Building Benchmarking Data Due May 1

Owners with buildings over 50,000 square feet (as listed in the Department of Finance’s records) must provide energy use data to the City on an annual basis. The process is known as benchmarking. The deadline for submitting this information to the City is May 1, but practically speaking, owners should start the process early in April. Owners will have to request energy usage data from their utility providers (known as aggregate consumption reports). The utilities are often slow in providing the data, so those requests need to be made early. If usage requests are not made with several weeks lead time, the utility may not be able to provide the aggregate consumption data report in time for the owner to comply with the benchmarking deadline.

Not only does it take time to obtain the energy usage data, but owners who are using in-house staff to benchmark will want to allow time for data entry, which will involve the staff becoming familiar with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Portfolio Manager tool, the database where the information gets entered. Staff will also have to become familiar with the 2012 Reporting Template and other specific steps that must be taken to properly enter the data and to properly submit the data to the City.

Data reporting and submission instructions can be found at http://www.nyc.gov/html/gbee/html/plan/ll84.shtml