Summary

Envizi's Building Ratings + Benchmarks module includes functionality to support the ENERGY STAR(R) rating standard by allowing you to integrate with ENERGY STAR(R) Portfolio Manager(R) (ESPM) via its underlying Web Service API, to get real-time and official ENERGY STAR(R) Score result for your buildings or locations in Envizi. This centralized approach minimizes the need to manage two systems at the same time, so that you can focus more on what you need to do rather than spending time on additional data stewardship work.

  • API integration directly with the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager to get real-time, official ENERGY STAR scores for your buildings or locations in Envizi

  • Track current and historical ENERGY STAR performance trends across your portfolio

  • Synchronize Envizi and ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager to reduce data stewardship overhead

  • Supports 35+ property types that are eligible to receive ENERGY STAR scores

How to request an Energy Star Score for a Location?

You can request an Energy Star Score for a location from a couple of places in the platform.

  • On Location summary page → Action → Request  ENERGY STAR(R) Score

  • On Location grid → right click → Request ENERGY STAR(R) Score(s)

  • On Location Ratings grid → Request a new ENERGY STAR Score (button on the top right of the page)

  • On Location Ratings grid → right click → Re-request ENERGY STAR(R)  Score (this is for a re-submission should the previous request finish with errors)

The request normally takes 5 ~ 10 minutes from start to finish. It involves sending 12 months of consumption and building data from Envizi to EPSM, and subsequently obtaining an Energy Star Score from EPSM and stores it in Envizi. Please note if there are any existing consumption data in EPSM for the specified 12 months period, they will be overwritten by data from Envizi.

Request score from Location Summary page

From Actions on the top right hand side of the location summary page select Request ENERGY STAR(R) .

Request score from Locations grid

You can also request an ENERGY STAR(R)  Score from the locations grid rick-click action options.

How to check API job status of the request?

The job involves a series of data exchange and web service calls to EPSM, such as uploading building data, consumption data and requesting a score etc. 

Job History tab

You can see the status of each step in the ENERGY STAR(R) API Job History section in the right hand preview panel of Location Ratings page. 


Energy Star report

You can also use Energy Star Ratings report to check API job statuses for all Locations, instead of going into each Location one by one. You can find this report in the Benchmark sub-menu at organization, group or location.

How to view latest Energy Star Score for a Location?

Once completed, the latest Energy Star score for the Location can be viewed in the ENERGY STAR(R)  Score tab of Location's preview panel. All current and historical scores can be viewed in the Location Ratings page of the Location (via Location summary page → Benchmark → Location Ratings). 

Alternatively, ENERGY STAR(R)  Scores of all Locations or a group of Locations can be extracted by running Energy Star Ratings report. The report includes all historical scores within the selection period.


Energy Star Score from Location summary

You can see the location's latest Energy Star score from the right hand preview panel in the ENERGY STAR(R)  Score section.

Score history from Location Ratings

From the Benchmark sub-menu select Location Ratings to view the history of all ENERGY STAR(R)  scores for all periods requested.


You can select multiple locations at once when requesting an ENERGY STAR(R)  Score. On the Location Grid, select all the Locations that are required, and then right click → Request ENERGY STAR Score(s). Depending on how many Locations are selected, it make take up to several hours for all Locations to be processed.

Portfolio overview of ENERGY STAR(R)  Scores

The Energy Star Portfolio Dashboard provides a high level overview of your portfolio's Energy Star Score performances. Access the dashboard from Monitor → Energy Star Portfolio to view all Locations, or from Group Summary → Benchmark → Energy Star Portfolio to get an overview of Group performance. Locations are displayed based on their scores and rated area. You can also check the performance trend for each location over the last 12 months period in the dashboard grid below.

