Expanding Access to Whole-Building Energy Data
Benchmarking in ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® helps owners understand and improve building energy performance and unlocks access to billions of dollars in new Federal incentive opportunities. However, in multitenant buildings (primarily multifamily housing, offices, warehouses, and certain retail configurations) tenants often pay their own energy bills. This means the owner or operator may not know the building’s total usage, and therefore can’t make informed decisions on strategies to improve performance, and in some cases can’t access funding incentives.
But there’s a solution! More than 75 utilities are making this data available to owners by adding up all the energy used at a building and providing the resulting aggregate whole-building consumption data directly into building owners’ Portfolio Manager accounts -- all while protecting tenant data privacy.
EPA’s Whole-Building Energy Data Campaign
While more and more utilities are making this whole-building data available to owners, the vast majority (more than 90% of U.S. utilities) do not do so yet. With that in mind, EPA is launching a new campaign to assist building owners in making the case to utilities about why they need the data. As part of the campaign, EPA will:
- Identify priority markets and organize meetings between utilities and building owners in these areas to facilitate discussion. (Sign up to participate below!)
- Collect feedback on the importance of access to whole-building energy data.
- Provide tools and resources that summarize the issue and support building owners in engaging utilities nationwide.
- Support interested utilities on providing the data in line with industry best practices.
1. Priority Markets and Meeting Sign-up
To help increase the availability of whole-building energy data, EPA conducted analysis and stakeholder outreach that identified the utilities below as serving markets with the greatest unmet need for whole-building energy data. Beginning in fall 2024, we will work to convene virtual meetings where building owners, utility decision makers, and other stakeholders can come together to share information on the value this data creates and potential options for increasing access to it.
If you are a building owner, manager, or service provider interested in joining meetings with one or more utilities on the list, we’re requesting that you express interest through this survey.
Utility Name | Service Territory |
---|---|
AEP Ohio* | OH |
AES Indiana (formerly Indianapolis Power & Light) | IN |
AES Ohio (formerly Dayton Power & Light) | OH |
Alabama Power | AL |
Ameren Illinois | IL |
Appalachian Power | TN, VA, WV |
Arizona Public Service | AZ |
Austin Energy* | TX |
CenterPoint Energy | TX |
Consumers Energy** | MI |
Dominion Energy (Virginia Electric Power) | VA |
DTE** | MI |
Duke Energy | FL, IN, NC, OH, SC |
Entergy Arkansas | AR |
Entergy Texas | TX |
Florida Power & Light** | FL |
Georgia Power* | GA |
Ohio Edison | OH |
Oncor | TX |
People’s Gas* | IL |
Potomac Edison | MD, WV |
TECO | FL |
We Energies (Wisconsin Electric Power) | WI |
Notes:
*Aggregate whole-building data currently available via spreadsheet but not via the Portfolio Manager web services API; solution focused primarily on buildings required to report to their local jurisdiction, as opposed to commercial and multifamily building owners more broadly.
** Aggregate whole-building data offered as a limited pilot program, but not broadly available to commercial and multifamily building owners.
2. Selected Stakeholder Feedback on the Importance of Whole-Building Energy Data Access
Building Owners/Operators
- “When we do not have access to whole-building energy data, it's harder to track ROI [return on investment] for investment-grade energy projects. Without ROI tracking, it's incredibly difficult to receive approval from upper management for large, ambitious energy reduction projects.” – Clayton McDonald, Associate Director – Sustainability, Northwood Investors
- “Every minute that I spend chasing after data is a minute I can't spend trying to improve the performance of our buildings.” – Luke Lanciano, Director of Sustainability, Tower Companies
- “Lack of easily obtainable whole building data has made our benchmarking efforts more difficult and has affected our ability to plan for energy reduction projects across our portfolio. Where we have access to whole building data it has been easier to implement energy efficiency measures.” – Max Stewart, Senior Environmental Analyst, Mercy Housing
- “The importance of whole-building energy data for any company is substantial. Without streamlined access to energy data, companies like ours struggle to set realistic energy management goals; experience inefficiencies due to lack of data; face increased burden to comply with state energy disclosure mandates (which can result in non-compliance fees); and risk not having the whole building energy data required to make well-informed decisions to optimize capital investments.” – Elena Daniel, Senior Vice President and Head of Sustainability, Logistics Property Company
- “Our operators, tenants, and asset managers use energy data for a variety of purposes, including benchmarking, reporting for investors, and reducing energy costs. Each of these responsibilities requires robust and accurate energy data, and the gathering and management of data requires a lot of staff time that could be used to reduce energy use and improve properties for the clients and the community.” – Emma Jones, Energy and Sustainability Manager, The RMR Group
