Utility Week

Utility Week 21st June 2019

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Community no-one has yet been able to demonstrate the technology working and many scientists say cold fusion is a modern-day perpetual motion machine. The unlisted company has a book value of nearly $1 billion, although whether Woodford's stakes will re• ect such a valua- tion should he try to sell them remains to be seen. The money's allmine Many start-ups fail, but every now and then one will succeed – spectacularly. Take Facebook, which upon listing in 2012 was valued at $104 billion. That's a ridiculous amount of money, but not nearly as ridiculous as the circa $500 billion that Facebook is worth today. Not content with having a metaphorical licence to print money, Facebook is now intent on having a literal licence to print money by way of launch- ing its own digital currency. Plans are advanced to launch "stablecoin", a digital currency pegged to an actual currency or a basket of currencies, that will allow users to pay for stu… across all its platforms – Face- book, WhatsApp, Instagram and the wider internet beyond. It seems to Disconnector to be the ultimate in vertical integration. You own the mar- ketplace and everything in it, so why not own all the money too? 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; Editor: Suzanne Heneghan, t: 01342 332106, e: suzanneheneghan@fav-house.com Digital editor: James Wallin, 01342 332015, jameswallin@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. Chris Stark @ChiefExecCCC Happy #netzero day. Today we hear that the UK government will legislate for a net-zero emissions target. It's an important moment. Bold steps are needed to deliver it and some di• cult decisions lie ahead, but today's a good day. Andy Gouldson @andy_gouldson The Net Zero policy announced yesterday is obviously positive, but when the going gets tough it will need 1) long-term cross- party support 2) a broad-based coalition of business and public support 3) multi-level capacities for delivery. All of these still need work! @PCANcities William Marchant @richonlyinname Climate science deniers the GWPF manage to get a piece in the Tel- egraph accusing the Smart Export Guarantee of being a subsidy for onshore wind and solar. That's a deeply implausible reading of the policy. Chris Heaton-Harris piles on regardless. National Grid ESO @ng_eso Great use of data + industry part- nerships = decarbonisation and reduced costs for bill payers. Enter RecorDER – the ˜ rst blockchain- based electricity asset register in GB, from the ESO and @SPEner- gyNetwork & @UKPowerNetworks & @ElectronDLT Jo-Jo Hubbard @jojohubba Really excited about this col- laboration, even more so about the prospect of putting together a platform this helpful without a £100m+ centralised IT program. Top Tweets Johnson, in this metaphor). By the time this issue lands on readers' doormats it will at least be a little clearer who is going to have the honour of losing to Boris, although what Boris will actually do once he's won his crown is very far from clear. As long as it's sunny and upland, no-one will complain. Power plays Readers who keep half an eye on the ' nancial pages will be aware of the fall from grace of Neil Woodford, the investment fund manager who shocked the mar- kets by suspending trading in his • agship equity fund because investors were pulling their money out faster than he could sensibly unwind his positions. Private investors and public bodies with money tied up in his funds are crying foul and the regulator has come under ' re for not spotting problems earlier. Woodford's reversal has been spectacular. At one time he was in charge of £33 billion of funds at Invesco Perpetual, but a– er striking out on his own he has backed some high-pro' le losers such as Purple Bricks and con- struction company Keir. One of the more bizarre investments was £54 million in "disruptive start-up" Industrial Heat, which is seeking to develop "cold fusion". Cold fusion o… ers the world almost limitless amounts of cheap, emissions-free generation – but unfortunately The chosen ones A beauty parade of shallow non-entities whose appalling ignorance of the outside world is matched only by their naked ambition, Love Island returns for another soul-sapping dis- play of vanity and egotism. And in unrelated news, the Conservative party has embarked on another quest to ' nd a leader. The plucky outsider in this one is Rory Stewart (well, he's as much an outsider as an Old Etonian can be), and the former water minister is having his own Nick Clegg moment of public acclaim. Rory must be hoping things work out better for him than they did for Nick. The lead contender among the also-rans is foreign sec- retary Jeremy Hunt, or "the entrepreneur" as he likes to keep reminding people, in the manner of a schoolboy trying to persuade his mates to use his preferred nickname. Mean- while Michael Gove (the "nego- tiator") and Sajid Javid ("my dad used to be a bus driver") are jostling in a crowded ' eld with former Brexit secretary Dominic "the boxer" Raab bringing up the rear. They're like a new Avengers line-up but with really crappy superpowers, who everyone knows don't stand a cat in hell's chance against Thanos (Boris UTILITY WEEK | 21ST - 27TH JUNE 2019 | 31

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