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UtILItY WeeK | 26th september - 2nd OctOber 2014 | 5 United Utilities said this week that its engineers are carrying out a major conservation project in the Lake District using an unusual mirrored hoarding to screen unsightly operations from tourists and nature lovers. Instead of pumps and diggers, people descending Ennerdale valley from iconic peaks such as Pillar and High Stile will be treated to a reflection of themselves and the landscape they are visiting. The company said the hoardings were a big hit with social media fans and the water company is encouraging people to tweet selfies from the mirror using the hashtag #ennerdaleselfie. Greater certainty has been restored to the energy sector after Scotland's vote to remain part of the UK in the 18 September referendum. The No vote will encourage investment by removing doubt over the future of the UK government's low-carbon subsidy regime. By some estimates it may also save Scottish consumers from shouldering the inflated cost of supporting renewable energy, while helping the UK as a whole to meet decarbonisation targets. The result will come as a blow to Scottish energy minister Fergus Ewing, who told Utility Week ahead of the vote that "successive West- minster governments have, sadly, failed to take a coherent approach to energy". pan-UtILItY Scotland votes against independence "Energy efficiency is rightly the priority, but renewable heat technologies have a key role to play too" REA chief executive Nina Skorupska, responds to policy announcements at the Labour conference Soware developer Linesmarts has developed an Android app to provide remote measurement and analysis of overhead lines and structures. Established tension measurement methods are oen not practical for the distribution utility industry, the developer claims. They are variously too ex- pensive, too complex, too labour intensive, too time consuming, too hazardous and in some cases too inaccurate. The flow graph illustrates how the app calculates overhead wire tension. "There are reasons why we have independent economic regulators, and why we have the CMA – it's to stop politically attractive but eco- nomically insane policies like this" Liberum Capital's Peter Atherton speaking at the Labour party conference on the one- year anniversary of Ed Milliband's energy price freeze pledge 1. Take photo using app on mobile device 2. Identify supports in photo with GUI 3. Measure range to supports 4. Enter distance to supports into GUI 6. Correct positions for lens distortion App calculation 7. Correct positions for camera roll 8. Correct positions for camera pitch 9. Correct positions for perspective 10. Calculate 'catenary constant' Display catenary and result 5. Identify three points on target wire Linesmen get smart