BENCHMARKING

If a building in NYC is covered by the Benchmarking Law, the report deadline is May 1st. There is a penalty of $500 for missing the deadline, which increases every three months if no benchmarking report has been submitted.

Building owners can challenge deadlines if they believe there was a mistake. The NYC Department of Buildings provides a Benchmarking Violation Challenge Form, which must be filled and submitted within 30 days.

New York City has been characterized by its leadership in green construction and sustainability, not only among US cities but also globally. This is reflected by initiatives like the Greener, Greater Buildings Plan (GGBP) in 2009, and the Climate Mobilization Act in 2019. One of the four laws introduced by the GGBP was Local Law 84 of 2009, also known as the Benchmarking Law.

• Buildings covered by the Benchmarking Law must report their energy and water consumption each year.
• The law does not require a minimum performance for buildings, but penalties apply for not submitting the report.

Local Law 84 has changed since the original version was published in 2009, and building owners must be aware of the latest requirements. The latest version covers more individual buildings, since the minimum area for benchmarking was reduced from 50,000 to 25,000 square feet. There are also building types that were initially subject to benchmarking, but are now excluded.

Benchmarking a building may initially seem like a difficult task. However, the procedure is straightforward, and data collection is semi-automatic thanks to modern metering technology. The following are the first two steps before starting the benchmarking process:

1. Checking the Covered Buildings List, which is published each year on the Greener, Greater Buildings Program website. The list is updated every year and published in February.
2. Accessing the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager and creating an account.

You will notice that energy consumption data is required for all properties in the Covered Buildings List, but water consumption data is not always requested. Water data is only needed if the NYC Department of Environmental Protection has installed an automatic water meter for your property, and at least one full year of data is available.

You can notify the NYC Mayor’s Office of Sustainability if you believe a property has been included in the Covered Buildings List by accident. For example, a large property could have been demolished and replaced with several smaller buildings, which would no longer classify individually. The opposite also applies: if your property meets the conditions for benchmarking but the Covered Buildings List does not include it, you can also get in touch.

Any disputes of this type should be sent to energy benchmarking department, with the following information attached:

• Building BBL: borough, block and lot numbers
• Contact name
• E-mail address  or telephone number
• Reason for the dispute

Once you have added a property to the Portfolio Manager, energy and water data can be uploaded automatically by the respective utility companies. However, an initial configuration is required, with minor differences for each utility:

Configuring Portfolio Manager for automatic water benchmarking

• To upload water data automatically, the NYC Department of Environmental Protection must be added to your Portfolio Manager account as a contact.
• Once they have accepted the request, you must share your property’s profile with them, and grant full access.
• Portfolio Manager will request your BBL (Borough, Block and List) and your DEP Account Number.

Configuring Portfolio Manager for automatic energy benchmarking

To have energy data uploaded automatically by Con Edison, the Portfolio Manager procedure is very similar. However, additional steps must be completed before and after at the Con Edison website.

• Before setting up energy metering in Portfolio Manager, the building owner must register at the Con Edison website, and get a Requestor ID.
• The building owner must visit the Con Edison website again after the procedure, to request automatic data uploading.

In the case of National Grid, there is no previous step and you can configure Portfolio Manager directly. However, you must still register at the National Grid site after the configuration.

If your property uses energy sources that are not delivered as utility services, such as fuel oil or propane, these must be added manually to the Portfolio Manager. Automatic benchmarking is only possible for utility services.

Local Law 33 of 2018 introduced energy grades for buildings covered by the Benchmarking Law, which are calculated from the submitted data. Energy data is submitted through the Portfolio Manager for each building, and a corresponding Energy Star Rating is calculated. The building energy grade is determined from this rating:

Improving energy grades is in the best interest of building owners, since it also improves corporate image. In the case of apartments and commercial spaces, a high energy grade provides a marketing advantage compared with less efficient buildings. The prospect of spending less on gas and electricity can help convince tenants to sign a lease.