In view of the increasing difficulties facing the erection of new overhead electric lines in protected areas of our country, the question of placing high and very high voltage cables underground regularly comes up. The rapporteur, Mr Christian Kert, reviews the situation regarding the underground siting of electric cables in France by comparison with the other European countries, describes some of the approaches now being used around the world and, having interviewed the research teams of the main electrical engineering and cable manufacturing firms, assesses the new technologies that should make it possible, through a properly programmed ordering policy, very substantially to reduce the cost of these operations in the years to come. The underground siting of high-voltage electric cables, that may sometimes be seen as no more than a rich country’s whim, is in fact increasingly justified not only for protecting the environment or the health of the public, but for the safety of the electrical systems themselves.