Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
The first reports are due on June 30 under a new energy reporting requirement for buildings larger than 20,000 square feet.
The Large Building Energy Reporting policy stems from a section of the 2022 climate and clean energy law that requires each electric, gas and steam distribution company to report on energy usage in large buildings.
Separately, large building owners, including municipalities, will need to report any additional energy usage not required to be submitted by the utility, such as the use of fuel oil, propane, wood, or on-site solar and renewable energy.
The law defines large buildings as those with at least 20,000 square feet of gross floor area. On March 30, the DOER is expected to post online a final list of buildings obligated to report energy usage. A draft list is now available.
Reporting details
Over the past several months, the Department of Energy Resources has been creating the regulations and tools necessary to facilitate the annual energy usage reporting.
The final regulations, 225 CMR 27.00: Building Energy Reporting, provide key definitions and details on the timing, scope and responsibilities for entities responsible for submitting reports.
In February, building owners of record received a Large Building Energy Reporting Letter notifying them of their compliance responsibilities. The DOER has posted information about how to respond to this letter.
Energy usage reports will be due from utility companies as well as large building owners on June 30. Municipal utilities will also be responsible for submitting energy usage reports for covered buildings.
This data will be published by the DOER and used to support comprehensive annual reports on energy efficiency performance in large buildings across Massachusetts. The DOER’s first disclosure report is scheduled to be published on Oct. 31.
The Large Building Energy Reporting requirements do not supersede or replace any existing local performance standard or benchmarking requirements. Large building owners must take notice of whether they might be subject to a local program’s energy reporting requirements in addition to the new state reporting requirements.
The DOER has compiled resources for those with questions on local programs, including program applicability tables and information on local standards in Boston, Cambridge, Chelsea, Lexington and Newton.
Additional resources
For more information, visit the Large Building Energy Reporting policy website, or the new Helpdesk Knowledgebase on the topic. Questions may be sent to DOER.BER@mass.gov.
A webinar for building owners was held on Jan. 28, and presentation slides are available, as well as the recording (passcode: and*e4XL). A second webinar was held on March 18.