IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v202y2025ics0301421525000813.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Public perception and VSC-HVDC power transmission adoption: Experiences and lessons learned from past cases

Author

Listed:
  • Kim, Dohyoung
  • Sun, Hwi-il
  • Kim, Hongbum

Abstract

Voltage source converter high voltage direct current (VSC-HVDC) technology is viewed as a transformative solution for power transmission, particularly connecting remote renewable energy sources to urban areas. However, public opposition has historically challenged the adoption of power transmission projects. This study employs Boudet's technology-people-place-process framework to examine the public perception of two projects: Ten West Link (United States) and SuedOstLink (Germany). Through extensive document analysis and insights from selected technical experts, the research reveals the importance of early stakeholder involvement and comprehensive information sharing about projects' impact. The study then applies these findings to highlight how experiences from previous projects can guide future implementation in addressing public perception challenges. A reflection on South Korea's planned West Sea (Yellow Sea) HVDC project demonstrates the framework's applicability to future initiatives aimed at boosting renewable energy penetration. Key findings emphasize that successful VSC-HVDC project implementation depends on ensuring technology stability, fostering extensive stakeholder participation, engaging in early and transparent public communication, and responding effectively to community needs. The research concludes that future projects should prioritize stakeholder involvement to address public concerns and ensure community participation in decision-making, thereby facilitating the effective adoption of VSC-HVDC technology to develop sustainable energy infrastructure.

