A North Park neighborhood on Wednesday marked the removal of overhead power lines in the community.
During the celebration at the corner of Howard Avenue and Illinois Street, attendees, including residents and city and San Diego Gas & Electric representatives, watched as one of the last standing poles in the area was safely brought down by a utility crew.
The city and SDG&E are collaborating to move approximately 15 miles of overhead wire underground citywide each year.
“We are proud to partner with the city to accelerate the undergrounding of our utilities for the benefit of the families and businesses we collectively serve,” SDG&E Director of Design and Project Management Erika Schimmel-Guiles said. “We have more work to do and look forward to our continued partnership with the city.”
The city and SDG&E continue to make progress in other neighborhoods.
According to the city, approximately $54 million per year is spent each year to convert overhead power and communication lines.
Undergrounding of wires helps improve the look of local communities and can also help reduce power outages, as one of the causes of outages is vehicles crashing into electrical equipment. These funds are dedicated exclusively for undergrounding and may not be used by the city for other purposes.
“The undergrounding in North Park will improve public safety and aesthetics as well as the overall reliability and resilience of our critical utility systems,” said San Diego City Council member Stephen Whitburn.
Removing overhead utility lines requires extensive coordination and planning with multiple entities, residents and homeowners. In some cases, a utility pole must be left up to provide other services such as cable/internet, though power lines may have been removed and placed underground, or vice versa.
Municipal undergrounding initiatives are funded by a variety of sources.
City of San Diego residents pay a surcharge on their SDG&E bill, approved in 2002, to support the process.
Each month, residential customers within the city pay on average $5 to $8 on their SDG&E bill for accelerated undergrounding. Those funds are passed on to the city, which then reimburses SDG&E for design and construction costs to underground utility lines in accordance with a city priority list, as approved by the City Council.
SDG&E is committed to supporting undergrounding efforts where feasible. About 60% of the utility’s distribution system is underground. Some parts of the region have topography or other issues that make undergrounding expensive and infeasible.