Jyväskylä Rental Apartments (JVA) is fully owned by the City of Jyväskylä. With around 7,000 apartments, they provide homes for about 11,700 residents. The city aims to be a zero-emission, zero-waste, and zero-overconsumption city of sustainable well-being in 2040 and carbon neutral in 2030.
"We want to save energy and reduce carbon emissions as part of this program. As a large part of our buildings are district-heated and the heat is produced by the city-owned Alva companies, we are subject to a significant part of the emission reduction targets for district heating," says Jaakko Vuori, real estate support engineer at JVA.
To reach these targets, they continuously monitor the energy consumption at their properties. The biggest challenge in reducing emissions, according to Vuori, is that energy use is essential. Energy consumption in buildings accounts for about 40 percent of emissions in Finland.
"The challenge is how to cut emissions and what kind of projects to undertake. The technology to reduce energy use is evolving at a rapid pace, so we need to think carefully about which energy-saving measures are worth investing in. It is not always worth jumping in without a thorough assessment," says Vuori.
Assisted by self-learning artificial intelligence
How it works
One way to achieve energy saving targets is through Edge. Today, around 150 of their buildings are connected to the system. Edge works to improve the energy efficiency of buildings by monitoring and optimizing the temperatures in the apartments.
"Some of these sites only have temperature monitoring, but most have a system that also controls energy consumption," Vuori shares.
Edge is an important tool in JVA's daily work and for deciding on future investments. The system is used all year round but in slightly different ways depending on the time of year.
"During the summer, we design and tender energy-saving projects. When considering where and what renovations to commission, the decisions are based on the accurate energy consumption monitoring data from Edge," Vuori says and continues:
In winter, we focus on continuously monitoring temperatures to see if they remain at the desired level and also to react quickly to any deviations, often remotely, without needing to visit the site. This brings cost savings and improves energy efficiency.
Energy consumption is on a downward trend
According to JVA's calculations, energy consumption has been on a downward trend for a long time. The 2023 Sustainability Report shows that specific energy consumption (Specific consumption is monitored on a property-by-property basis) has decreased by 10% compared to 2016. In 2023, carbon dioxide emissions from energy consumption amounted to 6 249 tCO₂.
In the coming years, JVA will continue to take several measures to reduce energy consumption. One possibility is to expand the use of systems such as Edge.
Edge is proven by the ITU- T L.1480 standard to have a positive a positive net second order effect, reducing GHG emissions
JVA's buildings are some of those who were included in our joint study with Ericsson and The Carbon Trust, to measure just how effective implementing Edge can be. The reports highlights the critical role that technology and data-driven solutions play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and is why JVA among others, also continue using the solution.
Want to see more benefits?
Report
Saving energy and decarbonizing residential homes
In a collaborative effort, Ericsson and Kiona worked to show how connectivity and AI can enable significant savings for 356 residential apartment buildings, with a total space of 1.5 million m2 in Sweden and Finland. The analysis was conducted by The Carbon Trust.
This study was performed using the ITU- T L.1480 standard and is one of the first to do so. The ITU-T L. 1480 provides a methodology for assessing how the use of information and communication technology (ICT) solutions impacts greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of other sectors.
By combining the power of connectivity and Edge AI, a net total of 17 GWh of consumed energy was saved (for 2022) – avoiding over 1 kTonne of CO₂ emissions.