Ontario Regulation 20/17 made under the Green Energy Act, 2009 requires condominiums greater than or equal to 50,000 square feet to report their building energy, water and greenhouse gas emissions data annually to the Ministry of Energy (“MOE”).
Annual reports on a calendar basis must be reported no later than July 1 in the following year. The first report for condominiums of 100,000 square feet or more is required to be filed by July 1, 2019, with data for the 2018 year. Condominiums of 50,000 square feet, but less than 100,000 square feet are required to file their first annual report one year later, by July 1, 2020 with data for the 2019 year. Newly-constructed condominiums will be exempt from the reporting requirement for the year in which an occupancy certificate is issued.
The following information must be reported:
- Monthly energy and water consumption and performance data (i.e. energy and water use intensity and Energy Star score where available);
- Greenhouse gas emissions and intensity; and
- Building characteristic information such as floor area.
Electricity, natural gas and water utility suppliers are required to make whole building consumption data available to condominium corporations to enable them to comply with the reporting requirements. MOE recommends that requests in writing for this information from utility suppliers be made by February 28 of each year.
Annual reports are required to be filed using Portfolio Manager, a web-based energy rating tool that compares energy and water consumption across buildings. Portfolio Manager has the capability to generate Energy Star scores for some types of buildings using a 1 to 100 score, with 50 being an average score and a score of 75 or more indicating top performance. However, the Energy Star score is currently not available for condominium buildings.
In order to ensure that the data reported is reliable, buildings that are 100,000 square feet or more will need to have their reported data verified by an accredited or certified professional in the first year that they report and every five years thereafter. The list of acceptable verification professionals includes architects and engineers.
Some of the data collected will be publicly disclosed by MOE, including property name and address, building age, a number of energy performance metrics and whether the data has been independently verified. MOE will not publicly disclose energy and water use, greenhouse gas emissions and area of individual buildings.
This initiative has been undertaken by the MOE to enable owners/managers of large buildings to use the information obtained by recording and bench-marking their energy and water usage to make them more efficient. The information obtained with this initiative will allow condominium corporations to identify best practices, evaluate results compared to similar buildings and measure improvements over time.
MOE intends to provide building owners and managers with educational and training materials to assist them in complying with the Regulation. Information about educational and training materials and opportunities will be posted by MOE later in the year on its Energy and Water Reporting and Benchmark website.
