Linking the value of energy reliability to the acceptance of energy infrastructure: Evidence from the EU

• Electricity reliability and the acceptability of new power infrastructure in the EU.
• Five-equation Recursive Binary Choice model with heteroskedasticity.
• We find strong country-level heterogeneity.

Existing studies on the acceptability of energy-related infrastructure have centered around how to overcome the Not-In-My-Backyard phenomenon amongst local stakeholders, focusing primarily on drivers such as community participation and direct economic benefits to impacted areas. To date, none of these contributions have related the acceptability question to the value of power reliability to the same stakeholders. We fill this gap by combining an analysis of outage vulnerability with an examination of infrastructure acceptability using a unique data set from 15 EU countries with household-level information on both aspects of power provision. We find only limited evidence of a positive relationship between local residents’ sensitivity to outages and their acceptability of new energy infrastructure projects. This stresses the importance of creating awareness amongst stakeholders on how planned infrastructure expansions relate to energy security for their own household.