Benchmarking

To help larger businesses stay on top of their energy use needs and find ways to use less, the California Energy Commission created a statewide benchmarking program mandated by Assembly Bill 802 (AB 802), which was signed into law in 2015. The idea is simple: your energy use is measured and then you get an objective ranking of 1 – 100. Over time, this rating shows you how your efforts are paying off, and it also shows you how you’re doing compared to other business in the area.

Benchmarking

Owners of commercial, mixed-use, and multifamily buildings larger than 50,000 square feet must report benchmarking metrics publicly, on an annual basis, using the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager system. Once you’ve created your building portfolio, you can use the methods below to send your building’s energy use information to the ENERGY STAR portfolio manager. 

AB 802 requires California utilities to provide aggregated whole-building energy usage information to building owners upon request. This is subject to certain thresholds set by the number of accounts in commercial and multi-family properties, in which permission from account holders may be required.

 

Getting Started

Review our Benchmarking Data Request Portal User Guide before completing the steps listed below. The guide includes instructions for setting up an ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® account using the ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® system and instructions for requesting energy use through our Benchmarking Data Request Portal

Your Benchmarking  Request may require Letters of Authorization (LOAs) for energy use data. SDG&E automates this process online at Consent to Share. For details on data sharing requirements and registration, please visit the Consent to Share website before submitting your Benchmarking Request.

  1. Set up an ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® account  if you don't already have one. 
  2. Start your benchmarking request
    Requests may be made by a customer and/or their authorized representative or a building owner and/or their authorized representative. You will receive a confirmation email with a link to check the status of your request. Contact us at [email protected]  if you do not receive a confirmation email. 
  3. Check the status of your request. You will be notified via email when data have been uploaded into your Portfolio Manager account. 

More Information

An Assembly Bill 802 (AB 802) Benchmarking energy usage data request is for whole building energy usage data that is aggregated at the building level and uploaded to your ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager account.  AB 802 has a separate set of rules and regulations that have been adopted by the California Energy Commission (CEC) for the state of California.  Under AB 802, only Covered Buildings can be included in an aggregated benchmarking request. 

In order to protect customer privacy, Benchmarking requests for account-specific energy usage data (non-aggregated and not limited to Covered Buildings) will need Customer Authorization or Account Validation for each account.

 

Additional Resources

Questions?

If the information you need is not located in the sections below please contact our Benchmarking Support team:  [email protected]

General

Building owners are subject to several California policies requiring them to benchmark and disclose the energy usage of their building in ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager. To comply with these policies, Building Owners or the Owner’s Agent may need building tenants/account holders to release their energy usage data for use in the benchmarking analysis.

If you received a notification from SDG&E’s online Consent to Share portal, you can provide authorization to release your energy usage data to your Building owner or their Agent for benchmarking in ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager by using the link provided in the notification. Complete the form and initial the box for EPA Benchmarking.

If you heard directly from your Building Owner, you can download and complete a Customer Information Service Request (CISR) (pdf). Be sure to initial the box for EPA Benchmarking and sign and date the form. Email the CISR to: [email protected].

Alternatively, you can provide a copy of your most recent SDG&E bill to the Building Owner or their authorized agent. The Building Owner or the Agent will then use the Meter Trio Data (SDG&E account number, meter number and bill amount) to validate the account in the SDG&E Benchmarking Data Request Portal. Please note that by opting to share your bill with the Building Owner or your Agent will give them access to the SDG&E account information such as account number, bill amount, rate and other information that you may consider confidential.

Once Customer Authorization or Account Validation has been received, your energy usage data will be uploaded to the requestor’s Energy Star Portfolio Manager account where they can benchmark their properties.

Finally, we respect your privacy and want you to know that your decision to consent, or not to consent, to sharing your energy usage data with the Building Owner or Agent will not affect SDG&E's service to you

Benchmarking Policies

Assembly Bill 802 (Williams, Chapter 590, Statutes of 2015) and subsequent Benchmarking Regulations from the California Energy Commission (CEC) established a new statewide building energy use benchmarking and public disclosure program. AB 802 was signed into law in October 2015, and became effective January 1, 2016.

The primary intent of AB 802 is for Building Owners or the Owner’s Agent of Covered Buildings (commercial, mixed-use and multifamily buildings) to obtain total aggregated energy usage data (across all tenants) for their buildings in most cases without obtaining Customer Authorization or Account Validation. Building Owners will then benchmark their buildings using ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager. Owners of Disclosable Buildings (buildings larger than 50,000 square feet) are required to disclose their energy usage to the California Energy Commission (CEC). The CEC will subsequently disclose this information publicly.

Utilities, upon the request and the written authorization or secure electronic authorization of the Building Owner or the Owner’s agent, will provide aggregated energy usage data for a Covered Building to the Building Owner or the Owner’s Agent ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager account. The aggregated energy usage data for a building will be provided monthly for the Benchmarking Time Frame.

