Migration: The Gateway to Company-Wide GIS for REMU

About 10 years ago, the government introduced the first major changes to the Dutch energy system. From now on, production (and the main grid) would be separated from transportation and distribution. The resulting pressure on the horizontally integrated distribution companies forced an industry fallout that created four (4) production companies where there once were 12, and about 30 distribution companies.

Statistically, the Netherlands as a market looks like this:

200 by 300 km(130 by 200 miles)
15 million inhabitants
average electric load is 4,000 kWh
maximum load is 11.500 MW
delivered 80 billion kWh
main energy source for residential and commercial uses is natural gas

For the last few years there has been strong social pressure to increase competition within the utility industry. This worldwide movement is designed to liberalize operation of utility companies, constrain prices utilizing a demand-driven market, and put the focus on the customer. A time schedule for deregulation exists in Europe for the introduction of increased competition.Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Denmark) and Great Britain are leading the way. Because the geographical separation of these areas is one of technicality rather than physicality, the cross-border effects of deregulation has been rather limited. The Dutch government’s entry into the deregulated market will create new tensions on the competitive environment.

Two actions result from this. First, the activities of the distribution company (core business electricity, gas, district heating) and the commercial activities (street lighting, telecommunication, HVAC, etc) must be separated into different companies. Second, the network (WIRECO) and electricity sales (ENCO) must be separated into different companies. In REMU’s case, the company will be split-up into at least three (3) new entities with their own Boards of Directors and, most likely, different shareholders.