Energy & Water Benchmarking Ordinance 

 
Questions: sparmelee@southportland.org, 207-347-4147

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.

Submitting your Report

Moving forward, the Sustainability Office asks building owners/reporters to complete a one-time connection on Energy Star Portfolio Manager that will allow reports to automatically be submitted when the data has been entered into Energy Star Portfolio Manager. Follow this short tutorial to complete this one-time connection to share your report or view written instructions here

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

2022 Benchmarking Disclosure Report

2021 Benchmarking Disclosure Report

Archived Annual Reports (2017-2019 Mill Creek Pilot)

2018 Benchmarking Annual Report

2019 Benchmarking Annual Report