DOI: 10.11648/j.ijepe.20261505.13 ISSN: 2326-960X

Energy Audit and Optimization Strategies for Electricity Consumption in University Buildings of the Sudano-Sahelian Zone: The Case of Norbert Zongo University

Moussa Tissologo, Idrissa Sourabie, Seydou Ouedraogo
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University buildings in sub-Saharan Africa are major items of energy expenditure, yet their consumption remains rarely documented. This study reports the electrical audit of three groups of buildings of Norbert Zongo University in Koudougou (Burkina Faso) and assesses the savings potential that can be mobilized. The approach combines a bottom-up estimate, based on an exhaustive equipment inventory and on a usage survey of one hundred and twenty-three respondents, with the analysis of one hundred and eight monthly billing records covering the period 2021-2023 and supplied by SONABEL, the national electricity utility. The inventory attributes 41.4% of consumption to air conditioning, 30.7% to lighting, 21.9% to ventilation and 6.0% to other equipment. When compared with the metered records, this estimate overstates the energy actually billed by 32.1%, a gap attributable to out-of-service equipment and to the operating-time assumptions adopted. The monthly profiles reveal a marked seasonality, with maxima from March to June and minima in September and October, as well as a decoupling between temperature and consumption at the end of 2023. The demand recorded exceeds the subscribed power in 56.2% of the months observed, by up to a factor of 5.4 for the 1000-seat lecture hall; the corresponding penalties reach 13.4 million CFA francs over three years, i.e. 6.4% of the bill. The power factor complies with the regulatory threshold of 0.92 in only 9.4% of the months, no capacitor bank being installed. The effective unit cost stands at 159.7 FCFA/kWh, i.e. 2.5 times the normal-hours tariff. A smart-meter prototype is proposed to instrument the monitoring of consumption.

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