Building a network
After the discovery of the Groningen gas field the Netherlands switched to natural gas for domestic and industrial use and as raw material. A transmission network and a distribution network to serve 12 million Dutch citizens, hundreds of Dutch industrial users and an infrastructure for natural gas exports were built in no time.
Energy crisis
Views changed during the 1970s. Instead of becoming the most favourable fuel of the future, nuclear power met with fierce public opposition in the Netherlands and other European countries. At the same time some European countries were confronted with boycotts by the oil producing countries.
Energy efficiency was the new flavour of the day and one that would stay and would boost sustainable development. Houses, office buildings, industrial processes and cars have become subject of scrutiny on their energy consumption. Gasunie invented the high energy efficiency gas-fired central heating boilers. Today this invention got a successor also developed in the Netherlands: the micro combined heat and power unit for domestic use.Adapting
Through the years new fields came on stream, with different gas qualities, whilst the majority of installations were designed for the use of Groningen quality gas. A second gas transmission infrastructure was built. This infrastructure was to transport high calorific gas to industrial users. At the same time, in order to save the Groningen field for demand in the future, high calorific gas was converted to Groningen quality gas in large gas conversion units.
Security
Since the gas infrastructure is part of the vital infrastructure in the Netherlands, the Dutch gas transmission network is one of the best and most efficiently protected of its kind.
Market developments
For centuries the Dutch are known for being traders and competition is close to their heart. No wonder that unbundling of vertically integrated companies, virtual trading hubs and third party access have penetrated deeply in the Dutch gas business.
Security of supply
To secure the gas from the Groningen gas field for future demand whilst securing the supply of gas to the consumers today, Russian gas supplies to the Netherlands started during the 1980s, soon followed by Norwegian supplies. To enable supplies from gas producers outside Europe Gate LNG terminal is built, the first Dutch LNG terminal. It is foreseen that larger volumes of LNG will enter the Dutch networks.
Over the years more and more forward storages facilities have been built in the Netherlands; first there was Gasunie’s LNG peak shaver as a direct available back-up volume for the Rotterdam Botlek/Europoort area, then came the seasonal gas storages in Langelo, Grijpskerk and Alkmaar. Soon the storage of Zuidwending will come into operation.Sustainability
Natural gas, the cleanest fossil fuel, is the enabler for sustainable developments. Fluctuations in green power generation, due to its weather dependency, are easily adapted by gas-fired power plants. The growth of green power generation, demands more flexibility of the back-up power generation facilities, hence gas transmission and distribution infrastructure are continuously modified and its capacity increased to accommodate current and future demand.
The developments in biogas have started on a small scale a long time ago when locally produced biogas was brought into the distribution networks. Today the Netherlands is also bringing biogas into the high-pressure transport and transmission grid. Further developments are bound to happen.Safety
As the Netherlands is densely populated, its society has put external safety high on the list of priorities. At the same time the industry cares for all those who are present on their facilities, hence internal safety also has a high priority for the industry. Development of methods for sophisticated risk assessment and efficient risk mitigation has made processing facilities for natural gas the safest in the industry at large.