Energy Benchmarking Requirements

• Official Guide: DEP has put together a comprehensive, set-by-step guide for complying with the Building Energy Benchmarking Law in Montgomery County, which includes background information, clarifying instructions, and details about reporting benchmarking data to the County. Please review the Montgomery County Building Energy Benchmarking HOW-TO GUIDE (PDF) for full instructions on how to report.
• Determine Building Coverage and Locate the Montgomery County Building ID:
  • DEP's Covered Buildings Inventory lists buildings covered by the law.
  • Each building must confirm their own building square footage and metering / system configuration to determine coverage under the law. Not sure if your property should be covered? Review these common coverage scenarios or reach out to [email protected] to review.
  • An online GIS map created from Maryland tax assessment records may help to locate the parcel that your building sits on, and see what other buildings share your parcel.
• Montgomery County Building Energy Benchmarking Reporting Portal: Reporters must use the Montgomery County Building Energy Benchmarking Reporting Portal to submit your annual benchmarking report to Montgomery County. Within the Portal, you can:
  • Claim your building(s)
  • Enter and manage contact info
  • Submit an extension, waiver, or exemption request
  • Submit your annual benchmarking report
  • Re-report data for previous calendar years or submit revisions to benchmarking data
  • View compliance status and disclosed data for each building
• Apply for Technical Assistance: Montgomery County Green Bank provides technical assistance to help connect building owners to qualified benchmarking vendors and can also help offset the cost for first-time benchmarkers.
• Find a Vendor: Montgomery County Benchmarking Ambassadors have completed training about complying with Montgomery County's law and learned how to access data from utilities.
• Request Aggregated Data from Utilities:
  • Pepco customers can find information on getting their Pepco data at Pepco Energy Benchmarking.
  • Washington Gas customers can find information on getting aggregated gas bill data at Washington Gas Energy Benchmarking
  • Potomac Edison customers can learn more about aggregated data access at the FirstEnergy Benchmarking Program website.
  • BG&E offers information on getting electronic BGE energy data at Automated Benchmarking.
• Submit Benchmarking Data to DEP: Review our quick guide on submitting your benchmarking report to DEP (PDF) with screenshots of how to submit data to DEP to close out your reporting.
• Common Issues: The Montgomery County Building Energy Benchmarking HOW-TO GUIDE (PDF) contains a list of common issues that building owners may experience that prevent a benchmarking report from being accepted. See the section starting on page 48. 

• EPA maintains a number of How-To Guides on various topics, including: 
  • Portfolio Manager Quick Start Guide offers the basics to setting up your Portfolio Manager account, including adding your property, entering your energy data, and seeing your results.
  • Data Collection Worksheet  to lookup the data needed to benchmark your property in Portfolio Manager.  Additionally you can create a PDF with this information that you can use as a data collection worksheet.
  • Details on Entering Your Utility Bill Data walks you through the steps to set up a meter and correctly enter data, add data to an existing meter, complete spreadsheet uploads, and information on Web Services (automated benchmarking).
• Portfolio Manager Trainings offers both live and recorded webinars, written and video tutorials, and how-to’s for specific functions of the software.
• Portfolio Manager Technical Support offers expert advice and guidance on how to benchmark your building(s) in Portfolio Manager.

If you would like to request an extension for benchmarking and reporting to the County's Benchmarking Law, please follow instructions for submitting an extension (PDF). Extensions are available for periods of 14 days or 30 days.

An exemption can be applied for in the cases where:

• The building is less than 25,000 gross square feet. For benchmarking purposes, a "building" is any single structure utilized or intended for supporting or sheltering any occupancy, except if a single structure contains two or more individually metered units operating independently that have stand-alone heating, cooling, hot water, and other mechanical systems, and no shared interior common areas.
• Your building may be exempt if it contains individually owned or leased spaces where: 
  • each space is less than 25,000 gross square feet, and
  • each space does not share and is not connected by any interior space (even hallways), and
  • each space has its own energy systems (like HVAC and hot water heating) and there are no shared energy systems between spaces, and
  • each space has separate energy utility meters.
• More than 50% of the total gross floor area of the building is used for:
  • Public assembly in a building without walls; or, 
  • Industrial uses where the majority of energy is consumed for  manufacturing, the generation of electric power or district thermal energy to be consumed offsite, or for other process loads; or,
  • Transportation,  communications, or  utility infrastructure.

This  Covered Buildings Guide may help you determine if your building meets the County's definition of a building. Instructions for submitting an Exemption (PDF)

A waiver can be applied for in the cases where the property:

• Is in financial distress, defined as the building is subject of a tax lien sale or public auction due to property tax arrearages; is controlled by a court appointed receiver; or was recently acquired by a deed in lieu of foreclosure;
• On average, less than one full-time-equivalent employee occupied the building during the calendar year being reported;
• The covered building is newly constructed and has received its certificate of use and occupancy during the calendar year for which benchmarking is required; or
• The covered building was demolished or received its demolition permit during the calendar year for which benchmarking is required

Waivers are valid for one year. Building owners must submit a Building Waiver Application to DEP no later than May 1 of each deadline year.

Instructions for submitting a Waiver (PDF)