Utility Week - authoritative, impartial and essential reading for senior people within utilities, regulators and government
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/238463
Community Disconnector Cool reception for hot tips One of the great things about us Brits is that we do like a laugh, don't we? First Utility's chief executive Ian McCaig is certainly hoping so. The UK's biggest independent supplier issued jokey advice on how hard-up consumers can save energy over the winter. Dubbed 'The 5:2 energy diet' to mimic the current dieting fad whereby the waistline-conscious starve themselves for two days out of every seven, the top tips for saving energy included giving up hot drinks, going to bed early and sharing the shower with someone else ("Romantic or awkward? Either way, sharing a shower can save you £34 a year. Just ask the permission from the other person first!"). All very amusing. Or is it? Labour's shadow energy minister, Tom Greatrex, didn't think so. "Rising energy bills really aren't a laughing matter and cause genuine hardship for millions of people," he said. "Issuing ridiculous advice, however tongue in cheek, will insult and annoy many consumers who are struggling to heat and power their homes this winter." Oh dear. McCaig has form on this front. Earlier last year, he told The Telegraph that if people wanted to keep warm about the house, they should wear a jumper. The world has moved on in the intervening months, and now that energy bosses Roar deal have been cast as moustachioed villains in black capes, perhaps nudge-nudge jokes about sharing showers don't find the ready audience they might once have done. First Utility raised its prices by 18 per cent during the course of 2013, and this fact was not forgotten by any of the mainstream news media that carried the story. In fact, in most cases it made the introductory paragraph. Except one, the London Evening Standard, where it made the headline. "Share a shower and give up tea: First Utility hiked bills 18% and now tells you how to save cash", screamed its website. Maybe there is such a thing as bad publicity after all. Car trouble An acquaintance of Disconnector was very excited to read on the BBC's website that Ford had launched a concept solarpowered car. Not only would it obviously make the car much cheaper to run, but it would also address the knotty problem that most of our electricity is derived from burning fossil fuels. Eureka! Alas, upon further investigation it appears Disconnector's chum had failed to read the small print sufficiently. The "concept" car really was mostly just that: a concept. True, the company had managed to bolt some snazzy photovoltaic cells on to its existing C-Max Energi plug-in hybrid (courtesy of some nifty electronics by US outfit SunPower), but the resulting black roof can generate only 300W, which is not enough to recharge the car's batteries even if you left it out in the sun all day. To get any effective charge, you need to use the vehicle in conjunction with a "solar concentrator", a canopy that concentrates the sun's rays by eight times and beams them onto the car's roof. The drawback with this genius idea, apart from having to find the cash to buy a specialised canopy and the space to install it, is that you have to park your car under it all day. In return for all your expense, effort and inconvenience, you get a fully charged battery – which is enough to get you 21 miles, as long as you don't want to use the car's top speed of 85mph. Or use the heating. Or air con. Water, water everywhere… It always pays to keep abreast of events, thinks Disconnector, on perusing Bristol Water's website. The company says its reservoirs are 84 per cent full, but it laments that this is 14 per cent lower than last year and exhorts its customers to "be careful in their use of water and take small, simple actions to use water wisely at all times". In the past week the Bristol area has been hit by severe flooding. Editor: Ellen Bennett, t: 01342 332084, e: ellen.bennett@fav-house.com; Energy editor: Megan Darby, t: 01342 332087, e: megan.darby@fav-house.com; Features editor: Karma Ockenden, t: 01342 332086, e: karma.ockenden@fav-house. com; Reporter: Mathew Beech, t: 01342 332082, e: mathew.beech@fav-house.com; Reporter: Conor McGlone, t: 01342 332083, e: conor.mcglone@fav-house.com; Production editor: Paul Newton, t: 01342 332085; Business development manager: Ed Roberts, t: 01342 332067, e: ed.roberts@fav-house.com; Sales executive: Nicky Shaw, t: 01342 332070, e: nicky.shaw@fav-house.com; Publisher: Amanda Barnes, e: amanda.barnes@fav-house.com. General enquiries: 01342 332000; Subscriptions: UK £543 per year, Overseas £655 per year, t: 01342 332011. ISSN: 1356-5532. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office. Printed by: Buxton Press, Palace Road, Buxton, Derbyshire SK17 6AE. Published by: Faversham House Ltd, Windsor Court, Wood Street, East Grinstead, West Sussex RH19 1UZ Of the eight million or so Christmas trees sold in the UK every year, most end up in the bin. Linton Zoological Gardens in Cambridgeshire, however, has found a novel way of recycling them as toys for its two lions. Zoo manager Dawny Greenwood said the scented trees are "almost like catnip" for the resident big cats. "They just love the trees, it gives them hours of fun." The zoo has put out an appeal to local residents to drop off their unwanted trees at the gate. Those passed over by the lions are offered to the tigers and snow leopards. Once they are "beyond their best", the trees are used as biofuel in the zoo's solid fuel burner to generate heating and hot water. It's a good, green tale, but who was the first person to lob a Christmas tree into a lion's enclosure to see if they'd play with it? Subscriptions: UK £543 per year, Overseas £655 per year fhcustomerservices@ abacusemedia.com 3,580 Average circulation Jan–Dec 2012 UTILITY WEEK | 10th - 16th january 2014 | 31