Portfolio Manager, the ENERGY STAR program’s free tool for online management and tracking of energy and water usage in commercial buildings, will be thoroughly upgraded for the spring of 2013.
The upgrade will include an improved user interface and graphical reports that are easier to create and use. According to ENERGY STAR, the new Portfolio Manager will look like TurboTax software and will offer more guided questions to help users through the process of benchmarking. More capabilities for sharing data will allow users to exchange selected building information with others without giving access to the entire account.
All information that users have previously entered into Portfolio Manager will be transferred automatically to the upgraded application. Although the number of building types currently available will not change, the number of function types (e.g. convention centers, stadiums) will increase to 86. Campuses will now be classified as properties with multiple buildings, allowing more complex meter configurations to be assigned to individual buildings and providing more weather-normalized metrics.
Portfolio Manager is the standard benchmarking tool required by New York City for its mandated reporting program. The tool is also used for all federal buildings and the Canadian government’s national energy management program for commercial and institutional buildings.
For more information on the upgrade, visit energystar.gov/PMupgrade.