because there are private costs to the consumer involved in doing this,” said Cleary.
Residential customers own some of the service entrance equipment on the side of their houses. Neighbors who want to tidy up the exterior of their homes - and lose the pole - are welcome to hire contractors to do so. But they don't have to. “It's totally optional,” said Cleary. “You'd still have a pole in place.” If a resident decides to hire a contractor to eradicate the overhead line to his or her home, Cleary didn't know what the average cost would be. “Everybody's situation is different,” he said. AmerenUE will install and connect a new underground service cable in the property owner's new buried conduit at no charge. And, provided the installation occurs within six months of the completion of the Power On project affecting your property, AmerenUE will also send a rebate check for $750 to help cover the costs of installing the buried conduit. Cleary said one problem AmerenUE is facing in Jefferson City is a lack of recorded easements. And, in some Jefferson City neighborhoods, powerlines span backyards, not streets.
That makes it hard for bucket trucks to pull up and repair the problem. Over time, trees and shrubs grow.
“Back property lines are a lot harder to get to,” he said.
As part of the program, the utility company is hopeful its $1 billion investment will improve reliability, upgrade power delivery and enhance the environmental performance of its generating plants.
Although some residents may welcome getting rid of unsightly poles and wires, neighborhoods were selected because of the frequency of outages caused by leafy tree canopies and fallen limbs.
“It's not an aesthetic thing, it's reliability,” AmerenUE spokesman Mike Cleary said, adding many of those poles still will carry telephone and cable wires.
Ameren currently is working to obtain the easements needed for the underground lines and no work is going on in the targeted neighborhoods just yet, Cleary said.
But some other underground work is being performed around the city.
“We've replaced some of the older underground cables ... it's a reliability issue,” he said. “Some of those underground lines date from the 1960s.”
And, crews still work to hook up newly constructed homes and buildings to the grid.
AmerenUE plans to spend $300 million for 900 projects across the state to underground the lines most susceptible to outages.
The money is allocated based on the numbers of customers in a county. Cole County is home to one of the utility's larger customer bases, Cleary said, adding the new underground program is taking place in addition to the normal undergrounding the corporation completes.
“It's a reaction to the abnormal storms, and the unusually large number of severe storms we've experienced,” he said. “It's an effort to cope with that and harden our system.”
Cleary said many residents have asked if they'll have to pay for the work in their neighborhood. The answer, he said, is ,no.
The overhead wires AmerenUE is removing in Power On undergrounding projects are the spans of wire from pole to pole, not from pole to house.
“We cannot elect ‘on our own' to underground the service wires connected to individual houses and buildings because there are private costs to the consumer involved in doing this,” said Cleary.
Residential customers own some of the service entrance equipment on the side of their houses. Neighbors who want to tidy up the exterior of their homes - and lose the pole - are welcome to hire contractors to do so. But they don't have to. “It's totally optional,” said Cleary. “You'd still have a pole in place.” If a resident decides to hire a contractor to eradicate the overhead line to his or her home, Cleary didn't know what the average cost would be. “Everybody's situation is different,” he said. AmerenUE will install and connect a new underground service cable in the property owner's new buried conduit at no charge. And, provided the installation occurs within six months of the completion of the Power On project affecting your property, AmerenUE will also send a rebate check for $750 to help cover the costs of installing the buried conduit. Cleary said one problem AmerenUE is facing in Jefferson City is a lack of recorded easements. And, in some Jefferson City neighborhoods, powerlines span backyards, not streets.
That makes it hard for bucket trucks to pull up and repair the problem. Over time, trees and shrubs grow.
“Back property lines are a lot harder to get to,” he said.
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killerkool-aid wrote on Sep 9, 2008 9:34 AM:
I'm not at all upset; in fact you amuse me with your exaggeration. You were the one calling for outrage after all. If you live in a neighborhood with overhead lines the tree topping as you call it is part of it. They cut back my trees recently, they certainly were not topped. Either they cut the trees back from the lines or you suffer outages. I bet during the ice storm last winter, you directed your outrage toward Ameren for letting things get this bad. Im also a bit confused, in your first post you complained because you live in a neighborhood older then Haselton, now in reference to Haselton, you say you live over there. "