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Power lines across the country weren't built for a changing climate. Storms cause hundreds of outages a year, many because of trees falling across above-ground power lines.
Burying lines underground can significantly improve reliability, especially as climate change drives more frequent severe weather events. But only about a fifth of the country's lines are buried, according to a report for the U.S. Department of Energy.
In northern Michigan, some utilities want to change that.
In March 2025, a devastating ice storm hit the region, knocking down trees and snapping utility poles. Thousands of people lost power for weeks.
During the blackout, Lewiston, Mich., resident Wanda Whiting suddenly had to get her husband, Dave, to the hospital. He was having heart trouble.
The side of the highway was littered with downed wires and broken poles. The streets were so dark, she says, that she got lost on familiar roads.
"I still can't get over how astonished I was, how much we rely on street lights," Whiting says.
At one point, she had to drive over thick cables that had fallen across the road. Downed wires are dangerous; they can still be live even if the power is out.
The couple made it to the hospital and Dave Whiting recovered. But the power in the area didn't come back on for another two weeks.
For Michiganders, the ice storm was a reminder of the power grid's vulnerabilities during severe weather. The state already sees some of the longest power outages in the country.
Climate change could make that worse. Research suggests northern Michigan will see more freezing rain instead of snow and possibly more destructive ice storms.
Communities need to plan for a different future, says Richard B. Rood, a professor emeritus at the University of Michigan who studies climate change adaptation.
"You can't think of what we're experiencing as, 'this is how it used to be, and this is where it will be,'" Rood says. "You are right in the middle of the change here."
The state's largest electric co-op says it's trying to prepare for that future. Going forward, it will bury all new power lines underground.
More reliable but more expensive
The biggest challenge to undergrounding power lines is cost, according to utilities and outside researchers.
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Consumers Energy, a one of the largest electric utilities in Michigan, says it hears from customers "consistently" about burying more lines. The company estimates that undergrounding one mile of line in the state can cost $400,000. In some urban areas, estimates range from $2-3 million per mile, according to a report from the Michigan Public Service Commission.
In contrast, installing overhead lines is typically a fraction of that cost.
One compromise is burying new lines. It's generally easier and cheaper to bury lines during new construction, when crews can install power lines alongside other utilities like water or gas.
Great Lakes Energy, which serves 26 counties across northern Michigan, has announced plans to bury all new power lines underground. The new policy came in response to last year's ice storm, which caused more than 66,000 power outages for the electric co-op and cost about $150 million in damages.
Even burying new lines will be expensive, says Shari Culver, chief operating officer for Great Lakes Energy. It can cost 3 to 5 times more than putting up an overhead line. But, she says, "I think there's reliability benefits for our membership, because it's going to help prevent outages over the long term."
But the utility won't relocate all its existing overhead lines. That's where expenses for construction, labor and materials can add up quickly.
"You could bury all the electric lines if you had the financial resources to do so," Culver says.
In some cases, the costs can be worth it, says Tony Chartrand, the director of electric engineering and operations for Traverse City Light & Power, which serves more than 12,000 people in Traverse City, Mich.
But buried lines come with other challenges. Any problem often requires digging up sidewalks to reach wires, Chartrand says. For utilities, it's a balancing act.
"Part of that solution is undergrounding lines. But it's not necessarily undergrounding everything," he says. "It's trying to balance that cost with the benefit."
"Money doesn't come from nowhere"
Michigan utilities aren't alone. Across the country, Americans are experiencing longer and more frequent power outages due to severe weather.
Utilities nationwide are trying to bury more lines, says Andrew Phillips, vice president of transmission and distribution infrastructure at the Electric Power Research Institute.
But expensive electricity bills are another concern, as utilities balance upgrades to an aging grid and increasing demand.
"If the utility wants to make any investment, this money doesn't come from nowhere," says Tao Sun, a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University who studies the impact of extreme weather on power systems. "They have to pass on those costs to their customers."
That can be a hard sell.
Sun says utilities need to plan ahead, identify the areas that would see the most benefit from undergrounding, and get buy-in from local communities for rate increases – ideally before any major disaster
Right now, he says, those changes typically happen after disaster strikes.
"We will only take actions after local customers feel or experience those events that are really severe or disrupt their lives," Sun says.
For instance, California's largest utility, PG&E, is in the middle of the country's largest undergrounding project — in response to destructive wildfires.
A year after the devastating ice storm in northern Michigan, residents like Wanda Whiting are still recovering. There are now new poles and wires near her home. But Whiting can't help wondering how these power lines will hold up in the next storm — and whether there's a better solution.
"If it means going underground," she says, "Then by God, go underground!"
Edited by Rachel Waldholz
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