Project Background

A key middle school in a major city covers approximately 80,000 square meters, with 3 teaching buildings, 1 laboratory building, 1 library, 1 gymnasium, 2 student dormitories, and dining facilities. The school has about 3,500 students and over 400 faculty members, consuming approximately 2.8 million kWh annually, with electricity costs accounting for over 15% of operating expenses.

Driven by the "dual carbon" policy, the school management recognized that traditional粗放式 energy management was no longer sustainable and urgently needed a refined, intelligent energy monitoring and management system.

Construction Objectives

This project aimed to build a campus-wide energy monitoring network with the following core goals:

• Full Coverage Monitoring: Sub-metering of electricity, water, gas, and heat with at least 200 monitoring points
• Real-time Visualization: Real-time energy data display via Dashboard with mobile access
• Anomaly Alert: Energy baseline model for automatic abnormal usage alerts
• Energy Saving Analysis: Year-over-year, month-over-month, and benchmarking analysis
• Energy Saving Target: Minimum 10% energy reduction in the first year

System Architecture

The system adopts a four-layer architecture: Perception - Network - Platform - Application.

1. Perception Layer

Multiple types of smart sensors and metering devices were deployed:

• Power Monitoring: Three-phase multifunction power meters in distribution cabinets
• Water Monitoring: Ultrasonic flow meters at main and branch water pipes
• Environmental Monitoring: Temperature, humidity, CO₂, and illuminance sensors in classrooms and offices
• HVAC Monitoring: Integration with central air conditioning control system

2. Network Layer

A hybrid "wired + wireless" networking solution:

• Power meters connected via RS-485 to data acquisition gateways
• Environmental sensors using LoRaWAN wireless transmission
• Gateways uploading data via campus Ethernet

3. Platform Layer

Energy management platform deployed on local servers with core functions including multi-source data collection, storage, device asset management, and user permission management.

4. Application Layer

Differentiated functions for different user roles:

• School Leadership: Campus-wide energy overview, target achievement rate
• Facility Management: Equipment status, alert handling, report export
• Teachers/Students: Regional energy inquiry, energy-saving tips

Implementation Results

After 6 months of operation, significant results were achieved:

• Energy Visualization: 100% online monitoring of campus energy data
• Anomaly Detection: 47 abnormal energy events identified, saving approximately 120,000 kWh
• Energy Savings: 13.2% actual energy reduction in the first year, saving about 180,000 RMB
• Management Improvement: Report generation time reduced from 3 days to 5 minutes

Conclusion

Smart campus energy management is not only a technical project but also a management transformation. Through the complete closed loop of "sense-transmit-analyze-use", the school achieved a leap from粗放式 management to refined control. In the dual carbon era, every kWh saved contributes to sustainable development.