Is Edge Computing the Answer for Smart Building Energy Management System?

Forty percent of total generated electrical energy is consumed in buildings. Increasing the efficiency of energy consumption in a building will lead to the reduction of greenhouse gases. With the advent of the smart grid, smart energy management systems can enhance the efficiency of energy consumption in a building. The operation of appliances in a building can be scheduled based on the information of available energy and its cost, thus increases efficiency and reduces the energy usage cost. This paper explores the existing literature on the proposal for the implementation of smart building energy management systems intending to identify the research direction in this field. Based on existing literature, it is found that an energy management system can be implemented locally on smart edge devices such as Arduino, Raspberry-Pi, System-On-Chip (SOC), etc., on remote computing engine, or a system built in a combination of edge devices and remote server (edge computing/cloud computing). The primary objective of this article is to find out the direction of future research in this field.