Utility Week - authoritative, impartial and essential reading for senior people within utilities, regulators and government
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UTILITY WEEK | 30TH JUNE - 6TH JULY 2017 | 5 Eon's Blackburn Meadows renewable energy plant has been named among the winners of the 2017 Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) national awards, with judges commenting on its "iconic and beautiful" design. The biomass combined heat and power plant in Sheffield is among 49 new buildings across the UK to be recognised by RIBA this year. The plant will now be considered for the shortlist of the RIBA Stirling Prize, for the UK's best building of the year. WATER Thames Water 'working hard' to address Ofwat concerns Thames Water has issued a statement in response to Ofwat chair Jonson Cox's column in Utility Week calling on the company to make an "urgent step change in the way it operates and behaves". The statement said: "The board of Thames Water and our investors recognise the fundamental importance of delivering value and service to our 15 million customers, while continuing to invest in our network. We also recognise the need to conduct all our activities in an open and transparent way and maintain an active dialogue with our stakeholders. We are fully aware of Ofwat's concerns and have been working hard to address them. We appreciate Jonson Cox's constructive comments and intend to respond to them positively." Thames was responding to a column in which Cox asked the company to make five commitments, including an immediate review of the board's composition and action on executive pay. (see analysis, p26) WATER UK wildfires cost water firms millions UK wildfires are costing water companies tens of millions of pounds and pose a risk to water quality, Utility Week has learned. The estimated cost of wildfires to UK companies is around £80 million every five years, according to a research team at Manchester University, which has created a service for monitoring wildfire damage using satellite data, with support from the Satellite Applications Catapult. One of the research team's leaders, Dr Gail Millin-Chalabi, told Utility Week how fires on heath and moorland undermine water company efforts to adopt sustainable catchment management, threaten water quality and increase the risk of downstream flooding. Fires also result in discolouration because of the "deep" burning of soil. £1m By age 50, the average house- holder has spent their first £1m in today's prices, according to a report from financial planning firm Tilney. A third of this money is spent on housing and utilities. >1GW Total onshore wind capacity con- nected to the Northern Ireland power grid now exceeds 1GW, according to figures from NIE Networks. Photo: Paul Karalius "This is the first time in the UK that we see the distribution systems operator role in action, supporting the wider system" Sotiris Georgiopoulos, head of smart grid development, UKPN, on the launch of an active network management scheme in partnership with National Grid. The Energy Institute has released its 2017 barometer which gauges senti- ment among almost 1,000 members about the biggest challenges facing the energy industry in the UK.