INTRODUCTION

This case study will apply the analysis developed in the previous chapters, to examine how investment decisions in infrastructures in the Dutch electricity and gas sectors have been affected by regime change thus far, and consider the likely impact of new exogenous factors on energy infrastructure development. The aim is to highlight the issues in one particular sector in which the process of regime change is relatively advanced.

Two sets of European directives were aimed at creating an internal market for electricity and gas within the European Union. Investments in infrastructures at the national level were not dealt with at all in these measures and in particular, the regulation of interconnectors between Member States or with third countries was left essentially to national policy and regulation. The latest package of proposals submitted by the EC Commission in September 2007 will, if finally adopted, expand the scope of European regulation considerably. Indeed the ambition is to secure the operation of the major electricity and gas networks as an integrated whole – as a true European gas and electricity grid network. Although ownership and financing of investments will remain a national matter, most other operational aspects will be coordinated at the European level through a combination of instruments. These include the creation of a new European Agency, the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (acer), which is comprised of representatives from the 27 national regulators in the EU. Moreover, the national tsos (Transmission System Operators) is necessary to coordinate their operations via two European-wide bodies.

Dutch energy market liberalisation essentially mirrors the experience of other Member States, but in some aspects it went further than the EU rules. Today, multiple national and foreign firms are involved in the production, transport, distribution and supply of energy to end users who, since 2004, have had the freedom of choice to select their own electricity and/or gas supplier. The divergent interests of these different actors have led to contested public values, which are pursued on multiple national, EU-wide and regional levels. Market integration and corporatisation have resulted in increased trade within and between the Member States, raising the pressure to further develop existing networks, crossborder interconnector capacity and other facilities.