Benchmarking
Get utility bills into ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® without retyping them
ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager is the free tool Canadian building owners use to benchmark energy and water use, get a 1–100 ENERGY STAR score, and meet reporting requirements such as Ontario's Energy and Water Reporting and Benchmarking (EWRB). The slow part is getting the data in: every bill, for every meter, for every building.
EnergyExtract reads your electricity, natural gas and water bills and produces meter spreadsheets in the Portfolio Manager upload format, so a year of bills for a meter goes in as one upload.
Why entering bills takes so long
Portfolio Manager needs a start date, end date and usage for every bill, ideally with cost, and the bills for each meter must run back to back with no overlaps or gaps. Some utilities can send data to Portfolio Manager automatically, but not every utility or account offers it, and the rest means opening each PDF and typing the numbers in, then hunting for the missing month when the year doesn't add up.
For a portfolio of buildings with three or four meters each, that's hundreds of bills a year, usually done right before a reporting deadline.
From PDF bills to Portfolio Manager in four steps
- 1
Upload your bills
Drop in PDF bills for electricity, natural gas and water: one at a time or hundreds at once, from any Canadian utility.
- 2
Review
Check the extracted data. Duplicate bills and missing billing periods are flagged for you.
- 3
Export for Portfolio Manager
Click Export for ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager in the Workstation. You get a zip with one spreadsheet per meter, already in the Portfolio Manager upload format.
- 4
Upload each meter's file
In Portfolio Manager, open the meter, choose "Upload data in bulk for this meter" and pick its file. Every bill for that meter goes in at once.
Matches the Portfolio Manager meter spreadsheets
Each file uses the exact headings of the single-meter spreadsheet Portfolio Manager provides for that meter type, with dates as real Excel dates and Estimation as Yes or No, so it uploads without reformatting.
| Meter type | Columns |
|---|---|
| Electricity | Start Date · End Date · Usage · Cost · Estimation · Demand · Demand Cost |
| Natural gas | Start Date · End Date · Usage · Percent Renewable Gas · Cost · Estimation |
| Water and other meters | Start Date · End Date · Usage · Cost · Estimation |
- No overlapping dates. Duplicates and replaced bills are removed, and overlapping start dates are adjusted, with every change listed in a README.
- Estimated reads flagged. Bills with an estimated meter read are marked so in the Estimation column.
- Electricity demand included. If a bill shows peak demand (kW) and a demand charge, both are filled in.
- Gaps found early. The Workstation shows missing billing periods for each account, so you can find the missing bill before you upload.
Questions
Does this help with Ontario EWRB reporting?
Yes, with the part that takes the longest: getting a full calendar year of electricity, natural gas and water bills into Portfolio Manager. You still submit the report itself through Ontario's EWRB process from Portfolio Manager.
Do I need to set up my meters in Portfolio Manager first?
Yes. Each spreadsheet is uploaded on its meter's page, so the property and meters need to exist. File names include the utility, address, meter or account number and unit, so it's clear which file belongs to which meter.
What units are used?
The units printed on the bill: kWh for electricity, m³ or GJ for natural gas, and m³ for water. Check that each meter in Portfolio Manager is set up with the same unit as its file.
What if bills overlap or a bill was reissued?
Rejected bills and duplicates are left out, and a period covered by a later, longer bill (a rebill) is replaced by it. If a bill starts before the previous one ends, its start date is moved so the dates don't overlap, and the included README lists every change.
What cost is used?
Each bill's own charges including tax. Previous balances and payments are left out, so the cost matches the energy used in that period.
Is Portfolio Manager free?
Yes. In Canada, ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager is a free online tool administered by Natural Resources Canada.
Try it with a year of your own bills
12 free credits on signup, no credit card required. Each credit covers one bill of up to 4 pages.
Start free trialENERGY STAR and Portfolio Manager are registered trademarks of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; EnergyExtract is not affiliated with or endorsed by the EPA or Natural Resources Canada. Sources: Natural Resources Canada, Energy benchmarking with Portfolio Manager; Ontario, Report energy and water use for large buildings. Related: Ontario public sector energy reporting, Ontario electricity bills.