The California Building Energy Use Benchmarking and Public Disclosure Program
California law requires that all non-residential and government buildings above 50,000 gross square feet of floor area and multi-family buildings over 50,000 gross square feet with 17 or more utility accounts be benchmarked annually using EPA Energy Star Portfolio Manager. These are known as “disclosable” buildings and must submit Annual Energy Benchmark Reports to the California Energy Commission (CEC).
The Energy Benchmark reports are due annually on June 1st for “disclosable”, commercial buildings and for “disclosable”, multi-family buildings. The results of the Energy Benchmarks will be made public a year after the first Benchmark reports are due.
AB 802 requires utilities to provide the required energy consumption data (13 months of energy-use data) for applicable buildings to the building owners upon request. The utility will provide “whole building” (aggregated) energy-use data to building owners without obtaining tenant authorization – if the number of utility accounts in the building meet the required minimum. Tenant authorization is required for:
- Buildings with fewer than three commercial utility accounts
- Buildings with fewer than 5 residential utility accounts
- Buildings with fewer than a combination of 5 residential and commercial utility accounts
Buildings in jurisdictions that already have an Energy Benchmark reporting requirement will not have separate reporting requirements to the State. It is anticipated that local jurisdictions will provide the report data to the state.
Building owners who do not comply (as well as those submitting incorrect or incomplete data) may be subject to civil penalties. The CEC will notify the offending party of the violation and provide 30-days to correct the violation.
Exemptions
Federal buildings and condominiums.
The building did not have a certificate of occupancy during the 12-month reporting period.
The building is scheduled to be demolished with one year of the reporting data.
The building is covered by an approved local building energy-use, benchmarking program.
The building has more than half of the gross floor area used for scientific experiments requiring a controlled environment or industrial purposes.
Let 3fficient prepare your AB 802 Report turnkey. It will be accurate and save you a lot of time and unnecessary expense. We will enter the data into Portfolio Manager, interface with the utilities and file the report with the California Energy Commission.
For more information about the ordinance call us at 888.533.3487, visit the California Energy Commission website or check out these easy to understand frequently asked questions.
