The subject disclosure relates to an emergency lighting system for simulating power failure in an emergency lighting system. In some aspects, the system includes an interrupt relay coupled between a first power supply and a lighting array, a power monitoring module coupled between a second power supply and the lighting array, and a wireless transceiver configured for transacting data with a wireless backhaul gateway. Additionally, the lighting system can include a microcontroller configured to perform operations for receiving an interrupt command from the wireless backhaul gateway, toggling the interrupt relay in response to the interrupt command, wherein toggling the interrupt relay terminates power delivery to the lighting array, and measuring one or more power characteristics of the second power supply to determine if the second power supply can power the lighting array. Methods and machine-readable media are also provided.