Underground power line

Electric cables were used in Russia to detonate mining explosives in 1812, and to carry telegraph signals across the English Channel in 1850.

Aerial cables that carry high-voltage electricity and are supported by large pylons are generally considered an unattractive feature of the countryside.

For example, as of 2024, the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin determined that the installation cost of a 69-kilovolt aboveground power line is $284,000 per mile.

[2] The UK regulator Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (OFGEM) permits transmission companies to recoup the cost of some undergrounding in their prices to consumers.

In 2021 work started on a project to bury 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) of 400kV overhead power lines running from near Winterbourne Abbas to Friar Waddon (50°40′08″N 2°30′50″W / 50.669°N 2.514°W / 50.669; -2.514, north-west of Weymouth) in Dorset AONB.

In the United States, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) Rule 20 permits the undergrounding of electrical power cables under certain situations.

In Tokyo's 23 wards, according to Japan's Construction and Transport Ministry, just 7.3 percent of cables were laid underground as of March 2008.