Utility Week

Community is not fully convinced by all this smart device malarkey. Why can't someone come up with a device to ensure he never runs out of Old Peculier in the comfort of his own home? That would be an invention he could truly get behind. The last straw And • nally, last Friday (22 March) was World Water Day and Disconnector, along with the rest of the team at Utility Week Towers, was inundated with emails on the subject, some more useful than others. Disconnector was particularly taken with the press release about one of the stars of the 2004 • lm Mean Girls, actor Daniel Franzese, who was urging people to stop using plastic straws in real life and in emojis (yes, emojis). You see, he was promoting the #TheFutureDoesntSuck campaign by drinks giant Bacardi and environmental group Lonely Whale, which pledges to remove a billion plastic straws from circulation by 2020. As part of the campaign, a "cease and de-sip" letter was sent to the Unicode Consortium, urging it to remove straws from the global list of emojis. See what they did there? Let's hope they can come up with some better puns for World Water Day 2020. Disconnector Publishing director, Utilities: Ellen Bennett, t: 01342 332084, e: ellenbennett@fav-house.com; Content director: Jane Gray, janegray@fav-house.com, t: 01342 333004; Acting editor: Suzanne Heneghan, t: 01342 332106, e: suzanneheneghan@fav-house.com Acting content director: Denise Chevin, 01342 332087, denisechevin@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 Offi ce. 2,500 Average circulation Jan–Dec 2018 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 William Marchant @richonlyinname There's been a mixed reaction on social media and in comments on news articles to the rebrand- ing of First Utility as Shell. Some approve. Others have given it a shellacking. Satoshi's Wok @TheOriginalWok @FirstUtility Aggghh! Shell Energy?! I had no idea Shell bought you. Thanks for rebranding so I know and I can leave your dirty oil!! Richard Howard @UKenergywonk Dermot Nolan at his charismatic best: "I will probably rant indis- criminately about heat for the rest of my tenure at @ofgem." Your Energy Your Way @Your_Energy_YW We are de‰ nitely seeing an increase in customers keen to move oŠ gas since the government announcements recently. Jonathan Graham @enerjg By the end of 2019, Smart Energy GB will have spent £200 million of consumer money to advertise smart meters back to them. That's £6 a household. I wonder how much more/less eŠ ective it would have been to just pay every household £6 to install a smart meter. Doug Parr @doug_parr Greenhouse gases from energy rose AGAIN last year by over 2™per cent, for the 2nd year in a row, driven by new #coal in Asia. Hard to argue we're not losing the battle here. Top Tweets about energy e' ciency. Scouts will be able to earn the "local knowledge" badge by learn- ing how to stay safe around substations and cables, and by promoting the priority services register. Disconnector approves and thinks this is a much better idea than the public information • lms of his youth, which highlighted the dangers of throwing frisbees near pylons. Those old adverts were pretty horri• c and guaranteed to make your hair stand on end, although it was the 1980s a– er all. If it was good enough for Joan Collins and the other ladies of Dynasty, then it was good enough for the rest of us. 'Alexa, how much is my bill?' Believe it or not, Disconnector is trying to move with the times, although with his dodgy knees it is more of a crawl than a run. Still, kudos to Octopus Energy for teaming up with Amazon Alexa, which Discon- nector is reliably informed is what the cool kids use nowadays to play long-playing gramo- phone records and watch light entertainment programmes… or something like that. Octopus customers will now be able to ask Alexa questions such as when their electricity is cheapest or most expensive. Impressive. But Disconnector Collusion confusion Regular readers will know that Disconnector takes a great interest in all things related to the shy, retiring wallŸ ower that is the "comb-over in chief ", Donald Trump. So it would be remiss of Disconnector not to mention the publication this week of the eagerly awaited report by special counsel Robert Mueller. The US president was in typically ebullient mood a– er publication, saying it vindi- cated him over claims that he colluded with Russia, while opposition politicians said it was not particularly conclusive about whether Trump had obstructed justice or not. Such complete and utter confusion is de rigueur in mod- ern politics, although Discon- nector hopes that Mueller can at last get back to making more of his delicious rice puddings. Free samples can be sent to the usual address. All donations will be treated in the strict- est of con• dence, much like the investigation into Russian tampering. Dyb, dyb, dyb As a former cub himself, Disconnector was heartened to see that UK Power Networks is behind a new scouting badge to help young people learn UTILITY WEEK | 29TH MARCH - 4TH APRIL 2019 | 31

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