Work place: Department of Communications Science and Engineering, Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology, Arusha, Tanzania
E-mail: omarys@nm-aist.ac.tz
Website:
Research Interests: Computational Science and Engineering
Biography
Shaban Omary is a Tutorial Assistant in the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Dar es Salaam. He completed his Bachelor's degree in Telecommunication Engineering in 2015 at the University of Dar es Salaam. Currently, he is pursuing a Master's degree in Information and Communication Science and Engineering at the Nelson African Institution of Science and Technology, Tanzania.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5815/ijem.2019.06.03, Pub. Date: 8 Nov. 2019
Electricity usage monitoring systems play a vital role towards raising energy utilization awareness for consumers. Existing solar mini-grid infrastructure, however, lacks a user-friendly two-way platform to allow consumers to access information about electricity consumption. This paper proposes a cloud-based, two-way energy usage monitoring system that will allow both utility companies and consumers to access energy consumption data in a user-friendly way through a web platform. The system requirements were collected via questionnaires, interviews, and observations conducted at two solar mini-grids centres located at Arusha and Kilimanjaro regions in Tanzania. The system uses a Low Power Area Network (LPWAN) and the existing GPRS network to monitor electricity consumption data between smart meter units and the cloud server. Also, a virtual bill payment module and usage status feedback functionality have been integrated into the system to increase awareness of the cost-effective use of electricity and hence, achieve the sustainability of solar mini-grids. By using both white-box and black-box system testing approaches, findings show that the system will not only raise awareness among customers about the economical usage of electricity, but it can also be used by mini-grid companies as a source of data to determine current and future energy demands to minimize large investment costs.
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