Please give 30 days for the processing and determination of any exemption request. Exemptions may be granted based on six criteria:
Certificate of Occupancy
The building does not have a certificate of occupancy for all 12 months of the calendar year benchmarked.
Demolition Permit
Building has been issued, demolition has commenced with no energy able to be used.
Low Physical Occupancy
The occupancy is below 50% of the occupancy that its use is intended for. This is granted when a building is completely vacant (and is supposed to have tenants under normal circumstances) or upgrades/renovations prevent most of the building from being used/occupied.
Utility Information Unavailable
Owner or representative is unable to obtain utility bills due to circumstances outside of their control for the entire year being benchmarked.
Exemption from Public Disclosure
Exemption from having the benchmarking information withheld from public disclosure. Owner or representative will have to prove that such disclosure would divulge confidential information otherwise protected by the law and relevant evidence to demonstrate this. In addition, the source of law must be included.
Manufacturing or Industrial Process Energy Use
Building is primarily manufacturing or has other industrial purposes for which the benchmarking results will not reflect meaningful data due to the intensive use of process energy and cannot sub meter out the process energy usage.
*Special Circumstances can possibly be granted with demonstration of undue hardship not mentioned in the criteria above. However, these exemptions are rarely, if ever, granted.
