Owners of Non-Residential Buildings (>5,000sf) Asked To Benchmark & Disclose Energy Consumption in Proposed Amendments to AB 1103

Proposed Amendments to AB 1103 will push the effective compliance date from July 1, 2012 to January 1, 2013 for Non-Residential Building Owners of buildings greater than 50,000 square feet, and Owners of Non-Residential buildings greater than 5,000 feet on or after January 1, 2014.  Requirements include:

•All Non-Residential Building Owners must benchmark the building’s energy use using the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Portfolio Manager system;

•All Non-Residential Building Owners must disclose statements of the building’s energy usage to potential buyers, lessees, and lenders.

The proposed regulations also require all utility companies serving the building to release the most recent 12 months of energy use data for the entire building to an owner’s U.S. EPA’s Portfolio Manager Account, within 15 days of the building owner’s request.

Effective Compliance Dates:
Buildings with greater than 50,000 Square Feet
On or after July 1, 2013

Buildings with greater than 50,000 Square Feet, up to 50,000 Square Feet
On or after July 1, 2013

Buildings with at least 5,000 Square Feet, up to 10,000 Square Feet
On or after January 1, 2014

Information Required To Report:
Submittal must occur 30 days before a disclosure is required;
•    Open an account on EPA”s Energy Star program Portfolio Manager website;
•    Identify all sources of energy use data for the entire building, such as active and inactive utility meters, onsite generation, district thermal energy, or fuel(s) serving the building, for at least the most recent 12 months;
•    Provide space use characteristics;
•    Request and enter all utility and energy use data for the entire building for the most recent 12 months (Utility companies required to provide the information to the building owner within 15 days of request);
•    Once information uploaded, building owner will access the Commisions’s AB 1103 compliance website and:
o    Download disclosure Summary Sheet
o    Complete and Submit the Compliance Report
o    Download the building’s Statement of Energy Performance, Data Checklist, and Facility Summary
 
Disclosure Requirements:
A building owner shall disclose the following items to prospective buyers, lease and lenders:
•    Disclosure Summary Sheet
•    Statement of Energy Performance
•    Data Checklist
•    Facility Summary

(a)    Prospective buyer of the entire building, before execution of the sales contract
(b)    Prospective leasee of the entire building, as soon as practicable or before execution of lease
(c)    Prospective lender financing the entire building, as soon as practicable before submittal of the loan application

*An owner may supplement the above disclosure with forms from other sources, such as the ASTM International checklist E2797‐11 (2011), the Standard Practice for Building Energy
Performance Assessment for a Building Involved in a Real Estate Transaction.
 
Definitions:
(a)    “Building Owner” means a person possessing title to a nonresidential building, or an agent authorized to act on behalf of a person possessing title.

(b)    “Commission” means the California Energy Commission.

(c)    “Compliance Report” means an electronic submission of a copy of the data used for generating disclosure documents, submitted within the Portfolio Manager system from the building owner’s account to the Commission’s account.

(d)    “Data Checklist” means a report generated by Portfolio Manager that summarizes a property’s physical and operating characteristics.

(e) “Disclosure Summary Sheet” means the Commission document detailing the contents
and relevance of disclosures generated by Portfolio Manager.

(f) “Energy Provider” means any non‐electric and gas utility entity providing energy, as
defined by Section 25109, Public Resources Code, used by a nonresidential building.

(g) “Energy Use Data” means a record of kilowatt hours, therms, or any other measure of
energy used by a nonresidential building.

(h) “Entire Building” means a building for which the owner possesses title.
(i) “EPA” means the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

(j) “Facility Summary” means a report generated by Portfolio Manager that summarizes
the space usage of a building and compares a building’s energy use to national averages.

(k) “Nonresidential Building” means a building of occupancy type A, B, E, I‐1, I‐2, M, R1, S,
and Type U parking garages, as defined in the California Building Code, Title 24, Section
302 et seq. (2007).

(l) “Portfolio Manager” means the EPA’s ENERGY STAR® program online tool for
managing building energy use data.

(m)“Portfolio Manager Energy Performance Rating” means an EPA energy efficiency
measurement represented as a score from 1 to 100, normalized for a building’s
characteristics, operations, and regional weather.

(n) “Square Feet” means total gross square footage of a building.

(o) “Statement of Energy Performance” means a report generated by Portfolio Manager that
supplies data about a building’s energy performance, and if available, the building’s
energy use rating.

(p) “Utility” means an entity providing  electricity or natural gas to a nonresidential
building owner or tenant.