Richmond, Va.-based Dominion Resources plans to bury 4,000 miles of electric power distribution lines over the next 10 to 12 years in an effort to combat outages, according to reports in the Charlottesville, Va., Daily Progress.

The utility said it will select which lines to bury based on 10-year outage histories taken from all regions the company serves. The company aims to bury 350 miles of power lines each year. Roughly 1/3 of Dominion’s distribution lines already are underground, the paper said.

Dominion plans to recover the cost of burying the lines through a rate adjustment rider collected from customers. Under legislation passed by the Commonwealth’s General Assembly in April, electric utilities in Virginia may spend up to 5% of the value of their distribution rate base to place certain lines underground.

For Dominion, that equals about $175 million annually, the paper quoted Alan Bradshaw, director of Dominion’s underground program, as saying. Nearly 1 million of the company’s customers lost power in a June 2012 storm. In its wake, Dominion decided to reexamine the feasibility of placing certain distribution lines underground, Bradshaw told the newspaper.

Additional Resources: Charlottesville Daily Progress article