Building Operator Certification® Training Aligns with Maryland Building Energy Performance Standards Benchmarking Requirements

If you own or operate a building in Maryland that is 35,000 square feet or larger and does not qualify for exemption, you could soon be required to benchmark your building to satisfy the state’s proposed Building Energy Performance Standards (BEPs). These new standards are part of the state’s Climate Solutions Now Act of 2022, which was enacted with the goal of buildings in the state achieving net-zero emissions by the year 2040. Click here to learn more about these regulations and which buildings may be eligible for exemption.

Benchmarking buildings using ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager is a key component of the new regulation. The website of the Maryland Department of the Environment reports that building owners will be required to begin reporting benchmarking data in 2025. 

ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager is a free tool that was developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. ENERGY STAR gives building owners and operators the capability to compare their building’s energy performance against similar buildings. According to the ENERGY STAR website, almost 25% of the commercial facility space in the U.S. is benchmarked using Portfolio Manager, which gives users a significant number of buildings to compare their facilities to. 

Once a building is benchmarked, it’s assigned a score between 0 – 100. A score of 50 indicates that a building performs better than 50% of other similar buildings in the country. Scores of 80 or higher will also qualify a building for ENERGY STAR Certification, according to ENERGY STAR’s new guidelines which will take effect on August 26, 2024. To earn certification, a qualified professional must also verify the building’s data. Visit the ENERGY STAR website to learn more about certification. 

Although data is not required to be reported until 2025, benchmarking requires that a user enter a minimum of 12 months of data from utility bills to generate an ENERGY STAR score. This means that building owners should begin preparing now to ensure that they have the necessary information and to simplify the process when the deadline arrives.

Building Operator Certification® (BOC) is the leading training and certification program for building engineers and maintenance personnel. The program consists of three courses designed for facilities professionals at every stage of their career: 

• Entry-level: Fundamentals of Energy Efficient Building Operations 
• Intermediate (At least two years of relevant work experience): Building Operator Certification® Level I 
• Advanced (Three or more years of experience, plus relevant education or union membership): Building Operator Certification® Level II 

BOC Level I curriculum in particular aligns well with the new BEPs in Maryland. This eight-week class provides building operators with knowledge and skill enhancement in the key activities associated with energy efficient building operations. Learners who complete the class also have the option to take a certification exam, which leads to a nationally recognized credential. 

The class includes five project assignments designed to give learners the opportunity to apply the knowledge they’ve gained in class to the facility in which they work. One assignment requires students to benchmark a building using ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager. Learners are assigned the task of collecting utility data for their building, entering the data into ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager to generate a Statement of Energy Performance (SEP) report, which includes a building’s Energy Star score. The class provides each student with the support of an experienced and knowledgeable instructor, which can be an invaluable resource to individuals who are inexperienced with benchmarking. 

Other topics included in BOC Level I that can help building owners and operators optimize their building’s performance and reduce energy waste include: 

• Energy Efficient Operation of Building HVAC Systems 
• Efficient Lighting Fundamentals 
• HVAC Controls Fundamentals 
• Indoor Environmental Quality 
• Common Opportunities for Low-Cost Operational Improvement 
• Operation & Maintenance Practices for Sustainable Buildings 

Many utility providers in Maryland offer incentives for BOC training that can cover up to $1,000 of the cost of tuition. Contact your utility account manager to learn if employees at your facility are eligible for these rebates and how to apply. BOC courses in Maryland are regularly offered in-person and online by the Clean Energy Center at Pennsylvania College of Technology. For more information about BOC training in Maryland, visit: https://www.pct.edu/business/clean-energy/building-operator-certification.