Journal Article

IoT-Based Sustainable Energy Solutions for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

Fotis, Georgios, Alomar, Madani Abdu, Alshahrani, Reem, Rizwan, Ali

2024

Overview

SMEs are asked to incorporate sustainable energy solutions into their organizations’ processes to be environmentally friendly and operate more effectively. In this regard, IoT-based technologies seem to have the potential to monitor and optimize energy use. However, more extensive research is required to assess the efficacy of such solutions in the context of SMEs. Despite the growing interest in the Internet of Things (IoT) for renewable energy, there is a lack of information on how well these solutions work for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). While much of the existing literature addresses the application of new technologies in SMEs, the social background underlying their transformation received relatively little attention in previous years. The present research adopts a quantitative approach, employing time series forecasting, specifically long short-term memory networks (LSTM). This paper uses IoT-based approaches to collect and preprocess an energy consumption dataset from various SMEs. The LSTM model is intended to forecast energy consumption in the future based on experience. In terms of analysis, the study adopts Python for data preprocessing, constructing, and assessing models. The main findings reveal a strong positive correlation (r = 0.85) between base energy consumption and overall energy usage, suggesting that optimizing base consumption is crucial for energy efficiency. In contrast, investment in RETs and staff training demonstrate weak correlations (r = 0.25 and r = 0.30, respectively) with energy consumption, indicating that these factors alone are insufficient for significant energy savings. The long short-term memory model used in the study accurately predicted future energy consumption trends with a mean absolute error of 5%. However, it struggled with high-frequency variations, showing up to 15% of mistakes. This research contributes to the literature in line with IoT-based sustainable energy solutions in SMEs, which has not been widely addressed. The findings highlight the critical role of integrating renewable energy technologies (RETs) and fostering a culture of energy efficiency, offering actionable insights for policymakers and business owners. With the application of Python in data analysis and model creation, this research shows a real-world approach to handling issues in sustainable energy management for SMEs.

• Publisher: MDPI AG
• Subject: Alternative energy sources / Biomass energy / Energy conservation / Energy consumption / Energy efficiency / Energy use / Environmental aspects / Internet of Things / long short-term memory model / Methods / Python / renewable energy technologies / Saudi Arabia / Small & medium sized enterprises-SME / small and medium enterprises / Small and medium sized companies / Sustainability / sustainable energy solutions / Technology application