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4 | 5th - 11th August 2016 | utILItY WEEK Water UK: water service levels soar Water uK says that levels of service from water companies for supply and sewerage have dramatically improved since July last year. In a report, it said Portsmouth water topped the list for water services with a score of 100 per cent for Q1 2016. 98% overall levels of service performance for water supply. 99% overall levels of service performance for sewerage. 100% Northumbrian Water scored highest for sewerage. 99.83% sutton and East surrey Water ranked second for water services story by NUMbErs Prompt decision on Hinkley is 'essential' Seven days... T he government must make a prompt decision on its support for the Hinkley Point C nuclear project or risk putting off infrastructure inves- tors in the UK. Nuclear Industry Association (NIA) chief executive Tom Grea- trex has warned that a delay beyond early autumn, as set out by the government, could harm the UK's wider infrastructure ambitions. Speaking to Utility Week, Greatrex said: "The danger is if the delay is prolonged, it is not just this project that is under- mined, but everything in terms of infrastructure." Within hours of EDF giving the 3.2GW nuclear power plant the go-ahead, business and energy secretary Greg Clark issued a statement saying the government needed to "consider carefully all the component parts of this project" and would make a final decision in the autumn. While the NIA chief is eager for the decision to be promptly made, he is not concerned about the future of the project. "The commitment has been made for EDF to go ahead with it, and as far as they are concerned they have signed the contract. Energy and climate change committee chair and SNP MP Angus MacNeil said Clark's move was "sensible". He has slammed the agreement between the gov- ernment and EDF, which will see EDF receive £92.50/MWh when Hinkley is operational, as a "bad energy deal" and one "people would get out of if they could". Shadow energy secretary Barry Gardiner attacked the gov- ernment's handling of the deal, calling it "chaos". MB See Lobby, p10 "We're not obsessed by them" Centrica chief executive Iain Conn says his company is "not obsessed by customer numbers", as it posts interim results revealing that it has lost around 400,000 customers in the first half of 2016 Full story,p15 In memory of meters… Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy has written a poem called Meters marking the passing of traditional energy meters in favour of smart meters, and an end to estimated bills. Here is an excerpt: Found by torchlight fingering gloom inside the cupboard under the stairs or in the hall, clamped to the wall; in kitchen, garage, utility-room, in bedsit, bungalow, semi- detached, tenement, high-rise, council flat, The Rochdale Electric, K. & J. White, Ferranti, James and Graham & Co., measuring energy, consumed and used by gas-oven, wireless, 2-bar fire, 40-watt lightbulb, 13-amp fuse... then the luxury of central heating and quarterly bills and a meter reading. Quarterly bills and a meter reading by the man from the Gas, Electricity Board, polite, peak-capped, alert for dogs, checking the digits under the disc, the whirring wheel, the so tick of monitored moments skyping, googling, downloading, scanning, Facebook- ing; out at sea the wind-farms churning air into profit, the salty breeze powering the big flatscreen TVs, the underfloor heating, costs mounting… the kilowatt hours burning, turning, meters, like monks in their cells, counting. Like monks in cells, the meters, counting well-thumbed, numbered days and nights beneath the energy-saving lights as though murmuring prayers, click- ing beads to the switching On and Off of needs; each private, domestic revolution circling the time of its own extinction when mechanical meters, old Latin tomes, stand behind glass in hushed museums,~ gun-metal grey, silvery, black, from household gods to artefacts... while digital, internet meters glean that History's bill to the Future's green. Utility Week is going on its regular summer break and the next issue of the magazine will be published on 2 September. To keep updated on all the news, visit: utilityweek.co.uk