Energy Star Score distributions by rated area
Trend over last 12 months


Supported Property Types

The following property types are supported in this module:

  • All Other - Score In-Eligible

  • Bank Branch

  • Barracks

  • Courthouse

  • Data Center*

  • Distribution Center

  • Energy/Power Station Use**

  • Financial Office

  • Fitness Center/Health Club/Gym Use**

  • Hospitals (General Medical & Surgical)

  • Hotel

  • Ice/Curling Rink

  • K-12 Schools

  • Medical Offices

  • Multifamily Housing

  • Non-Refrigerated Warehouse

  • Offices

  • Outpatient Rehabilitation/Physical Therapy

  • Refrigerated Warehouse

  • Residential Care Facility

  • Residence Hall/Dormitory

  • Retail Stores

  • Self-Storage Facility

  • Senior Care Community

  • Single Family Home

  • Supermarket/Grocery Store

  • Parking

  • Urgent Care/Clinic/Other Outpatient

  • Wastewater Treatment Plant

  • Wholesale Club/Supercenter

  • Worship Facility

*Additional configurations are required for Data Center property type, please view the details here.

**Supported by API but Property Types are not eligible for Energy Star Score, more details here.

Module Configuration

The following configurations are required for this module to work effectively.

  • Establishing connection between your Portfolio Manager(R) account and Envizi's PM account and grant Envizi web service read and write access rights

  • If you have any existing locations in PM that would like to be managed from Envizi, share these locations and their meters with Envizi's PM account

  • Mapping between Portfolio Manager(R)'s building/meters and Envizi's location/accounts/meters. This needs to be set up in Envizi by an Envizi consultant

  • Property use details such as floor area, % heating etc. to be captured in ENERGY STAR(R)  property use details account

  • Post Code (within Location Address) and Region is being captured for the Location

  • Verify accounts and meters belong to correct Envizi data types that are applicable for API data upload. This needs to be reviewed by an Envizi consultant

Troubleshooting

If the web service failed to get a valid Energy Star Score, check the followings:-

To Check

Reason

Is utility data available for the specified 12 months period?

ENERGY STAR(R)  Score is based on a 12 months' period so if there are data missing within the 12 months' period in any of the accounts, you may not be able to get a valid score.

Is Location address missing in Envizi?

The post code in the Location address is required when calculating the score as it determines the weather factors to be used in the score calculation.

Has Location's Region been set up correctly?

The 'Region' of the Location must be set up and be a valid region.

Do you have special character such as '&' in the Account name?

Special character such as '&' is not supported by the API and hence can cause the API to fail. Remove or replace the special character and then try again.

Is property use details missing in Envizi?

Property details such as floor area sq ft, % air conditioned area etc. should be kept up-to-date in Envizi in order to get a valid score.

Is property use details available or up-to-date for the selected rating end month?

Property details such as floor area sq ft, % air conditioned area etc. should be available for the selected month. The API does not use account accruals in stats, but relying on account records captured.

Have the mapping between Envizi's Locations/Accounts/Meters and PM's Properties/Meters been established in Envizi?

This is important especially when you have properties in PM and have granted Envizi's access to them. Envizi needs to update the data in PM in order to get a valid score.

Is Portfolio Manager website in maintenance mode?

Go to the Portfolio Manager website and check whether there is any system maintenance going on.

Is weather data available in PM?

Weather data in Portfolio Manager is typically updated on the 15th of each month for the month before. Requesting a score before the 15th of the month for the month before may result in an error.

Has Envizi been granted Full Data Access permission for all applicable meters in Portfolio Manager?

If Full Data Access rights are not granted for the property and applicable Meters in Portfolio Manager, it will result in failure of the API job. This includes both Energy and Water meters.

Are there any negative consumption values entered incorrectly in Water accounts in Envizi?

ESPM does not accept negative consumption values for Water accounts. Negative values in Water accounts will cause API request to fail.

Others

Log in to your Portfolio Manager account and check the error there - in most cases it will tell you why the score was not calculated.

Special or non-English characters in Location Address

Some special or non-English characters in the Location Address may cause the API to fail to upload property details to ESPM. e.g. double spaces, UTF-16 format characters, or other format other than UTF-8. Remove or replace these with more commonly used English characters.

Energy Star API Transaction Logs

You can further review underlying original Energy Star API Transactions Logs for data transfer and data connectivity issues between Envizi and ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager®. The page is accessible from the following menus:

  • On Location summage page → Benchmark → Energy Star API Transaction Logs

  • On Locations grid page → right click → Energy Star API Transaction Logs

  • This module supports uploading of data from Envizi to ENERGY STAR(R)  Portfolio Manager (R), but not vice versa.

  • Property types that are not listed in this document are not supported.