Students Disrupt Energy Industry: Winners of SAP Utility of Tomorrow Contest

Water, gas, and electricity may be basic necessities, but using them sustainably to power a digitized world has never been more complex. SAP recently challenged students to submit their ideas for solving tomorrow’s energy and resource problems in its Utility of Tomorrow Innovation Contest. Administrators, professors and students from over 40 universities in Asia, Europe and North America responded with some pretty insightful innovations. The five winners shared their motivations for entering the contest and what changes they hope to help make.

Green Home – A Smart App for Electricity Authority: Raja Abdulla, a student at Dubai Women’s College in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), created the Green Home app to help the UAE reduce its carbon footprint, one of the highest in the world. “We were inspired to participate because this competition aligns with the sustainability initiatives of the UAE government and recent m-government initiatives,” she says. Using the app, consumers can track energy consumption and remotely control home appliances. They can also explore strategies for more efficient energy consumption by collaborating on social networking sites and with the country’s electricity agency.

Bet and Energy: The Bet and Energy app packages energy consumption schedules into bets that are offered to households via a centralized marketplace. Consumers can win a fixed discount on their energy bill if they adhere to a consumption schedule for a defined time period. They have to pay a fixed premium if they lose. Yong Ding, from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, says that, “Combining consumers with suppliers in a gamified concept will motivate energy conservation among users and support better distribution planning for utilities.”

Continue reading the original blog about SAP's Utility of Tomorrow contest on Forbes >>

Original source: Forbes.