Construction Services

Building Benchmarking

Application processing may take 4 – 6 weeks from the date a complete application is received. The Los Angeles Benchmarking Guide recommends submitting data request(s) no later than March 1st to allow sufficient time for data upload and review ahead of the annual June 1st deadline.

LA Benchmarking Help Center

Overview

The City of Los Angeles established the Existing Buildings Energy and Water Efficiency (EBEWE) ordinance in 2017 to encourage building owners to reduce energy and water consumption through benchmarking and performance requirements. Under the EBEWE ordinance, the City of Los Angeles requires that all buildings over 20,000 square feet (including municipal buildings over 7,500 square feet) conduct annual benchmarking of their energy and water use and then take action to reduce their consumption.

Additionally, the State of California AB 802 followed by establishing a statewide building energy use benchmarking and public disclosure program under AB 802. AB 802 revises PRC Section 25402.10 to require utilities to provide energy consumption data for covered buildings to the building owners upon request, and requires the Energy Commission to establish a building energy use benchmarking and public disclosure program for certain buildings. A summary of the benchmarking provisions in AB 802 can be found on the CEC's website.

Benefits of Benchmarking

Benchmarking efforts allow owners and occupants to understand their building’s performance and identify the following opportunities:

Building owners may see cost savings through lower utility bills, and reduced maintenance and operating costs.
While water and electric bills can go down, property value may go up.
Those working in the building get a more comfortable and healthier work environment.
All Angelenos benefit from reduced carbon pollution by offsetting the need for generating energy from traditional fossil fuel power sources.

To help streamline the process, the City of Los Angeles has established the LA Benchmarking Help Center, funded by LADWP, to provide free technical support on Energy Star Portfolio Manager (ESPM), including:

Set-up
Data acquisition
Data Review
Troubleshooting
Turning benchmarking results into savings opportunities

The ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® is a free online tool that allows you to track the energy and water use for the entire building, and comply with the City ordinance and State Legislation. Use Portfolio Manager to:

Generate weather-normalized energy use intensity and greenhouse gas emissions metrics for your building
Get an ENERGY STAR energy performance score between 1 and 100 for many eligible buildings.
Create custom reports that enable users to view time-trending information and compare buildings within your portfolio.

LADWP has established an interface with the ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® that will enable you to benchmark your building’s energy and water consumption.

How to Get Started

If you are preparing your first benchmarking report, please refer to this Benchmarking Guide to learn more. The Guide will walk you through the details of compliance, the entire process of benchmarking and reporting your building, with screenshots and guidance for each step.

Online

L.A. Energy and Water Efficiency Resource Center

How to Comply

Ongoing Benchmarking

Second Year Benchmarking

The Existing Buildings Energy & Water Efficiency Ordinance compliance process is an annual requirement, and you must repeat the steps to submit your benchmarking report each year. Please refer to the Ongoing Reporting Guide for more information.

Ongoing Reporting Guide

Additional Resources

Requesting Building Usage Data

What You Need to Know

If you have access to whole-building electricity and water (including tenant-controlled areas) you DO NOT need to request data. You can upload any missing data to your Property Profile by following the steps in Section 3B of the Benchmarking Guide, and submit your Benchmarking Report to DBS (see Section 6).

Following is information and documents that building owners and tenants will need in order to request aggregated building data from LADWP. It will be helpful to review these before starting the online Request Form.

For Building Owners:
- Proof of ownership-- an electronic copy of the current deed, title report, or property tax statement.
  Building information-- address, square footage, Assessor’s Parcel Number, and list of meters associated to the building.
- Third-Party Benchmark Request Self-Certification or Letter of Authorization-- if the request is made by an agent acting on behalf of the owner. The letter should clearly indicate that the building owner authorizes the requestor to act on their behalf to attain aggregated building data from LADWP for benchmarking purposes as it pertains to AB 802 and/or the EBEWE Program.
- Tenant Consent form when:
  - Building has fewer than 3 commercial active utility accounts
  - Building has fewer than 5 active utility accounts and at least one of which is residential
For Tenants:
Property owners are subject to several California policies requiring them to benchmark and disclose the energy use of their building. To comply with these policies, property owners may need building tenants to release their energy data for use in the benchmarking analysis. LADWP customers can release their usage data to building owners and their agents by completing a Tenant Consent form, which grants LADWP permission to share the account holder’s usage information with the owner or authorized agent for building benchmarking purposes. To download and print the form, select Tenant Consent form.

First Year Benchmarking

Follow these simple steps to begin the request for your building’s aggregated usage data.

Create an ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager® account before you initiate the request to LADWP for your building’s aggregated usage data.

A Building I.D. number provided by L.A. City Department of Building and Safety (DBS) may help streamline the process. To receive assistance in obtaining the Building I.D., please visit lacitydbs.org/buildinginfo online, email [email protected] or call (213) 482-0476.

LA City EBEWE Benchmarking FAQs
To initiate your request, please click the Building Benchmarking Online Form and fill it out completely. When you have filled out all of the information, you will be able to submit the application on line. Application processing may take 4 – 6 weeks from the date a complete application is received. The Los Angeles Benchmarking Guide recommends submitting data request(s) no later than March 1st to allow sufficient time for data upload and review ahead of the annual June 1st deadline.
LADWP will work with the requestor to authenticate the ownership and building information.
The requestor is required to verify the building profile, list of meters associated to the building, and service addresses for the building.
LADWP will notify the requestor of their Building I.D. and Property Admin I.D. numbers. The total energy usage data for the building will then become available through Portfolio Manager and may be accessed by the requestor through their Portfolio Manager account.

Second Year Benchmarking

Information and Program Support

For questions on LADWP Building Benchmarking, visit LA Benchmarking Help Center or view the Benchmarking Guide.

Additional information and training on the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager can be found at the following U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ENERGY STAR links:

Details of the City ordinance, as well as other related California Legislation can be found on the Los Angeles Existing Buildings Stakeholder Group website.

Questions or concerns?

[email protected]

Enter “Building Benchmarking” in subject line.

Building Benchmarking

Overview

Benefits of Benchmarking