Cities100: Copenhagen - Mapping Real-Time Consumption to Plan Efficiency Updates

Copenhagen is digitizing energy and water consumption data from municipal buildings to bring about significant savings and plan strategic efficiency upgrades.

The Challenge

Seventy-six percent of the water pipelines in Copenhagen are more than 60 years old, and 11% are more than 100 years old. With aging infrastructure comes a higher risk of leakage, so having a smart surveillance network can yield energy, water, and utility bill savings for residents.

The Solution

The municipality of Copenhagen is working with utility companies to establish extensive energy and water surveillance systems in all municipal buildings, providing data that can be studied and analyzed on one central platform. Using high-resolution data from smart electricity, heat, and water meters, the city can identify leaks in real time and plan strategic upgrades to inefficient buildings. The scheme, which has a payback time of just six years, is unique in that it combines information from many building management systems on one platform. In 2016, the surveillance system helped to save 6,500 MWh of heat and 1,345 MWh of electricity. The city plans to extend the scheme to some of the largest privately owned buildings in the capital, helping to further bring down energy consumption. This is part of the city-wide climate strategy that has put Copenhagen on the road to CO2 neutrality by 2025.

Environmental Benefits – In addition to the energy savings the surveillance system is accruing, it is estimated that in 2016 the project saved 30 million liters of groundwater.

Economic Benefits – Once fully implemented, the scheme is forecast to save approximately $6 million annually with a payback time of six years.

About Cities100

Presented by C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40), Sustainia and Realdania – Cities100 2017 showcases leading solutions to urban climate challenges in five sectors: Energy, Waste, Adaptation, Mitigation and Transportation.

Available online and in print, Cities100 provides stakeholders an accessible format to explore achievable solutions for climate action in cities, and will be a useful tool for relevant groups ranging from impact investors and development organizations, to mayors and city governments. You can access the full Cities100 2017 publication online here.