Energy Benchmarking
Energy benchmarking is tracking a building’s energy and water use, then using a standard metric to compare the building’s performance against past performance and to its peers nationwide. These comparisons have been shown to drive energy efficiency upgrades and increase occupancy rates and property values. Rising energy costs mean that energy now represents a significant portion of operating budgets for buildings across the nation.
You can’t manage what you don’t measure. Energy consumption is no different and that’s why the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has created a free online tool called the Energy Star® Portfolio Manager. This is interactive energy management tool allows you to track and assess energy and water consumption as well as greenhouse gas emissions for your building or across your entire portfolio of buildings.
How to Use Portfolio Manager
You’ll need data from your meter or meters which we can help with if you need it.
Go to Energy Star® Portfolio Manager and create an account
Add your property information
Enter energy data from all your meters
Portfolio Manager compares your building’s energy and water usage to similar buildings in a secure online environment. The EPA has developed a Benchmarking Starter Kit to help you get started quickly and they offer free webinars to help you through the process. For questions on Portfolio Manager, refer to ENERGY STAR’s online Help and FAQ or contact buildings@energystar.gov.
If you need help gathering historical data from your TID meter, we can provide you with a 12-month usage profile for you to upload into Portfolio Manager. To request it, send an e-mail to customerservice@tid.org. Include the account number(s) and service address(s) for each meter you are requesting. If you are not an authorized representative of the Customer of Record for the account(s) that are required to benchmark your facility, have an authorized party complete and sign the Authorization to Release Utility Information form.
