(a) For the purposes of this section, the following terms have the following meanings:
(1) “Benchmark” means to obtain information on the energy use in an entire building for a specific period to enable that usage to be tracked or compared against other buildings.
(2) “Covered building” for purposes of this section means either or both of the following:
(A) Any building with no residential utility accounts.
(B) Any building with five or more active utility accounts, residential or nonresidential.
(3) “Energy” means electricity, natural gas, steam, or fuel oil sold by a utility to a customer for end uses addressed by the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager system.
(4) “ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager” means the tool developed and maintained by the United States Environmental Protection Agency to track and assess the energy performance of buildings.
(b) On and after January 1, 2016, each utility shall maintain records of the energy usage data of all buildings to which they provide service for at least the most recent 12 complete calendar months.
(c) (1) Subject to the requirements of paragraph (2), beginning no later than January 1, 2017, each utility shall, upon the request and written authorization or secure electronic authorization of the owner, owner’s agent, or operator of a covered building, deliver or otherwise provide aggregated energy usage data for a covered building to the owner, owner’s agent, building operator, or to the owner’s account in the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager. The commission may specify additional information to be delivered by utilities to enable building owners to complete benchmarking of the energy use in their buildings and in other systems or formats for information delivery and automation.
(2) The delivery of information by utilities pursuant to this section shall be subject to the following requirements:
(A) For covered buildings with three or more active utility accounts, each utility shall deliver information showing the aggregated energy usage data of all utility customers in the same building for each of the 12 prior months. Notwithstanding any other law, energy usage data aggregated in this manner shall not be deemed customer utility usage information or confidential information by the utility for purposes of delivery to the owner, owner’s agent, or operator of a building. The building owner and utility shall not have any liability for any use or disclosure of aggregated energy usage data delivered as required by this section.
(B) For covered buildings not subject to subparagraph (A), each utility shall deliver the information showing the aggregated energy usage data of all utility customers in the same building for each of the prior 12 months if the accountholder provides written or electronic consent for the delivery of the accountholder’s energy usage data to the owner, owner’s agent, operator, or utility.
(C) Each utility shall deliver, upload, or otherwise provide aggregated energy usage data within four weeks of receiving a request from an owner, owner’s agent, or operator of a covered building.
(D) Each utility shall make available the covered building energy usage data aggregated at a monthly level unless otherwise specified by the commission.
(E) The building owner and utility shall not have any liability for any use or disclosure by others of usage information delivered as required by this section.
(d) The commission shall adopt regulations providing for the delivery to the commission and public disclosure of benchmarking of energy use for covered buildings, as follows:
(1) This subdivision shall not require the owner of a building with 16 or fewer residential utility accounts to collect or deliver energy usage information to the commission.
(2) The commission may do, but is not limited to doing, all of the following in regulations adopted pursuant to this subdivision:
(A) Identify and provide for the collection of the energy usage data for the calculation of benchmarking of energy use.
(B) Identify and provide for the collection of the covered building characteristic information deemed necessary by the commission for the calculation of benchmarking of energy use.
(C) Specify the manner in which certain benchmarking of energy use shall be publicly disclosed.
(D) Determine which covered buildings, in addition to those described in paragraph (1), are not subject to the public disclosure requirement.
(E) Set a schedule to implement the requirements for public disclosure adopted by the commission.
(F) Determine if compliance with a local or county benchmarking program fulfills the commission’s requirements adopted pursuant to this subdivision.
(G) Identify categories of information it receives pursuant to this section that are protected from release under either the California Public Records Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 6250) of Division 7 of Title 1 of the Government Code) or the Information Practices Act of 1977 (Chapter 1 (commencing with Section 1798) of Title 1.8 of Part 4 of Division 3 of the Civil Code).
(3) The commission shall determine who will deliver the energy usage data and related information for any covered building to the commission.
(e) The commission may ensure timely and accurate compliance with the data submission requirements of this section by using the enforcement measures identified in Section 25321. An owner of a covered building, or its agents or operators, shall not be liable for any noncompliance due to the failure of a utility to provide the information required for compliance.
(f) For buildings that are not covered buildings, and for customer information that is not aggregated pursuant to subparagraph (A) of paragraph (2) of subdivision (c), the commission may adopt regulations prescribing how utilities shall either obtain the customer’s permission or determine that a building owner has obtained the customer’s permission, for the owner to receive aggregated energy usage data or, where applicable, individual customer usage information, including by use of electronic authorization and in a lease agreement between the owner and the customer.
(g) The reasonable costs of an electrical or gas corporation in delivering electrical or gas usage data pursuant to this section or other information as required under state or federal law or by an order of the commission shall be recoverable in rates evaluated and approved by the Public Utilities Commission.
(h) The reasonable costs of local publicly owned electric utilities in disclosing electrical usage data pursuant to this section may be considered “cost-effective demand-side management services to promote energy efficiency and energy conservation” and thereby reimbursable by their general fund.
(i) Nothing in this section shall prevent a city or county from establishing its own benchmarking program requiring collection, delivery, and disclosure of building information.
(Repealed and added by Stats. 2015, Ch. 590, Sec. 5. (AB 802) Effective January 1, 2016.)
Last modified: October 25, 2018