Energy Building Benchmarking

Energy benchmarking is the practice of measuring a building's energy use over time and comparing it against its own history and against similar buildings. It is the foundation for every efficiency and clean energy project the Lead by Example program delivers: a building's performance cannot be improved until its energy use is understood.

Pursuant to R.I. Gen. Laws § 42-140-13, enacted through Article 11 of the FY2027 State budget, State departments are required to measure and report monthly energy use by source for their state-owned, state-occupied facilities of at least 25,000 gross square feet, coordinated and supported by the Office of Energy Resources. Beginning March 31, 2029, departments will report the preceding calendar year's energy use to OER annually, and OER will publish each facility's energy use by fuel and total emissions. That data will in turn inform the emissions performance standards OER is directed to develop for these facilities by March 31, 2030, with a compliance schedule running through 2050.

Article 11 also establishes a voluntary benchmarking program for public buildings, under which OER provides technical and financial assistance to municipalities benchmarking municipal and school buildings of at least 25,000 gross square feet.

OER's Lead by Example team carries out this work in ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's building energy tracking platform, giving entities a consistent and verified picture of how their facilities perform and helping OER prioritize the buildings that stand to gain the most from investment. This effort also supports the State energy use intensity (EUI) reduction targets established in Executive Order 23-06 and the greenhouse gas emission reduction mandates established by the 2021 Act on Climate legislation.

Benchmarking a single building is a multi-step process, involving site visits, meter verification, utility data collection, and quality review before a facility is fully benchmarked and its EUI is published. The dashboard below shows where each facility stands in that process.

For questions about energy building benchmarking for State departments or municipalities, please contact Maria Mealy at Maria.Mealy@energy.ri.gov.