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Utility Week 18th April

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UtilitY WEEK | 18th - 24th April 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 Tilting at windmills No good turn goes unpunished, observes Disconnector. That's a lesson that farmer Tony Dallyn learnt to his cost when he turned down a developer who wanted to erect an 80m-high wind turbine on his land. It was worth a cool £1 million over 20 years, but Tony refused on the grounds that it would "blight" the breath- taking unspoilt views of the Devon countryside enjoyed by his neighbours, even though he wouldn't have been able to see the device from his own home. Unfortunately, neighbour Martin Goddard didn't see it that way. He jumped at the oppor- tunity and now the developers plan to erect the turbine on land adjacent to Mr Dallyn's and, it now turns out, 450m away from his house and clearly visible from his kitchen window. Around 100 locals are object- ing to the plans, including Tony. The impatience of youth Act in haste, repent at leisure. It's an aphorism that dates back to medieval times, but obviously hasn't quite made it as far as 16-year-old Ella Birchenough. Which is unfortunate, because the teenager might have borne it in mind when she decided to jump down a storm drain in Dover to retrieve her dropped mobile phone. She became stuck fast in the drain and it took fire crews Disconnector several hours to free her, but not before passers-by had snapped plenty of pics of her lodged half in and half out of the drain and posted them all over Twitter. And the phone? Dead, of course, as it was the moment it hit the water. Bad bugs The "Bleeding Heart" bug in internet security soware was all over the news media last week. Partly, reckons Discon- nector, this is because it's got a properly scary name, and partly it's because it has the potential to hurt us where it really counts – in our pockets, by allowing cyber criminals to hack into our internet computer passwords. Much less news coverage was given to a potentially much more serious problem: a flaw in the Centum CS 3000 control soware widely used to run oil rigs, refin- eries and 7,600 power plants all over the world. The bug was iden- tified by security firm Rapid7 and reported to the US Department of Homeland Security, which con- cluded that a hacker with "low skill" would be able to exploit the flaw, access control systems and mount a terrorist attack. Julian Diaz, one of the Rapid7 researchers who discovered the hole, explains: "If you are able to exploit the vulnerabilities we have identified you get control of the Human Interface Station. That's where the operator sits or stands and monitors operational details. If you have control of that station as an attacker you have the same level of control as someone standing on the plant floor wearing a security badge." He claimed the encryption behind soware such as iTunes is "much more robust than the soware supporting our criti- cal infrastructure". Disconnector thinks we need to re-examine our priorities. It smells wrong In the run-up to the IPCC's weighty third report on the world's efforts – or lack of them – to fight climate change, peers in the House of Lords were keen to demonstrate that they shared the seriousness with which the general public and the scientific community viewed the problem. Energy minister Baroness Verma was answering questions in the Upper House on how the government was tackling climate change when she faced a probing query from hereditary peer Viscount Simon, 73, who wanted to know whether flatu- lence caused by the country's high consumption of baked beans was adding to global warming, and if so, what the government was doing about it. The Labour peer said he'd watched a programme on the BBC informing him that the UK had the largest per capita consumption of baked beans in the world, and he asked whether this had informed the government's calculations. Lady Verma applauded the question as "so different", but didn't seem to have an answer. 3,580 Average circulation Jan–Dec 2013 Subscriptions: UK £577 per year, Overseas £689 per year fhcustomerservices@ abacusemedia.com Dave Sowden @dave_sowden #MariaMiller trending no.2 on Twitter. #RHI not there yet. Somehow the latter seems more important for our future. Keep tagging folks David Vanegas @Bottom_To_Top 8.6m homes heated by renewable energy by 2025. Unicorns and fairies @DECCgovuk RenewableUK @RenewableUK Pickles pouncing on more onshore wind projects 3WhitehallPlace @3WhitehallPlace Do your bit for climate change by moderating your intake of baked beans to four tins a day or fewer Research Works Ltd @Research_Works Ofgem raps British Gas for £5 million (and some of us get our money back!) Climate Revolution @climate_rev We can afford to save the planet: IPCC climate report: averting catastrophe is eminently affordable CCSA @The_CCSA Tackling climate change without #CCS virtually impossible according to #IPCC_wg3 – 138% more expensive if no #CCS! Tom Burke @tom_burke_47 #IPCC latest message is simple: a rapid shift to #renewable #energy is needed to avert catastrophic global #warming Adam Scorer @adam_scorer Complaints. Simplest test is to walk a mile in consumer shoes. What's the journey really like? Often seems designed to discourage or depress Mark Kenber @MarkKenber #cleanrevolution is no longer a theoretical discussion – 70-80% of the necessary technology is available today Tim Probert @TimProbert It's also clear that rewarding energy storage's inherent advantage, i.e. very rapid response, as in New York ISO market, is also effective Top Tweets

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