Detailed energy mapping of Riga’s multi-apartment buildings at neighborhood level supports the city’s energy planning.
Riga city consists of 59 neighborhoods. Most of Riga’s citizens live in multi-apartment buildings. Heat is the most widely used type of energy in the city's end-use and consequently, heat consumption received particular attention in the preparatory stage of Riga’s SEAP. Information about the total heat consumption in the district heating system in Riga and by separate consumer groups was received from the main heating operator – joint stock company "Rīgas Siltums" which supplies heat for space heating and domestic hot water (DHW) of multi-apartment buildings, public buildings and other district heating consumers through more than 8.000 automatically controlled building heat substations. The integrated urban development concept (IUDC) of one of the neighborhoods of Riga - Jugla (IUDC of Jugla) - was elaborated in the framework of the international project “Energy Efficient and Integrated Urban Development Action" (Baltic Sea Region Program 2007-2013, abbreviation Urb.Energy) by Riga City Council.
The aim of the integrated concept is to reach a high and long lasting residential and economic quality in Jugla, while paying attention to energy-efficient solutions ensuring sustainability of the planned developments in that neighborhood. The four fields of urban development, energy efficient renovation of buildings, energy supply and optimal financial and organizational approaches are covered in detail in the IUDC.
The total heating space of multi-apartment buildings in Jugla is 458 200 m². The associated land area is 2800 m² on average for one multi-apartment building. In total, 25 different building management companies are operating in Jugla, many of which are managers of only one or a few buildings. 141 multi-apartment buildings or 78% are managed by the municipal building manager LtD “Rīgas namu pārvaldnieks” and only 8 multi-apartment buildings are managed by apartment owner associations. Almost all apartments are privately owned.
Most of the multi-apartment buildings of Jugla are connected to the district heat supply system and the average heat consumption for space heating and domestic hot water of these buildings is 205 kWh/m² annually.The buildings were put into operation in between 1890 and 2005. Most of them (68%) were put into operation in between 1961 and 1970, 8% before 1950, 12% from 1951 till 1960 and 13% after 1970. The multi-apartment buildings mostly (60%) have 5 floors, 10% have 12 floors; 15% have only 2 floors. The average living space for an apartment is 45,6 m². The heat load of apartment buildings in Jugla in total is 75,7 MW (36,4 MW for DHW, 38,6 MW for space heating and 0,7 MW for ventilation) and 12,8 MW for public buildings (2,5 MW for DHW, 8,6 MW for space heating and 1,6 MW for ventilation) which results in a total heat load of the Jugla district heat consumers of 88,5 MW, and the specific heat load density (MW per unit of heat distribution network length) – 3,4 MW/km.
Based on this scrupulous energy mapping in the district, the total potential energy consumption reduction for Jugla’s multi-apartment buildings could be estimated and varies from 20.400 MWh to around 34.000 MWh when the buildings are to be renovated according to the requirements of the existing building codes. Even bigger reductions can be achieved when deep renovations of the multi-apartment buildings are envisaged.
Outputs of the analysis of energy demand in the chosen neighborhood of Riga is being used to set new targets in Riga’s enhanced Sustainable Energy Action Plan for smart cities that is currently being developed in Riga. It also serves as a tool to inform Riga’s stakeholders and inhabitants who are engaged with the Riga Energy Agency Energy Efficiency Centre in regular events such as monthly round tables on energy efficiency, seminars and information days. Findings are also shared internationally.