Time Ticks Closer to DC’s Building Benchmarking Deadline
Posted December 8, 2011
We Recommend...
By Spencer Lawrence
Beginning in early 2012, under a recently enacted law aimed at increasing awareness of building energy performance, owners of non-residential and multifamily buildings in Washington, D.C. will be required to annually submit energy and water utility data for their buildings via Energy Star's Portfolio Manager.
While the compliance deadline for this law was initially set to be in 2011, there have been delays as the policy undergoes the process of review. However, regulations are currently being finalized and the law will go into effect 30 days after they are finalized, or by January 31st, 2012, whichever is later.
This means that owners and managers of multi-family or non-residential buildings over 200,000 square feet in D.C. will be required to submit all 2010 utility data by approximately Jan 31st, 2012.
For buildings over 150,000 square feet, owners will need to submit data by April 1st, 2012 (using 2011 data). For buildings over 100,000 square feet, all data must be benchmarked by April 1st, 2013 (using 2012 data). Finally, for buildings over 50,000 square feet, owners must meet benchmarking requirements by April 1st, 2014 (using 2013 data).
Once a building is past the size threshold, it must benchmark annually. By not meeting compliance regulations, building owners can face fines of up to $100 per day. The District Department of the Environment (DDOE), the agency in charge of administering the law, has a great provision of resources on its website to help building owners understand and comply with the new regulation.
Benefits of Benchmarking
D.C. is not alone in mandating energy benchmarking of large properties. From New York City to Seattle, numerous cities and states in the US have begun to require benchmarking and disclosure among both public and privately-owned buildings.
Benchmarking aggregates the annual energy and water consumption of a building, then normalizes that aggregate by the building square footage, space type and occupancy. This provides a useful metric known as Energy Use Intensity (EUI), often measured in kBTU/square foot/year. Buildings can also calculate their water intensity, measured in gallons/square foot/year. These figures enable building owners and policy makers to compare their building to similar structures, identifying opportunities for improvement.
D.C.'s 194 public buildings over 10,000 square feet have been required to benchmark since 2010. The results of that benchmarking have been posted online at the DDOE website. These early benchmarking results, some of which are highlighted below, provide a firsthand example of the benefits of energy benchmarking.
Above, we see that municipal buildings in the District of Columbia are performing far worse than their counterparts nationwide. Police stations in DC are using 400 kBTU/SF, or 250% more energy per square foot than police stations on average across the US. Fire stations in DC are using 60% more energy than average.
The findings do not stop there:
From the first chart, we know that DC fire stations are using 60% more energy per square foot than the average fire station nationwide. However, there is significant discrepancy between the energy performance of fire stations within the District of Columbia. Some fire stations are performing on par or even better than the national average, while others are using more than double the national average. Thus, fire stations in DC have already demonstrated that performing on par with or above the national average is doable, and therefore significant, realizable opportunity exists to lower the EUI of other DC fire stations.
With benchmarking deadlines approaching, property management teams should decide whether or not to handle compliance alone or with an outside company. Benchmarking is an excellent first step for property owners looking to advance the efficiency of their building portfolio. Benchmarking helps owners identify which buildings are good candidates for Energy Star Certification, LEED Feasibility & Certification, or Energy Audits.
Spencer Lawrence is an Energy & Sustainability Consultant at EBI Consulting. For benchmarking questions or for help with submitting data in time to meet the January deadline, contact EBI at 781-425-5103.
blog comments powered by