COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCSC) – Hurricane Helene left more than a million South Carolina homes and businesses in the dark — many for days, or even longer.
That darkness sparked a common question: Will South Carolina start burying more power lines to prevent such widespread outages in the future?
The short answer is, not without some help.
“It would be a good investment if you can get somebody to pay for it, but money’s not free,” Mid-Carolina Electric Cooperative CEO and Chairman Bob Paulling said.
Mid-Carolina is one of the state’s 18 electric cooperatives, which collectively provide power to about a third of South Carolinians.
Paulling said the cost of burying power lines can be around 10 to 15 times more expensive than installing above-ground lines.
Just for Mid-Carolina, he said that could easily be about a $2 billion price tag, even with a third of its lines already below the ground.
“To put all the power lines underground …