Energy Commission Building Energy Use Program Can Encourage Improvements

Envision yourself as a building owner who wants to make improvements to help attract prospective tenants. Investing in energy efficiency improvements and disclosing the savings could show tenants the possibility of lower energy bills and how the space is more inviting or comfortable.

But how would you quantify these changes to tenants? Energy benchmarking – the measurement of a building’s energy performance over time relative to similar buildings – can help. When publicly disclosed, this information can encourage energy management improvements that reduce energy use and increase savings.

Assembly Bill 802 requires utilities, beginning January 1, 2017, to provide building-level energy use data upon request. The bill also charged the California Energy Commission to create a statewide benchmarking and public disclosure program for large buildings.

These regulations, approved at the October 2017 business meeting, require owners of large commercial buildings to report building characteristic and energy use information to the Energy Commission by June 1, 2018, and annually afterwards.

Owners of large multifamily residential buildings must do the same by June 1, 2019.

“The Energy Commission developed the infrastructure for getting data to flow around to the right places at the right moments so that better decisions can be made,” said Commissioner Andrew McAllister, who is the Energy Commission’s lead on energy efficiency.

After one year of reporting, the Energy Commission will disclose certain building-level energy performance information on a public website.

“Once this information is public, people who are making decisions about which buildings to be in – which ones they want to rent or which investments they want to make if they own a building – will be better informed,” McAllister said. “That is good for the economy and good for reaching our state energy goals.”