$1.3B Upgrade Calls for Georgia Power to Bury Electric Lines

Georgia Power is planning to bury electric lines in several Buckhead neighborhoods in 2023 as part of a $1.3 billion plan to improve its systems and reduce blackouts in the Atlanta area.

First, the electric utility needs to secure the necessary easements by winning over property owners in the path of the project, Buckhead.com, a neighborhood news service, reported Jan. 6.

Situated within the northernmost part of

Atlanta, Buckhead is a commercial and residential district of the city that is home to high-rise office buildings, hotels, shopping centers, restaurants and condominiums centered around the intersection of Peachtree Road and Piedmont Road. It also includes a total of 43 leafy neighborhoods.

Buckhead’s impressive urban forest is a huge civic asset, but also means that storms — like the remnant of Hurricane Irma in 2017 — often topple trees into power lines.

Burying — or “undergrounding” — the lines is a way to avoid that problem.

“Placing power lines underground makes the grid more resilient because they’re less vulnerable to storms and wind, but it’s not fault-proof,” said Georgia Power spokesperson Marie Bertot. “In areas prone to flooding, digging, root vegetation and other underground activity, it’s not always an option.”

Undergrounding also is done for aesthetic reasons as well, but the Georgia Power work in Buckhead will leave existing poles standing to carry lines from the street to houses and businesses, and for use by telecommunications companies. According to one source, additional poles may be erected to deal with the new web of connections.

Buckhead.com noted that the underground system also requires a series of transformers housed in familiar green metal