RT Conference Proceedings T1 Gas companies in the electricity sector in Spain and France, between late 19th Century and early 20th Century A1 Fernández-Paradas, Mercedes A1 Larrinaga Rodríguez, Carlos A1 Pinto Tortosa, Antonio Jesús K1 Compañias de gas K1 Energía eléctrica -- distribución -- España -- Historia K1 Energía eléctrica -- distribución -- Francia -- Historia AB Since late-19th Century, gas companies faced the competition of electricity produced at an industrial scale. It was then necessary to think of different strategies. State governments and municipal administrations were against monopolistic property by gas companies. The latter started lawsuits to avoid the entrance of electricity companies into the energy market. They started technological innovations to improve the quality of the gas produced and to low its cost down. Moreover, advertising campaigns were designed in order to attract new clients and increase gas consume, above all in lighting. At the same time, they carried out a company concentration process, and most of them decided to participate in the electricity sector, too. That is, they tried to stop new electric companies from entering the energy market by devoting themselves to electricity production, a strategy that deserves all the attention of the historiography about the gas industry. In this paper, we aim at studying the issue for the first time in Spain and France, since the 1890s till the 1920s. YR 2022 FD 2022 LK https://hdl.handle.net/10630/25265 UL https://hdl.handle.net/10630/25265 LA eng NO II Plan Propio de Investigación, Transferencia y Divulgación Científica de la Universidad de Málaga, Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech DS RIUMA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Málaga RD 20 ene 2026