Bangkok--22 Jun--Asian Institute of Technology
A team of two AIT students have won the third place in the "Go Green in the City" competition organized by Schneider Electric. Termed as a global student competition for sustainable energy solutions, the competition, which was held on 19 May 2016 at Schneider's Bangphoo Industrial Estate, saw AIT's team comprising of Pokchat Wetchapinant and Danupol Wetchasirikul win the second runner-up position in Thailand.
Presenting their proposal on "Eco districts and smart fit," the AIT team combined a smart grid proposal with popular chat applications and games to promote the concept of reducing power consumption, particularly during peak demand. "Every participant will get a warning on the mobile phone informing them about approaching peak demand. Participants will then have the option of both manual and automatic options of reducing their energy consumption," Pokchat explained.
The smart grid connected to the mobile phone provides an option of either automatic switching off of energy consuming devices, or informing the participant about the potential reduction from turning off individual devices. People who reduce peak demand energy using the application receive double benefits — of reduction in energy costs and gifted with coins in the chat application 'Line,' which they can use for purchasing stickers or playing online games.
Pokchat described the project as fun, easy to use, smart, effective, customisable, interactive and one with a real time application. The team estimated that this would entail an expenditure of 2 billion THB for a district comprising of 1,000 households — an expenditure that is similar to a conventional system.
The team from Chulalongkorn University came first, while the team from King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi was second. Both Jennifer and Danupol are Master's students in the Energy field of study at AIT's School of Environment, Resources and Development (SERD).
Photo caption: Pokchat Wetchapinant (right) and Danupol Wetchasirikul with their award.