Innovation and institutional change: the transition to a sustainable ...

136 Chapter 5
and was triggered by changes in the networks of decision making for energy
policy. One element of network change was the much stronger
representation of self-producing industries in electricity affairs, such as
through the industrial association 11 for power generation and cogeneration,
Vereniging Krachtwerktuigen (VKW) and the cooperation between large
industrial users of gas and electricity (SIGE) (Buiter and Hesselmans, 1999).
A second element was the more pronounced role of civil society, and the
environmental movement in particular, in shaping the electricity system.
Representatives from the environmental movement took place in energy
policy committees, such as the general energy council and the national
steering group for energy research. Also important was the role of the
‘Rethink Energy Policy Group’ that was initiated in 1974 and already had
informal meetings with government prior to the First White Paper on
Energy 12 . This group opted for postponing the decision in favour of nuclear
power plants and opted for more careful consideration of alternatives, among
others by building competences for and knowledge about those alternatives.
In combination with the more antagonistic approaches of the anti-nuclear
energy movement that had gained strength within civil society in the course
of the seventies this opened up discussion over alternative routes in the
electricity system and culminated in a broad societal discussion on nuclear
energy at the beginning of the eighties. An alternative scenario 13 in response
to the proposed construction of three nuclear power plants by government
and the electricity sector became part of the discussion. Instead of focussing
on large scale, centralised power plants such as with nuclear and coal power,
the focus was particularly on energy saving, cogeneration and renewable
energy development within a much more decentralised energy system
(Potma, 1979; Dammers, 2000). A third element was the role of industry,
where increasingly attention was asked for the relative high electricity prices
11 A specific steering group for cogeneration was set up within VKW in 1980. Members of
the board were representatives of Philips, CSM, Papierfabriek de Hoop, Bos BV, Smilde
Holding BV, Unilever, Shell Refinery Pernis, and Heineken. Membership increased from
80 members in 1982 to 100 in 1984 (Buiter and Hesselmans, 1999: 132).
12 This ‘Bezinningsgroep Energiebeleid’ was initiated by Tuininga, who worked at TNO at
that moment and been one of the translators of the Report of the Club of Rome, and was
asked by his fellow party member Trip, at that moment Minister of Science Policy, to
organise the science community for a rethinking of energy policy. Members of the rethink
energy policy group (Tuininga, Daey Ouwens, Turkenburg, Eisma, Riedijk) had an
informal meeting with Ministers Lubbers (Economic Affairs) and Trip in july 1974 prior
to the publication of the first White Paper on Energy (Verbong et al 2001: 65; and personal
communication with Prof. E-J. Tuininga, June 2005).
13 This alternative scenario was developed by ir. Th. Potma, who was member of the
‘Rethink Energy Policy Group’ and had founded the Center for Energy Saving in 1978.
Previously he worked at the Ministry of Health and Environment (Verbong et al., 2001:
80).