Multifamily-Specific Stakeholders
- “We pay a lot of money and spend a lot of staff time gathering our utility data. It's a cumbersome process with lots of opportunity for errors. More and more funding requires this data, so if we don't have the data we don't have access to funding to improve our properties.” – Cathy Stripling, Sustainability Program Director, Community Housing Partners
- “We work with many property owners, developers, and housing authorities across all 50 states. When our owners don't have access to whole building energy data, they miss out on the opportunity to qualify for financing programs, which can lead to higher interest rates and thereby lead to higher rents. If owners need to request tenant data releases, that becomes a major time investment for the property owners and an inconvenience for tenants.” – Stephen Evanko, Vice President of Energy and Sustainability, Dominion Due Diligence Group
- “My need for this data extends well beyond compliance with state or local benchmarking or building performance laws. I may have mortgage requirements from lenders or investor requirements, to name two examples. Not to mention, there may be emission reporting requirements or additional corporate reporting requirements. If somebody asks us to measure the impact of our utility consumption or carbon intensity, I can't do it without the data.” – Chris Laughman, Senior Director of Energy and Sustainability Services, Greystar
Service Providers
- “Our clients currently spend over $300,000 per year and thousands of man hours trying to collect this data electronically and manually. All this time, money, and resources could much better be spent on actual improvements if we had better access to whole-building energy data from the utilities.” – Darren Kowalske, Principal, Larkspur E-Advisory
- “The ability to regularly receive whole-building, aggregate utility data is a crucial step in understanding whole-building performance throughout the year. Not having access to this data substantially impacts ongoing utility performance monitoring efforts, delays annual sustainability and corporate reporting, and makes prioritizing and measuring energy reduction goals extremely difficult. In regions where aggregated utility data is made available by the utilities, we've been able to work closely with our clients to drive utility performance improvements and closely measure the outcomes.” – Josh Berengut, Partner, Breea
- “We need to be able to get aggregated whole building data for HUD reporting, loan reporting, and certification programs. We invest hundreds of person-hours per year attempting to request data and complying with vendor-specific processes for every utility vendor that does not have a streamlined system for providing data.” – Jimmy Taylor, Energy Benchmarking Analyst, Yardi Energy
3. Engagement tools and resources
To aid both owners/operators and utility representatives in understanding this issue and potential solutions, EPA has prepared a number of tools and resources:
- Explainer: Whole-Building Data Access: This illustrated 2-pager quickly outlines the issue and why it's a problem.
- Backgrounder: Multitenant Buildings and Federal Incentives: This 3-page fact sheet explains the importance of whole-building data to building owners (with a focus on federal funding opportunities requiring this data), as well as the solutions available to utilities to provide the data.
- HUD-EPA-DOE Joint Letter to Utilities: This joint letter from leaders of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) was finalized in 2024. In the letter, the agencies asked utilities to provide whole-building energy and water use data to owners of multifamily properties.
- Model Law for Statewide Utility Data Access: This model law includes language that would require utilities to make whole-building data available to building owners on request, and includes language aimed at protecting privacy of building occupants and addressing the costs to utilities to provide this information. It was created by the Institute for Market Transformation (IMT) and the Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP), with EPA providing technical input.
- Helping Clients Obtain Utility Data to Facilitate Benchmarking: This resource provides a framework stakeholders could use to engage utilities on providing the whole-building energy data needed for benchmarking.
- Interactive Utility Data Access Map: This interactive map shows the service territories of the utilities providing customers with energy benchmarking data. Enter a zip code or click on the map to see if a utility provides their customers with access to the data needed to benchmark in Portfolio Manager.
- Sample Letter to Request Whole-Building Data from a Utility: Available in Microsoft Word and fully customizable.
4. EPA support for utilities interested in providing this data
EPA is a trusted business partner to utilities, supporting interested utilities in working through how to provide it. As part of the campaign and generally, EPA can support interested utilities on providing the data in line with industry best practices.
In 2023, EPA finalized its resource, Guidance for Utilities on Providing Whole-Building Data. This 12-page documents summarizes best practices for utilities that want to provide customers with energy consumption data for benchmarking in ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager®. The recommendations will help improve customer experience, streamline the process for the utility, and improve data accuracy.
Interested utilities should contact EPA at statelocal@energystar.gov to learn more.