To strive toward the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050 in Hong Kong, the EMSD actively promotes smart city development and green living. Integrating technology and education, the first-ever Smart Energy Monitoring System (SEMS) was set up in Shau Kei Wan Government Secondary School for teachers and students to proactively monitor and manage their energy consumption.
The SEMS is an online real-time energy monitoring system that records the amount of electricity used by air-conditioners, fans, lighting and other electrical appliances on each floor and in each classroom of the school per minute. The energy consumption in different sessions can be displayed on the system dashboard, enabling teachers and students to manage energy usage more effectively.
The EMSD team took the initiative to provide training on the SEMS to the school. Energy ambassadors of each class were trained to analyse electricity consumption data with the SEMS dashboard, so that electricity consumption could be reduced accordingly. To encourage teachers and students to apply the ideas of carbon emission reduction and energy saving to daily life, our team and the school co-organised an intramural energy-saving competition in December 2021. Mr. Yeung Sau-kuen, Sammy, the Chief Engineer of the General Engineering Services Division of the EMSD was invited to be a guest judge. In the competition, energy ambassadors were required to report to the class their electricity consumption using the charts generated by the SEMS, and develop and put into practice energy-saving measures. When the students realised in the competition that air-conditioning accounted for the largest proportion of electricity consumption, they reflected on their consumption patterns and were aspired to devote to energy conservation.
Seeing that the students understood the importance of green living to our society through the SEMS, Ms. Yan Kin-foon, Alice, the principal of the school are planning to incorporate scientific knowledge on carbon emissions, energy, climate change and data analysis into the school curriculum. In order to promote the integration of technology and education continually, we hope to extend the use of the SEMS to all 65 government schools in the near future.