Energy Accounting & Portfolio Manager

Portfolio Manager Database

The State of Washington uses Portfolio Manager to perform energy accounting. Portfolio Manager is an interactive energy management tool that allows users to track and assess energy and water consumption across an entire portfolio of buildings in a secure online environment. It is available at no cost from the Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR program. Portfolio Manager:

  • highlights under-performing facilities most in need of improvement
  • verifies the impacts of efficiency improvement projects
  • scores buildings on source Energy Use Intensity compared to national averages
  • recognizes buildings as ENERGY STAR certified as an incentive to improve energy performance

However, many buildings lack an energy meter. An entire campus of buildings may only have one energy meter. These are often entered as “parent” campuses with “child” properties. Energy use can be prorated among the child properties on a per square foot basis. This sort of energy management by prorating is inherently inaccurate, given the potential variation in energy intensity among various building types. DSHS is therefore encouraged to consider adding meters to these child buildings in the future.

One of the building information fields that often needs attention is building use type. Portfolio Manager offers over 80 building use types from which to choose, yet some large agencies use only a handful of these. Selection of building use type determines what basic information is required for a building, as well as the requirements for ENERGY STAR certification and scores.

It is helpful to understand how data in Portfolio Manager is organized. Each property has a utility account that includes at least one meter for each fuel type (electricity and gas), and possibly more. Calculating the energy efficiency of a property, which is technically known as energy use intensity (EUI), involves both energy use records for each meter and the size of the building. Calculating ENERGY STAR scores requires additional information about the building, as noted above.