California building owners:

What is AB802?

Assembly Bill 802 (AB802) is California’s statewide building energy use benchmarking and public disclosure program for large buildings. The law requires that owners of commercial buildings larger than 50,000 square feet report annual whole building energy use data to the California State Energy Commission.

Purpose

The purpose of AB802 is to allow building owners and tenants to make better informed purchasing and leasing decisions through public disclosure of building utility performance. The law will also enable the general public to better understand the buildings in which they live and work.

Does it impact me?

Owners of multifamily and commercial buildings larger than 50,000 square feet are required to report whole building monthly energy use data only (water data is not required) to the Energy Commission.

Exemptions:

• A building is exempt if more than half of the Gross Floor Area is used for scientific experiments requiring controlled environments, or for manufacturing or industrial purposes.
• Buildings will not have to disclose energy data if they are reporting to a city benchmarking ordinance that has been approved for exemption by the state. Those cities who have been approved will be listed on the benchmarking website.
• Buildings are not required to report water data.

What are the deadlines?

Owners of buildings larger than 50,000 square feet are required to submit whole building monthly energy use data to the Energy Commission based on the following schedule:

• June 1, 2019: commercial buildings and multifamily buildings with 17 or more residential utility accounts submit 2018 whole building monthly energy use data.
• Every June 1 thereafter, buildings must report the prior year’s energy usage.

What are the penalties?

The Commission has authority to institute civil fines of up to $2,000 for non-compliance.

The Commission will publicly disclose information, beginning in 2019 for buildings with no residential accounts, and 2020 for buildings with residential accounts.

Check the benchmarking page of the CA Energy Commission for:

• Information about the reporting procedure
• How the utility data request process works
• Links to the data request portals for the utilities that have them
• Utility contact support information for requesting data from a particular utility
• Sign up to receive CA state benchmarking updates here.

How do I comply?

Building owners must report whole building energy data to EPA’s Portfolio Manager, a reporting tool that allows building owners to compare their building’s energy efficiency with similar buildings. For buildings with residential accounts, owners must submit requests to local utilities for whole building data. Once whole building data is captured, they are required to complete and submit a report to the State of California Energy Commission.