[en] The energy supply in Spain is dominated by oil, coal and nuclear energy. However, natural gas is sweeping the market. In 1995, gas consumption rose as much as 15%. By the year 2000 12% of the energy demand in Spain will be met by natural gas, and a stunning 25% by the year 2006. There is hardly any interest in a deregulated market. Top priority is given to the development of the home market, requiring expansion of the infrastructure and supply capacity

[en] The Dutch energy sector will have to deal with competition from the energy sectors in other European countries, due to liberalization of the European market. In a series of articles on the energy sector abroad, the developments and situation in other European countries than the Netherlands will be outlined. In this third part attention will be paid to the situation in Germany where about 30 gas transportation companies are and hundreds of regional distribution companies and more than 500 local so-called 'Stadtwerke'. With respect to the gas transportation companies Germany is the most liberalized energy sector in Europe. However, the regional and local gas businesses are very persistent in maintaining their concessions

[en] The natural gas industry in the Czech Republic is one of the oldest in Europe. In the past, natural gas has played a modest role in the Czech energy supply: coal and town gas from coal and lignite were the major energy sources. However, more and more use is made of natural gas, imported from Russia (Gazprom) and Norway. Besides, the Czech natural gas distribution, transportation and storage system occupies a key position in the Central-European natural gas network

[en] In a series of articles, a close look is taken at some foreign newcomers on the Dutch energy market. The eighth article features the largest power generating company in Norway: Statkraft

[en] In four articles a first overview is given of the consequences for the Dutch natural gas industry of the liberalization of the natural gas market in Europe. In the first article attention is paid to the consequences for the organization and operation of the natural gas sector. In article 2 some (new and mainly financial) services that can be offered by natural gas trading companies in a liberalized market are discussed. In the third article technical consequences for the organization and management of the natural gas distribution system are outlined, while in article 4 the subject is the development of an open standard for gas meters

[en] Based on financial data, published in the 1999 annual report, a brief overview is given of the consequences of the liberalization of the market for natural gas in Europe for the Dutch natural gas trading company Gasunie

[en] Automation offers great opportunities in the efforts of energy utilities in the Netherlands to reorganize towards more customer-oriented businesses. However, automation in itself is not enough. First, the organizational structure has to be changed considerably. Various energy utilities have already started on it. The restructuring principle is the same everywhere, but the way it is implemented differs widely. In this article attention is paid to different customer information systems. These systems can put an end to the so-called island culture within the energy utility organizations. The systems discussed are IRD of Systema and RIVA of SAP (both German software businesses), and two Dutch systems: Numis-2000 of Multihouse and KIS/400 of NUON Info-Systemen

[en] At the moment the use telemetering, i.e. remote recording of natural gas, water and electricity consumption at small-scaled consumers, is more expensive than the use of human meter readers. There are, however, some advantages to this modern technique, allowing the meters to be read far more frequently than once a year at virtually the same cost, such as steering of energy consumption and alarm functions. It is expected that telemetering systems for small-scaled consumers will not be applied widely before the year 2000. 2 figs., 12 ills

[en] The position of natural gas vehicles (NGV) is improving. Although there are no real breakthroughs yet, recently there have been some promising developments, in particular with regard to light-duty vehicles. More important, however, is the growing awareness of the automobile industry of the use of natural gas as an automotive fuel to improve the urban air quality. Apart from the production of dedicated NGV there is room for improvement in the field of conversion, and the major technological and financial obstacles

[en] In 1994 the total gas consumption of Dutch households increased slightly. This is mainly due to an increase in the number of occupied homes by about 75,000, an advancing penetration of gas-fired tap water heaters and a marginal increase in gas consumption for space heating. Another striking feature is the stabilisation of gas consumption of an average household for hot water purposes, since it decreased in 1992 and 1993 by 3% and 4,5% respectively. The so-called Dutch BAK (basic survey of the small-scale gas consumption) study also shows that the penetration of gas appliances with higher outputs and changing water tapping behaviour, the major reasons for consumption increases in the previous years, have changed only moderately. Gas consumption for cooking purposes remained almost stable, though. 7 tabs., 1 ill