Community Involvement

Relationships are based on trust and dialogue

We demonstrate mutual respect and empathy to find the best solutions for society and the environment in areas affected by our infrastructure projects. We are convinced that early involvement of stakeholders is vital for the success of the energy transition and of the important projects needed to make it happen. Already in the early concept stage, we are working closely with stakeholders such as local communities, associations, NGOs and various government organisations. We have set up several initiatives with governors and mayors whose intervention are valuable when it comes to bring all interested parties together.

Public acceptance methodology

We developed an integrated communication and public acceptance methodology, integrating stakeholder and communication actions in a systematic way in the grid development and engineering process in order not only to control the risk of stranded costs but also to be able to realize the best project taking into account the interests of society. During the project life-cycle, Elia makes its decisions relying on project maturity assessment based upon stakeholders’ opinions. Collaboration with stakeholders is fully integrated throughout the project, clear acceptance level being expected at each project gate. We furthermore developed a public reference framework to mitigate the impact of new infrastructure projects and to compensate for the remaining impact.

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