A technical seminar was organized by IEEE PES BracU Student Branch Chapter in collaboration with IEEE BracU Student Branch on 11th June 2019, in the name of ‘Peer to Peer Energy Trading in Bangladesh: Prospects & Challenges’. The technical talk was conducted by Mr. Hannes Kirchhoff, Chief Technical Officer at Solshare. The main objective of this seminar was to let everyone know about the technology of sharing electricity. The idea of this system is interconnecting solar homes and one can earn money from the excess electricity by providing to those who are not capable of installing a solar system or those who cannot afford electricity. This is the technology which can both help to afford solar electricity at the same time bring economical improvement in society. This system manages interconnection between multiple users to a decentralized, low voltage DC micro-grid and facilitates electricity trade for their users.
The students who were present during this seminar learned a lot about how to install the system at the same time they understood the importance of having basic technical knowledge as an electrical engineer. The seminar also emphasized on the fact that to be a good Engineer one must go out and do some fieldwork to gather knowledge in the technical area. The tutorial session was interesting as well since it was an interactive session where students were asked about their passion for choosing their own major area of education at the beginning of the session. The speaker also inspired the students to think different and motivated to go and invent new technologies in order to achieve something phenomenal, which will benefit everyone and work as a betterment for the society.
During the seminar, it was discussed how a Minigrid Electricity system installed at home of the low-income rural citizen provides electricity, at the same time the system helps the user earn money by sharing electricity. In addition to that, Mr. Kirchhoff the speaker of the day discussed Motivation, Sustainability, Off-grid peer-to-peer, On-grid peer-to-peer also E-mobility of peer to peer trading.
At the end of the seminar, a crest was handed over to the speaker in order to show gratitude and students were served refreshments as well.
To conclude, the technology Peer to Peer Energy trading in Bangladesh is a success story of making sustainable, affordable energy accessible to the low-income people of Bangladesh and at the same time, it provides the opportunity to earn profit with the excess electricity as well. In the end, it can be said that this startup brought revolutionary improvement in Bangladesh’s rural area.
