Energy & Water Benchmarking Ordinance
The Energy & Water Use Performance Benchmarking Ordinance was approved by City Council in October 2021. The Benchmarking Ordinance will be a significant step towards incorporating sustainable development into the growth of South Portland.
What is benchmarking?
Simply put, benchmarking is measuring a building's energy use over time. With this information, building owners can better understand how their building consumes energy relative to the performance of similar buildings. This comparison then helps to identify opportunities to make changes that will improve the efficiency and performance of the building.
What does the Benchmarking Ordinance require?
Under the Benchmarking Ordinance, covered property owners are required to track monthly energy and water use. Annually, property owners will be required to submit an Energy Performance Report to the City of South Portland through ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager.
ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager is a free EPA program to help property owners organize and report energy and water use. Portfolio Manager normalizes energy and water use to allow for comparison to similar buildings.
In the first year of implementation, the City will publicly report the status of compliance for covered properties. In subsequent years, the City will publicly report energy consumption statistics in addition to the status of compliance.
Who has to comply?
- Non-residential building with 20,000 square feet or more of gross floor area
- Residential building with 20,000 square feet or more of gross floor area (Note: Residential buildings are scheduled to begin benchmarking by reporting 2022 data in May 2023)
- Municipal or school building with 5,000 square feet or more of gross floor area
List of Covered Properties with Assigned Unique Building IDs (UBIDs)
Reporting Schedule
|
January 15 |
May 1 |
September 1 |
|
Annual date for City to publicly post list of buildings required to benchmark and report data |
Annual date for property owners to submit Energy Performance Reports to the City of South Portland through Portfolio Manager
|
Annual date for the City to publish Benchmarking results |
Annual Reports
2021 Benchmarking Disclosure Report
Archived Annual Reports (2017-2019 Mill Creek Pilot)