The E.ON Energy Challenge competition saw six teams qualify for the finals of the student competition. Together with their mentors, the students enjoyed two days of challenges, excitement, energy and success over the past week. The top three teams won prizes totalling €6,000.
In first place was the Thermo Vault team from Transilvania University of Brasov, which proposed novel solutions for the production and storage of energy from renewable sources and received the top prize of € 3,000, with the project “Energy communities, production and storage of energy from renewable sources in residential neighbourhoods or industrial parks to optimise electricity consumption”.
The second place went to the EffiPower team of the Technical University “Gheorghe Asachi” from Iași, which convinced the jury with the project “Reactive power management in industrial prosumers” and was rewarded with experiences worth 600 euro/team member. The Smart Energy Solutions team from the University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology “George Emil Palade” – Târgu Mureș was ranked third with an innovative strategy for “Optimising the consumption of own energy production” – a proposal rewarded with experiences worth 300 euro/team member.
The final of the competition took place on Thursday, 13 March, at the E.ON headquarters in Târgu Mureș and brought together teams from the University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology “George Emil Palade” – Târgu Mureș, University of Oradea, Transilvania University – Brașov, Technical University “Gheorghe Asachi” – Iași and Technical University of Cluj-Napoca.
After intensive training at the E.ON training academy – “Energy Challenge Academy” – improving their knowledge and skills in the area of Technical Brainstorming, Public Speaking, Business Case and Digitalisation in energy, the competitors had the opportunity to present their projects to the jury made up of specialists from the E.ON Group in Romania. The judging criteria were the technical and economic applicability of the theme, the originality and innovation of the theme, as well as the structure and detailed presentation of the project.
The E.ON Energy Challenge competition started in 2015 and since then has trained hundreds of students from different university centres in Romania. The projects presented over the years have offered innovative solutions, some of which have been implemented within E.ON.