NV Energy replaces power poles downed by Las Vegas storm
Two weeks after a fierce dust storm toppled roughly 70 wooden utility poles across the Las Vegas Valley, crippling businesses on east Tropicana Avenue, NV Energy confirmed it has replaced the downed poles — with more wooden poles.
NV Energy spokesperson Meghin Delaney told the Las Vegas Review-Journal the company used wooden poles because they were readily available, and power needed to be restored as quickly as possible. It plans to upgrade the poles in a phased manner in the next few years.
On July 1, the storm left a peak of more than 30,000 customers without power. Tropicana Avenue, the epicenter, saw the majority of the downed poles, Delaney said in an email.
NV Energy has slowly been phasing out wooden poles in favor of reinforced steel and iron structures, with the goal of preventing another catastrophe, according to Delaney. In Southern Nevada, NV Energy already maintains more than 12,300 steel poles, compared with 58,000 wooden poles.
“NV Energy is committed to improving our infrastructure to make it stronger and more resilient to extreme weather,” Delaney wrote.
After the prolonged outages, some customers took to social media to ask why the utility couldn’t bury the power lines underground. Many Southern Nevada jurisdictions require newly constructed buildings to have underground electric service.
NV Energy officials say the the issue lies in permitting and cost. On average, the cost of burying a power line is about five times as much as rebuilding an overhead line, Delaney said. The utility company currently maintains more than 25,000 miles of underground power lines and almost 5,000 miles of overhead lines in Southern Nevada.
Overhead power lines will eventually disappear in the Valley with the regulations, but not anytime soon. Until that happens, NV Energy plans to continue upgrading existing overhead lines with stronger structures.
When its crews are not responding to emergencies like the July 1 dust storm, they are inspecting and upgrading existing lines, according to Delaney.
“These investments take substantial time and resources, so not all infrastructure can be improved at once,” she wrote. “However, NV Energy teams work year-round to enhance our systems and ensure greater resilience against extreme weather events.”
Contact Isaiah Steinberg at isteinberg@reviewjournal.com. Follow @IsaiahStei27 on X.
