FUTO students win with low-cost smart energy audit, protection system

FUTO Innovation Triumphs in Regional Competition

A team of Mechatronics Engineering students from the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), has emerged as the winner of the 2026 Entrepreneurship Week Business Pitch Competition. The team outperformed representatives from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), and several other institutions across the South-East and South-South regions.

Known as GridSense, the FUTO team impressed the panel of judges with a low-cost, modular smart energy audit and protection system. The innovation is designed to assist businesses and households in monitoring electricity consumption, identifying energy wastage, and safeguarding electrical appliances from potential damage caused by overloads.

Technical Capabilities of the GridSense System

The GridSense system addresses critical challenges related to high electricity costs and the frequent damage of electrical equipment. By providing a live dashboard, the technology allows users to monitor power consumption at the individual appliance level, offering a granular view of energy use that is often missing in standard setups.

Beyond monitoring, the system includes an automated protection mechanism. When an electrical overload is detected, GridSense can automatically disconnect the specific appliance involved, protecting the equipment without the need to shut down power to the entire facility. It also features smart presence-detection, which switches off lights in unoccupied rooms to further conserve energy.

A Record of Success in Student Entrepreneurship

The 2026 Entrepreneurship Week victory marks a continued streak of success for the GridSense team. Led by Team Lead and CEO Angel Chinemerem Ezeahurukwe, alongside co-founders Ugbah Awele, Amaefule Praise, and Amobi Bright, the group previously secured first place at the DevEast 2026 Business Pitch Competition, earning a top prize of ₦1 million.

During the most recent competition, the students provided a live demonstration to validate their engineering concepts. The demonstration successfully showed the system isolating an appliance during a simulated overload and automatically managing lighting based on room occupancy. This practical evidence underscored the team's capacity to transform theoretical engineering into functional, market-ready solutions for real-world problems.

Implications for Nigeria’s Energy Sector

The achievement has been met with celebration within the university community. The Students’ Union Government (SUG), through a release signed by High Comr. Nduka Victory Oluchukwu, the SUG PRO/DOI, described the feat as a clear indication of the university's growing strength in practical engineering and entrepreneurship.

As businesses and households grapple with rising energy costs and limited power resources, innovations like GridSense represent locally relevant technological solutions. This success highlights the capacity of Nigerian university students to develop tools with significant economic and social impact when provided with opportunities to test, demonstrate, and commercialize their ideas.