EDP Distribuição awarded the best projects of 'Hack The Electron', a marathon of deepening of ideas and creation of projects, carried out in partnership with EDP Inovação and Taikai. This initiative aims to stimulate the development of innovative Energy Box solutions to take full advantage of the enormous potential that these new equipment, which are replacing current meters, offer to the users of the network and increase the quality of million consumers of electricity.
The so-called Hackathon, which started on May 15 and had a total of 15,000 euros in prize money, was made up of two competitions that took place during the month of June. In the first (competition A), the participants had access to a set of totally anonymous and uncharacterized data of domestic clients, such as contracted power, type of tariff and type of connection and consumption, in order to think, develop and to create prototypes of services that could generate value for the final consumer. In the second competition (competition B), the teams received an Energy Box kit so that they could develop innovative solutions based on the data that are available and accessible in real time in these equipments.
135 programmers, students, entrepreneurs, engineers and startups creators, between the ages of 18 and 40, participated in this initiative through the constitution of 45 teams and the development of numerous projects that passed through the screening of EDP Distribuição. The 8 best projects of each competition were publicly presented at the event held this Thursday, July 4, at the Museu da Eletricidade, in Lisbon.
After the deliberation of the jury, it was possible to meet the great winners. First place in competition A was awarded to the 'Energy Army Knife' team, which developed a decision support platform for electricity consumers. "We have proposed a recommendation system for the tariff and contracted power, based on simulators for the purchase of high consumption equipment, solar panels and batteries. We are very happy because we have worked hard and we believe in the project, "said Joana Faria, one of the group's members.
First place in competition B was awarded to the 'Zews' team, for proposing to improve the efficiency of the photovoltaic system, taking advantage of data from the intelligent energy network. "Our project is an intelligent system that monitors the export of electricity to the grid. Being recognized for our work and effort is a very good feeling, "said Miguel Silva, one of the winners.
With this type of initiative, and with more than 2.3 million Energy Box installed, EDP Distribution aims to stimulate the community to develop sustainable, reliable and innovative solutions capable of improving the quality of service, with high benefits for the consumer.
