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UtILItY WeeK | 19th - 25th September 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; Insights editor: Jane Gray, t: 01342 332087, e: jane.gray@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 Bringing home the bacon? We're always being told about the importance of the brand, and how utility companies are perceived by many as rather dull and worthy. So hats off, then, to independent supplier Green Energy, for trying to inject a bit of fun into the business of energy provision with its new company, Oink Energy. The new venture offers one dual fuel tariff for everyone, with one fuel mix (CHP and renewa- bles), so its selling message couldn't be simpler. And with its website and marketing materials festooned with colourful, lov- able cartoon characters, Green Energy seems to be attempting the impossible: making people love their energy company. Now, Disconnector loves a trier as much as the next man, but really, pigs? Okay, so it offers up any number of cute pig puns (sample: "We'd squeally like to give you a good deal"), but the great man wonders whether pigs have the right associations. Aer all, a greedy pig is not much of an improvement on a fat cat, and that is a stick still being used to beat utilities. And if it's bad news for customers to think of the company as a bunch of pigs, then neither do customers want to think of themselves Disconnector as pigs either, greedily consum- ing energy, although the truth is many of us do exactly that. The great man can't help but wonder if they might have been better off sticking to one of the old favourites – y'know, pandas and penguins and whatnot. Hard to swallow It will take more than clever branding to make a commercial success of the "edible water ball" shortlisted by the Global Design Forum in London as one of five ideas that could radically change the world. Designed by Rodrigo García González, a postgraduate student of the Royal College of Art and Imperial College, it consists of a double layer of gelatinous membranes, created using brown algae and calcium chloride. Unlike conventional plastic bottles, it can either be eaten or thrown away because it is biodegradable. The Global Design Forum gushes that it could one day "make the ubiquitous and unsustainable plastic water bottle obsolete". Biodegradable it might be, thinks the great man, but who wants to drop a ball of gelatinous membranes into their mouth in preference to flipping the cap of a water bottle? It would take the combined efforts of the marketing wunderkinds of Coca-Cola and Apple to get this one off the ground. Rodrigo has rather hopefully named his invention "Ooho!". Disconnector thinks a more appropriate name might be "Ewww". Yes but, no but Talking of brand values, as we kind of were, Disconnec- tor was surprised to learn that Friends of the Earth has formally dropped its opposi- tion to building new nuclear power stations in the UK "in principle". It's been known for a long time that when it comes to protesting against new nuclear, the hearts of many of its activists just weren't in it any more. It was all well and good in the 1970s, but with the advent of global warming and the very pressing need to use anything but coal for generat- ing, the case against building new nuclear power plants is growing thinner by the day. But logic aside, giving up on opposition to nuclear power can't be an easy thing to do for the older members of the pro- test group. Aer all, opposing nuclear power was one of the reasons many of them joined. All is not lost, as it hap- pens. Although Friends of the Earth has given up on its ideological battle against new nuclear plants, it still says the UK should abandon plans to build any new ones for the more pragmatic reason that they are too expensive and – get this – that it takes too long to get them through the plan- ning system. No kidding? 3,580 Average circulation Jan–Dec 2013 Subscriptions: UK £577 per year, Overseas £689 per year fhcustomerservices@ abacusemedia.com Rich Hall @richonlyinname Ofwat is winning in its return on equity arms race with Ofgem. ~5.75% for water. Power networks offered 6%. WPD got 6.4% under fast track James Murray @James_BG Loving ozone news. Handy reminder that if we're successful tackling climate risk sceptics will say it proves there was nowt to worry about Emily Gosden @emilygosden Angela Knight exits energy lobby EnergyUK. Prev of bankers' assoc. Qn is, was she joking when said arms exports next? Vicky Ellis @ELNVicky Oh google. How have you never shown me there is an Angela Knight Lingerie shop in Hungerford...? "AK has fitted women for over 20 years" Jean-Claude Juncker @JunckerEU Today I put my team on the field. I am convinced that it is a winning team #TeamJunckerEU Yorkshire Water @YorkshireWater Did you know…we maintain enough pipework to go all the way around the earth! NIA @NIAUK The last container of #nuclear fuel has left Sizewell A Karma Ockenden @KarmaOckenden Just had @BritishGas contractor knock to read my #smartmeter. Classic. Made my day First Utility @First_Utility 550 – the number of staff who work for First Utility to service all of our customers Simon Evans @drsimevans Top 3 nations for renewable electricity share in 2013: Norway (98%) Brazil (80%) New Zealand (74%) Alari @Alari__ Very impressed by @OVOEnergy so far, a website you can actually do things on! Top Tweets