The federal government is investing in new technologies that will facilitate a large-scale infrastructure upgrade to the nation's electricity system to protect it from increasing vulnerability to extreme weather events.

The U.S. Department of Energy has announced that it is funding a $34M pilot program to develop a dozen advanced technologies designed to dramatically lower the cost of moving electric power lines underground.

The U.S. electric system has close to 6M miles of line, as well as an estimated 180M power poles. The entire system has exposure to the weather, which is the cause of most power outages.