Smart campus energy management system: advantages, architectures, and the impact of using cloud computing

A Microgrid is a subset of smart grid, a small-scale electrical system powered with renewable energy resources that can operate either in a connected or a disconnected mode to/from the main grid. Given that universities are very important electricity consumers, using an academic Microgrid will solve many problems regarding energy usage[1]. The purpose of this paper, is to describe Microgrid components with an emphasis on energy management (EMS). Given its vital role, the paper presents different architectures of an EMS and discusses how cloud computing can be incorporated to the Microgrid architecture to improve the EMS efficiency. The paper concludes with presenting results of EMS data collection using Kaa IoT platform.