SLIIT Engineering Faculty runner-up at 1st Int’l Energy and Electricity Market Competition, China

SLIIT Faculty of Engineering Team at 1st International Energy & Electricity Market Competition in China 

A team representing the SLIIT Faculty of Engineering brought glory for the Institute securing second place at the first International Energy and Electricity Market Business Decision Simulation Competition held in China recently.

At the competition hosted by the Shanghai University of Electric Power (SUEP), fourth year SLIIT electrical undergraduates Chandula Dimithri, Sasanga Hewagama, Kushan Kandambi with Instructor Tharaka Kaushalya and Assistant Lecturer Aziz Hafeel won the second place and received a handsome cash prize beating other countries. 

“We congratulate our students for winning this prestigious prize. The knowledge and skills our students have gained by participating in this competition is immeasurable. As the energy industry is growing, participating in this competition has given them a great opportunity to experience and engage with people in similar specialisations,” said SLIIT CEO/Vice Chancellor Prof. Lalith Gamage. Teams from electrical power specialised universities representing countries such as Russia, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Oman, China and Vietnam participated in the competition. 

The preliminary rounds for the competition was conducted online and held from 6 to 21 May. Each university was limited to five teams (four undergraduate students per team).

The teams passed the preliminary round by playing the platform of CESIM’s electricity market simulation software. The simulation platform was provided by CESIM from Finland and is capable of supporting 21 different languages in the world.  The preliminary round constituted playing a strategic business simulation game popular in the electricity power industry. The CESIM simulation is widely used for educational purposes both in academic as well as corporate environments globally. The aim of CESIM simulations is to trigger strategic thinking, helping to gain understanding of drivers of profitability in an electricity power company. 

In the business simulation, participants have to operate a company in a competitive market and play against other teams in the assigned group. The goal of the simulation is to gain the highest cumulative profit.   The preliminary rounds for the SLIIT teams were conducted by the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering SUEP who also provided online support and assistance.  After the Preliminary Rounds, the Champion team in each university was invited to SUEP for the final round held from 12-14 July. During the final round in China the teams had to conduct a commercial presentation with a viva session.

After the contest was over, the teams were able to participate in the International Summer School Program known as the ‘1st Regional Association of Energy and Power Universities Summer School’ hosted by SUEP. 

The students also had the opportunity to join in seminars and field visits as part of the summer program. They were able to interact with other teams and meet many international students from universities in the field of Electrical Power.