InnoBlog: Working for viable cities

I am the master thesis intern and I engage constantly with the Jarfalla Kommun (a local municipality in Sweden). I am performing feasibility study for a ‘P2P (peer-to-peer) energy sharing project’ in the Jarfalla municipality. I weigh the pros, cons, barriers and drivers to implement P2P energy sharing, similar to the project being implemented in the nearby Orebro municipality. Most of my analysis involved conducting interviews and studying the existing projects as a main source for data collection.

I am grateful to EIT InnoEnergy and my supervisor, Olga Kordas, Programme Coordinator for MSc Energy for Smart Cities. During the first semester, we had a whole course on Smart Cities and Climate Mitigation Strategies which was taught by Olga. During the classes there were many practical examples of the work done by Viable Cities that gave me a better understanding of where we are now and what problems we still have to deal with. With her help, I got the opportunity to work at Viable Cities. Furthermore, the EIT InnoEnergy Career Centre has been very helpful in terms of understanding the visa requirements and helping students out with finding companies for thesis and moving to new countries for internship.

I had 2 things in my mind that I wanted to achieve from my master thesis:

1. Meaningful research work: Completely done! My thesis will be useful for Jarfalla municipality to make calculated decision on the implementation of P2P sharing project. So, I am happy that my work is not just relevant but has some meaning to it.

2. Networking: Due to covid-19, I couldn’t spend much time with the team at the office, but in the limited time we spent, there were many meaningful discussions which I really enjoyed. I felt engaged in the conversations. Apart from this, with all the interviews that I conducted during the study, I was able to develop some rapport with the interviewees and I am happy with that too.

Choose the thesis or internship that you love! If you don’t have a choice of topic, choose the company you really aspire to work for. Think long term, something that you’re sacrificing now should reap you a benefit later. It takes time to find the right company with the right topic and you just don’t have to think about thesis only in the second year. If you are a non-EU student and have to travel to another country for thesis, it is definitely better to start early!

By Malavika Venugopal, EIT InnoEnergy Master School student