PlugID: A Platform for Authenticated Energy Consumption to Enhance Accountability and Efficiency in Smart Buildings

Energy efficiency in shared environments, such as offices and laboratories, is hindered by a lack of individual accountability. Traditional smart metering provides aggregated data but fails to attribute consumption to specific users, limiting the effectiveness of behavioral change initiatives. This paper introduces the “authenticated energy consumption” paradigm, an innovative approach that directly links energy use to an identified user. We present PlugID, a low-cost, open-protocol IoT platform designed and built to implement this paradigm. The PlugID platform comprises a custom smart plug with RFID-based authentication and a secure, cloud-based data analytics backend. The device utilizes an ESP8266 microcontroller, Tasmota firmware, and the MQTT protocol over TLS for secure communication. Seven PlugID units were deployed in a small office environment to demonstrate the system’s feasibility. The main contribution of this work is the design, implementation, and validation of a complete, end-to-end system for authenticated energy monitoring. We argue that by making energy consumption an auditable and attributable event, the PlugID platform provides a powerful new tool to enforce energy policies, foster user awareness, and promote genuine efficiency.