Just grow a small tree.

Ditto. The main concern is that trees touching powerlines can be hazardous..

Power lines won't affect the tree, but the tree may well affect the power line(s). You will be much safer, and less likely to interrupt your power service down the road, if you plant a tree that won't grow large enough to impact the wires. You should either plan on a shrub or a VERY small tree in that location, or plant your tree somewhere else, so there is NO chance that the mature height and width of the tree will come into contact with the line(s).

I don't know where the Right of Way for your power company and the power line runs, whether all the way to the house or if it stops at the transformer. If it goes all the way to your house, then the power co. owns the ROW surrounding the line - here in SC, it's an area 15' on all sides of the wire(s) - and the company has the right to trim back or cut down all trees that encroach into the ROW. This is yet another reason to plant a shrub or small tree....

"Do power lines "repel" trees to the point that they will try to grow away from them?"

No, but the power companies responsible for the lines do . . . usually with chainsaws, and with a remarkable lack of insight into tree health and care, so the results are usually disastrous for the tree.

Resin

Thanks for the replies.
You can also have them run the lines to a box beneath the pole, dig a trench, bury the wire and have it hooked up to the house again. That would run about $1200 at our house. Then we would "own" the line from the pole to the house.
I asked mainly to confirm or dispute what a few others have told me - that power lines effect the growth of a tree. The maple that we had for over 30 years seemed to be a bit stunted in the area where it contacted the power lines, even though it was never trimmed.

I've never heard of powerlines repelling trees before!!!
It seems like around here the power lines are a tree magnet!
Every day you drive down another roadway and find another solid line of willow oaks right under the powerlines.

As to original question, ask yourself this. In the next ice storm, wind storm or whatever hits your area, do you want to be without electricity until the very end when they can finally get out to fix the dinky little line that services only your house?

Pay the $. It's worth it to have a clear ceiling to your yard and it makes your power service more reliable. I wish all power lines were buried! I have both kinds of power lines: the direct line to my house is buried, but the lines & a pole are on my property. Every couple of years the power company's tree manglers come, tread all over my garden, damage things on the other side of the yard nowhere near the lines (by dropping large branches on them) and chopping the trees so badly they end up dying (on think that's their aim). I did not plant any of those trees under the lines, they were there when I bought the house. I am slowly removing them (it costs a small fortune), and replacing them with things that will not grow as tall. The Minnesota power company has a web site of trees that will fit under power lines. Can't recall exact address, sorry.

Here's a scenerio that no one has been able to figure out:

Along beautiful Bay St. in Beaufort, SC there is an avenue of very large and very old Palmettos. EACH and every one of them bends away from the power lines. The 'avoidance' of the power lines is absolutely noticable! ;-)

I've taken lots of tree gurus down that street to show them.....even Alex Shigo! Everyone seems happy that there are still mysteries that go unsolved.