Early involvement of landowners

Danish TSO, Energinet applied this communication methodology in order to involve the landowners who will be affected by a 150kV cable project in the early planning – before and during the authority permitting procedures.

Objectives:

• Implement local knowledge in the planning of the project
• Make the project more transparent and understandable locally
• Give the possibility to the landowners to use their participation power to influence the project
• Increase the acceptance of the project

Main information:

Energinet developed a communication approach to better involve both local neighbourhoods and potentially directly affected landowners in the early stages of a new grid project. During the stage of planning the official corridor, meetings were held in local neighbourhoods with relevant landowners invited. Instead of planning individual meetings with every single landowner when the corridor is fixed, Energinet discussed the cable route with a whole group of neighbours, as changes to the route often affect a whole district of properties.

The cable project Han Herred-Thy-Mors-Salling, is aiming at maintaining and expanding the transmission grid in the North-Western part of Jutland in Denmark in order to integrate more wind power into the Danish power system.

Several local neighbourhood meetings were held and delivered valuable information, that influenced the final corridor for the cable route. Important inputs included advice on special farming operations (e.g. Christmas tree cultivation), distinct soil conditions, particular drainage challenges etc.

Furthermore, Energinet organised four targeted neighbourhood dialogue meetings with land-owners. During group meetings, the neighbours got a map and a string, and had to reach an agreement on the exact cable route.

Feedback from landowners on the process has been very positive and the degree of involvement and the value of shared information was rated high. First evaluations have shown that the approach reduces errors and setbacks due to public and landowner protests.
Additional information:

• Energinet is the Danish TSO, a non-profit enterprise owned by the Danish Ministry of Energy, Utilities and Climate. It owns the Danish primary electricity and gas transmission system and is responsible for the overall short-term and long-term security of electricity and gas supply and the development of grid infrastructure
• Energinet cooperated with a group of researchers from the University of Aalborg who work on the involvement of stakeholders and citizens