Social acceptance of cross border grid integration in Hong Kong

Abstract

Electricity generation contributes to 26% of greenhouse gases emissions globally and 66% of that in Hong Kong. Electricity policy is a major area where governments can work on in order to combat climate change. Regional horizontal grid integration is very common in the US and Europe in connecting areas into a network to improve the overall energy efficiency. It allows areas with energy deficit to import electricity from those with surplus. By this mean, renewable energy could also be transferred to thousands miles away from the sources. Competition could also be introduced by connecting different power companies to share the same grid and market. Regional horizontal grid integration has been seen as the fundamental step for electricity market reform. The Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) proposed to either integrate the electricity grid horizontal and cross the border with China Southern Power Grid (CSG), or increase the proportion of natural gas in fuel mix as the first step of reform. The plan has created a great debate in the society.

While social acceptance is one of the prerequisites of a successful implementation of pro-environmental energy policy and technology, the public attitude towards cross border grid integration in Hong Kong diverts. The level of social acceptance depends on various psychometric and demographic influencing factors. Thus, it is essential to examine the level of social acceptance and its determinants for cross border grid integration in Hong Kong.

In this study, a conceptual framework for social acceptance was proposed based on literature reviews. Face-to-ace interviews with 100 respondents were conducted in early 2015 to validate the conceptual framework. Respondents were asked about their Perceived Risks, Perceived Benefits, Environmental Concerns, Subjective Knowledge on energy and environment, Trust in Authorities, Acceptance on grid integration and Willingness-to-pay for electricity autonomy. The result showed that Perceived Risks, Perceived Benefits and Trust in Authorities were directly related to the acceptance, while Trust in Authorities, and Subjective Knowledge on energy and environment were indirectly related to the acceptance. The acceptance as an intention of behavior leads to willingness-to-pay as a planned behavior. There were demographic differences on psychometric factors, the Acceptance and Willingness-to-pay.

It is suggested that the conceptual framework for social acceptance could be applied on campaigns’ and programs’ formulation which target on boosting social acceptance and willingness-to-pay for certain pro-environmental energy policy. The result also showed that trust in authorities is the major determinant of acceptance. Thus, it is recommended that the government could focus more on building its reputation than education.