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).
Pokchat Wetchapinant (right) and Danupol
Wetchasirikul with their award.