Availability and consumption of electricity in the Netherlands, 1995-2002

The demand for electricity continues to increase. The amount of electricity produced in the energy sector has risen considerably.

	1995	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002
	PJ
Production1)	2	3	3	4	4	4
Net imports	41	43	66	68	62	59
Production by the energy sector	224	256	242	249	260	265
Production by manufacturing industry	24	24	21	22	21	21
Total available	291	325	332	342	347	349
Consumption by manufacturing industry	129	138	140	141	141	143
Consumption by households	71	75	77	78	80	84
Consumption by the transport sector	5.3	5.9	6.0	6.0	5.7	5.6
Other consumption	89	111	114	122	126	124
Total consumption	294	329	337	347	353	357
Source: CBS.				CBS/EDC/Oct03/0020
1) Primary production through solar and wind energy.

Changes in the consumption of electricity

Demand for electricity continues to grow. The liberalisation of the electricity market in 1999 initially resulted in large imports of electricity. These fell in 2001 and 2002. The falls in imports and a reduction in electricity generation by industry pushed up electricity generation by the energy sector considerably.

Local electricity generation

In the Netherlands, most electricity is generated in electricity plants. It is also produced locally by industry, energy distribution companies, horticulture under glass and the health care sector, for instance in combined heat and power plants. Private energy supplies are usually generated in separate companies, particularly in industry. Companies of this kind will often be joint ventures between the energy distribution company and a large industrial concern and, as such, they are assigned to the Energy supply target sector. When there is no separate company for private energy supply, the company is allocated to a target sector on the basis of the main activity of the enterprise.

References

• CBS (2003). Statline. Elektriciteitsbalans. Statistics Netherlands, Voorburg/Heerlen.

Relevant sections and indicators in the Environmental Data Compendium

• Consumption in the Netherlands of energy carriers by target sector, 1990-2002
• Household energy consumption, 1990-2002*

Relevant information outside of the Environmental Data Compendium

• More information about the consumption of energy carriers can be found on Statline (Statistics Netherlands).