PowerRadar can report a site's monthly electricity consumption straight into ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager. Once it is connected, you stop exporting spreadsheets and typing numbers into the EPA's site every month. PowerRadar sends the previous month's total on the fifth, every month, and tells you if a send fails.

Setup takes about ten minutes if you already have a Portfolio Manager account and a property record for the site. Closer to thirty if you are starting from nothing, most of which is the EPA's property wizard rather than anything on our side.

What you need before you start

Two things have to exist in Portfolio Manager first, and PowerRadar cannot create either of them for you. The EPA owns that side.

1. A Portfolio Manager account, activated by email.
2. A property record in that account for this site.

Everything else happens inside the PowerRadar wizard.

Where the setup lives

Open the site you want to connect, then go to Settings → ENERGY STAR in the left sidebar.

PowerRadar ENERGY STAR landing page

1. Settings → ENERGY STAR in the sidebar.
2. Connect Portfolio Manager starts the five-step wizard.

If you have not created the Portfolio Manager account or the property yet, use the two links inside the blue box first and come back here afterwards.

Part 1. Get a Portfolio Manager account

Skip this whole part if you already have one and can sign in.

Create the account

Portfolio Manager, Create an Account

1. Pick the username carefully. Portfolio Manager will not let you change it later. If several people at your organisation will manage properties, the EPA recommends creating one corporate account that owns all the properties and giving individuals their own accounts underneath it.
2. Set Do you want your Account Name (and username) to be searchable by other Portfolio Manager users? to Yes. This one is easy to miss and it breaks the rest of the setup. If your account is not searchable, PowerRadar cannot be found and no connection request can ever reach us.

Activate it

ENERGY STAR emails an activation link when you create the account. Until you click it, signing in fails with this message.

Portfolio Manager sign-in, account not yet activated

The email sometimes lands in spam. If it never arrives, use I forgot my password on the sign-in page to trigger a new one.

Sign in

Portfolio Manager sign-in

A new account opens on an empty portfolio.

Portfolio Manager, My Portfolio, empty

Part 2. Set up the property

Portfolio Manager scores properties, not meters and not accounts. You need one property record for the building or site you want to benchmark. Create it before you start the PowerRadar wizard, because you cannot share something that does not exist.

Step 1 of 3: type, buildings, status

Set up a Property, Let's Get Started

1. Property Type drives which metrics the EPA calculates and whether a 1 to 100 score is even available. Pick the activity that occupies most of the floor area. Not every type is eligible for a score.
2. Your Property's Buildings. One building is the common case. A campus with several buildings behaves differently and the EPA has separate guidance for it.
3. Construction Status. Choose Existing for a real, occupied building. Choosing Test Property keeps it out of your portfolio metrics, which is not what you want for a site you are reporting on.

Step 2 of 3: basic information

Set Up a Property, Basic Property Information

1. The property name is what you will match against your PowerRadar site name later. Using the same name in both places saves confusion.
2. Year Built and Gross Floor Area are both required. Gross Floor Area is measured from the outside surfaces of the building and it excludes parking. Getting this wrong skews the score more than almost anything else, because every intensity metric divides by it.

If a local benchmarking law covers this property, fill in the Standard IDs section as well. Cities usually issue their own building ID and expect it on the submission.

Step 3 of 3: how the property is used

Set up a Property, How is it used

The rows marked with a star feed the 1 to 100 ENERGY STAR score. The EPA lets you tick Use a default for most of them, but defaults produce a score based on assumptions rather than your building. Fill in the real numbers if you have them.

The property is created

Property created

1. Portfolio Manager confirms the property exists.
2. Note the Property ID. PowerRadar shows the same number later when it confirms which ENERGY STAR property it matched your site to, and it is the quickest way to check you are looking at the right record.

Part 3. Connect PowerRadar to your account (step 1 of 5)

Portfolio Manager will not let you share a property with an account you are not connected to, so the connection comes first.

PowerRadar setup, step 1 of 5

1. The username to search for. Use the copy button rather than retyping it.
2. Press this only after you have sent the request in Portfolio Manager.

