Since there are no currently active contests, we have switched Climate CoLab to read-only mode.
Learn more at https://climatecolab.org/page/readonly.
Skip navigation
Share via:

Pitch

A smart energy audit on consumers’ phones displaying their real time electricity consumption, wastage sources n tips to reduce energy use.


Description

Summary


In most part of Africa, demand for power outstrips supply. Interestingly, out of the total kW supplied, a large percentage is wasted as a result of leakages, over aged equipment, and irresponsibility on part of consumers

The waste hurts and if saved could reduce load shedding hours, black outs, CO2 emissions, the amount invested by governments into building new power plants.

To save this waste, we need energy audits for demand side management. Audits help users would sources of unintentional “leak or overuse of energy”

So, why are energy audits not popular? Energy Audits are expensive and the number energy audit professionals available are few.

To get more people to do/get access to the energy audits to manage their power consumption, we designed Esave solution.

Esave is an innovative hardware and software solution that will perform and provide results of an energy audit right on your smartphones

When a customer registers on the esave app, we ask for a one time info about their electrical appliances, number of each, the energy efficiency star rating and the average hours of use / day

Once we have this information, we firstly show the customer the amount it cost them to use each equipment per day, week n month and also show them a total for all the energy consumed per equipment

Esave app gives users simple tips on how would they could save on their consumption and also show them the amount they could save. The customer is given an infograph of the amount they would be save if they adhere to esave’s energy saving tips.


Finally, Esaves’ intelligent hardware would be connected to the customer’s main switchboard and would be tracking the total energy usage. With this information, we would provide graphs or charts to show trends of energy usage over each week and month. When our system observes that you’ve used more than what you used last week, a push notification is sent to customer which clearly points out the section that used more energy and provide tips to prevent overuse.

 


What actions do you propose?

Esave app and hardware puts energy audit of urban dwellers, office, commercial building at the fingertips of every consumer. They now have the power to account for how much electricity they are consuming, where they waste energy most, how they can save on their total consumption and how much they can save in currency terms if they adhere to the tips provided by esave.

Team Esave will design and build the Esave app and hardware component.

The hardware is simple plugin in the switch board of residential homes. It can be installed by the user who has a little knowledge on electrical cable or any technician.

Collaborate with key stakeholders to educate general consumers on benefits of using esave to reduce their expenditure on electricity bills as well as to the environment

Team Esave monitor and provide feedback to app users

 

 


Who will take these actions?

Team Esave: will design, develop and build the esave app and the prototype of the esave hardware component

OEM: we will partner with external equipment manufacturers to build the tested hardware component for mass production.

Ministry of Energy/Power/Electricity: we will collaborate with government agencies responsible for managing the power sector to educate consumers on benefit of the use of esave app and hardware.

Think Tanks, Universities : We will make our data available to think tanks, research institutes and universities to conduct impact assessment on the use of esave on consumer, government and the environment


Where will these actions be taken?

Our key target areas are urban areas in Africa where demand for electricity has outstripped the available supply.

The pilot phase would be done in Ghana.

Our initial direct customer would be:

 Residential home owners in urban areas

 


How much will emissions be reduced or sequestered vs. business as usual levels?

Esave system helps to bring down the total demand for energy.

Esave makes urban users more aware and concerned about the need for energy conservation

Esave also protects the environment by ensuring less CO2 is released into the atmosphere during power generation since demand is reduced.  That is approximately 10% reduction in CO2 possible. 60% of power generation in Ghana is thermal. Reduction in consumption reduces emission of CO2 gases.

Also, ESAVE will help consumers in Africa to be energy efficient and save up to 15% money on their electricity bills. According to the Ministry of Power in Ghana, 20% of energy used by consumers is wasted. Esave team used this figure, with the average monthly consumption of residential house and the cost of electricity per KWh to calculate arriving at the  15% energy cost saving when advices given by the app is adhered to by consumers. E.g notification to switch air condition temperature lower due to high energy consumption at a particular time.

 


What are other key benefits?

ESAVE solution would also save more than 50% on expensive energy audits done by professional. The average cost of professional audits range between $300-900 (Fox Business).

All Esave users can now audit their energy consumption anytime they want – because they have esave on their phones

Esave  makes users aware of their energy usage daily, weekly and monthly

Esave would have an ON/OFF buttons to remotely control their devices from anywhere

Emergency alert and direct dial to emergency customer service providers

Esave users get push notification of regular fire prevention and firefighting.

With Esave, the local government and researchers now have easy access to statistics of energy usage for the individual, community.

Esave alerts its users of direct power-outs.

 


What are the proposal’s costs?

The software application would developed locally by the Esave Team members. It will be free to download and available on all platform (andriod, windows, iOS) 

Hardware would also be built locally by the Esave Team engineers. It will be a plugin device into the switch board of users. The prototype will cost  $120.21 to build. (costing of prototype)

Arduino UNO Rev3  ---------  $ 22.52
Arduino GSM Sheild  --------- $ 77.69
plugin case -----------------------$20

The cost of the hardware will be brought down significantly to 10% of the prototype cost when produced in large quantities ie. 1 million pieces of the plugin hardware by an OEM. 
 

 

 

 


Time line

Year 1 :       Design, develop and build esave app and hardware component (prototype) and Testing.

 

Year 2 :      

1. Large scale manufacture of hardware by OEM partner 
     
2. collaboration with governments and ministries deployment of esave solutions.

3. Monitoring and feedback

 

Year 3-5

 1. Addition of new features to software

  2. Impact assessment of esave solution

  3. Upgrade of hardware 


Related proposals


References

Brighter Africa: The growth potential of the sub-Saharan electricity sector, Mckensy & Company, February 2015