The continuing story of CHP in the Netherlands

The development of combined heat and power generation (CHP) in the period 1988-1993 is described, together with the prospects until the end of the century. The CHP capacity in the Netherlands has already shown a considerable increase in the period 1978-1988, covering about 19% of total electricity consumption. This capacity was mainly connected to industrial steam generation and was privately owned. In the period 1988-1993 the application of CHP steadily grew and spread to other sectors than industry. More important, the Dutch energy companies, as part of plans to reduce the environmental effects of energy supply, developed activities to expand strongly the application of CHP up to the year 2000. The realisation of these plans is underway, and current developments make it likely that by the year 2000 about 50% of electricity consumption in the Netherlands is covered by CHP plants.