Utility Week

4 | 19TH - 25TH JANUARY 2018 | UTILITY WEEK STORY BY NUMBERS Seven days... National media Singapore recruits swanbots to test water quality Robot swans are taking to the waters of Singapore to test the qual- ity of its reservoirs' drinking water. According to Channel News Asia, five fake birds are being set loose on reservoirs serving the city state to monitor water quality as part of the aptly named SWAN project (Smart Water Assessment Network). BBC News, 15 January Cape Town could become first major city to run out of water Cape Town could be the first major city in the world to run out of water as officials warn it is about to run dry. The city, perched on the south- ern tip of the African continent, is just 90 days away from running out of water. Officials have urged resi- dents to conserve water, with usage capped at 87 litres per person per day. Recent projections have sug- gested it could run out as early as March, while Mayor Patricia De Lille said the city has until April 22 until "Day Zero". Metro, 15 January London 'put to shame' by New York fossil fuel divestment London has been put to shame by New York's decision to divest city pension funds from fossil fuel companies, according to climate campaigners who accuse the mayor, Sadiq Khan, of fudging a similar promise he made during his election campaign. Global efforts to drive invest- ment away from oil, gas and coal were given a major boost last week when the biggest city in the US announced plans to sell off its $5 billion holdings in fossil fuel assets and sue the world's most powerful oil companies over their contribution to dangerous global warming. The Guardian, 15 January National Grid allays fears after Carillion collapse N ational Grid has moved swily to allay fears that delivery of a string of infrastructure projects has been put at risk following the collapse of construction giant Carillion. The UK's second-biggest building company announced on 15 January that it had gone into liquidation. The collapse follows a £1.15 billion loss reported by Carillion in the first half of last year aer it was forced to write down the value of three projects to the tune of £845 million because of cost overruns and delays. Last week, the Financial Conduct Authority announced it had launched an investigation into the dramatic turnaround in the company's accounts from the previous end-of-year trading statement when it had predicted strong growth in revenues and reduced borrowing in 2017. The company's shares were frozen at 14.2p. Carillion was working with National Grid on three major projects. These include an overhead line between the Can- terbury North 400kV substation and a new 400kV substation at Richborough in Kent, which is designed to connect the Nemo interconnector to the grid. Carillion is also relocating a cable at Wylfa to support the development of a new power station at the Isle of Anglesey site for Horizon Nuclear Power. The third project is the replacement of a transformer at West Weybridge in Surrey. National Grid said it had plans to minimise disruption to delivery of these projects. A spokesperson said: "National Grid has contingency plans in place for all its projects with Carillion, using alterna- tive suppliers if necessary. We believe that these plans mean we will be able to keep any dis- ruption to a minimum." DB Funding scheme for electric car charge points falls flat Just five councils across England have taken advantage of a gov- ernment-backed scheme for funding electric car charge points, ministers have revealed. The Department for Transport (DfT) On- Street Residential Charge Point scheme covers up to 75 per cent of the cost of procur- ing and installing charge points. £4.5m Amount left unclaimed from the scheme, which DfT says could fund thousands of charge points. 1/3 The scheme is designed to provide charging facilities for the approxi- mately one-third of homes that lack off-street parking. £1.5m Amount made available in 2016 for the current financial year. "The UK is an international champion for the protection of our planet and we will build on our record in the years ahead" Prime minister Theresa May as the government published its 25-year environment plan.

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