Florida utility
Florida Power & Light — neighborhood laterals, not every pole
What they did. FPL’s Storm Secure Underground Program replaces selected overhead neighborhood lines with underground lines. It grew out of storm-hardening work after the 2004 and 2005 hurricanes and sits inside the storm protection plan the Florida Public Service Commission approves. FPL says it picks areas using outages in hurricanes, vegetation-related outages, and other reliability data. In its filings, this work is the Distribution Lateral Hardening program: branch lines, prioritized, not a conversion of the whole system. The company also offers a separate voluntary conversion for cities that ask. Where FPL serves in Walton County, largely around Miramar Beach and Inlet Beach, that is the utility’s own program. It is not a plan for all of 30A, it does not cover CHELCO lines, and listing it is not a statement that FPL has selected any neighborhood here.
- FPL says there is no upfront out-of-pocket cost for neighborhoods it selects. Costs go into the storm-protection charge on FPL customer bills, which covers this program and other storm work.
- FPL reports that its underground neighborhood lines performed about five to 14 times better than overhead lines during Hurricanes Debby, Helene, and Milton in 2024, and about 50 percent better day to day. That comparison is the utility’s, systemwide.
- In 2024, FPL told the commission that six municipalities signed voluntary undergrounding agreements and moved ahead with nine projects. Those are the “community pays” projects, not the storm-plan program.
Sources: FPL Storm Secure Underground Program; FPL 2024 Storm Protection Plan annual status report, section on underground conversion projects.
Florida utility
Duke Energy Florida — targeted branch lines
What they did. After the 2016–2017 hurricane seasons, Duke started a Targeted Underground Program aimed at overhead branch lines with vegetation outages. That work was later folded into a broader Lateral Hardening Program inside Duke’s storm protection plans. The company undergrounds laterals that fail often, are older, sit in trees, or are hard for trucks to reach. Other laterals may be hardened overhead instead. Duke does not bury every line fed by a circuit.
- A June 2024 U.S. Department of Energy and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory case study, written with Duke’s review of a draft, reported 196 line-miles converted from 2020 to 2022 at a cost of about $207 million.
- The same study said Duke planned about 1,300 miles of overhead line removal from 2023 to 2032, at approximately $1.7 billion. The study’s summary rounds the completed work to “about 200 miles.” Treat both as that report’s snapshot. Later storm plans can change the miles and the dollars.
- The 2019 Florida law the study describes let investor-owned utilities seek recovery of approved storm-plan undergrounding from customers generally, instead of only from the neighborhood that benefited.
Source: DOE / Berkeley Lab, “Undergrounding to Reduce Florida Power System Vulnerability to Extreme Weather,” June 2024. Duke’s service area in that study is central and northern Florida, not Walton County.
Florida town
Town of Palm Beach — a town-wide project in phases
What they did. The town is converting overhead utilities to underground across the island in numbered phases, working with FPL and the communications companies, then removing poles. The town’s calendar described Phase 8 as the last phase of the overhead undergrounding program. This is a full local conversion over many years, not a utility picking a few laterals.
- A project note for the week of September 28, 2026 still lists active work in the same week: horizontal directional drilling, conduit, feeder wire, street restoration, and pole and wire removal. Some streets are closed to through traffic and kept open for local access.
- A January 2018 town project update said the town had issued $9 million in commercial paper to finance the initial phases, at an interest rate of 1.40 percent. That figure is only the opening financing described in 2018. It is not a total project cost, and this site does not publish one.
- The project shows the disruption side clearly. Phasing spreads a town-wide job across years, and it does not make the construction quiet.
Sources: Town of Palm Beach undergrounding project site; town calendar entry calling Phase 8 the last phase; project note for the week of September 28, 2026; January 2018 town update (PDF).
California
California Rule 20 — cities request conversions, and the funding rules changed
What they did. Since the late 1960s, most new California distribution has been built underground, while older neighborhoods stayed overhead. In 1967 the California Public Utilities Commission created Electric Rule 20 so cities, counties, or private applicants could ask utilities to convert existing overhead lines. How much ratepayers paid depended on the type of project. For decades, Rule 20A gave communities ratepayer-funded work credits, often for scenic or busy public streets. Rule 20B shared the cost. Rule 20C was paid by the applicant.
- The commission’s program description says underground lines are less exposed to wind, that faults often take longer to find, and that pad-mounted equipment remains.
- Decision 21-06-013 (June 3, 2021) stopped new Rule 20A work-credit allocations. Decision 23-06-008 (June 8, 2023) discontinued Rule 20A and Rule 20D going forward, so ratepayers would not keep funding that aesthetic program. Wildfire undergrounding was left to other proceedings, including general rate cases.
- The same commission page describes a separate City of San Diego program, partnered with SDG&E since 2002 and funded by a franchise-fee surcharge the commission authorized inside the city. The page’s mileage figures do not carry a clear “as of” date, so they are not repeated here.
Sources: CPUC undergrounding programs description; CPUC Rule 20 page; Decision 21-06-013; Decision 23-06-008.
Texas coast
CenterPoint Energy — strategic miles in Greater Houston
What they did. After setting a coastal resiliency push, CenterPoint undergrounded targeted distribution lines in the Houston area rather than converting the whole system. The company’s settlement in Texas describes three kinds of places: freeway crossings, hard-to-reach areas with high risk from outside damage, and certain critical customers such as hospitals.
- On May 6, 2025, CenterPoint said it had installed 400 miles of underground power lines in the prior eight months and had finished the undergrounding goal for that phase of the Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative before hurricane season. The stated reasons were high winds, falling vegetation, vehicle collisions, and similar hazards.
- A later company summary of the same initiative said more than 430 miles had been undergrounded. The two figures are both from CenterPoint, dated differently. Use them as progress reports, not as a single audited total.
- A June 12, 2025 settlement in Public Utility Commission of Texas Docket 57579 lists an estimated $837 million for the strategic undergrounding measure inside a 2026–2028 system resiliency plan. The parties asked the commission to approve that figure. The commission adopted a final order in the docket on November 14, 2025. This page does not restate a later approved dollar amount. The $837 million figure is the settlement estimate for future Houston work, not money spent in Walton County, and not a completed invoice.
Sources: CenterPoint news release, May 6, 2025; CenterPoint Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative summary; PUCT Docket 57579 stipulation and settlement, filed June 12, 2025; PUCT open-meeting minutes, November 14, 2025.
What these examples share. They pick places, they take years, and they leave equipment above ground. Florida’s investor-owned programs are tied to storm performance and a state-reviewed plan. FPL’s program applies where FPL serves, largely Miramar Beach and the Inlet Beach area, not on CHELCO lines and not on all of 30A. Palm Beach shows a town paying to convert a whole community in phases. California shows that a long-running “beautify the street” subsidy can be narrowed later. None of them is a Walton County budget, and none is a utility commitment to build here.
How those funding ideas relate to Walton · Why 30A is only a suggested start