Going underground to maintain reliability for members

You've probably driven over powerlines, perhaps even walked on top of one, and have never known it. Although we often picture electrical lines strung high above our heads, more than 60 percent of Dakota Electric's powerlines are buried beneath roads, sidewalks and lawns.

Even though they are not often noticed, underground powerlines still require time, money and other resources to continue delivering reliable power to your home or business.

Replacing underground cable before it fails provides a continuous challenge for Dakota Electric. Because powerline specialists cannot visually inspect underground cables the way they do overhead lines, engineers and system planners must analyze data such as the number of failures and the age of the cable in a particular area to determine what lines to replace.

Cable replacement efforts not only help increase reliability by removing old cable, but also provide the opportunity to integrate new underground cable practices, such as the use of conduit. Conduit is a tube that underground electrical cables are placed inside of.

Conduit can help reduce outage time and property damage by allowing crews to repair a cable by sliding it out of the conduit, fixing it and sliding it back in the conduit. When repairing lines installed without conduit, crews may have to dig in a member's yard or disrupt a sidewalk or road to access and fix the faulty cable.

Although it is a time-intensive job, underground cable replacements are only a portion of Dakota Electric's activities aimed at increasing reliability.

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