Utility Week

Community Storm in a teacup Aer nearly two years of hys- teria whipped up by the fake mainstream media, Theresa May was at last able to silence her critics and announce that she'd managed to come to a fair accommodation with the European Union that ensured the UK's smooth exit from the tyrannical trading bloc. So that's Brexit sorted, then. Which is great relief. Discon- nector cannot speak for every citizen in the land, but this whole Brexit business was get- ting to be quite tiresome and the great man is glad that Mrs May was able to silence all the naysayers and produce the best possible deal for Britain. Now we can get on and sort out the future trading relationship, and this at least should be able to pass without endless doom-mongering from liberal remoaners. Aer all, as the great Dr Liam Fox has declared, the deal will be the "easiest in human history". In fact it will probably all be tied up by the time this column goes to press. Let them burn wine Okay, austerity may be officially over, but Disconnector thinks Prince Charles's efforts to pre- sent a more human face in the run-up to being king haven't really been helped by the news that he has converted his Aston Martin to run on white wine. Of course, when Disconnec- tor says "he", he doesn't mean the Prince personally, rather the Aston Martin engineers who did so at the behest of His Royal Highness, who wanted a more environmentally sound fuel than petrol for his favourite car. And by "white wine", we in fact mean bioethanol, which can be derived from a number of things, including white wine. And that, of course, was enough for the press, who are not ones to let the bioethanol get in the way of a good story. But it rather reminds the great man (Disconnector, not Prince Charles) of another unfortunate royal who never actually said "let them eat cake" but was taken by the mob regardless. They had already made up their minds that they didn't like her, mainly because her Austrian roots made her a foreigner in a country wracked by an ugly resurgent nationalism. Best keep your head down, your Highness. Loo-py Germans The other big event of the week was, of course, World Toilet Day (19 November), which is not as ridiculous as it sounds. The purpose of World Toilet Day is to focus minds on the fact that large swathes of humanity do not have access to basic sanitary facilities, with all the attendant health risks and human misery that goes with it. Of course, not everyone treats toilets with the respect they deserve, such as the two German men who were con- victed by a Dusseldorf district court of stealing more than 100 portable toilets. The dpa news agency reported that a 40-year-old man was given a 10-month suspended sentence and his 28-year-old ex-colleague six months. Both men worked for a waste disposal company and over the course of several months carted the toilets off the premises. They sold them to a bloke in the Netherlands. As anyone who has ever watched a heist movie will tell you, the hardest part of any robbery is fencing the stuff aerwards, so how on earth did this pair find a buyer? On what part of the dark web do you find someone looking to buy stolen toilets? Disconnector Publishing director, Utilities: Ellen Bennett, t: 01342 332084, e: ellenbennett@fav-house.com; Acting editor: Suzanne Heneghan, t: 01342 332106, e: suzanneheneghan@fav-house.com Acting content director: Denise Chevin, 01342 332087, denisechevin@fav-house.com; Deputy editor: Jane Gray (maternity leave); Features editor: Lois Vallely, t: 01342 332080, e: loisvallely@fav-house.com; News editor: Katey Pigden, t: 01342 332082, e: kateypigden@ fav-house.com; Energy correspondent: Tom Grimwood, t: 01342 332061, e: tomgrimwood@ fav-house.com; Policy correspondent: David Blackman, e: davidblackman@fav-house.com; Reporter: Adam John, t: 01342 332069, e: adamjohn@fav-house.com; Production editor: Paul Newton, t: 01342 332085, e: paulnewton@fav-house.com; Business development manager: Ben Hammond, e: benhammond@fav-house.com. t: 01342 332116; Business development executive: Sarah Wood, e: sarahwood@ fav-house.com. t: 01342 332117 Conference sponsorship manager: Sophie Abbott, t: 01342 332062, e: sophieabbott@ fav-house.com; General enquiries: 01342 332000; Membership enquiries: Peter Bissell, t: 01342 332057, e: peterbissell@fav-house.com. ISSN: 1356-5532. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office. 2,500 Average circulation Jan–Dec 2017 Membership subscriptions: UK £769+VAT per year. Overseas £781 per year. Contact Peter Bissell on: 01342 332057 Utility Week is a member of the Independent Press Standards Organisation (which regulates the UK's magazine and newspaper industry). We abide by the Editors' Code of Practice and are committed to upholding the highest standards of journalism. If you think that we have not met those standards and want to make a complaint please contact the publishing director, Ellen Bennett, at ellenbennett@fav-house.com. If we are unable to resolve your complaint, or if you would like more information about IPSO or the Editors' Code, contact IPSO on 0300 123 2220 or visit www.ipso.co.uk UTILITY WEEK | 23RD - 29TH NOVEMBER 2018 | 31 William Marchant @richonlyinname You get perverse incentives where a supplier might face SoLR. Consumers are best served by a trade sale. But other suppliers willingness to bid may not be helped by knowledge the customers will be given away, & likely with a credit balance dowry, if they wait for it to fail. Jacopo Torriti @JTorriti The capacity market is dead. Long live flexibility! Amy Mount @ASmallAMount Aaaand exhale. This is good news. Gove has brought admirable environmental leadership to Defra. Switching Secretary of State at this stage would have been quite a challenge to Defra's vital work on leaving our environment in a better state & preparing for all Brexit outcomes. Matt Rooney @mattrooney11 People, with some justification, object to the IEA using primary energy as a metric because it inflates fossil fuels as part of the mix. Using capacity additions is even worse, though, unless adjusting for load factors. Both are misleading. Jan Rosenow @janrosenow New report by Sam Thomas for @Energy4Europe shows that energy savings in Europe are stalling and asks why. Solutions include better policy design, sound EM&V and proper enforcement. Stephen Hall @DocSteveHall If my audible and amazon recommendations are anything to go by, AI has a long way to go before 'the matrix' is a realistic threat. Jonathan Graham @enerjg After UK submitted state aid for capacity market, new state aid rules were published in 2014, including to "give preference to low-carbon generators in case of equivalent technical and economic parameters" Will state aid resubmission need to meet old or new rules? Top Tweets

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