Good experience in data collection, analysis, and renovation project management

At the end of April, we went to Salaspils City, to meet experienced project manager Renate Brazinska from “Salaspils Siltums” Ltd. The purpose of our visit was to discuss her experience in the data collection, analysis and systematization as well as the project management of multi-appartment building renovations.

“Salaspils Siltums” is an innovative and environment-friendly heat supply company. The brilliant management transformed an ordinary post-Soviet boiler house into a contemporary heating enterprise. In order to provide a district heat supply for 137 multiapartment buildings in Salaspils and Saulkalne, 95% of the heat source consists of renewable energy sources such as solar and local wood chips and only 5 % natural gas.

The residents of those houses can monitor and analyze their home’s heat energy consumption regularly. The company shares data on its website comparing this year’s actual heat energy usage with the same period last year, considering changes in the outside air temperature. Here, the owner of each apartment can view accurate monthly information about the house’s heat consumption and compare it with information from the same month in previous years.

In these data summarized in graphic form, renovated multi-apartment buildings are marked with green dots. We can observe significant differences in energy consumption in renovated buildings compared to the other houses that have not been refurbished.

Renāte Bražinska explains that since 2011 there has been significant progress in the transition to an efficient and modern district heating company. The technical condition of the heating systems has been improved and issues relating to inaccuracies in data recording and billing have been resolved. These efforts contributed to the successful implementation of the existing system.

In terms of data management, automatic meter reading systems are now installed in all houses. These devices record information every 20 minutes and send it to the data center. A specially developed program processes the data, and once a month the results are published on the “Salaspils Siltums” website.

Implementing such a system saves time and money in the long term and streamlines work processes. The consistent accuracy and prevention of mistakes during data reading, along with automatic collection and storage of all relevant information, are important advantages.

As the main objective of the RenoWave project is to increase the renovation of multiapartment buildings in the Baltic Sea region, we were interested not only in “Salaspils Siltums” good experience of working with data but also in the successfully implemented renovation projects, where the company played an important role.

In order to increase the building renovation process in Salaspils and support residents during the complicated project implementation process, the municipality has assigned the function of project management to “Salaspils Siltums”.

By 2024, a total of 28 multi-apartment building renovation projects have been completed in Salaspils. “Salaspils Siltums” has supported the project management process for 5 houses. Currently, 11 more residents of multiapartment buildings in Salaspils have decided to refurbish their houses in collaboration with “Salaspils Siltums”.

* The district heat supply company is a winner of the ‘’Global District Energy Climate Awards’’ and has an ISO 50001: 2018 certified energy management system.

Information was prepared by Dace Selga, Communication manager, Baltic Environmental Forum, Latvia

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