Indonesian app creator receives S Korean innovation award

“The International Invention Fair was held by Korea Electric Power Corporation from October 29 until November 3 in South Korea,” said Imam, who is a Bekasi, West Java, resident, as quoted by Tempo.co. 
The competition was attended by participants from 100 countries, including Peru, Hong Kong, Morocco and Iran.
Imam developed Listriku, which translates as “my electricity”, along with a colleague, Fardhan Adharizal, with the aim of reducing electricity usage at home. 
“At that time, my electricity bill had reached 4 million rupiah (US$273) per month, but I didn’t know how to calculate it,” he said.
Imam, a graduate from Diponegoro University in Semarang, Central Java, said he was motivated to develop Listriku because of a lack of an accessible electricity usage-tracking tool from service providers in Indonesia. 
The app features pages that among other things include waste calculations to assess the potential savings in electricity usage at home, savings recommendations, |recommendations for changing equipment and electrical components. 
There is also a control feature that oversees the house with a system connected to the Internet, where it captures the time interval for the use of electronic items and calculates the cost in rupiah.
Imam said the application worked through users entering data related to the name of the electrical product used and the data would be stored in the PHP variable.
“The type of product, for example, could be a fluorescent lamp, LED lamp, incandescent lamp or pump. Entering the product type in more detail will provide a reference for further recommendations,” he said.
A “Paid Info” page also presents comparisons between the normal costs and possible savings in accordance with the recommended products.
The most important thing in the Listriku app, said Imam, was the warning service to users if there is an electric anomaly, such as a short circuit or overload.
“This system is useful for providing an early warning to the public if there is the potential for a fire or damage to the electrical installation because of an anomalous situation,” he said.
Listriku also implements an automated-notification system for users to take a number of steps to save electricity.
“There will be notifications like this, ‘Hai Fardhan, by turning off the lights before going to bed tonight, you have saved 125 watts’,” he said.
With the app, Imam hopes the occurrence of a surge in electricity bills that shocked him and other electricity users will no longer occur because everything can be controlled.