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

210 Chapter 8
gain stability as a certain ‘institutional logics’, defined as a set of socially
constructed assumptions, values, and beliefs, becomes prevalent. In the early
electricity system the central station model and its ‘growth dynamics’
provided momentum internally and legitimacy externally. Growing
electricity consumption became equated to progress, the grid became taken
for granted in order to realise availability (initially), reliability (later on) and
allocative efficiency (currently), and production became equated to ever
larger power stations. This set-up of the system was the starting point for the
analysis of a range of alternative practices and paths that were developed in
the past decades.
8.2 Evaluation of alternative paths in the electricity
system
In chapter four the emergence – over the past decades – of a set of
alternative practices was evaluated. This was done against the backdrop of
the existing sociotechnical system for electricity and its established modes of
production, coordination, and provision. A first aspect under evaluation was
the extent to what the emerging practice diverged from these established
modes. Table 8.1 provides an overview and illustrates how the two paths that
diverged least from the existing institutional arrangements were most
successful as they did not require alteration of the existing design of the
system and its underlying principles (see 4.2: 75). Nevertheless, factors
explaining their success significantly differ, as hybridisation of gas and
steam turbines was driven by international developments in and experiences
with gas turbines, while the shift from coal to gas was driven by the
formation of a national institutional framework for natural gas exploitation
and application. In fact, the discovery of the huge gas fields in the North of
the Netherlands and the institutional framework for its exploitation changed
the whole setting of the Dutch economic system and society, triggering not
only a changeover to natural gas for power production, heating systems, and
cooking, but also a shift towards energy-intensive sectors such as chemicals
and horticulture. The case also illustrates a more fundamental aspect of
electricity supply in the Netherlands: government impact on the nature of
resource use in the electricity sector has been consistently high since the
institutional framework for gas emerged. National gas policy directly
influenced the power sector’s resources shift to gas, from gas to oil and back
to coal after the oil crises, and again to gas as part of the industrial policy for
cogeneration.
The shift to gas facilitated the introduction of the gas turbine, which was first
installed in industries and later in the electricity sector. Hybridisation of gas