Annual energy and water benchmarking reports for covered properties

(a) For every covered property subject to this article, the owner shall collect and enter all data needed to benchmark the entire property for the previous calendar year into the benchmarking tool and annually submit to the department the shared benchmarking information in an electronic report as established by the department and by the date specified in § 16C-1.3 . (b) The benchmarking report must be based on an assessment of the aggregated total energy and water consumed by the property for the entire calendar year being reported. Aggregated whole-building data for the property’s energy and water use shall be compiled by the property owner using one or more of the following methods: (1) Requesting and obtaining aggregated whole-building data from a utility; (2) Reading a master meter; or (3) Collecting data from all tenants, when a utility cannot provide aggregated whole-building data. (A) Each nonresidential tenant located in a covered property must, within 30 days of a request by the owner and in a form to be determined by the department, provide all information that cannot otherwise be acquired by the owner and that is needed by the owner to comply with the requirements of this article. (B) Nothing in this article will be construed to permit a property owner to use tenant energy usage data for purposes other than compliance with benchmarking reporting requirements established by this article, nor may the reporting requirements of this article be construed to excuse property owners from compliance with federal or State laws governing direct access to tenant utility data from the responsible utility. (c) Before submitting the benchmarking report, the owner shall run all automated data quality check functions available within the benchmarking tool. The owner shall verify that all data has been accurately entered into the tool or correct all missing or incorrect information as identified by the data quality checker prior to submitting the benchmarking report. (d) If the current owner learns that any information reported as part of the benchmarking report is inaccurate or incomplete, the owner must amend the information reported within the benchmarking tool, and must provide the department with an updated benchmarking report within 30 days of learning of the inaccuracy.