Aug 24, 2025
This WA Co-Op Is Betting Big on Underground Power
Given the choice between maintaining overhead power lines and burying them in the ground, the average consumer would favor the latter. Underground transmission just makes sense on so many levels. And yet, converting from overhead to underground is no easy task. It requires a tremendous commitment of time, resources, and money.
The task of converting overhead power transmission to underground is so daunting that many utilities are not even thinking about it. But then there are others, like a Washington state co-op, that have taken the opposite position.
Inland Power & Light (IPL) serves over 47,000 customers in eastern Washington and northern Idaho. They are in the midst of an aggressive 10-year plan to convert as much of their overhead infrastructure as possible to underground power transmission. They plan to invest upward of $41 million annually for the next decade.
Exponentially More Expensive
IPL has the same concerns as any other utility converting from overhead to underground. They need to deal with permits. They need to obtain consent from property owners. And of course, there is the engineering required to go from overhead to underground. It all adds up to exponentially higher costs. How much higher?
A utility spokesperson recently told the Spokane Journal that converting costs 6-10 times more than continuing to build and maintain overhead power lines. But he also said that the co-op believes the investment is worthwhile.
Once transmission lines are buried underground, maintenance costs go way down. Likewise, the risk of a utility having to rebuild its infrastructure after a storm is comparatively low. Advocates of underground transmission insist that the long-term cost benefits of converting outweigh the expensive short-term investments.
As for IPL, its current program is concentrating on converting existing overhead lines. All new projects are automatically designed for underground transmission unless specific geographic conditions prevent it. So in addition to converting existing systems, new projects are adding to the total underground transmission capacity IPL has.
A Co-Op Is Member Owned
Utilities around the country are beginning to embrace underground transmission. The thing about IPL that makes it unique is that it is customer-owned. By definition, that's how an electrical co-op works. A co-op is a privately owned, not-for-profit utility that is owned equally across all its members. The members are also customers.
Co-ops are controlled by boards elected from and by the membership community. Every member has an equal say in how things are done. Consider what this means in light of what IPL is doing.
IPL's membership has voluntarily agreed to invest tens of millions of dollars per year into converting overhead power lines to underground transmission. A decade from now, the utility will have spent nearly half-a-billion dollars. The project will be funded by the utility bills members pay each month.
Necessary to Meet Future Demand
Based on comments in the Spokane Journal, it would appear as though IPL customer-members are looking beyond maintenance and reconstruction costs. They also seem to feel that converting to underground transmission is necessary to keep up with future demand.
Like so many other mid-size cities, Spokane is growing. With that growth comes an increased demand for electricity. Throw in the demands of the AI era and you have a recipe for disaster if transmission capacity does not keep up.
Underground transmission theoretically helps in this regard by allowing more investments in new transmission lines down the road. As utilities spend less money maintaining current infrastructure, they have more money to put into new infrastructure. At least that is the thinking in certain parts of Washington and Idaho.
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