The document provides information about Minnesota's B3 Energy Benchmarking program for state and local governments. It discusses (1) how the program was developed to help track and manage energy use in public buildings, (2) the benefits of benchmarking such as identifying underperforming buildings and demonstrating efficiency projects, and (3) the process for creating an account, collecting historic energy data, entering data, and analyzing building performance through metrics and reports.

1. B3 Benchmarking
Sarah Steinman
Minnesota GreenCorps
Energy Conservation Member
Available to assist local units of government with B3
Sarah@CleanEnergyResourceTeams.org
612-625-3759
www.CleanEnergyResourceTeams.org

2. B3 Benchmarking
• Background
• Why benchmark?
• Account creation
• Data collection and entry
• Data analysis
www.CleanEnergyResourceTeams.org

3. B3 Benchmarking: Background
B3 stands for:
Buildings
Benchmarking
and
Beyond
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4. B3 Benchmarking: Background
• The State of Minnesota B3 Energy Benchmarking program has
been developed by the State of Minnesota Department of
Administration and Department of Commerce to help State and
local governments improve the energy performance of their
buildings by tracking and managing facility energy consumption.
mn.b3benchmarking.com
• Made in collaboration with the private design firm The Weidt Group
www.CleanEnergyResourceTeams.org

5. B3 Benchmarking: Background
Public Buildings in B3
Current Statistics
• Number of Organizations 1,339
City
• Number of Sites 4,879 1564
• Number of Buildings 6,435 State
• Number of Meters 10,242 2989
County
• Total Square Feet 283,463,826 561
Public
Schools
1321
www.CleanEnergyResourceTeams.org

6. Why Benchmark?
You Can’t Manage What
You Don’t Measure
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7. Why Benchmark?
Benchmarking your buildings can help answer some of
the questions you may have about your energy use.
• Which of my buildings are under-performing?
• How can I compare yearly heating costs taking in
account unusually high winter temperatures?
• Is our City Hall energy efficient compared to others in
Minnesota?
• Are our buildings performing up to their expectations
based on square footage and space usage?
www.CleanEnergyResourceTeams.org

8. Why Benchmark?
Benchmarking is useful when your city, county, school
district, or other entity…
…would like to find the “lowest hanging fruit” efficiency projects.
…would like to demonstrate to others the value of your energy
efficiency projects.
…would like to participate in various financing projects.
www.CleanEnergyResourceTeams.org

9. Account Creation
The following slides briefly go over how to create a B3
account and how to utilize the features.
ACCOUNT
CREATION
DATA
COLLECTION
DATA
ENTRY
ANALYSIS
www.CleanEnergyResourceTeams.org

10. Account Creation
mn.b3benchmarking.com
www.CleanEnergyResourceTeams.org

11. Account Creation: Building Editor
When creating an
account, it is crucial
to enter the Square
Footage of the
building.
Also, Specify the
Space Usage Type
www.CleanEnergyResourceTeams.org

12. Account Creation: Building Editor
There are many space
usage types from
which to choose.
www.CleanEnergyResourceTeams.org

13. Data Collection
Data Collection
ACCOUNT
CREATION
DATA
COLLECTION
DATA
ENTRY
ANALYSIS
www.CleanEnergyResourceTeams.org

14. Data Collection
•Historic energy data will need to be collected from your utility.
•3 Years is preferable
•Local government entities can get this historic data from their
utility provider.
•Data needs to include:
•Start and end date of meter reading
•Consumption in therms, kWh, gallons of fuel, etc
•TOTAL billing amount in $
•Electric demand charges if available
www.CleanEnergyResourceTeams.org

15. Data Collection
Data Collection
ACCOUNT
CREATION
DATA
COLLECTION
DATA
ENTRY
ANALYSIS
www.CleanEnergyResourceTeams.org

16. Data Entry
Once historic data is in the system, monthly data
entry is quick and easy.
Often, the staff person that pays the utility bills is
able to spend a few minutes each month entering the
new data into B3
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17. Data Collection
Example of
where to find the
relevant data on
your bills for B3
www.CleanEnergyResourceTeams.org

18. Analysis
ACCOUNT
CREATION
DATA
COLLECTION
DATA
ENTRY
ANALYSIS
www.CleanEnergyResourceTeams.org

19. Analysis: Summary Tab
Your Building’s “Dashboard”
These measures have
their own tab at the top
that offer more detailed
information
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20. Analysis: Summary Tab
kBtu/SF/Year
This measure is a very important
number to know. It is like an MPG
for your car, but for your building.
This building is using 79.73 kBtu/SF/Year
www.CleanEnergyResourceTeams.org

21. Analysis: Benchmark Tab
Note that LESS than the
benchmark is GOOD
79.73
(actual) .89 In B3, “benchmarking” is an engineering model
(ratio) that predicts how much energy a site would use if
89.47 it were built to today’s energy codes. The B3 ratio
(prediction) is a measurement of a site’s actual consumptions
to its predicted benchmark.
www.CleanEnergyResourceTeams.org

22. Analysis: Benchmark Tab
Baseline is used to compare a site to itself using
a defined time period. The baseline is weather
normalized so that changes in weather do not
affect the comparison.
www.CleanEnergyResourceTeams.org

23. Analysis: Reports Tab
www.CleanEnergyResourceTeams.org

24. Analysis: Reports Tab
These are all the different
reporting options.
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25. Analysis: Reports Tab
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26. Analysis: Reports Tab
www.CleanEnergyResourceTeams.org