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Ott Antsmaa, Sander Vahtras and Karl Kull were the three best performers at Eesti Energia's first international idea competition Enefit Idea Hub - The Pitch. The winners shared a prize pool of € 30,000.

The goal of the winning idea by Ott Antsmaa who was recognised as the best by the jury is to give the customers of the network operator Elektrilevi a chance to use the services of various energy service providers through a single subscription platform. “The idea is to create a “single window” for customers to communicate with various energy service providers. By means of a platform located on Elektrilevi’s website, it would be possible to conveniently and quickly subscribe and contact other service providers such as solar panel sellers, electric car charger installers or electricity sellers. The customer could ask for quotes or advice from them, for example,” said Ott Antsmaa.

According to Hando Sutteri , the Chairman of the Board of Eesti Energia, it was the best idea out of the one hundred, and in its simplicity, made the members of the jury ask why didn’t they have it yet. “The strength of the idea lies in its feasibility, it reduces our handiwork and makes processes more cost-effective. However, the biggest value of the idea lies in raising customers’ convenience and satisfaction,” said Sutter. “We can basically start tomorrow with the preparations for the implementation of the idea.”

Sutter sees as the biggest value of the idea competition that people had the courage to think over the development of the energy sector. “We received confirmation that the world is full of good ideas and it doesn’t matter whether the author of the idea is our own employee, a student, engineer or a start-up. I am pleased that with the first time we received 100 ideas for the competition from Estonia, Poland, Latvia, Finland and Lithuania.”

“The ideas placed second and third were also remarkable. The idea called “Multi Charge” enables more people to charge their cars on the same capacity. It’s a practical approach and probably a very topical subject in the near future. The third-place idea called “The Green Meter” directs people to consume more electricity when renewable energy can be used. This enables customers to make environmentally sustainable consumer choices in a simple way,” Sutter said.

They were looking forward to ideas from Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Finnish and Swedish universities, start-ups and from own employees. The competition lasted for two months and collected 100 ideas, 30 of which made it to the semi-final and 10 to the final.

Konkursile oodati ideid kahest valdkonnast – kliendile vajalikud energiateenused ja kaasaegset tehnoloogiat kasutav elektrivõrk.

The competition anticipated ideas in two fields - energy services useful for customers and the power grid using contemporary technology.

The jury of the final consisted of Hando Sutter - Chairman of the Board of Eesti Energia, Margus Vals - Member of the Board of Eesti Energia, Agnes Roos - Head of Eesti Energia’s Business and Information Technology Service, Erki Lipre - CEO of AS Ridango, and Anu Oks - CEO of EstBAN.

Short descriptions of the other nine ideas of the Finale:

“Green Meter”, author of the idea: Karl Kull The green meter system shifts the consumption of electricity to periods where there is the biggest renewable energy production in the grid. This provides the customer with an opportunity to make environmentally-conscious consumption decisions. The concurrence factor of energy produced from variable energy sources and its consumption will improve for the electrical system.

“Enefit Crowd”, author of the idea: Ervin Eivin Enefif Crowd pakub inimestele võimalust investeerida Enefit Green’i projektidesse. Tarbijad saavad teha investeeringuid projektidesse isegi siis, kui neil puudub selleks kogu vajaminev raha ning muutuda tavatarbijatest väiketootjateks. Enefit Crowdi tulemusel saab inimene vähendada nii enda elektriarveid kui ka ökoloogilist jalajälge.

“Smart Charge” and “Enefit EV”, the author of the ideas: Madis Väin

The idea of Smart Charge Charge is to use electricity poles as smart car chargers. It does not have to be a quick-charger, but the usual slow charging gives you enough electricity with a couple of hours to make shorter trips in the city. The same solution could be used for charging electric bikes, skateboards, pushbikes or other electrical appliances.

Enefit EV – the provision of electric cars on the basis of a complete service, additional value by a “green energy” label for companies - subscription-based business model. The customer can choose which electric car they want, which charging package, and which annual or monthly mileage. The cost is added to the electricity bill and it contains all expenses. The customer can use the car and does not have to worry about anything else.

“Voltage VPP” and “Electric Ferries”, the author of the ideas: André Altjõe

Voltage VPP –a new type of a VPP (virtual power plant) solution, where devices are not switched off but the voltage is lowered. Load in the power system equals voltage multiplied with amperage. If voltage is lowered, then the load in the system drops. The standard allows voltage fluctuations +/- 10%. The voltage is lowered in the substation by using control transformers.

Electric ferries – the idea is to build a storage unit consisting of supercapacitors to Kuivastu and Virtsu ports, which helps to quickly charge the batteries of ferries, and this way, take ferries over to electricity. The storage unit consisting of supercapacitors is charged when ferries are on the sea, and when ferries are in the port, their batteries are quickly charged.

“Multi Charge” and “Airport Power”, the author of the ideas: Sander Vahtras

The idea of Multi Charge is to install a smart electric car charger (3-5 chargers) near an apartment building with the possibility to connect 30 electric cars. The system intelligently divides charging power between the cars connected. If up to three cars are connected, they are all charged at full power. The more cars connected, the smaller the charging current for each car.

Airport Power –the idea is to replace the diesel buses of Tallinn Airport with electric buses, which are able to operate in vehicle-to-grid (V2G) mode, that is, to give electricity back from the battery to the grid. Electric buses are more expensive than diesel buses, but electric buses could participate in the electricity or capacity market and earn extra money. Tallinn Airport is an ideal place for using buses in V2G mode, because there is a long period each day when there are very few flights. This period coincides with the time when the electricity market needs additional capacity.

“Enefit SmartHome+”, author of the idea: Helene Abel The idea helps to improve the current mobile application of Eesti Energia by transforming it into a partner in guiding customer’s consumption habits and in making big financial decisions. It helps consumers make choices by taking into account, for example, energy consumption and price when buying household appliances, and by helping to understand what’s behind the energy classes.