Smart plug system that reduces electricity use by up to 20% will be installed by five schools in Singapore

Mr Teo also noted that the utility bill does not provide specific information on which appliances consume the most energy.

Currently, the school’s energy bill per annum is a low six-figure sum, Mr Teo said, without going into details. “With Ecovolt, once we get the data, it will be very eye-opening for us to see how much we are saving.”

Similarly, St Hilda’s Secondary School operations manager Wong Huat Leng said the school installed the plugs to cut costs and support sustainability efforts.

Forty plugs are now in the school’s computer lab, where the information technology (IT) department frequently needs to charge laptops overnight, particularly during exam periods or when teachers have early lessons.

With the new technology, charging does not have to be done overnight, but only when needed, Mr Wong said.

“The timing can be configured to begin charging at 6am before lessons start at 8.15am,” he said, and this helps to lower energy costs.

He added that the monitoring platform displays the status and energy consumption of each appliance, and the IT department has seen improved efficiency.

“The team no longer has to arrive early in the morning to ensure the laptops are fully charged and ready for student use,” Mr Wong said, adding that set-up time has also been reduced. 

The school hopes to continue using the smart plugs after the trial, taking into consideration maintenance costs, and plans to install these plugs in more computer labs, staff rooms and offices, and appliances such as water coolers, printers and projectors. 

Mr Wong hopes the initiative will also raise students’ awareness of sustainability and energy conservation.

Over in the north-east, at SIT’s new Punggol campus, 120 plugs were installed in October across various labs – including chemistry, food technology, computer and engineering labs – as well as on photocopiers and vending machines.

The tie-up with Ecovolt is currently on trial until April 2026, said senior manager of estates at SIT’s Punggol campus Pek Hai Lin. The aim is to assess how the plugs can best be used and contribute to the efficacy of overall data collection.

SIT completed its move to its Punggol campus in May, and Ecovolt’s introduction is part of their journey to collect baseline energy usage, she said.

“Ecovolt came in at a good time, when we were looking at how to track our data in a more granular way,” said Ms Pek, who leads sustainability-related efforts at SIT.

“We are thinking about how to gather data effectively to identify opportunities or areas to reduce energy usage.”

Ecovolt’s Mr Chia, who is part of a three-man company, said that working together with schools is more than just optimising buildings. “It is also to engage the community and embed sustainability learning into the classroom.”

Once all smart plugs in the five schools have been connected, the start-up plans to run educational programmes using real-time data from the schools to teach students how electricity, energy use and carbon emissions are linked.

“Through our workshops, students deepen their understanding of Singapore’s sustainability initiatives and learn how they can each play a meaningful part in reducing their carbon footprint,” Mr Chia said, adding that the first trial run for this programme was for NYJC, on Oct 14.

“We hope to inspire more schools to take this up as a two-way strategy to reduce energy expenditure.”

Note: This article was written by Gabrielle Chan and first appeared in The Straits Times on 16 November 2025.

Source: The Straits Times