Better Buildings Benchmarking

Energy Benchmarking is the process of measuring and tracking a building’s energy use over time. By using certain building characteristics along with monthly consumption data, owners and occupants can begin to understand how their building is performing on an operational level compared to similar buildings in their community and around the country.

The City and County of Honolulu (City) established the Better Buildings Benchmarking Program to advance Honolulu’s affordability goals and goal of carbon neutrality by 2045. This program is in accordance with Ordinance 22-17, which Mayor Blangiardi signed into law July 20, 2022. (For background information on the Better Buildings Benchmarking program, please visit: resilientoahu.org/benchmarking.)

Who must participate?

• In 2024, buildings 50,000 square feet or larger must report their 2023 annual aggregate energy use data by Sept. 30, 2024 (extended date).
  • These buildings have been issued an Oahu Building ID, which is a unique ID assigned by the City to identify individual building structures on Oahu.
• In support of this program, Hawaiian Electric has:
  • Mapped all individually metered accounts within a building/campus to its assigned building ID.
  • Collaborated with the City on an auto-upload process for property owners/managers to retrieve annual energy-use data all from within their ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager account (ESPM) account. This replaces the former data-request process and will be available in time for the Sept. 30 reporting due date. Please visit the City’s Better Buildings Benchmarking program page for complete instructions at www.resilientoahu.org/benchmarking.

Data anonymization

In its aggregation process, Hawaiian Electric has combined the energy use data of all individually metered accounts into a single report for each building required to participate, such that individual metered-account energy usage data is no longer identifiable. This is done to protect the privacy and anonymity of each metered account.

How to request annual aggregated energy use data?

The instructions below are available on the City’s Better Buildings Benchmarking program page at www.resilientoahu.org/benchmarking.

1. Create EnergyStar Portfolio Manager account
   • Start by creating your free ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager account (ESPM) for your building.
2. Find your Oahu Building ID
   • Your Oahu Building ID is a unique ID assigned by the City to identify individual building structures on Oahu. Hawaiian Electric has mapped all individually metered accounts within a building/campus to its assigned building ID. To retrieve your energy-use data, simply locate your Oahu Building ID on the City’s Interactive Buildings Map or Covered Buildings List. Add your ID in ESPM under “Standard IDs”.
3. Obtain your aggregate energy-use data
   • Property owners/managers may use the new aggregate data auto-upload feature to retrieve annual energy-use data all from within their ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager (ESPM) account. Please visit the City’s Better Buildings Benchmarking program page for complete instructions at www.resilientoahu.org/benchmarking.
     • For buildings with fewer than four metered accounts for commercial buildings or six metered accounts for multifamily buildings (and/or a single metered account accounting for at least 50 percent of the buildings total energy use), authorization from the applicable account holders must also be obtained. All authorizations may be granted within the City’s portal.

For additional information on this program, please review our list of frequently asked questions, or contact us at bbb@hawaiianelectric.com.