From ‘Decide, Announce, Defend’ to ‘Announce, Discuss, Decide’? Suggestions on how to Improve Acceptance and Legitimacy for Germany’s 380kV Grid Extension

Abstract: Germany’s current energy grid was built to match energy production from major power plants (coal, gas, nuclear). Due to the 2011 decision to exit all nuclear power until 2022 and ambitious national CO 2 reduction targets, the need to modernise and extend the grid has received substantial attention. In the past, implementation of grid extension projects had shown to be slow and raise serious public opposition. New legal rules have therefore been introduced in mid 2011, aiming to increase both implementation speed and public acceptance for the grid extension via improved public participation. Based on literature reviews and 39 semi-structured interviews realised with representatives of academia, citizen action groups, environmental interest groups, transmission system operators, approving authorities and planning practitioners, the paper analyses the shortcomings of the current approach to public participation as exercised for ongoing extension projects covered by the Energy Grid Extension Act. It describes how the current setting hinders both achievement of acceptance and legitimacy for missing out on five social goals that public participation should support. It then assesses to which extent the new legal acts – mainly future Net Development Plan and Grid Extension Acceleration Act – are suitable to overcome identified shortcomings. In a final step, recommendations are given on how to further improve social goal achievement and thus increase acceptance and legitimacy. Recommendations among others deal with how to increase fairness and transparency in public participation processes, how to improve access to information and how to give the public a more substantial role in influencing the final outcome of an approval process. Advise is given on the roles key organisations and actors need to take and the proposed mode of interaction in a future participative process.