Economies in the rural distribution of electricity

In rural areas of Britain, where, for the foreseeable future, electricity supplies must depend very largely on overhead lines, continuous supplies safe from breakdown caused by natural hazards such as lightning, gales and the like are not a practicable possibility; even the provision of alternative sources of supply to the same degree that is normal in urban areas would be so prohibitively expensive as to be commercially unacceptable. The challenge, therefore, is to balance capital cost with reliability, low running cost, and ease and cheapness of maintenance.