Smart Energy Management System for Government Institutions: A Case of the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology

Energy management by being effective and sustainable has taken on critical importance as the world’s energy consumption rises. As a result, the education sector has to implement a smart energy management system to minimize electricity consumption, save costs, and maximize energy efficiency. The electricity system used by the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology is analog. Such a system always leads to power wastage and high energy consumption. Sometimes, most security lights are kept on during the day when they should be at night. This causes a substantial monthly charge that impacts the budget of other sectors, such as research and development. The main focus of this study was to improve the energy management system through advanced technologies and control of appliances (lights, fans, and air conditioners). A low-cost and effective Smart Energy Management System for Government Institutions has been developed to reduce energy consumption. The developed system uses IoT technologies within WSN and Wi-Fi to channel the energy consumption collected from various appliances and sections and relays it to the cloud. The qualitative and quantitative methods have been used in this research. Based on the results, the system enabled monitoring, and control of lights, fans, and air conditioners and generated real-time live data. Furthermore, the user can access the system, control and monitor appliances online via a Blynk web dashboard and mobile application, and receive notifications via GSM in case of internet failure.