Social and environment issues

9.1.1 Towards social and environment acceptance of transmission system expansion

Under most legal and regulatory frameworks globally in use, transmission system expansion planning including line siting is a costly and time-consuming endeavor. Frequently, the realization of new intra- and interconnection commissioning is delayed due to slow and inefficient planning and permission processes [108]. Another important aspect is the improvement of social or political acceptance to network development or upgrades that are further analyzed within this chapter.

While during many decades infrastructure projects were considered as a main driver to spur socio-economic development, winds have changed with growing social opposition being nowadays regarded as a main barrier to electricity network deployment [109]. Decreasing public acceptance of large-scale electricity infrastructure projects was reported as a major hurdle to the expansion of the transmission system in Europe, Latin America [110] and the United States of America [108]. Some initiatives even managed to cancel transmission expansion projects [111].

Consequently, research has been directed towards the questions “What factors cause the success or failure of transmission line projects to engage with public stakeholders?” and “How can social and environmental concerns be overcome to improve public acceptance?”. Recent studies have explored both the motives of individuals to oppose transmission infrastructure development as well as the ingredients of reducing public objections [112, 113].

The work of [109] contains a 5 dimension framework of typical concerns towards transmission line development that should be addressed to increase the public acceptance of such projects (compare Figure 9.1). These can be grouped under “Need”, “Transparency”, “Benefit”, “Environment” and

“Engagement”.

Figure 9-1: Concerns against transmission lines [109]

While the “Need” dimension points to a low public understanding of the need of the proposed infrastructure project and potential alternatives (other corridor routing, energy efficiency, etc.),

“Transparency” embraces the public interest in the comprehensiveness of planning criteria, technology choice as well as the allocation of benefits or compensations.

“Engagement” on the other hand refers to commonly mentioned doubts on how network planners consider stakeholders feedback and integrate recommendations into the project’s decision process.

Concerns grouped under “Environment” on the other hand point towards risks for human health such as noise from transmission lines, visibility effects, effects on biodiversity and electromagnetic frequencies (EMF). Finally, “Benefit” concerns subsume opposition resulting of the decrease in property value or other compromises a local community needs to make under the realization of a transmission line.

Those concerns can be amplified, among others, with the proximity of stakeholders to the planned transmission line, under the absence of sufficient technical or economic knowledge on the system and

The table below provides concrete insights on how these concerns are typically formulated to project developers. Concerns were recorded during public meetings of project developers and private stakeholders within the frame of the European BESTGRID project [112].

Table 9-1: Common concerns towards transmission infrastructure development: The European case

Addressing the above-mentioned concerns is fundamental to overcome large-scale transmission expansion projects such as the transition towards a globally interconnected electricity network. Efforts might be higher for a global grid endeavor as it was found that interconnectors tend to face stronger public opposition than domestic lines.

It was suggested that these effects occur as local communities might see those projects serving solely big power companies revenues and not the public interest [114].

The following section will show successful approaches to involve stakeholder groups and increase the mutual satisfaction between electricity infrastructure developers and the concerned public.

9.1.2 Best practices/ stakeholder engagement approaches

In the following subchapter, we will synthesize the most relevant aspects of social/environmental opposition to transmission line installations and potential ways to overcome public doubts. The following table (Table 9.2) shows reported opposition and potential solutions covering different world regions.

It is important to note, that although strong variability of public opposition towards infrastructure projects was reported among countries, still little of the causes why some population groups or societies tend to oppose more than others have been understood [111].

Table 9-2: Reported barriers to social acceptance regarding transmission system expansion around the

Opposition due to a lack of project alternatives presented to community In-transparent siting and benefit allocation criteria

Concerns about noise, environmental impact and EMF of public interest that can

be used for future expansion projects Draft generalized siting and line routing criteria to foster

The outcomes suggest that across all world regions, a close involvement of stakeholders, transparent planning processes and negotiable compensation schemes can facilitate the realization of large-scale transmission projects. However, there are no reports/ information social acceptance issues in Asia, Africa and Australia, which should be further investigated on.

This could be explained by strong positive connotation of infrastructure as mean to spur electrification and economic development as well as remarkable efforts to measure and address consumer satisfaction in these regions.

In the following, we will look at a typical transmission line planning process to identify a suitable time-span for stakeholder involvement.

The typical planning process of a transmission line on European ground is shown below (Figure 9.2).

The figure shows that the planning process is typical divided into several stages. While the first step consists in the internal identification of investment needs (demand growth, connect renewables, market integration) at the TSO, the authorization phase exposes the project to external stakeholders. After passing environmental and planning related hurdles, the major part of the planning process concludes with the acquisition of land rights. Following a relatively short construction and commissioning period, the line comes into operation.

Given the nature of the planning process and outcomes on successful stakeholder engagement, it is appropriate to involve the public, environmental and social initiatives from the very beginning of the authorization process. As explained above, local resistance can be mitigated with early involvement of all affected stakeholder groups as well as the provision of transparent planning criteria and compensation packages that are tailored to the specific needs of the communities addressed.

9.1.3 Facilitating global transmission interconnection efforts:

We conclude this sub-hapter with two suggestions that attempt to overcome potential social/

environmental concerns of global interconnection efforts and thus decrease the chance of public opposition.

- A common drawback of the realization of power system interconnectors was seen in the absence of an adequate regulatory that facilitates the allocation of risks, costs and benefits among all stakeholders involved [109].

When it comes to the realization of a globally interconnected power system, there is little chance to expect that a newly developed “world energy regulator” would facilitate spatial planning, cost allocation, stakeholder involvement tasks. However, one suggestion is that a newly developed or existing, independent institution would be determined that plays that role and supervise the planning of the global power system interconnection (e.g. the International Confederation of Energy Regulators – ICER).

Such actor could enter a formal relation with the planning consortium (assumingly a transnational group of TSOs) and on the other side, establish a process that guarantees the appropriate involvement of local and global stakeholder groups affected by such a global grid (environmental associations, social initiatives, consumer protection agencies).

- As another relevant outcome of this literature review, we found that the access to complete information and transparency of the developers were recognized as important milestones towards public involvement and compromise seeking. As [94] found, resident rejection could be reduced by about 10% stretching on the investment’s contribution to a long-term green-house gas emission reduction and the economic benefits of the specific project.

In that light, we suggest conducting a public, wide-covering information campaign. This should be developed in a way that it is comprehensively addressing the need and advantages of a global electricity network. Such campaigns can be backed with the extensive research that has been conducted by CIGRE on social and environmental aspects of transmission system development during the past decade.