Examining Energy Consumption in a Higher Educational Institution - The Role of Smart Analytics

Abstract

Various factors have a significant impact on any building's energy consumption and its contribution to environmental footprint. Educational buildings form an integral part of commercial buildings, considering their energy consumption. This paper primarily aims to develop an energy model for higher educational Institutions (HEI) in India. The focus was to determine the contribution of significant factors to the total energy usage of the building. The Institution pioneered installing a smart IoT meter integrated into the Smart Campus Cloud Network (SCCN) in 2016 for energy monitoring. This facilitated a database of all relevant electrical parameters of the campus. The model developed with linear multivariable regression uses relevant data points from SCCN during three years from 2017 to 2019. Models developed, based on different usage patterns for each month, gave an insight into the relevant parameters on energy consumption, which varied due to externalities. A monthly trend analysis of both energy consumption and its related emission of the institute were performed. This validated the benefits from energy conservation drives at the campus. The results were indicative of a sustained mitigation initiative to reduce environmental impact, thus contributing to the reduction of Scope 2 GHG emissions. The analysis, along with the models developed, could help the HEIpredict future energy consumption. The institute thus portrayed sustainable stewardship, which any HEI could adopt in mitigating climate change.