Power Up For Solutions

For those at Denison University this past week, students were in for a nasty shock when two separate storms hit the campus just a few days apart, knocking out power in such an extensive manner that President Knobel requested those students who had nearby family to leave campus until power could be restored. As for those who do not have family nearby, things are more difficult, as they have been relocated to other halls for safety reasons, but still have to deal with the lack of power.

Luckily, most Denison students are from Ohio, and it’s a small enough school that those who are not can likely find a friend to stay with for a while. But seeing a few pictures of the disastrous results of the storm got me thinking: how efficient would underground electricity be on college campuses?

Funny how too much electricity leads to no electricity. {Image by Bruce Guenter on flickr.com}

According to various sources, the two main savings come from tree-trimming costs and saved electricity when outages would normally occur, but are avoided. There are other minor benefits, but the main point is that underground power lines have fewer outages, and are cost-effective in the long-term. The key here, I believe, is that there are fewer outages—Denison is a school that prides itself on diversity, both social and geographic, and a situation in the summer such as this can be a major inconvenience to some people. Avoiding this kind of situation with an upgrade to the power grid is surely worth the tuition dollars.

Apparently going underground also makes neighborhoods look prettier. {Image by Nicola since 1972 on flickr.com}

How would this work? Well, while I may not be privy to the exact age of our power system, I know Denison is a well-established school that likely has not upgraded its electrical infrastructure in a while, which makes switching to underground even more cost-effective, as the switch to underground power lines can utilize money already budgeted for the maintenance and or repair of the current system. If we do it piecemeal, we can avoid breaking our budget, and still greatly improve services. If we switched power systems on East quad the first year, for example, in the event of a power outage, people could take refuge on East quad, avoiding the issue we have this time around.

I think talking to our student government representatives could be a good way to get these kind of plans proposed. Who’s with me?

Sources:

http://www.woodpoles.org/documents/MARA.pdf

http://www.underground2020.org/documents/Advantages%20of%20Undergrounding%20Utilities%20White%20Paper%2005-09.pdf