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utIlIty WEEK | 18th - 24th July 2014 | 31 Community Disconnector Editor: Ellen Bennett, t: 01342 332084, e: ellen.bennett@fav-house.com; News editor: Jillian Ambrose, t: 01342 332061, e: jillian.ambrose@fav-house.com; Associate news editor: Mathew Beech, t: 01342 332082, e: mathew.beech@fav-house. com; Production editor: Paul Newton, t: 01342 332085, e: paul.newton@fav-house.com; Business development manager: Ed Roberts, t: 01342 332067, e: ed.roberts@fav-house. com; Sales executive: Hayley Cronin, t: 01342 332077, e: hayley.cronin@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 A little of what you fancy… The smart home of the future – what will it look like? Disconnec- tor ponders thus because from a utility angle, it's oen about the physical bits: turning appliances on and off for demand response and the like. But of course the real genius will be in the so- ware and the apps. US soware developer Rob Irizarry is doing the rounds to commercialise a product he's developed called Kudoso, which allows parents to control their children's internet use. Not just by blocking sites, mind, but by metering access to them. The idea is to let your kids earn a virtual currency, say by doing household chores or homework, which they can then spend on accessing the internet. "Parents today are faced with a dilemma about how to manage the amount of time their kids spend on the internet and the content they are exposed to," says Irizarry, who is trying to raise cash through crowdfund- ing website Kickstarter. He says his solution is more effective than current products on the market, which require soware to be installed on each device and "can be circum- vented by particularly enterpris- ing children". Kudoso is soware that sits on the router itself and blocks the internet at source. Disconnector is no closer to knowing what the smart home of the future will look like, but if Mr Irizarry has his way, the great Disconnector man has a shrewd idea of what it will sound like: full of the howls of wronged teenagers. Bricking it Utilities are no strangers to protest groups (a big shout out to all the guys at Frack Off!). Greenpeace is a particular fel- low traveller – whether scaling power station chimneys or bolt- ing themselves to coal convey- ors, the rapscallions are never far away, as Npower and Eon can testify to their cost. But while the tooled-up hip- pies might strike fear into some of the world's biggest energy firms, Disconnector thinks they may have over-reached themselves with their latest target: Lego. That's right, the Danish pur- veyor of small plastic bricks has angered the Green Guardians by selling model kits incorporating Shell's branding. Shell, for readers who aren't in the know, is the anti-Christ to the tree-huggers because it wants to drill for oil and gas in the Arctic. The environmental group has therefore declared war on Lego and will be telling cus- tomers to boycott the company until it agrees to boycott Shell. Greenpeace claims it will "be mobilising more than five million online Arctic supporters and thousands of activists to take creative action in six continents as part of the campaign". All well and good, thinks Disconnector, but what exactly are online activists going to do to persuade kids to forego their favourite toy in protest at cross- brand promotion? Good luck with that. Goooooooal! The World Cup may be over, but it's always footie time in our world, judging by energy firms' fondness for scoring own-goals. The great man ponders thus on reading a report in the Telegraph about a couple, Mike and Suzanne Walker, who own a guesthouse in Cornwall and have had a run-in with Npower. The Walkers had been dual fuel customers of Npower for seven years when they received a letter saying a "discrepancy" had been found in their bill. Without further communica- tion, Npower removed £25,300 from their business account a few weeks later. It turned out Npower had been ignoring the six-digit meter readings sent in by Mr Walker because a third-party meter reader had at some point erro- neously registered a five-figure reading. Aer seven years, the Walkers had been undercharged to the tune of 25 grand. The rules state that business customers can only be back- billed for six years, but Npower has signed up to a voluntary code limiting back-billing to three years and has reduced the bill to 14 grand, which the Walkers are still contesting. In terms of reputational damage, it's like Brazil getting thrashed 7-1 by Germany – if Brazil had scored all eight goals. 3,580 Average circulation Jan–Dec 2013 Subscriptions: UK £577 per year, Overseas £689 per year fhcustomerservices@ abacusemedia.com CABenergy @CFenergy 020 7097 6517 rings and tells people it's Energywatch (RIP) doing a "government survey" – they are lying, hang up John Rentoul @JohnRentoul "I have one share in corporate Earth, and I am nervous about the management." EB White Simon Evans @drsimevans #ukenergy UK shale gas in 2035 might produce nothing – or as much as North Sea today. @nationalgriduk isn't sure Lionel Cheesi @richonlyinname Jury still out on what role CCS can play in our energy future. But pleasing to see White Rose CCS demo get funding. Never know if don't try Philip Pearson @GreenUnions White Rose takes Yellow Jersey! Great news for Yorkshire CCS project 3WhitehallPlace @3WhitehallPlace Today we can announce a series of Domestic Hot Water Bottle Feed-in Tariff summer roadshows. Why not join us in Chuffham this Friday? Mathew Beech @beechams1042 #indyref chat is really cranking up. Will #yes or #no prevail? And will there still be a single energy market? Scots say yes. #UWScotland Allyjd @Allyjd71 @beechams1042 There only wouldn't be if there was sour grapes on others' part. Is no reason things can't be arranged/negotiated #indyref Veridis Quo @METAKNlGHT @stephenbonar1 @beechams1042 Some cynics might say we'll get indy… when the oil runs out Stephen Bonar @stephenbonar1 @METAKNlGHT @beechams1042 @stephen- kidd56 sounds about right… squeeze the lemon dry then discard what's left… Susannah Brown @sueibrown @ScotGovEnergy does it again! £2.2m awarded to @thecarbontrust Offshore Wind Accelerator Top Tweets