Leave this tab open and do the next three screens in Portfolio Manager.

Search for our account

Go to Contacts in the top right of Portfolio Manager, then Add Contact.

Portfolio Manager, Add Contact

Use the top panel, Connect with an Existing User for Sharing. Paste our username into the Username field and search. The long form below it creates an offline address-book entry and cannot be used for sharing, which is the mistake people make on this screen.

Connect

Portfolio Manager, search results

1. The username you searched for.
2. Our account appears as a single result. Press Connect.

Portfolio Manager then shows a confirmation page headed Send a Connection Request to Panoramic Power to Begin Exchanging Data, with our terms of use. Press Send Connection Request.

Confirm the connection landed

Portfolio Manager, My Contacts

Once we accept, the Connection Status column reads Web Services Connection. Now go back to PowerRadar and press I've sent the connection request. We accept automatically and it usually completes in under a minute.

Part 4. Share the property with us (step 2 of 5)

This is the part that goes wrong most often, so it is worth reading the whole section before you start clicking.

PowerRadar setup, step 2 of 5

1. Your Panoramic Connect Code. It is specific to this site and it is how we match an incoming share to the right PowerRadar site. Copy it now.
2. Press this only after Portfolio Manager confirms the share.

The code goes in the Panoramic Connect Code field, nothing else. Not the share notes, not a comment. If it lands anywhere else the share arrives with no way to identify your site, and we have to reject it.

Open the sharing form

In Portfolio Manager, go to the Sharing tab and choose Share (or Edit Access to) a Property.

Share (or Edit Access to) Properties

1. Press Select Properties and pick the property you just created.
2. Under Choose Permissions, select Personalized Sharing & Exchange Data ("Custom Orders"). The first option, Bulk Sharing, does not offer the Exchange Data permission, and Exchange Data is the whole point.

The same Sharing tab also has a button called Share with your Utility or Service Provider for exchanging data. It reaches the same place with fewer choices, and the EPA documents both routes. Either works.

Pick the property

Select Properties dialog

Tick the property, then Apply Selection. Select our account in the contacts list on the previous screen, then Continue.

Personalized Sharing selected

Give us Exchange Data

Share Your Property(ies), permissions grid

In the permissions grid, choose Exchange Data in our row. A dialog opens.

Fill in the dialog

Access permissions dialog

1. Paste the Panoramic Connect Code here.
2. Set Property Information, All Meter Information, Goals, Improvements & Checklists and Recognition to Full Access. We need Full Access on meters to write consumption. Read Only lets us see the property but not report anything, which produces a connection that looks healthy and sends nothing.

Scroll down inside the dialog. There is one more question, Share Forward, which asks whether we may pass your property on to other people. Answer No. Then press Apply Selections & Authorize Exchange.

Send the share

Exchange Data selected

1. Our row now reads Exchange Data with an Edit link. If it does not, the dialog did not save and the connect code is probably missing.
2. Press Share Property(ies).

Sharing tab, share accepted

Portfolio Manager confirms the share and, once we accept it, the notification reads Share accepted. Go back to PowerRadar and press I've shared the property.

Part 5. Confirm we matched the right property

PowerRadar accepts the share, finds the property behind it, and asks you to check the match before it starts sending anything.

Confirm connection

1. Compare the two columns. Differences in formatting and units are normal. Square metres against square feet, "IL" against "Israel", a street address written two ways. What matters is that both columns describe the same building.
2. Read and accept the ENERGY STAR Data Sharing Agreement. You are agreeing to keep the property data accurate and to allow automated reporting.
3. This is the correct property completes the connection. This is the wrong property rejects the share so you can redo it against the right record.

Take this screen seriously. Once you confirm, PowerRadar writes consumption into that ENERGY STAR property every month, and a wrong match means you are reporting one building's energy under another building's name.

Part 6. Choose what to send (step 3 of 5)

Select meter

ENERGY STAR benchmarks whole buildings, so it wants total electricity for the site.

Site total adds up every meter on the site. Pick this unless you have a reason not to.

Specific main meter sends one meter, normally the one on the main incoming feed. Use it when the site total includes something that is not part of the benchmarked building, such as a neighbouring tenant or an EV charging yard on the same account.

PowerRadar creates the matching meter inside Portfolio Manager for you and sends monthly totals in kWh.

Part 7. Send the history (step 4 of 5)

Backfill history

1. Choose how far back to go. ENERGY STAR needs twelve consecutive months of data before it will calculate a 1 to 100 score at all. Twenty-four months gives a steadier score, because a single unusual month carries less weight and both heating and cooling seasons are represented twice.
2. Check the summary before you send. It shows exactly which meter, which period, and what total will land in Portfolio Manager.

If a range is greyed out with "Not enough data", PowerRadar does not hold enough history for this site yet. You can still send what exists. The property will show no ENERGY STAR score until twelve consecutive months have accumulated, which then happens on its own as the monthly sends continue.

Download as CSV gives you the same numbers to check against your own records before you commit them.

Part 8. Set the schedule and alerts (step 5 of 5)

Schedule

1. PowerRadar sends the previous month's total on the fifth of each month. The day and time are fixed at the moment.
2. Choose which events send email. Successful synchronisations are the noisy one and you may want it off after the first few months. Keep the failure and paused alerts on. A paused integration is the case where nothing reaches ENERGY STAR until somebody does something, and silence is the worst way to find that out.

Up to twenty site users can be on the alert list.

Setup is done

Backfill queued

1. PowerRadar accepted the setup and queued the historical data.
2. Go to sync dashboard opens the page you will use from now on.

The backfill runs in the background and can take a few minutes.

The sync dashboard

ENERGY STAR sync dashboard

1. The summary strip. ENERGY STAR score, when the last sync ran, when the next one is due, which meter feeds it, and which ENERGY STAR property it writes to. Why unavailable? explains a missing score, which is usually fewer than twelve months of data or a property type the EPA does not score.
2. A row per month, with what PowerRadar holds, what we last sent, what ENERGY STAR currently has, and whether the send succeeded. When the middle two columns disagree, somebody edited the value inside Portfolio Manager.

Sync now forces a send outside the schedule. CSV exports the table.

What happens each month

On the fifth, PowerRadar totals the previous month's consumption for the meter you chose and writes it to your ENERGY STAR meter. Failed sends retry, and you only get the failure email once the retries are exhausted.

Two things pause the integration and need you to act: the property share being revoked or edited inside Portfolio Manager, and the data source disappearing on the PowerRadar side, for example a meter being removed from the site. Both send the "integration paused" email.

Who is responsible for the data

You are. ENERGY STAR submissions are your organisation's disclosure, and in several cities they are a legal filing. PowerRadar automates the transfer, not the accuracy. Two things stay your job: keeping the property record in Portfolio Manager correct, particularly gross floor area and occupancy, and keeping the PowerRadar site's meters correct so the totals mean what you think they mean.

Troubleshooting

Questions people ask

Can I connect more than one site? Yes. Run the setup once per PowerRadar site, against its own Portfolio Manager property. The account connection only has to be made once.

Can I still edit the property in Portfolio Manager? Yes, and you should keep it accurate. Do not edit the consumption values we write, though. The dashboard will flag the difference and your submission will no longer match your metered data.

What happens if I revoke the share? The integration pauses and PowerRadar emails whoever is on the alert list. The data already in Portfolio Manager stays there.

Does PowerRadar submit my building for ENERGY STAR certification? No. It reports consumption. Applying for certification is a separate process you run in Portfolio Manager.

Which environment does this connect to? The live Portfolio Manager at portfoliomanager.energystar.gov/pm. If any of these screens show a yellow "Portfolio Manager Test Environment" banner, you are in the EPA's test system and the data will not count.

Sources

• How to Connect and Share with a Web Services Provider, ENERGY STAR
• Connection and Sharing for Data Exchange, EPA reference PDF
• How to Share Properties with Other Portfolio Manager Users, EPA
• Eligibility Criteria for the 1 to 100 ENERGY STAR Score
• Use Web Services to Exchange Data with Portfolio Manager