Utility Week

Community Mr Trump, we salute you You know, you've got to hand it to Donald Trump for sheer chutzpah. He used the occasion of his 4 July speech in Washington to recruit the armed forces to put on a show, with • y-pasts of various high- tech aircra• at key points in his speech. He praised the military and encouraged youngsters to sign up to military service, despite wangling four deferments to keep himself out of Vietnam. A round robin through US military history saw him claim that in 1775 American revolu- tionary troops "took over the airports" – a bizarre ga‰ e that he later blamed on a faulty teleprompter. In fact his speech was so lit- tered with historical inaccura- cies and dubious claims that his namechecking his beloved "space force" raised hardly an‹eyebrow. In unrelated news, leaked diplomatic cables from the British ambassador to the US revealed that he thought the Trump administration was "inept" and "uniquely dysfunc- tional". Theresa May was quick to point out that the ambassador's views were his personal take and did not re• ect those of the UK government as a whole. Hmm. 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 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. Simple Politics @easypoliticsUK Attenborough: "If you think you can have in nite growth you are either an economist or a madman." Doug Parr @doug_parr This move by Eon is to buy renew- able energy certi cates, not build more. BUT it supposedly "will heap pressure on rivals to follow suit" and so "raise questions about whether UK needs to accel- erate expansion of #renewables if more utilities follow". Robert Llewellyn @bobbyllew To those defending slightly confused BBC report stating that electric cars will make congestion worse, I almost agree. This is how I think we should travel in future: 1. Walk 2. Cycle 3. Public transport 4. Ride share (in EVs) 5 Car share (in EVs) 6. Use privately owned EVs. National Grid ESO @ng_eso We are getting ready for @lion- esses vs @USWNT Semi-Final tonight at 8pm. We reckon there'll be an extra 500MW in power demand – equivalent to: • 4 Large Hadron Colliders • 156,250 ovens • 11,363,636 Apple routers We are ready ! Are you? @FWWC @BBCOne Gareth Redmond-King @gredmond76 This is hilarious – the video starts o¥ "Hinkley Point C is on schedule". This despite the EDF CEO promising us we'd be cooking our Christmas 2017 turkeys with power from this turkey! https://twitter.com/edfehinkleyc/ status/1144504590181765120 Top Tweets Disconnector can only guess at the conversation that took place at the meeting of the comms team on Monday morn- ing. Drat, drat and double drat. Or something like that… The monkeys are coming On the one hand, the following should be a reassuring headline. But on the other, it really isn't. Disconnector refers to the screamer in the Daily Mail: "Scientists warn against creating monkey-human hybrids!" If 's good that "scientists" are warning against the practice, but profoundly worrying that they believe such a warning is necessary. But apparently they very much do believe this, because medical researchers in China have already created "chimeras", which is the term for monkeys spliced with human brain genes for the purpose of medical research into diseases such as Alzheimer's. The ethics are horrifying on animal welfare grounds alone, of course. But Disconnector can't‹help but question the wisdom of creating genetically modi˜ ed monkeys at all, never mind ones modi˜ ed with human brain cells. On the other hand, come the apocalypse they may at least be able to give the killer androids a run for their money. Giving the public the bird? Good PR is not to be sneezed at: it matters what people think of your company, so any e‰ ort to add that feel-good factor to the brand are always worth- while. At least that's what Disconnector reckons. So Southern Water is to be applauded for hiring a falconer to stroll the beaches of Worthing on the south coast last week – hawk in hand – to scare o‰ seagulls that poop in the bathing waters there. It was all part of the company's Bathing Water Enhancement Programme, with Southern rightly pointing out that seagull poo contains more bacteria than human or dog faeces. The clear message of the exercise was how much the company cares about the cleanliness of its bathing waters. Unfortunately its e‰ orts were somewhat undermined by that pesky lobby group Surfers Against Sewage, who complained that Ofwat ˜ gures revealed that Southern Water had itself discharged sewage into the sea no fewer than 150 times in a six-week period – putting the e‰ orts of the seagulls to shame. The story garnered almost a third of a page in the main sec- tion of The Sunday Times. UTILITY WEEK | 12TH - 18TH JULY 2019 | 31

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