What can be achieved when a large energy company, a city that has set itself tough sustainability targets and a pioneer of digital solutions for energy efficiency all sit around the same table?
Reduced heating costs and improved living comfort. That's what the City of Espoo has experienced through a joint project involving Espoo Housing, Fortum and Danfoss Leanheat® Building, and impacting well over 100 public buildings and nearly 15,000 apartments.
Fortum supplies renewable district heating to public buildings - including day-care centers, schools and office buildings - and residential buildings, and also offers a heating optimization service based on Danfoss' Leanheat® Building solution.
“Climate change objectives were a major reason for starting the collaboration,” says Fortum Sales Director, Timo Kivi. “In addition, the cooperation was expected to bring financial savings and more stable conditions for Espoo's apartment residents and users of public spaces.”
Although the properties covered by the service have vastly different heating requirements, Leanheat® Building learns their specific characteristics and optimizes the heating for each one.
“The only thing the properties have in common is that they all have district heating,” explains Lauri Leppä key account manager for Danfoss Leanheat® Building. “The heating needs and heating times are different. For example, in public buildings that are primarily used during daytime hours, the system can be given permission to drop the indoor temperature at night, as long as the temperature is restored to the right level by morning."
The time of year also affects the heating demand, but the service takes that into account too.
“Autumn is always difficult when conditions change, and the air is humid. You need more heating during that time of year to keep conditions comfortable. On the other hand, when spring comes, the need for heating can be reduced considerably as the sun starts to warm up," says Leppä.
The results of the cooperation so far are impressive. District heating is emission-free, consumption peaks have been smoothed out, heating needs have been reduced and indoor conditions are better and more even.
In numerical terms, this means a reduction of 7%, or 4,500 megawatt-hours, in total consumption for the City of Espoo's buildings, during 2021.
“In monetary terms, we are talking about large amounts, in this case more than 200,000 euros," says the Head of Real Estate Services of the City of Espoo's Facilities Services Department, Leif Ilander. “The project involves older properties, which are ideally suited for this, as they offer the greatest potential for savings. Newer buildings often use geothermal heating and are already energy-efficient by design.”
Another benefit is improved indoor comfort, which used to be a challenge due to fluctuating temperatures. “People spend a lot of time in their homes, schools and nurseries, particularly during the winter months,” Leppä explains. “So, maintaining a constant temperature is no small matter. Saving energy is easy in itself, but not if you want to keep the indoor conditions comfortable. The fact that we can do both is a great achievement.” With hundreds of children and young people in Espoo's schools and day-care centers, as well as numerous employees, improving indoor conditions will benefit a large number of users.
Leanheat®Building also provides data that can be used to streamline building maintenance, as problems can be caught in real time.
“Over the years, we have been able to address the root cause of many heating system-level problems that were previously masked by overheating,” says Jaakko Kammonen, Managing Director of Espoon Asunoot. “From a property maintenance perspective, knowledge of temperatures and their consistency is important.”
Jaakko Kammonen also says that being able to collaborate with municipalities, utility managers and solution providers plays an important role in effective property management.
“As a large property owner, we need good partners in order to meet our customers' needs and the owner's objectives.”
The other parties agree and highlight how this type of cooperation can go a long way towards achieving carbon neutrality goals around the world.
“The power of cooperation is the way forward,” says Timo Kivi. “Small players have great innovations and can act quickly. Market access, on the other hand, requires a bigger pioneer. With this kind of cooperation model, we can also export to the world, as the Finnish market is quite small."
The partners emphasize that the basis for effective cooperation is clear objectives, timetables and division of labor, as well as absolute trust and openness from the outset. Additionally, the cooperation must be mutually beneficial.
“When all partners benefit, they have the motivation to push ahead. This model of cooperation could be replicated elsewhere, and the benefits could be shared in all directions," Lauri Leppä concludes.
Buildings account for a staggering 40 percent of the world’s energy consumption. And in Europe alone, almost a third of residential heating comes from fossil fuels.Leanheat empowers district energy networks to optimize the operational efficiency of buildings and increase the comfort of end-users through end-to-end software solutions.
Learn more about Leanheat®