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Get prepared for AB 1103

AB 1103, California’s commercial building energy disclosure law, has been delayed again. Full compliance is now expected to be required by early next year. 

AB 1103 requires commercial building owners to disclose a building’s historical energy usage prior to selling, executing a whole building lease, or financing the asset.  To do this, a building’s energy consumption and other data must be collected and entered into the Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager System, a software tool that allows users to track and assess energy consumption and generates an energy efficiency rating for the building.

Achieving compliance easily & cost-effectively
Becoming compliant is not difficult: the key element of energy disclosure is obtaining data from various utility companies.  The California Energy Commission has worked with the utilities to automate parts of this process, and third-party providers such as Partner Energy can provide assistance of varying levels – ranging from a preliminary review assistance to fully guided support throughout the entire process – to make becoming or remaining compliant with AB 1103 as manageable as possible.

          1. Reviewed Energy Use Disclosure Report
This report provides the lowest level of assistance and relies on the building owner collecting property information including physical data, operating characteristics, and utility bills.  A client who is already managing their energy usage in the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager System can generate an energy efficiency rating for the building through the system and have it professionally reviewed for completeness by Partner Energy staff.

Partner Energy will provide the building owner with an AB 1103 compliance report that includes a signature page (documentation of acknowledgement of receipt by the buyer, lessee or lender, and any other required AB 1103 documentation) and a summary of all building data and supporting documents.  Technical assistance is provided to clients via email as required.  For $349, the Reviewed Energy Use Disclosure Report is an extremely cost-effective way to ensure compliance under AB 1103.     

          2. Audited Energy Use Disclosure Report
Partner Energy offers an Audited Energy Use Disclosure Report option for building owners that want to spend less time collecting and inputting data into the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager System.  Partner Energy engineers will assist in the data collection process by providing clients with collection forms to record the property’s physical data, operating characteristics and utility bills.  After collection, Partner staff will review the collected data to ensure it is accurate, complete and verifiable, and enter the data into the Energy Star Portfolio Manager.  The certified signature page and final report provided by Partner will ensure full compliance, and provide documentation required to apply for the ENERGY STAR label.  For $550, building owners can engage Partner Energy for this report and strike a good balance between minimizing both out of pocket costs and time they have to spend to become compliant with AB 1103.

          3. Professionally Prepared Energy Use Disclosure Report
Partner Energy’s most comprehensive product for AB 1103 compliance – the Professionally Prepared Energy Disclosure Report – takes all work out of the client’s hands.  For this full-service report, an engineer will conduct a site visit to collect data about the building’s physical elements, operating characteristics and utility meters.  The data is reviewed to ensure it is complete and verifiable, entered into ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, and checked for accuracy again.

The client receives technical support as required via phone or email.  A signature page acknowledging receipt by the buyer, lessee or lender is included in the final report containing all building data and supporting documents required by AB 1103.  This comprehensive report ensures full certainty and a convenient way to attain or maintain compliance under the new AB 1103 laws.  Please contact us to obtain pricing for this service.

Partner Energy can also help qualifying buildings obtain an Energy Star Certification.

Want to learn more?
If you want to know more about how to comply with AB 1103, and what the new regulations will mean for you, your buildings or your industry, tune in to the Partner Energy Webinar about energy disclosure on August 20.   Register here.