Energy benchmarking law to benefit utilities, consumers

Philadelphia now has an energy benchmarking law. The Philadelphia City Council has unanimously passed legislation to establish energy and water benchmarking and disclosure for all non-residential buildings of more than 50,000 square feet.

Once the mandatory energy and water benchmarking is completed, the results must be disclosed to the marketplace, making them available to consumers.The usage data may be even more valuable to utilities who can utilize it to market their energy-efficiency services to the commercial and industrial markets.

New York City, Washington, DC and three other major cities across the U.S. have similar laws. The Institute for Market Transformation (IMT) projects that a national energy benchmarking and disclosure policy would create more than 59,000 net new jobs and reduce energy costs for building owners, consumers, and businesses by approximately $18 billion through 2020.

The bill will take effect on June 1, 2013.

For more:
- see this report

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