Energy management at a South African higher education institution: a case study

Abstract

To date, student accommodations have received little attention in the published literature regarding energy consumption and energy efficiency. With their unique operating and building characteristics, these buildings have diverse opportunities for analysis in regards to building’s energy usage and occupant’s comfort. With the lack of research focus on these types of buildings (student accommodations), it can be concluded that the perspective is that student accommodations have overall lower average energy intensity, therefore they rarely receive energy assessments. South Africa is currently faced with energy crises which have led to a continuous load-shedding and increased tariffs, for this case, there is a need for energy-saving models to be implemented mostly across the institutions of higher learning student accommodations. This presented case study (thesis) focussed on the energy management at the CPUT’s student accommodation (Catsville residence) through a preliminary energy audit, data logging (using a Fluke 1730 power analyser), electricity bill analysis and occupants (student) survey to fulfil the main aim of establishing whether the energy management strategies can be applied to the student accommodations to effect the cost and energy efficiency. The work presented in this thesis is the first step towards making the CPUT student accommodations the most energy-efficient buildings. A preliminary energy audit which included metering was performed to determine if there is a need for a comprehensive energy audit. Based on the audit results, a comprehensive energy audit was recommended as it is more informative than the preliminary audit. The results from the audit determined that there are several energy conservation opportunities (ECONs) available such as retrofitting of existing equipment and there is also a need for energy management systems to be deployed. Based on the electricity bills, the university spends just under R4 million per annum on electricity and if the energy conservation measures and energy management systems could be implemented, there is a prospect that the cost will reduce significantly. The electricity bill is expected to almost double by 2025 based on the assessment of the annual increases of about 8% based on the period under study (2017 to 2019). The metering (data logging using the Fluke 1730 power meter) established the consumption profile which showed that the electricity in the residences is consumed even though there is no occupancy, this has also strongly suggested the need for energy management interventions. The profile shows that during recess, the consumption is low when compared Preamble to the in-session (school time) period. The hard lockdown period was of interest as it also showed that the university had a bill of almost half of what they would normally pay, based on the data obtained from the data logger, this implied that there was the usage of electricity even though it was virtually unoccupied. The data logger (Fluke 1730) has capabilities of measuring power quality issues such as voltage imbalances, current surges, power factor, frequency and harmonics. The data showed that the voltage is fairly balanced, however, there were voltage spikes noticed when power is restored after load shedding. The currents showed that the red phase is heavily loaded when compared to the other phases. Power factor was averaging about 0.8 lagging which is less than the 0.9 lagging recommended by Eskom. The frequency and harmonics were found to be within the limits as recommended by the NRS 048 – 2 and IEEE 519 respectively. Over 100 residence students participated in the student awareness survey. The survey suggested that the students need some education or awareness when it comes to energy-related matters, from saving energy, cost of energy and energy efficiency. This will make students to be more energy conscious and therefore play their part in saving energy. The study concluded that the energy efficiency at the residences has not been taken seriously and this requires the hostel and the university management at large to act swiftly as this can be seen as the cost and GHG emission saving opportunities