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Energy efficiency benchmarking

Process update – February 1, 2024

Energy efficiency benchmarking by aggregating meters via ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager is now available to commercial buildings with three or more electricity service accounts.

Monitor and report on your building's energy efficiency

Benchmarking is a no-cost way to monitor your building's electricity use data over time and to compare it to similar buildings in Canada. This can help identify opportunities to improve your facility's energy efficiency and reduce operating costs.

Eligible commercial customers can sign up to have their facility's electricity use data benchmarked using ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® web services. This allows you to have your BC Hydro usage data automatically uploaded each month.

Benefits

Energy efficiency benchmarking allows you to:

How it works

Portfolio Manager is ENERGY STAR's measurement, tracking, and benchmarking tool. It makes it easy to track and assess the energy usage of your building(s).  

Once you're set up and connected to BC Hydro through Portfolio Manager, you’ll get:

  • Immediate access to the past three years of electricity consumption data for your commercial account(s) and/or whole building aggregated data.  
  • Automatic upload of electricity use data moving forward.

Other useful features include:

  • Generate weather-normalized electricity use intensity and greenhouse gas emissions metrics. 
  • Generate custom reports that allow you to see trends over time and compare to similar buildings. 
  • Eligible building types can get an ENERGY STAR performance score. 
  • Export energy consumption data to comply with regional energy and carbon reporting regulations (where applicable). 

Eligibility

This service is available to

  • Individual commercial account.  
  • Commercial buildings with three or more commercial accounts. 
  • Multi-unit residential buildings (MURBs) with five or more residential accounts. 
  • Mixed-use buildings that have three or more commercial accounts and five or more residential accounts.

How to request   

Follow the steps below to get up to three years of building data uploaded into Portfolio Manager and automatically updated every month.  

For more detailed instructions, see the step-by-step guide below.

ACTION TIPS

1. Create an ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager account.

This should be a person responsible for energy management and benchmarking in your organization.  

Don't enter any personal information.

2. Add property information.  

You'll need to enter basic property details such as type, square footage, how it's used, etc. 

3. Add meter information.

Each electric meter will represent one BC Hydro account – unless using a MURB and/or COM code, which will represent, separately, all the residential and commercial accounts in the building (see Part C).  

Give each meter a descriptive name that includes the BC Hydro account number – or notes if it’s an aggregated meter (see Part C). 



ACTION TIPS

1. Within Portfolio Manager, use the "Contact" feature to add BC Hydro Web Services.

Once submitted, the connection with BC Hydro should take about four hours. You'll receive an email update once complete.

2. Select the properties and meter(s) (and MURB and/or COM codes if following Part C) to enable automated data upload. 

  • Select “share properties with others”. 
  • Select “Personalized sharing and exchange data”. 
  • Give full access to each meter. 
  • For individual meters, validate with required details (account number, bill date, bill amount). 

Meter aggregation codes don't need additional validation (see Part C)

If you're on consolidated billing, in addition to entering your member account number, enter your most recent master invoice date and master invoice amount (total amount due with dollars and cents), as it appears on your bill. The system will accept either of the previous two bills.

3. Check back the next business day.  

If the request was accepted, up to three years of your past electricity use data will be available and will be automatically updated each month.

 
If there are overlaps, delete duplicate records. 

If meter readings are longer than 65 days, manually split them. 



ACTION TIPS

1. Complete the request for aggregated consumption data to obtain a MURB code (for multi-unit residential buildings) or COM code (for commercial buildings).

For mixed-use buildings, you can obtain MURB and COM codes by submitting two requests: one for commercial accounts and one for residential accounts. 

2. While completing your request, you'll be asked to upload the required authorization forms:  

 

  • If a consultant or representative is requesting the data on behalf of the building owner.
  • If the number of accounts for the building falls below the eligibility threshold, it must also be completed by each individual account holder.

The eligibility threshold and the building data authorization form for this service are available on the request page.

3. Add the codes to Portfolio Manager for aggregated data upload. 

  • Add a COM code for aggregated commercial consumption, and/or 
  • Add a MURB code for aggregated residential consumption. 

If required, also add the residential common area meter to validate your MURB code.

 
One meter in Portfolio Manager will represent aggregated consumption for each account type being requested for this building. Label these clearly (e.g., "Aggregated meter – commercial", "Aggregated meter – residential"). 

For MURBs that have a common area account, the common area account is usually set up as a commercial meter and is not included in the residential aggregation. The requestor must know the common area account number to complete this process.  

For mixed-use buildings, if a common area account from the residential portion is entered in Portfolio Manager, note that it will also be picked up in the commercial portion. To get the true whole-building consumption, remove the duplicate from the building total in Portfolio Manager.



Resources 

Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) 

ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager is a tool provided by Natural Resources Canada. Learn more from NRCan about the tool and its data security.

If you're having technical issues with BC Hydro Web Services for Portfolio Manager, email pmwebservices@bchydro.com.


Related 

Request your building's aggregated consumption data 

Request the MURB code or COM code needed to set up ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, which provides the historical and ongoing upload of your building’s total electricity consumption.   

Request your building's peak demand data

For multi-unit residential or mixed-use buildings looking to check overall building capacity to add new electrical load.