BESTGRID was a project with the aim to improve public acceptance for grids on a local level and bring together stakeholders from civil society, academia and the energy sector to understand concerns of new electricity grids being built in communities. BESTGRID acted as an exchange of best practice approaches of transparent stakeholder participation in power grid planning.
Title
Brief description
BESTGRID was a project based on five pilot projects in the UK, Belgium and Germany. Three of the projects implemented approaches to ensure stakeholder engagement and two completed assessments of engagements and activities that had already started. The three obejctives of BESTGRID were:
1. To improve local public acceptance for grids.
2. To respect environmental protection standars while speeding up permit procedures.
3. To support the implementation of best practices in similar projects.
The initiatives in the five pilot projects were jointly developed by NGOs and transmission system operators (TSOs: responsibility of the security of the supply and power grid), where the NGOs actively designed and implemented activities, and gave feedback to TSOs on different measures taken. In addition, info-marts were set up, site visits were made and roundtable discussions with authorities and local groups were held, and consultations with stakeholders were made.
The pilot projects aimed to enforce and implement transparency so that information about them and decision-making would be transparent at each stage of the process.
A brief introduction to power grip planning in general.
- Power grid planning involves a number of different stakeholders and follows the national planning legislation rules. In many European countries the planning process is a two-level process:
1. Planning authorities and grid operators assess the need for new transmission lines. This assessment may include public consultations in some countries.
2. Then the grid operators develop a specific corridor and route for the grid project.
Keywords
Grid planning, community, power grid
City/Country
Time period
2013-2015
Lever(s)
Technology
Methodologies
World Region
Scale(s) of the case analysed
Target audience and dimension
Domain(s) of application
Context addressed
Solution applied
Challenge addressed/ Problem-led approach
Barriers addressed
Main Practices
Impact
Co benefits
Engagement Journey
Impact to climate neutrality
Deploying electricity grids with the minimum possible impact on the environment.
Context & Public policy of reference
Innovative approach(es) addressed
Close cooperation between environmental NGOs and transmission system operators (TSO) in the UK, Belgium and Germany. Aimed to increase local public acceptance for grid development processes. BESTGRID wanted to generate active cooperation between NGOs and TSOs, and have a transparent planning process.
Initiator
Roots in the Renewable Grid Initiative (RGI) (founded in 2009) which fosters TSO-NGO communication and cooperation. Between 2011 and 2012, the members developed a declaration on grid development in Europe.
Stakeholder networks and organisational model
Stakeholders:
- In the BESTGRID projects, the stakeholders were:
- RGI- (TSOs and NGOs on energy transitions)- project coordination
- TSOs- cooperation with national and regional governments, as well as with NGOs.
- NGOs- cooperation with national and regional governments, and TSOs. Drafted action plans and engagement strategies.
- International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis- evaluated BESTGRID activities from a scientific point of view
- Inhabitants- feedback and concerns
Network. communication and governance:
1. Workshops to present the case studies to representatives from different European cities.
2. Workshops for environmental NGOs to share experiences of working on energy infrastructure policy.
i. NGOs provided inputs on action plans and provided guidance on environmental protections and engagement.
ii. NGOs provided comments on action plans. Roundtable discussion between TSO and NGOs to discuss environmental issues.
3. Workshops with civil society organisations.
4. Stakeholder mapping: reach out and engage with various stakeholder groups.
5. Committee with an independent chair to discuss strategic decisions.
Example of the activities in a pilot project:
SuedLink project in Germany (TSO: TenneT)
TenneT cooperated with NGOs to design different engagement activities with the public.
- The project set up info-marts in more than 30 locations to access public opinion well before the formal planning of a new grid. Maps were displayed with detailed information on the possible corridor options. The info-marts provided explanations of the planning procedures, and the public could give their own opinions on the grid project. As a result, TenneT received 3000 suggestions and proposals for alternatives to the corridor. It then identified three small-scale corridor alternatives from these proposals.
- Following these initial info-marts, TenneT organised another 300 public information and dialogure events in 2014, well before the legal planning procedures started.
- Site visits were made to identify the major environmental concerns relating to the specific grid project. These were done at the early stages of the project.
- The project also set up in-depth roundtables where the local government, planning offices, nature conservation groups, scientific organisations and citizens’ groups produced recommendations for future grid-planning.
Democratic Purpose
Participant Recruitment
nteraction between participants
Resources
Key enablers
Key inhibiting factors
1. Stakeholders were missing information about the possibilities to engage and to join roundtable discussions. Information did not reach all interested stakeholders.
2. NGOs played a rather advisory role where TSOs retained the ability to judge the legitimacy of the advice.
3. Some decisions frequently did not involve NGOs or informing them about decisions taken already.
4. No ‘Control’ and no ‘Delegation’ according to Arnstein participation ladder (1969).
Drawbacks/pros/cons of the solutions (after implementation)
Scalability
Key lessons
Indicators
External link
Arnstein, S. (1969.) A ladder of citizen participation. Journal of the American Planning Association, 35(4), 216–224.
BESTGRID. http://www.bestgrid.eu
BESTGRID. (2015, October). Testing better practices. Final report of the BESTGRID project. Retrieved from http://www.bestgrid.eu/uploads/media/D1.5_BESTGRID_Final_Report_01.pdf
Hänlein, R. (2015). Public Participation and Transparency in Power Grid Planning. Recommendations from the BESTGRID Project. Handbook – Part 1. Germanwatch. http://www.bestgrid.eu/fileadmin/user_upload/Deliverables/D8.2_Guidelines__22Public_Participation_and_Transparency_22.pdf
Komendantova, N., & Linnerooth-Bayer, J., (n.d.). Deliverable 2.4: Public protests against deployment of electricity transmission infrastructure in Europe: what are successful actions to deal with issues of public acceptance? Evaluation of best practices application, with revisions to protocol and action plans. International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. Retrieved from http://www.bestgrid.eu/uploads/media/D2.4_BESTGRID_Evaluation_of_best_practice_application.pdf
Komendantova, N., Sander, A., Schneider, T., & Battaglini, A. (n.d.). BESTGRID process on public acceptance: going beyond existing practices of stakeholders involvement for electricity transmission projects. Retrieved from https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/eprint/11770/1/BESTGRID%20process%20on%20public%20acceptance.pdf
Komendantova, N., Vocciante, M., & Battaglini, A. (2015). Can the BestGrid process improve stakeholder involvement in electricity transmission projects? Energies, 8(9), 9407–9433. doi:10.3390/en8099407
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