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UTILITY WEEK | 11TH - 17TH MARCH 2016 | 31 Community Editor, Utility Week, and content director, Utilities: Ellen Bennett, t: 01342 332084, e: ellen. bennett@fav-house.com; Assistant editor (insights): Jane Gray, t: 01342 332087, e: jane.gray@ fav-house.com; Associate insights editor: Mathew Beech, t: 01342 332082, e: mathew.beech@ fav-house.com; Deputy news editor: Lois Vallely, t: 01342 332080; e: lois.vallely@fav-house.com; Networks correspondent: Lucinda Dann, t: 01342 332083, e: lucinda.dann@fav-house.com; Reporters: Saffron Johnson, t: 01342 332050, e: saffron.johnson@fav-house.com and Tom Grimwood, t: 01342 332061, e: tom.grimwood@fav-house.com; Business development manager: Richard Powell, t: 01342 332062, e: richard.powell@fav-house.com; Business development executive: Sarah Wood, t: 01342 332077, e: sarah.wood@fav-house.com; Publisher: Amanda Barnes, e: amanda.barnes@fav-house.com. General enquiries: 01342 332000; Membership enquiries: Peter Bissell, t: 01342 332507, e: peter.bissell@fav-house.com. 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 3,580 Average circulation Jan–Dec 2015 Membership subscriptions: UK £637 per year. Overseas £749 per year. Contact Peter Bissell on: 01342 332507 Top Tweets Don't lose your head The Curse of Hinkley strikes again, this week claiming the head (metaphorically) of EDF's chief financial officer, Thomas Piquemal. While many com- mentators here say the govern- ment's strike price of £92.50/ MWh for Hinkley (and for 35 years), was absurdly generous, it appears M Piquemal thinks otherwise. He wanted EDF to delay its final invest- ment decision for three years, fearing that the Hinkley deal could threaten the financial stability of EDF. But both the British and French governments want the deal to go ahead, so Thomas duly fell on his sword and quit. EDF may be building the plant, but a big chunk of the finance is coming from China, and the Curse of Hinkley struck there too last week with the arrest of the official who signed off on the deal for Beijing to invest in UK nuclear plants. Xu Yongsheng, 50, was head of China's National Energy Administration but has since been caught up in the coun- try's anti-corruption purge. He is accused of accepting £600,000 in bribes from eight Chinese state-owned compa- nies for licences to build power plants, and if found guilty could literally lose his head, since the charges potentially carry the death penalty. If you've got it, light it Generating reliable low-carbon electricity cheaply is proving a difficult nut to crack, but technology has at least come to our rescue on the consump- tion side. Nowhere is this more true than for lighting, where energy-hungry incandescent bulbs have given way to lower energy halogen (which use 70 per cent of the energy), then low energy compact fluorescent lamps (25 per cent), and now LEDs (10 per cent). So by using LEDs you can light an entire house for the same amount of energy used by one incandescent bulb. Or, of course, you take the same power output and use it to light hundreds of LEDs. This is the logic being employed by the team of Dutch super-yacht designers behind Moonstone. Their concept design features a "twinkling" hull that reflects the water in sunlight and puts on a light display at night with 600 triangles that glow in a variety of colours chosen by whatever oligarch owns the thing. The 90-metre yacht boasts the usual accoutrements of this sort of vessel: an infinity pool with dimmable lights, a hot tub, cinema, helipad and so on. But Oceanco (the com- pany behind Moonstone) has managed to address the one flaw with such toys: namely, that the proles only get to be impressed by your bling during daylight hours. Cover story If there's one thing the Japa- nese love doing, it's collecting things. But if you thought Poke- men cards were pointless, wait until you catch the Drainspot- ters collection, a series of cards depicting Japan's ornately decorated manhole covers. The brainchild of GKP, a consortium of local govern- ments and the sewage depart- ment of Japan's Infrastructure Ministry, the cards come with a full explanation of the design's meaning as well as the cover's exact geographic co-ordinates, should you want to see one in situ. The drain covers themselves oen feature a symbol specific to an area or town, or a local mascot. Designs are decided upon aer asking the public for ideas, or through competitions, according to GKP spokesperson Hideto Yamada. All well and good, but Dis- connector thinks that promot- ing them on the Japan Visitor website is optimistic. Collecting manhole cover cards is prob- ably not a hobby that's going to travel very far beyond the shores of Japan. Disconnector Jonathan Gaventa @jonathangaventa Since 2010, UK power demand has been reduced by over a Hinkley compared to baseline – and there are many more Hinkleys of efficiency potential. Jamie Kelsey-Fry @jamiekelseyfry Again, UKGOV Plc lying when they say #frack- ing won't damage value of homes. Profit before people kills. William Marchant @richonlyinname Back in UK. This week promises big job losses, Hinkley shenanigans, market reform and a public spat on profits. Fairly typical week in energy. Climate Hour @Climatehour Pakistan's biggest threat isn't terrorism, it's climate change. Alban Thurston @AlbanThurston Hinkley C. George Osborne 's car crash never ends: EDF finance officer resigns over Hinkley Point project. Natan Doron @natandoron The EU has the biggest programme of environmental initiatives in the world – yet Zac Goldsmith wants to leave. Richard Black @_richardblack In my imagined future, @mattwridley ends up as energy minister… Matt Ridley @mattwridley Hinkley Point C: EDF can't afford to build it, and we can't afford to buy its electricity. Time to cancel it. Frank Field MP @frankfieldteam I've urged CMA to level the playing field and, in doing so, end the grotesque stacking of the odds against the poor. Al Gore @algore Great to see @LeoDiCaprio receive a well- deserved and way overdue best actor award! And so like Leo to use the stage to help save the climate!