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

Evolution of decentral cogeneration in the Netherlands 139
and facilitating expansion to fuel economic growth were complemented by a
focus on energy saving, resource diversification and environmental issues.
(2) The existing actor constellation and power relationships changed as
government aimed to increase central control of the system, a process of
reorganisation went underway in the production and distribution sector and
the SEP increased its influence at the expense of the distribution sector
(Vlijm, 2002: 74). (3) The unquestioned acceptance of the electricity system
as a natural monopoly ended as societal and industrial actor groups argued
that expanding room for private producers would increase overall efficiency
of the system. (4) The emergence of the gas turbine as a more flexible means
of production disrupted the logic of increasing scales of power plants.
Finally (5), mind-sets regarding the electricity system were altering as a shift
was set in motion from a single focus on electricity generation to a focus on
the combined provision of electricity and heat.
If we contemplate the various dimensions of sociotechnical configuration for
electricity supply and use, change processes in all dimensions can be
observed during the seventies although this did not yet materialise in a
significant uptake of decentral cogeneration. The nature of embeddedness of
the electricity system in society changed radically. Change processes were
set in motion through which basic assumptions were not taken for granted
anymore, basic rules were in the electricity system were re-negotiated and
modified, information and communication flows regarding alternative
practices were sharply increasing, new linkages were emerging involving
new technologies and actor groups, new R&D directions were introduced, an
more integral energy policy was initiated, and some structural changes were
initiated such as allowing and supporting cogeneration as part of industrial
policy separate from the electricity sector, and increasing heterogeneous
compositions of advice and steering groups regarding energy policy and
R&D. Table 5.2 summarises some of the main changes in the linkages of
different societal fields towards the electricity system. Three levels are
defined: the macro-level of modes of organisation and coordination in
different societal fields, the meso-level of formation of networks and specific
linkages and interactions; and the micro-level of changing routines and the
development of new practices. The table shows how a range of change
processes were set in motion, triggered by the combination of oil crises,
environmental concerns, and societal activism and organisation.