All commercial buildings greater than 50,000 square feet will be required to benchmark and disclose their energy usage to the CEC. In addition, multifamily buildings that are over 50,000 square feet and have 17 or more units also will also be required to benchmark and disclose their energy usage. Basically, if you have a Disclosable Building, you are required to benchmark your building.

The Nonresidential time-of-transaction building energy use disclosure program (commonly referred to as Assembly Bill 1103) ended on December 31, 2015. 

Disclosable Buildings and Covered Buildings

A Covered Building of any property type defined by ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, meeting either of the following:

  • No active residential utility accounts and more than 50,000 square feet of Gross Floor Area.
  • 17 or more Active residential utility accounts of each Energy type serving the building and more than 50,000 square feet of Gross Floor Area.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, neither of the following is a Disclosable Building:

  • A building in which more than half of the Gross Floor Area is of a type or usage that has been exempted according to AB 802 regulations.
  • A building in which more than half of the Gross Floor Area is used for manufacturing purposes, industrial purposes, or scientific experiments requiring controlled environments.

Yes, you can request aggregated energy usage to benchmark your building under AB 802 if your building is considered a Covered Building.

Any structure/building used or intended to support or shelter any use or occupancy, other than a condominium development, meeting either or both of the following:

  • Received Energy from a Utility during the period for which Energy use data is requested, and has no residential Utility Accounts.
  • With five or more Active Utility Accounts of any one Energy type (gas or electric), at least one of which is residential.

Two or more Covered Buildings on the same parcel, campus, or site, that are served by one common Energy meter without sub-metering, such that their Energy use cannot be tracked individually, shall be considered one Covered Building.

No, you cannot request aggregated energy usage data to benchmark your building under AB 802 if your building is not considered a Covered Building. However, you can submit a request for non-aggregated energy usage data for each account in the building.

Requesting Energy Data

Building owners, authorized agents of building owners and building operators can request aggregated energy usage data for their Covered Building.

Anyone can request non-aggregated energy usage data for their building. Customer Authorization or Account Validation will be needed for each account. See Customer Authorization and Account Validation section below.

For detailed information on making an energy usage data request please refer to the Benchmarking Data Request Portal User Guide.

The Benchmarking Time Frame is the specific period that energy usage data is aggregated to fulfill an AB 802 benchmarking request. The time frame is from the beginning of the previous calendar year (January 1) to the most recent month for which the Utility has complete data from the date of request.

Based on eligibility and availability, SDG&E may be able to provide up to 36 months of non-aggregated energy usage data for each account.

If Customer Authorization is already on file for all accounts, or the accounts have been validated with Meter Trio Data, you will see the energy usage data your ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager account within a few days of making the request.

If Customer Authorization is required, it may take up to 44 calendar days.

Requests can be made one-time, or a request can be set up for an automated monthly recurring data feed into an ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager account.

Customer Authorization and Account Validation

AB 802 requires Customer Authorization or Account Validation for aggregated energy usage data requests for benchmarking when a Covered Building has:

  • Fewer than 3 active utility accounts of any Energy type (gas or electric), none of which are residential, or
  • Fewer than 5 active utility accounts of each Energy type (gas or electric), at least one of which is residential.

After an energy usage data request has been submitted through SDG&E’s online Benchmarking Data Request Portal, SDG&E will proactively attempt to obtain Customer Authorization on the requestor’s behalf via the SDG&E if the account holder’s email address or mailing address is on file.

Building Owners, you can also work with your tenants to complete a Customer Information Service Request (CISR) (pdf). Be sure to initial box for EPA Benchmarking. Submit to: sdge.com/loa.

If you have a copy of the tenant’s/account holders most recent SDG&E energy bill, you can bypass the need for Customer Authorization and validate the account by entering the Meter Trio Data (SDG&E account number, meter number and bill amount) in the SDG&E’s Benchmarking Data Request Portal.

ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager

Portfolio Manager® is the EPA's ENERGY STAR® online measurement and tracking tool that allows you to:

  • Track and assess the energy and water consumption of your building(s).
  • Generate weather-normalized energy use intensity and greenhouse gas emissions metrics.
  • Generate a 1 to 100 ENERGY STAR energy performance score for many eligible building types.
  • Generate custom reports that allow you to see time trending information and compare buildings within your portfolio.

Register for an ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager account. For help in setting up your Portfolio Manager account, download the Portfolio Manager Quick Start Guide.

There are several training resources offered for ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager which can be found on their site: https://www.energystar.gov/buildings/training.

The most common reasons are:

  • The ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager Username was not entered correctly into SDG&E’s online Benchmarking Data Request Portal.
  • Properties were not shared with SDGE within ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager.
  • Properties were not set to “Full Access” when shared with SDGE within ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager.