energy tracker user guide quick start instructions · star portfolio manager account with your...

Energy Tracker User Guide Quick Start Instructions

Step 5: View Building Information Click the ‘Select Property’ link and select the newly added meter group name to view the building’s energy use data and access the ENERGY STAR© Portfolio Manager© link interface.

Step 6: Connect Your Properties to ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® (ESPM)For step-by-step instructions on how to connect your ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager account with your Energy Tracker Profile, please reference the Connect with ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® portion of the User Guide, found on Page 3 and 4.

As you go through the process, if you have any questions, contact an Energy Tracker Team member at [email protected].

Note: Always check your data to ensure it appears as it should.

Step 4a: Request Whole-Building Data

Step 4b: Complete Tenant Consent Process (if required)Energy Tracker will evaluate whether Tenant Consent is required, as specified by CenterPoint Energy privacy policies. If you do not need tenant consent, your energy use will display (see Step 5). If consent is required click “Request Tenant Consent” to display the list of required consent. For each unit/suite shown:• Click ‘Request Access’ and fill out the form - all fields are required.• Click ‘Submit’ to initiate a system-generated email that will provide information and instructions to the designated tenant contact(s).• Upon completion of each tenant contact’s authorization, you’ll receive an email confirmation.

Need support? Help is available! Please contact [email protected] to get answers to your questions or request assistance using Energy Tracker.

Step 3: Link Additional AccountsAuthenticate all of your CenterPoint Energy accounts associated with the building. Add additional CenterPoint Energy accounts by selecting ‘Authenticate Now’ on the ‘Add additional account/properties’ widget.

Note: If your account appears in the list, it is authenticated. Depending on how your accounts were set up with CenterPoint Energy, some or all of your other accounts may already appear in the authenticated accounts list. Similarly, authenticating a single account may link one or more additional accounts.

Register and Log In to Energy TrackerStep 2: Register for Energy Tracker by selecting the ‘Register’ link below the Login fields at https://energytracker.centerpointenergy.com. You can use any of your CenterPoint Energy accounts to register.

Step 1: Make sure you gather bills for all commercial accounts relevant to the building(s) you are benchmarking. Customers with a large portfolio of many buildings or many accounts may want to map all accounts to buildings, as the first step.

Note: The system does not allow for authentication with residential unit accounts.

Take note of your account authentication information: • Account Number• Specific Customer Name• Service Address

Note: For clarification of where to locate this particular information on your energy bills, please see Page 2.

Gather Your CenterPoint Energy Bills

Note: Whole building data will transfer aggregated energy use data for all meters at the selected service address(es) - including any tenant meters - and is the simplest approach for accessing data for the purposes of benchmarking ordinance compliance. Cost data is not available using whole-building data at this time. If you require cost data, or if you would like to track each of your accounts at the individual meter level, please see alternate Step 4a on Page 5 for advanced instructions.

Then, on the form (shown at right), you will:• Assign a name in the ‘Building Name’ field. • Click ‘Add’ for one or more service addresses from the

‘Available/ matching service locations’ list.• Confirm your relationship with the building and click

‘Submit’. • On the next screen, confirm that the number of units/meters

displayed is consistent with your expectations. (If not, click ‘Back’ and make sure that all relevant service addresses are selected, then click ‘Submit’.)

Note: If you do not see this button, click on the gear symbol on any of the widgets to display all available widgets, and select the “Authenticate Now” widget.

Note: For instructions on how to link more accounts, please see Step 3.

First, to initiate a request for whole-building usage data, click on the ‘Initiate Request’ button from the ‘Request whole-building data’ widget, shown here:

Follow the guide below to locate the correct account authentication information (Account Number, Street Number, Specific Customer Name) on your CenterPoint Energy bills. CenterPoint Energy has two types of bills, shown below. First, identify which bill type you are viewing, then follow the instructions

for that type of bill. Note that if you receive multiple bills from CenterPoint Energy, you may receive one or both bill types, depending on the account.

Energy Tracker Account Authentication Information

Single Account BillIf you receive a summary bill with multiple accounts, select the listed account for the

service location you would like to authenticate. IMPORTANT - Do not use the account number listed at the top of the bill (noted here with a red X). This

will not connect correctly in the Energy Tracker Tool.

If you receive a bill with a single account, use the account number listed at the top of the bill for registration.IMPORTANT - Only enter the numbers before the dash, not the dash or the number after it.

If you receive a summary bill with multiple accounts, use the account name listed in the

mailing address on the bill. IMPORTANT - If the customer name appears in two

separate lines, use the top line only.

If you receive a bill with a single account, use the Customer Name listed in the mailing address.IMPORTANT - If the customer name appears in two separate lines, use the top line only.

If you receive a summary bill with multiple accounts, use the street number from the service address affiliated with the account number selected from the list of accounts.

IMPORTANT - Do not use the street number/service address listed in the mailing address. This may not

connect correctly in the Energy Tracker Tool.

If you receive a bill with a single account, use the street number listed in the service address at the top of the bill. IMPORTANT - Do not use the service address listed in the mailing address. This may not connect correctly in the Energy Tracker Tool.

Multiple Accounts Summary Bill

X

X

ACCOUNT NUMBER

STREET NUMBER

CUSTOMER NAME

Energy Tracker User Guide Connect with ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager®

From the home screen in ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager®, go to the top right corner and click on the “Contacts” link. On the “My Contacts” screen, Click on “Add Contact”.

Search for CenterPoint by typing it into the “Name:” field on the “Add Contact” screen.

Connect with Energy Tracker by clicking on the blue “Connect” button on the right of the “CenterPoint Energy Web Services Account with CenterPoint Energy” Search Results screen.

From here, Energy Tracker will accept the connection and you will receive a notification (as shown below) which states, “You are connected to Energy tracker web portal from CenterPoint Energy”. This will allow you to share your data, which is the next step.

Send connection request by checking the check box for the Terms of Use Agreement, and then clicking on the blue “Send Connection Request” button on the right of the “Send Connection Request” screen.

To share data with Energy Tracker, go to the home screen in ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® and click on the “Sharing” tab and then select “Share (or Edit Access to) a Property” by clicking on the blue button.

Please continue to the next page.

When you click on “Share (or Edit Access to) a Property”, a new screen will appear that will allow you to select which properties to share. To select the properties:a. First, under “Select Properties”, you will use the drop down menu

to select your property(ies).b. Next, under “Select People (Accounts)”, you will select “CenterPoint

Energy (CenterPointEnergy_Webservices).”c. Under “Choose Permissions”, mark “Personalized Sharing &

Exchange Data (“Custom Orders”)” and then click the blue “Continue” button.

The following steps will assist you in connecting your ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager account with your Energy Tracker Profile. During this process,if you have any questions, contact an Energy Tracker Team member at [email protected].

From the “Share Your Property(ies) screen, take note of the number in parentheses next to your building name - this is your Portfolio Manager Property ID. Select “Full Access” and “Exchange Data” to prompt the next overlay to appear.

Visit: https://portfoliomanager.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/211697387-How-do-I-select-meters-to-be-included-in-my-metrics-

Energy Tracker User Guide Connect with ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager®

Select “Full Access” for all items in the top table of the pop-up overlay. (Please note: Under “Additional Options”, you do not need to need to grant Energy Tracker access to “Share Forward”.) Accept the changes at the bottom of the screen and then select the blue “Share Properties” button on the bottom of the next screen.

Establish Automated Benchmarking for Whole-Building Data

Continued from previous page.

The following screen (at right) appears, under the “Sharing” tab. You will see a message in a green box that reads, “You have successfully shared/edited access to your property(ies). If you shared properties, you will receive a notification when your contact has accepted the share. If you edited access to current permissions, the edits have been made, no acceptance is required.”

When the Property is found, a separate confirmation overlay with property address and end use information will display. Click the ‘Yes’ button to confirm and initiate the confirmation process.

PLEASE NOTE: The system will not account for any historical individual meter data that is already present for the building in ESPM. In order to avoid double counting usage when converting to using whole building data, and adverse/inaccurate impacts on your ESPM score, you will need to set a deactivation date for each historical individual meter to correspond with the beginning month date for the usage data series for the new meter that is connected to Energy Tracker.

To set the individual meter deactivation dates, for each individual meter:• From your building’s Property page, navigate to the Energy tab• Click on the meter you’d like to deactivate, which takes you to its Basic Meter Information page• Expand the Basic Meter Information bar• Uncheck the “Still in Use” box found underneath the “Date Meter became Active”• Fill in the “Date Meter became Inactive”, then Click “Save Changes”

From the “Property” dashboard tab in Energy Tracker, toggle the “Use Existing Account” slider in the middle of the dashboard to view the “Establish Automated Benchmarking” overlay. Enter your existing building’s Portfolio Manager Property ID and click the”submit” button to initiate the matching process.

The “Please Confirm” confirmation overlay (shown below) will identify the new meter name, and the count of usage records to be transferred, including the start and end date. Click the ‘Submit’ button to complete the process and execute usage data transfer to Portfolio Manager.Please see Page 5 for instructions on how to benchmark for individual account/meter data.

Please check that the data has been transferred and ensure that the meter is included in your building’s Energy Star score metrics.

Energy Tracker User Guide Advanced User Instructions

Need support? Help is available! Please contact [email protected] to get answers to your questions or request assistance using Energy Tracker.

Step 4b: Create New Meter Groups• Select applicable Accounts and provide a Name

for the meter group.• Select ‘Save’ at the bottom of the account listings

to create the new meter group and return to dashboard access displaying multiple accounts and associated meters together.

Step 4a: Set up Your PropertiesIf you pay all of the CenterPoint Energy Bill(s) for your building, and you have access to all your accounts and want to facilitate data transfers at the individual meter level, you can combine accounts and meters to define a building using the ‘Add New+’ option at the bottom of the Select Property account listing.

Note: if you do not see all of your linked accounts from Step 3 on Page 1, try refreshing the page.

Establish Automated Benchmarking for Individual Account/Meter Data

The following steps will assist you in Setting up your Properties for Individual Account/Meter Data and also Establishing Automated Benchmarking for individual ac-count/meter data. During this process, if you have any questions, contact an Energy Tracker Team member at [email protected].

Setting up Properties for Individual Account/Meter Data

From the “Property” dashboard tab in Energy Tracker, toggle the “Use Existing Account” slider in the middle of the dashboard to view the “Establish Automated Benchmarking” overlay. Enter your existing building’s Portfolio Manager Property ID and click the”submit” button to initiate the matching process.

When the Property is found, a separate confirmation overlay with property address and end use information will display. Click the ‘Yes’ button to confirm and initiate the confirmation process.

The “Please Confirm” confirmation overlay (shown below) will identify the new meter name, and the count of usage records to be transferred, including the start and end date. Click the ‘Submit’ button to complete the process and execute usage data transfer to Portfolio Manager.

Please check that the data has been transferred and ensure that the meter is included in your building’s Energy Star score metrics.

Visit: https://portfoliomanager.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/211697387-How-do-I-select-meters-to-be-included-in-my-metrics-

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