“The University of Phayao in Thailand is offering the ASEAN’s first smart grid degree.
The university has adopted an intelligent grid in its actual power generation and use on campus and is now the first to offer its study as a degree programme, reports the local media.
Associate professor Dr. Wattanapong Rakwichian, dean of the School of Energy and Environment, or SEEN, at the University of Phayao, said these smart technologies are substantially developing, gaining attention and becoming more crucial to the future.
At the University of Phayao, electricity is generated on campus from solar cells and managed via the system that results in substantial cost savings.
The university’s School of Energy and Environment offers graduate degrees in energy management and smart grid technology at both the master’s and doctoral levels.
These programmes are the first-of-its-kind available in ASEAN. The school has researched the use of smart microgrid and aims to be a demonstration site for implementation, through a research grant from the Department of Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency at the Ministry of Energy.
The smart microgrid will be applied as pilot projects in the Philippines and Laos under international cooperation, with the School of Energy and Environment playing a leading role.
There is also potential to expand intelligent grid technologies into the business sector in Thailand in the near future.
Associate professor Dr. Wattanapong Rakwichian added that the private sector is now interested to investing in intelligent networks which make for ‘higher demand in person with smart grid knowledge.’
Furthermore, graduate students that have already joined the smart grid programme are among the top level in ASEAN. Lately, the ASEAN Centre for Energy, the international energy policy agency headquartered in Jakarta, has endorsed the University of Phayao as the founding institution of the ASEAN Smart Grid Congress to bring together smart grid experts to share and exchange their experiences.” (Source: Metering)