Utility Week

Utility Week 24th May 2019

Utility Week - authoritative, impartial and essential reading for senior people within utilities, regulators and government

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Community engaged in a high-stakes game of chicken with Iran, tweeting that any con ict between the two countries would mean "the o cial end" of Iran. On the other hand, all that rocketman stu with North Korean wrong'un Kim Jong-un had its detractors too, and that turned out okay in the end. Relax, dear reader, this is a man who knows what he's doing – as he's assured us all many times. Consider it a done deal, as it were. Every good turn… When Polish cardinal Konrad Krajewski, an aide to Pope Francis, learnt of the plight of up to 450 homeless people who had taken refuge in a vacant building on Rome's Via di Santa Croce but were without heat and electricity, he climbed down a manhole and turned the building's power back on. "I intervened personally to turn the meter back on," the cardinal said. "It was a gesture of desperation. There were over 400 people without electricity – families and children." He may have done what any good Christian would do, but that has cut little ice with the local power company, which is holding him liable for the outstanding £260,000 owed by the building because he broke a police seal to get to the meter. 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 Intelligence editor: 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; Editorial assistant: Greg Jones, t: 01342 332102, e: gregjones@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. 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 (IPSO), the regulator of 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 we have not met those standards and want to make a complaint, please contact the Editor. If we are unable to resolve your complaint, or if you want more information about IPSO or the Editors' Code, contact IPSO on 0300 123 2220 or visit www.ipso.co.uk. Good Energy @GoodEnergy Consumers are facing an increase from 5% to 20% VAT in the cost of installing their own low-carbon energy and storage. Could there be a more contradictory step from a government which has declared a #climateemergency? Josh Willison @Joshua_Willison Clarity helpful for next UK o… shore wind auction round as @EU_Competition decides to not†raise an objection to the overall capacity cap (6GW this time around). Rebecca Long-Bailey @RLong_Bailey When Labour passed a climate emergency two weeks ago, people asked what this meant for policy. Well here's a start: 1. Mass deploy- ment of solar power, cutting bills and emissions. 2. A public grid to roll out renewable energy, run in your interests. Sarah Merrick @SpeakSarahSpeak I really don't understand Labour's proposal to renationalise National Grid. Who does it beneš t and how? Just a huge distraction to the urgent task of decarbonising the grid. Mark W Tebbutt @mwt2008 Can see your point. However, the gas national grid owners are pushing for hydrogen domestic heating instead of heat pumps because they don't want to be lež with an expensive stranded asset (gas grid) and go out of business. Despite probably not being in the country's best interest. Top Tweets any self-serving, loud-mouthed hotheads to represent the nation, we should be " ne. The billion dollar question Say what you like about Donald Trump (and many fake news LOSERS do), at least he's a win- ner, right? He may be ruthless and uncouth, but he gets things done and has amassed a fortune aided by little more than raw willpower and the hundreds of millions of dollars his father le› œhim. Or not. The New York Times claims it has got hold of the orange one's tax returns for 1985 to 1994 when he was a property developer and casino operator. According to the paper, he lost more than $1 billion over the ten-year period, "year a› er year more than any other single taxpayer". The fact that he overreached himself in the casino busi- ness with the vast Taj Mahal in Atlantic City is well known, but the new accusation is that he cut some pretty poor prop- erty deals too, overpaying for prestige hotels that simply didn't generate enough pro" t to repay the interest on the loans he had taken out to buy them. It seems Donald has been prone to drastically overestimat- ing the strength of his own hand for some time, which is a bit of a concern since he is currently The only wayisup Last year's Eurovision song contest was assumed to be the low point of our "journey" in the competition, with SuRie garnering only 48 points and coming 24th out of 26 com- petitors. But that was before last Saturday, when the UK's Michael Rice came in last with just 16 points. Poor Michael garnered just 3 points from the public vote. To put this into perspective, the winning song from the Netherlands got 492 points, with 261 of them coming from the public vote. Even San Marino got 81 points with a middle-aged crooner (in real life he's a den- tist) belting out Say Na Na Na. Worryingly, for those look- ing to read the runes, while the UK entry wasn't that good, it wasn't that bad either. Discon- nector just hopes it isn't a sign of our falling prestige in the world, just as we're teeing o to bag all those trade deals, as trumpeted by Liam Fox (who in real life is a doctor). Thank goodness we've got the opportunity to salvage some dignity in Thursday's European elections (being held a› er Utility Week goes to press). These elections are more important than any European election for a long time. As long as we don't send UTILITY WEEK | 24TH - 30TH MAY 2019 | 31

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