Utility Week - authoritative, impartial and essential reading for senior people within utilities, regulators and government
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utILIty WeeK | 14th - 20th February 2014 | 31 Community Disconnector 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 £577 per year, Overseas £689 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 Feel the love In case it's escaped your notice, it's Valentine's Day, that special time of year when all your secret admirers can make their exist- ence known to you, if only via a cheesy rhyme printed in a mass- market card and signed coyly with an 'x'. Still, at least you know that someone out there loves you. Disconnector wonders how many Valentine's Day cards will be thudding on to the desks of energy company bosses this year. The great man fears it could be a rather thin crop, judging from the precipitous fall in the reputations of energy utili- ties in the past few months. Even erstwhile suitors have made it clear that they definitely, defi- nitely don't fancy you any more. Take energy secretary Ed Davey. There was a time he might have been expected to pitch the woo to try to get his way with the energy sector. Not any more. He's off on paternity leave in a matter of days, but that didn't stop him last week writing to regulators calling for energy companies generally – and British Gas specifically – to be broken up because their profits were too high. He didn't base his accusation on any new figures or research or anything like that, you understand. It was more of a "feelings" based thing, y'know, nicely complementing Ed Miliband's "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!" analysis of the energy industry. How energy bosses must Disconnector long to be invited back into the touchy-feely modern world so derided by the popular press. It would make a change from being constantly poked in the eye with a stick. The weather outside is frightful Just as politicians are happy to throw energy company bosses to the lions to assuage the anger that the general public feels about being forced to pay the going rate for energy, so they'd be happy to stick water chief executives' heads on spikes if the public demanded it as a response to the flooding that has battered large parts of the country. Fortunately, the Environment Agency has volunteered to be the Aunt Sally on this one, to the relief of just about everyone except the agency's chair, Lord Smith. He has been accused of being out of touch, arrogant and uncaring (one MP said he wanted to "stick his head down the loo and flush it") and the press is baying for his blood. His position is not helped by the fact that he's a Lord, of course. He would probably have been better off had he remained plain Chris Smith, as he was when he was a Labour Cabinet minister. Putting Lord Smith inside the wicker man may not be enough to placate the mob if things get much worse, though. And get worse it most certainly is. Forcing the inhab- itants of large tracts of Somer- set to balance their downstairs furniture on bricks is one thing, but as Utility Week goes to press the River Thames is threatening to burst its banks, which means that Londoners will be affected. That would mean the gov- ernment would have to start taking the flooding seriously. 3,580 Average circulation Jan–Dec 2012 Subscriptions: UK £577 per year, Overseas £689 per year fhcustomerservices@ abacusemedia.com Paul Waugh @paulwaugh Lab source says PM decision to chair Cobra "a humiliation for Owen Paterson… he's turning out to be the Fool of the Floods" Günther Oettinger @GOettingerEU Internal energy market is key for affordable #energy for households and companies. #EU2030 #IEM James Murray @James_BG Cameron simply does not mean "no restric- tions", just like ministers don't mean it when they say drilling for gas is completely "safe" Jonathan Reynolds MP @jreynoldsMP One way to improve our response to the floods would be to listen more to scientists, on climate matters and in general 3WhitehallPlace @3WhitehallPlace Today we are launching Britain's Got Gas, a national competition to see which com- munity* can dig the most shale gas wells (*N/A SE England) Trevor Jackson @JackTSunn @DECCgovuk I hear that you've decided that 'clean tech' is old news and that you've shifted to fracking. Do you need to rename DECC to DDUH? Adam Scorer @adam_scorer #energy the idea of expert comp review to improve the operation of energy market has had govts/ofgem panic-stricken for years. At what cost? Which? Campaigns @WhichCampaigns @EdwardDaveyMP's letter to #Ofgem is a hugely significant intervention by the Secretary of State for @DECCgovuk Jim Pickard @PickardJE British Gas says the data demanded by Ed Davey was handed over to Ofgem months ago – so what was point of energy secretary letter? Mike Stafford @dances_wit_owls Weird. Just called @Ofwat, got through to a human being, immediately, who was both friendly and helpful. A rare thing these days! Top Tweets Decc has found it difficult to connect with the public about the Green Deal, so Disconnector noted wryly that recently the government paid for a full-page display ad in The Sun, mocked up to look like the paper's Dear Deidre agony page. There was even a photo casebook story that racily suggested that warming up your house could spice up your love life. Will it help? Who knows. Relationship problems