Sekhar Kondepudi

Good practices in the use of ICT equipment for electricity savings at a university campus

The commercial sector is responsible in a large degree for the overall energy consumption around the world and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) constitute an important category of electricity loads which is becoming dominant in offices. Recognizing the importance of using ICT equipment more rationally for saving energy in commercial buildings, we have performed an energy audit of ICT loads at the School of Design and Environment, National University of Singapore, using smart power outlets. After a six-month period through which we have measured and analyzed the consumption of the most representative ICT devices available at the school, we have identified various good practices in the use of office equipment, in order to reduce the total electricity footprint of the building. Most of our practices can be generalized for offices and commercial buildings.

OPLD: Towards improved non-intrusive office plug load disaggregation

Practical energy auditing in offices poses several challenges unlike homes e.g. physically large space, diverse energy appliances types, several appliance instances and occupancy non-obstructiveness. However, improved energy-auditing measures using predictive analytics can benefit energy savings and reduce building operational costs. A review of some publicly available energy datasets such as AMPds, BLUED, ECO, REDD etc. is presented to help understand practical limitations in relying and applying them alike for office plug load audits. A possible approach to predict miscellaneous electrical plug loads (MELs) is proposed using Office Plug Load Dataset (OPLD) based on empirical characteristics and measurements of MELs devices. This work in progress study is one of the first attempts to characterize office desktop appliances across multiple states through a very large experimental dataset. The dataset might be effective in identifying individual appliances & its states in aggregate signature. This can find promising application in improving our understanding on office MELs and thus disaggregating them from single-point measurement.

Understanding the activities and areas of concern of elderly population: The case of Singapore

There is a clear demographic trend towards a higher proportion of elderly population in most developed countries and economies. One of the key aspects related to aging is the continuation of high quality of living for elderly population. Such a goal can be achieved when elderly people are autonomous, independent and have lower risks for their health and safety. By means of a field study and personal interviews with four subjects from the identified age group, and a survey with 105 elderly participants, we have recorded their everyday instrumental activities and areas of concern, identifying actions that may pose risks to them and hence, require care and assistance. Based on our findings, we present several possibilities of smart technologies available on the market, which could be used for assisting elderly population to live a pleasant, independent, healthy and safer life in the Singaporean context.