Discourses of Energy Infrastructure Development: A Q-Method Study of Electricity Transmission Line Siting in the UK

Abstract

The construction of new electricity-transmission infrastructure is construed in UK energy policy documents as necessary for achieving govemment targets to increase low-carbon electricity provision to combat climate change and ensure long-term energy security. Siting high-voltage overhead lines and substations is publicly controversial, however, due to their potential environtnental, social, and economic impacts. Also controversial are issues of governance, procedural justice, and technological choice in decision making, particularly in light of recent legislative changes to the planning of nationally significant infrastructure projects in the UK. This study uses the Q-method to assess the discourses emerging from stakeholder and local community actor responses to line siting in the context of proposed transmission network upgrades in the southwest of England to support a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset. The analysis reveals three discourses, representing divergent positions on the adequacy of existing procedures to enable community participation, trust in network operators, the kinds of system configurations (centralised versus decentralised) required to meet the challenges of climate change and energy security, and the local impacts of overhead lines. Whilst the profile of how diverse respondents loaded upon each discourse showed expected patterns, the range of positions adopted by local residents support previous studies showing the limits of the 'NIMBY' conceptualisation of local protest. Whilst greater information provision and more upstream citizen participation in contexts of transmission line planning is recommended to enhance public trust, the limitations of such an approach in the absence of greater clarity at the national level regarding the configuration of future energy systems is discussed. IntroductionIn response to the challenges of climate change and long-term energy security, the governments of many industrialised countries are opting for extensive changes to systems of electricity generation. In the UK a target has been set for 40% of electricity generation to be from renewable energy technologies and nuclear power by 2020 (DECC, 2009). Whilst these changes in electricity generation have been subject to media reporting, political commentary, and academic study, by comparison far less attention has been paid to the consequences of such changes upon existing infrastructures of electricity transmission and distribution-that is, to what is commonly referred to in the UK as the 'national grid'-despite the fact that new low-carbon sources will, in many cases, require new infrastructures to connect generation to industrial and domestic electricity users.Like many industrialised countries, the UK entered the 21st century with an extensive and centralised system of electricity generation, transmission, and supply. Electricity is generated primarily by large-scale power stations situated in remote locations at considerable distance from industrial and domestic users. It is then tran...

Explaining public preferences for high voltage pylon designs: An empirical study of perceived fit in a rural landscape

“…This supports recent calls for more upstream engagement with communities directly affected by powerline proposals (Cotton and Devine-Wright, 2011). …”

“…Large investments are forecast, estimated at over £100 billion (Department of Energy and Climate Change, 2011). However, recent cases of public opposition to the construction of new power lines (Cotton & Devine-Wright, 2011;Highlands before pylons, 2008;No Moor Pylons, 2011;Save Our Valley, 2012) suggest that efforts to develop electricity networks will be extremely difficult, unless public perceptions about these infrastructures are better understood and integrated in that process.…”

Public beliefs about high-voltage powerlines in Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom: A comparative survey

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Local perceptions of opportunities for engagement and procedural justice in electricity transmission grid projects in Norway and the UK

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