Is `power to the people' going underground?

The subjects of R&D and manufacturing technologies presently at hand to advance the widespread acceptance of underground transmission were among the concerns of a recent five-day Engineering Foundation conference at New England College, Henniker, N.H. The seminar was cosponsored by a committee of the Electrical Research Council, the Department of the Interior, and the Construction Research Committee of the ASCE (in cooperation with the Insulated Conductors Committee of the IEEE). Lester H. Fink of the Philadelphia Electric Company and T. W. Mermel of the Bureau of Reclamation, Department of the Interior, were the cochairmen. More than 100 representatives from electric utilities, electric equipment manufacturers and suppliers, and government agencies attended the week-long symposium. The parallel purpose of the conference was to stimulate the development and evaluation of innovative and practical techniques that could contribute meaningfully to the progress and optimization of both the present and future technology in high-voltage buried lines. Areas of research to reduce the cost of installing underground transmission were identified, and there were exchanges of ideas and concepts toward achieving this goal.