Energy Benchmarking Deadline Pushed Back to December 31

The benchmarking of energy and water use under Local Law 84 – a major tool in reducing buildings’ carbon output – has become an accepted, if unwelcome, part of co-op and condo boards’ annual workload. But this year, due to a glitch in data provided by utilities, the city has pushed back the deadline for filing 2017 energy and water consumption from May 1 to December 31, 2018. 

The Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability has advised the city’s Department of Buildings (DOB) of the new deadline “due to unresolved technical issues.” 

The problems were discovered by Aurora Energy Advisors, a consulting firm that helps more than 1,800 buildings comply with Local Law 84, which requires all New York City buildings over 50,000 square feet, including co-ops and condos, to perform annual benchmarking of their water and energy consumption. (Local Law 133, which covers buildings between 25,000 and 50,000 square feet, still has a filing deadline of March 31, 2019 for 2017 consumption.) 

“The city has automated the process of downloading electricity and gas data from Con Ed and National Grid directly into the city’s system,” says Mitchell Ingerman, president of Aurora Energy Advisors. “When the first download started, we saw some issues on the utilities’ side. I would call it incomplete data. They’re fixing the issues.” 

In the company’s newsletter, Ingerman adds, “Early on in the data-gathering process, Aurora uncovered various issues related to data consistency and the interface for submitting utility data to the Department of Buildings. After bringing these issues to the attention of the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, Aurora maintained extensive conversation with all involved parties for several months. Once the extent of these complications was illuminated, the Mayor’s Office in conjunction with the DOB determined that the May 1 deadline would need to be extended.” 

Con Ed spokesman Allan Drury says, “We’ve corrected some technical issues we encountered early in the process, and we meet regularly with representatives of the city to provide updates on our progress. Carefully measuring buildings’ energy usage is an essential step toward helping New York City and New York State meet their environmental goals, which Con Edison supports.” He did not specify the nature of the “technical issues.” 

National Grid, which provides gas to Staten Island, Brooklyn and parts of Queens, did not respond to a request for a comment. 

“I knew there were going to be some hiccups because this was the first time Con Ed and National Grid did a direct upload of data to the Energy Star Portfolio Manager,” says Kelly Dougherty, director of energy management for FS Energy, which manages more than 500 properties. Portfolio Manager is an online portal run by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “Both utilities are working on correcting their issues,” Dougherty adds. “Our data information manager is confident that it’ll get done. If we get through this year, hopefully next year will be better.”

Owners of buildings covered by Local Law 84 are encouraged to visit the Benchmarking section of the DOB’s website. For general information regarding benchmarking requirement, including how to submit your report, please review material here. 

Assistance with benchmarking tasks is also available via the NYC Benchmarking Help Center, Monday through Friday, 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 pm by calling (212) 566-5584 or by email at questions@benchmarkinghelpcenter.org.