Springtime in NYC brings flowers, sunshine, and – who could forget? – requirements for cooling towers & benchmarking compliance.
While you’re enjoying the warmer weather, here’s a few things you’ll want to keep on your radar:
Upcoming Benchmarking Due Date & Data Errors
According to a recent bulletin sent from the Sustainability Help Center, Con Edison and National Grid are “experiencing errors in their data uploads to Portfolio Manager.” Impacted information includes reporting period gaps, zero data entries, and duplicate data.
Per the city, they’re working to resolve these issues. If your properties were impacted, here’s what you should do:
If your utility data was uploaded with errors, please refrain from making any manual corrections to allow the utilities time to upload corrected data. When all data errors affecting your building have been resolved, you will receive an email from Con Edison (and, if applicable, National Grid) confirming that your data has been corrected.
The Sustainability Help Center also recommends reviewing your utility data and running an error check in Portfolio Manager as a final step before submitting your LL 84 Benchmarking report to the city. They add, “If either of the utilities update your property data after you have already made a submission, resubmit the property with the latest data.”
As of Monday, April 18th, Local Law 84 Benchmarking reports for the 2021 period are now due on May 31st, 2022 – primarily because of the above data errors. If you have questions about compliance, reach out to Help@NYCsustainability.org. You can also sign up for their newsletter here.
Spring Cooling Tower Requirement Reminders
The DOHMH has put together a reminder list for teams preparing to open their cooling tower systems in advance of the summer season. Here are some key points:
- Remember to follow all the start-up procedures as outlined in Chapter 8 – here’s a rundown of what those are, including pre-inspections, systemic cleaning, Legionella sampling, and more.
- Don’t forget to schedule your summer hyperhalogenation application – it’s required between July 1 and August 31. More information on that requirement here.
- The DOHMH also recommends monitoring weather conditions & adjusting operations to prevent more favorable environments for Legionella growth. Specifically, “Consider increasing water quality monitoring, conducting Legionella sampling, temporarily raising free residual oxidant targets, performing supplemental biocide addition or hyperhalogenation, and adjusting cycles of concentration to reduce risk of Legionella growth and reproduction in the cooling tower system.”
Resource Reminders
Stay tuned for more compliance updates beyond this quick cooling towers & benchmarking bulletin – sign up for regular Blog updates at this link.
Want to plot out the rest of your compliance plans in 2022? Don’t forget this year’s Compliance Checklist, available here.
You can also chat with our team about how NYC management organizations are using InCheck Workflows to automate cooling tower routines, energy processes and documents, and more. Reach out to us at support@sitecompli.com.
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