Benchmarking Your Building

• Complete the Application for Aggregated Building Energy Data form to request the utility billing history for the building. This form is available online or can be downloaded if you prefer a hard copy.
• If you are the owner of a building with less than three utilities’ accounts and you are not the sole account holder of record, please download a Customer Authorization Form(PDF, 58KB) and have each account holder complete and sign. We require a "wet" signature on these forms.
• Send completed forms to UTL-DataRequest@cityofpaloalto.org

• Once these completed forms are received, City of Palo Alto Utilities (CPAU) will reach out to you by phone or email to confirm building and account holder information, and identify all associated meters.
• After confirming all necessary information, CPAU will compile and send the data to you by email within 14 days.

• Set up your ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® account along with the buildings that you’d like to benchmark.

Note: You will need to know some basic information like all meter numbers, building square footage, year of construction, number of occupants and how the space is used at this time. If you need help setting up your Portfolio Accounts, let us know.

• 6/1/2018 Commercial Reporting to the CEC begins.
• 6/1/2019 Multifamily Reporting to the CEC begins.

• This program applies to nonresidential buildings above 50,000 gross square feet of floor area and multifamily buildings over 50,000 gross square feet with 17 or more utility accounts.
• The Energy Benchmark reports are due annually for commercial buildings starting on June 1, 2018.
• Multifamily buildings begin reporting June 1, 2019.
• 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) within 14 days of the 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.

The City of Palo Alto Utilities (CPAU) can supply you with your utility consumption data. You can request the data by sending an email to this email address: UTL-DataRequest@cityofpaloalto.org

Tenant authorization will be required under these conditions:

• If you are the building owner but not the utility account holder.
• For buildings with fewer than three commercial utility accounts.
• For buildings with fewer than five residential utility accounts.
• For buildings with fewer than a combination of five residential and commercial utility accounts.

Building owners who do not comply (as well as those submitting incorrect or incomplete data) are subject to civil penalties. The California Public Resource Code §25321 has set this amount at $500 to $2,000 per day.

Some reporting exemptions apply if:

• The building did not have a certificate of occupancy during the 12-month reporting period.
• The building is scheduled to be demolished within 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.

The building data will be placed into a template spreadsheet provided by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and uploaded into the software program called Portfolio Manager.

Yes, each building owner will have to have an account to use Portfolio Manager.

You can create an account for your buildings by visiting the ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® website.