Electric undergrounding progress and outage communication
Summary
The undergrounding program is 84.74% complete citywide with about 19 miles remaining; the board debated whether the ~$11 million annual undergrounding spend frees up cash when done — staff said future infrastructure needs mean it likely won't.
At a glance
- Total mentions
- 4
- Last 30 days
- 0
Last discussed Aug 25, 2026.
Impact analysis
About $11 million a year going to undergrounding now; future spending will depend on commission decisions on substation, meter, and street-lighting projects.
All electric customers through improved reliability and storm resilience, plus better tree canopy in undergrounded areas.
Northwest residents near Park Maitland School who experienced a prolonged outage with poor communication.
Mentions & discussions (4)
Utilities Advisory Board - Aug 25, 2026
The undergrounding program is about 85% done citywide, but Terry Hotard called out a prolonged northwest outage with poor updates from the call center during the AnswerNet transition. An Outage Management System is in the works to fix that.
Utilities Advisory Board - Jul 28, 2026
The undergrounding program is 84.74% complete citywide with about 19 miles remaining; the board debated whether the ~$11 million annual undergrounding spend frees up cash when done — staff said future infrastructure needs mean it likely won't.
Utilities Advisory Board - Jun 23, 2026
A new 'Report an Outage' button is coming to the city website with a decision tree replacing a confusing navigation path. The board pushed for including crosswalk lights and asked whether water pipe breaks can be reported too — that detail is still being worked out.
Utilities Advisory Board - Feb 24, 2026
The electric utility is inspecting aging poles, adding thermal cameras at substations, doubling OUC feeder capacity, and pricing a new substation transformer — all aimed at fewer outages.
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