IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - July/August 2016 - 86

countries, discussion about monster pylons, technology, and
serious struggles about energy policy.
The recommendations to the national governments were
to provide more background information about the need for
energy transition and new power lines. This information
could be provided not only at the national level but would
also be supported by governments at the local level. The
discussion about alternative options included possibilities
for bundling with existing lines, for different technologies,
such as overhead lines versus underground and pylon types.
The recommendation was to provide additional information
in a clear and concise matter about different technological
options as well as their advantages and disadvantages.
However, the guiding principles "transparency" and
"environment" were only partially addressed, not for the
lack of effort but because of changes in concerns with new
information. Much work was done to address concerns about
transparency and environment. The successful actions are
described in the handbooks developed by Germanwatch
and BirdLife International, but new concerns appeared with
the increased level of awareness. This changing nature of
concerns about transparency and environment shows that
there is a need for constant dialogue with stakeholders. Even
though there were several public information events to provide more transparency about the pilot projects and the decision-making processes, such as the information markets of
TenneT, they addressed existing questions but then new questions appeared. For instance, when concerns about transparency of decision criteria about alternative routings were
addressed, new questions appeared about the type of pylons
or impacts of EMFs on human health. The results showed
that providing more transparent information increased the
level of awareness about the pilot projects and their details
but raised more questions about additional details. The recommendations across all four pilot projects were to provide a
website with clear, transparent, and easy-to-read information
not only about the project but also about the decision-making
processes and documents, like regional development plans.
Addressing the guiding principle "environment," BestGrid
provided recommendations on compensation measures to
environment as well as on environment protection measures,
such as protection of biodiversity and migratory birds.
The guiding principles "engagement" and local "benefit"
were not addressed from the point of view of stakeholders.
The involvement of local NGOs in public information campaigns was perceived very positively by stakeholders.
The recommendations were to involve organized stakeholders right from the beginning, in meetings to discuss the
need for the project. Some stakeholders recommended that
NGOs and civil society organizations should be involved
early enough for their input to be taken into consideration.
Other stakeholders mentioned that the participatory process
was launched at too early of a stage; it would be better to
start it at a later stage when there was greater certainty about
the project. Another recommendation was to contact others
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for their opinions: local government or people independent
from politics, those leading the stakeholders' engagement
process, and all inhabitants in direct vicinity to power lines.
The results also show that concerns about benefits or compensation were raised less frequently. However, the measures
to address these concerns taken in frames of BestGrid were
also least successful. The public information events provided
an opportunity for stakeholders to express their opinion and
wishes about possible benefits and compensation from the
project, such as the creation of a fund, fair distribution of
compensation across communities, and transparent rules for
compensations. It was out of the scope of BestGrid to implement these measures. If we look at the concerns about benefits
and compensations, most of them were about compensations
than benefits, and almost all of these concerns were about
transparent rules for compensation and fairness, for instance,
equal compensations between different communities or also
compensations for inhabitants who were affected by other
types of infrastructure.

For Further Reading
A. Battaglini, J. Lilliestam, A. Haas, and A. G. Patt, "Development of SuperSmart grids for a more efficient utilization
of electricity from renewable resources," J. Cleaner Product., vol. 17, no. 10, pp. 911-918, 2009.
A. Battaglini, N. Komendantova, P. Brtnik, and A. Patt,
"Perception of barriers for expansion of electricity grids in
the European Union," Energy Policy, vol. 47, pp. 254-259,
2012.
European Commission. "A roadmap for moving to a
competitive low carbon economy in 2050," Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the
Council and the European Economic and Social Committee
and the Committee of the regions. European Commission,
Brussels, 112 final report, Mar. 8, 2011.
European Commission. (2013). Regulation (EU) No 347/
2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17
April 2013 on guidelines for trans-European energy infrastructure and repealing Decision No 1364/2006/EC
and amending Regulations (EC) No 713/2009, (EC) No
714/2009 and (EC) No 715/2009. [Online]. Available: http://
eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELE
X:32013R0347&from=EN
ENTSO-E. "Ten-year network development plan," European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E), Brussels, 2012.

Biographies
Nadejda Komendantova is with the International Institute
for Applied Systems Analysis, Vienna, Austria, and ETH
Zurich, Switzerland.
Antonella Battaglini is with the Potsdam Institute for
Climate Impact Research and the Renewable Grid Initiative,
Berlin, Germany.
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