Suggested Citation

  • Kim, Dohyoung & Sun, Hwi-il & Kim, Hongbum, 2025. "Public perception and VSC-HVDC power transmission adoption: Experiences and lessons learned from past cases," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 202(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:202:y:2025:i:c:s0301421525000813
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114574
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421525000813
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114574?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kim, Hyunggeun & Park, Sangkyu & Lee, Jongsu, 2021. "Is renewable energy acceptable with power grid expansion? A quantitative study of South Korea's renewable energy acceptance," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    2. Jaqueline Cabañas Ramos & Marc Moritz & Nico Klötzl & Ceciel Nieuwenhout & William Leon Garcia & Ilka Jahn & Dimitar Kolichev & Antonello Monti, 2024. "Getting Ready for Multi-Vendor and Multi-Terminal HVDC Technology," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-28, May.
    3. Hilary S. Boudet, 2019. "Public perceptions of and responses to new energy technologies," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 4(6), pages 446-455, June.
    4. Rachael M. Moyer & Geoboo Song, 2019. "Cultural predispositions, specific affective feelings, and benefit–risk perceptions: explicating local policy elites’ perceived utility of high voltage power line installations," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(4), pages 416-431, April.
    5. Carol Hager & Nicole Hamagami, 2020. "Local Renewable Energy Initiatives in Germany and Japan in a Changing National Policy Environment," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 37(3), pages 386-411, May.
    6. Sharpton, Tara & Lawrence, Thomas & Hall, Margeret, 2020. "Drivers and barriers to public acceptance of future energy sources and grid expansion in the United States," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    7. Ernst, Anna & Shamon, Hawal, 2020. "Public participation in the German energy transformation: Examining empirically relevant factors of participation decisions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    8. Ponce, Pedro & Polasko, Kenneth & Molina, Arturo, 2016. "End user perceptions toward smart grid technology: Acceptance, adoption, risks, and trust," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 587-598.
    9. Joram Schito & Joshu Jullier & Martin Raubal, 2019. "A framework for integrating stakeholder preferences when deciding on power transmission line corridors," EURO Journal on Decision Processes, Springer;EURO - The Association of European Operational Research Societies, vol. 7(3), pages 159-195, November.
    10. Lienert, Pascal & Suetterlin, Bernadette & Siegrist, Michael, 2015. "Public acceptance of the expansion and modification of high-voltage power lines in the context of the energy transition," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 573-583.
    11. Alassi, Abdulrahman & Bañales, Santiago & Ellabban, Omar & Adam, Grain & MacIver, Callum, 2019. "HVDC Transmission: Technology Review, Market Trends and Future Outlook," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 530-554.
    12. Sahebkar Farkhani, Jalal & Çelik, Özgür & Ma, Kaiqi & Bak, Claus Leth & Chen, Zhe, 2024. "A comprehensive review of potential protection methods for VSC multi-terminal HVDC systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    13. Matthew Cotton & Patrick Devine-Wright, 2013. "Putting pylons into place: a UK case study of public perspectives on the impacts of high voltage overhead transmission lines," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(8), pages 1225-1245, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. L. Alfredo Fernandez-Jimenez & Montserrat Mendoza-Villena & Eduardo Garcia-Garrido & Pedro M. Lara-Santillan & Pedro J. Zorzano-Santamaria & Enrique Zorzano-Alba & Alberto Falces, 2017. "High Voltage Overhead Power Line Routing under an Objective Observability Criterion," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-13, October.
    2. Fink, Simon & Ruffing, Eva, 2020. "Learning in iterated consultation procedures – The example of the German electricity grid demand planning," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    3. Moon, Sungho & Kim, Youngwoo & Kim, Minsang & Lee, Jongsu, 2023. "Policy designs to increase public and local acceptance for energy transition in South Korea," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    4. Łukasz Jarosław Kozar & Robert Matusiak & Marta Paduszyńska & Adam Sulich, 2022. "Green Jobs in the EU Renewable Energy Sector: Quantile Regression Approach," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-21, September.
    5. Eid Gul & Giorgio Baldinelli & Pietro Bartocci, 2022. "Energy Transition: Renewable Energy-Based Combined Heat and Power Optimization Model for Distributed Communities," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-18, September.
    6. Jing-Li Fan & Zezheng Li & Xi Huang & Kai Li & Xian Zhang & Xi Lu & Jianzhong Wu & Klaus Hubacek & Bo Shen, 2023. "A net-zero emissions strategy for China’s power sector using carbon-capture utilization and storage," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-16, December.
    7. Hafize Nurgul Durmus Senyapar & Ramazan Bayindir, 2023. "The Research Agenda on Smart Grids: Foresights for Social Acceptance," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-31, September.
    8. Indre Siksnelyte-Butkiene & Dalia Streimikiene & Giulio Paolo Agnusdei & Tomas Balezentis, 2023. "Energy-space concept for the transition to a low-carbon energy society," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(12), pages 14953-14973, December.
    9. Radtke, Jörg, 2025. "E-participation in energy transitions: What does it mean? Chances and challenges within Germany's Energiewende," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    10. Jaesik Kang, 2022. "Comprehensive Analysis of Transient Overvoltage Phenomena for Metal-Oxide Varistor Surge Arrester in LCC-HVDC Transmission System with Special Protection Scheme," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-17, September.
    11. Arcia-Garibaldi, Guadalupe & Cruz-Romero, Pedro & Gómez-Expósito, Antonio, 2018. "Future power transmission: Visions, technologies and challenges," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 285-301.
    12. Sahebkar Farkhani, Jalal & Çelik, Özgür & Ma, Kaiqi & Bak, Claus Leth & Chen, Zhe, 2024. "A comprehensive review of potential protection methods for VSC multi-terminal HVDC systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    13. Yingying Jiang & Xiaolin Chen & Sui Peng & Xiao Du & Dan Xu & Junjie Tang & Wenyuan Li, 2019. "Study on Emergency Load Shedding of Hybrid AC/DC Receiving-End Power Grid with Stochastic, Static Characteristics-Dependent Load Model," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-20, October.
    14. Bo, Yimin & Bao, Minglei & Ding, Yi & Hu, Yishuang, 2024. "A DNN-based reliability evaluation method for multi-state series-parallel systems considering semi-Markov process," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).
    15. Wang He & Min Liu & Chaowen Zuo & Kai Wang, 2023. "Massive Multi-Source Joint Outbound and Benefit Distribution Model Based on Cooperative Game," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-19, September.
    16. Petra Mesarić & Damira Đukec & Slavko Krajcar, 2017. "Exploring the Potential of Energy Consumers in Smart Grid Using Focus Group Methodology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-17, August.
    17. Nansheng Pang & Wenjing Guo, 2019. "Uncertain Hybrid Multiple Attribute Group Decision of Offshore Wind Power Transmission Mode Based on theVIKOR Method," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-21, November.
    18. Galvin, Ray, 2018. "‘Them and us’: Regional-national power-plays in the German energy transformation: A case study in Lower Franconia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 269-277.
    19. Meng, Yongqing & Yan, Shuhao & Wu, Kang & Ning, Lianhui & Li, Xuan & Wang, Xiuli & Wang, Xifan, 2021. "Comparative economic analysis of low frequency AC transmission system for the integration of large offshore wind farms," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 1955-1968.
    20. Olivier JOALLAND & Tina RAMBONILAZA, 2017. "Assessing the impact of renewable energy infrastructure on the “tourist value” in rural landscapes: a spatial hedonic approach," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2017-10, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:202:y:2025:i:c:s0301421525000813. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.