Moving to zero-carbon electricity means upgrading and expanding the UK’s transmission and storage network. A system in which the majority of electricity comes from renewable sources will need to connect generation assets that are much more widely distributed across the country, and located in new positions such as off-shore. It will also need to cope with seasonal and short-term peaks in demand, regardless of the weather. Moreover, annual demand for electricity is expected to increase substantially from current levels as transport, industry and heating processes in particular are electrified. This means building new overhead and underground lines, offshore transmission cables and substations.
Public views around the need for new network infrastructure receive a lot of media attention, and can even impact on political outcomes. Local opposition to proposed projects on the basis of their aesthetic, environmental and other impacts is frequently a challenge. However public understanding of the strategic importance of new transmission infrastructure is limited, and the communities which would host it do not always see a direct benefit for doing so. Information which communicates strategic benefits such as the need to address the climate emergency and increase energy security, financial benefits such as improved efficiency and the creation of new jobs, and/or local benefits such as incentives and funding for communities, could therefore increase public acceptability of building the infrastructure that is needed.
We conducted an online experiment for DESNZ to assess how different messages highlighting the benefits of new network infrastructure, and why it is needed, would affect its acceptability. In a randomised controlled trial (RCT), 3,673 participants were allocated to one of six groups. We showed all participants some general information about the electricity network, then those in each of the five intervention groups saw one of five messages about the benefits of building new network infrastructure. Those in the control group saw the general information only. Following this, participants completed a questionnaire that assessed the effect of messages with questions drawn and adapted from DESNZ’s Public Attitudes Tracker and Community Benefits social research.
The primary outcome measure was how acceptable respondents would find the building of new network infrastructure nationally. Secondary outcomes included mean acceptability for building new network infrastructure locally.
Overall acceptability for building new network infrastructure was high. Even in the control group, without any messaging, most respondents said development across Great Britain would be acceptable (77%). A smaller majority supported development in their local areas (61%).
Two messages (one explaining that onshore network investment could directly support 50,000 – 130,000 full-time jobs by 2050; the other highlighting the risk of extreme weather events and the need to upgrade the network to accommodate clean energy to reduce our contribution to climate change) resulted in modest increases in acceptability of development at a national level: 83% and 82% respectively. Other messages about energy security, network efficiency and community benefits showed no significant effect.
For participants living in urban areas, the message about jobs was also associated with the highest acceptability for development (75%) in their local area. However for those living in rural areas, the most effective message focussed on community benefits, describing how those who lived near to new network infrastructure would receive discounts on their electricity bills for 10 years, and that communities would also receive additional funding for their area (69% acceptable).
Those who saw the message about jobs were also most optimistic that there would be a benefit for the national economy, on local communities, and on jobs created nationally and in areas local to the new infrastructure. Taken with the results above, this suggests that messages emphasising jobs benefits are most likely to be effective at improving attitudes to building new infrastructure after a single exposure.