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UtILItY WeeK | 5tH - 11tH December 2014 | 5 Opening the water market to competition for business customers creates "a lot of risk" for water supplies and consumers, according to the sector's chief environ- mental regulator, Jeni Colbourne. In an interview with Utility Week, Colbourne, chief inspector of the Drink- ing Water Inspectorate, outlined her concerns with opening the water market in 2017. She said: "One would hope the industry, Defra and Ofwat will work out that maybe they can't control the risks and decide to go down another route." Colbourne, who has outlined her con- cerns in a letter to Open Water, the body running the market opening, said: "At the end of the day, you have a consumer who turns on a tap and is exposed to the water. By opening the market you are tinkering around and making more com- plex the relationships upstream that lead to that consumer. As soon as you intro- duce more parties – these are human beings and human beings make errors. Those errors lead to a whole series of theoretical risks." See interview, p8. WAter Competition puts water quality at risk, warns chief inspector of the DWI Paris-based NewWind plans to install a Wind Tree in the Place de la Concorde, one of Paris's main public squares, from 12 March until 12 May next year. While demonstrating its turbine design, it hopes to raise public awareness of renewable energy in the city ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris in December 2015. The Wind Tree is a turbine design in which every leaf is a micro-turbine, called an Aeroleaf. Aeroleaf turbines are able to use all types of wind 360° around the tree, even with low wind speeds. Each Wind Tree has 3.1kW of installed power and can produce between 3,500kWh and 13,500kWh. The Wind Tree generates silently because every leaf is installed on a vertical axis. "It's clear energy providers are relying on customer apathy" MoneySuperMarket.com energy expert Stephen Murray on analysis showing suppliers pass on lower wholesale costs through some tariffs, but not on standard tariffs. The Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) released an infographic this week highlighting the value to the smart grid of interoperability. Interoperability supports the integration of new systems such as microgrids, renewable resources, energy storage, electric vehicles and demand response. It also allows for increased customer engagement by enabling them to manage their energy costs and bring their own devices and connect them to the network. SGIP said it was necessary for the different elements, from generation through to consumer, to be able to con- nect and work with each other, and for all elements of the grid to be individually monitored. This monitoring should bring down costs, improve reliability as the grid gets smarter, and increase energy efficiency to achieve clean energy goals, the panel said. Interoperability is essential for the smart grid to work its magic