Lingering and widespread blackouts since Tropical Storm Fay 18 days ago have prompted the question of why the Island’s power lines aren’t safely underground.

But burying the network of distribution cables comes with its own steep costs, Belco responded — and, contrary to rumour, the utility company never requested a rate increase to put the system underground.

The company estimates that the job would take a full decade, at an estimated cost of $375 million, that would force Belco to allocate costs across its customer case at an extra $87 each, per month, for ten years.

That is up from the $250 million estimated in 2003, in the aftermath of Hurricane Fabian.

A Belco spokeswoman told The Royal Gazette that 100 per cent of the company’s transmission system — the high voltage wires carrying power from the plant to its distribution network — already lie below ground.

“Also, approximately half of the distribution system is underground, and new builds are typically done as underground — unless there is some reason that a property owner chooses to forego undergrounding, such as cost or logistics,” she said.

But for Belco to retroactively embed its above-ground system would present operational challenges along with an exorbitant cost — such as the difficulty of repairs.

“Identifying, excavating, repairing and reinstating underground cables can be a time-consuming, labour-intensive process,” she said. “In addition, unless the entire Island is undergrounded, a property owner’s undergrounding is only going to work up to the first span of overhead lines in the distribution system.

“If there is a fault anywhere along the overhead spans between the customer and the Central Plant, the undergrounded customer will be without power.”

In addition, permission to go underground would require the consent of landowners and Government — and some locations on the Island might not be suitable for undergrounding, the spokeswoman said.