A PRELIMINARY ENERGY AUDIT ON ICT PLUG LOADS IN SCHOOL OF DESIGN AND ENVIRONMENT, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE

Abstract

Office buildings are predicted to grow the fastest in terms of electricity usage, and miscellaneous electric loads constitute a significant portion in total usage. Over the last 30 years, the number of MELs has dramatically risen with large span of working loads, ranging from very small to very large. MEL is a new load category that needs to be carefully understood in order to have a better control on energy consumption. Despite the significance of ICT plug loads in the building, its important role in building’s energy consumption is not fully understood. Therefore, this dissertation made an attempt to study the power consumption pattern of ICT devices, at the same time, to make an estimation of current ICT equipment in SDE building. In order to fulfil these objectives, the paper has conducted data collection, objective measurements, and subjective survey. Afterwards, it was found that the number of ICT devices in the buildings is relatively high (1,534 devices). Power demand of common ICT device types (Desktop computer, workstation, display, printer, etc.) was estimated about 17683 kWh per month. In addition, these patterns were examined and they seem to have distinct power consumption behaviour in different states of working.