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

Stability and transformation in the electricity system 85
Institutional setting
The Dutch electricity industry consisted of a varied collection of
predominantly regional operating companies, with integrated production and
distribution companies and distribution companies, all with municipal or
provincial shareholders. Provincial and municipal shareholders to a large
extent determined policy of the electricity industry, with a primary focus on
social and political goals, the public task of the industry. In electricity
production security of supply and reliability were dominant factors. The
companies also had an important role in regional employment. The national
government held limited influence and control on electricity supply, but had
taken initiatives in the early sixties to strengthen its control of the electricity
system. This intention was also a consequence of the natural gas discovery in
the North of the Netherlands, and the centralised institutional organisation
set up for gas supply served as an example for the electricity industry which
was foremost locally and regionally organised. Also the intention to develop
a national nuclear industry motivated the government initiative to reorganise
the Dutch electricity system in order to create the organisational conditions
for the application of nuclear technology. The process of reorganisation
initiated in the beginning of the sixties would last around 30 years because of
discord between government and the electricity industry. Especially the
electricity producers have resisted government demands for increased
centralisation and co-operation in production because it would reduce their
autonomy. Moreover, at the beginning of the seventies, the Netherlands was
on the verge of two oil crises that would overshadow reorganisation in the
electricity system. Until then economic developments had mainly facilitated
further expansion of the electricity sector, and a closed social network of
regime actors emerged which were mainly involved in optimisation of largescale
electricity generation and transmission. The oil crises of the seventies
put first dents in the stable sociotechnical configuration and in the
streamlined parallel developments along dimensions of the regime. It
especially challenged the growth paradigm that had been a cornerstone of
developments in the electricity regime as the notion of energy saving gained
significance. A second important development was the emergence of the gas
turbine as a niche that in the course of decades changed the face of the
electricity regime.