About the regulation

Deadline to report

O. Reg. 25/23, requires broader public sector (BPS) organizations to submit their reports by July 1 of each reporting year.

Annual data to report

In 2024, BPS organizations will be required to report on energy consumption for two years, 2022 and 2023. From 2025 onward, BPS organizations will be required to report on energy consumption for 2024, or the previous calendar year.

All BPS organizations, except school boards, report on their energy usage data from the calendar year (January 1 to December 31).

School boards report on their data for the corresponding school year (for example, September 1, 2022 to August 31, 2023).

Prescribed operation types and building size

BPS organizations are required to report on properties that meet the operation types prescribed under Table 1 of O. Reg. 25/23. For any properties that do not fall into any of the prescribed operation types, organizations can choose to report these voluntarily. There is no minimum square footage requirement for buildings under O. Reg. 25/23. If a building falls under a prescribed operation type, it is required to be reported on regardless of square footage.

Water consumption and volumetric flow rate

BPS organizations who are municipalities, or municipal service boards that operate buildings or facilities related to the treatment of water or sewage, are required to report on the volumetric flow rate of the water and/or sewage treated. These organizations are not required to report on total water consumption. “Volumetric flow rate” means a rate that sets out the flow of water or sewage in units of volume over time.

Requirement to post conservation and demand management (CDM) plans

BPS organizations are required to post their Conservation and Demand Management (CDM) plans on their websites, which are completed every five years. The previous CDM plan was due to the Ministry of Energy and Electrification in 2019, and the next one will be due in July 2024.

Organizations are not required to post on their websites their annual energy consumption reports that are submitted through Portfolio Manager but may choose to do so voluntarily.

Glossary of terms

For Portfolio Manager definitions, please use the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager Glossary.

Portfolio Manager

Account access and setup

Create a Portfolio Manager account and login credentials

We have created Portfolio Manager accounts for all BPS organizations and provided all BPS organizations their login credentials via email. There is no need for BPS organizations to create a new account. If your organization requires its log-in credentials to access the portal, please contact bpssupport@ontario.ca.

There is no requirement for BPS organizations to use the ministry-created Portfolio Manager accounts. If your organization has a pre-existing Portfolio Manager account that is set up in the organization’s name and not an individual name, you can continue to use this account. We advise organizations who wish to use their existing accounts to contact us for support in adding reporting elements such as specific Custom IDs requested by the Ministry of Energy and Electrification.

Sharing properties between accounts

To share properties between multiple accounts, you must add the other accounts as contacts. To learn more about adding contacts and sharing properties in Portfolio Manager, refer to How to Share Properties with Other Users in Portfolio Manager or How to Share Properties in Portfolio Manager for a video demonstration.

Adding the Ministry of Energy and Electrification as a contact in Portfolio Manager

You can search for the Ministry of Energy and Electrification when adding as a contact. You can alternatively search by username (OntENERGY-BPS) for a more refined result. If you are using a corporate account created by the Ministry of Energy and Electrification, then we should already be a contact.

Updating contact information in Portfolio Manager

When we created organizational accounts for BPS organizations, the default email address for each account was set as bpssupport@ontario.ca.

Please replace this email with the email address of the energy reporting lead at your organization. This email address and other relevant contact information can be changed under your account settings.

Portfolio Manager will send a confirmation message to the email address specified in your Account Settings, along with a copy of the completed Excel report, upon successful submission.

Property information

Downloading property portfolio from Portfolio Manager

We recommend that prior to uploading new consumption data, organizations download their entire portfolio of properties as a best practice. This will allow organizations to view their current portfolio in one location and identify anything that needs to be adjusted, such as duplicate properties, duplicate meters, incorrect property use types, etc. Any changes can then be made directly in the Portfolio Manager web portal. By completing this step first, the potential for excess work when inputting consumption data is reduced.

Editing basic property information in Portfolio Manager

Property details can be edited in bulk using the basic property information template found on page 15 of the Portfolio Manager 201 guide. This allows users to change information such as the name, address, and property type among others. Changes can also be made in the Portfolio Manager web interface for individual properties.

Refer to the Guide to Submitting Date through Portfolio Manager for Ontario's Broader Public Sector for more information on updating your property data.

Updating gross floor area (GFA)

Organizations are required to report on their properties’ GFA, as it is essential in calculating energy intensity for each building. This information must be updated in both the Basic Property Information and the Property Use Details sections. For school boards, the GFA of all properties must be updated annually to account for changes in portable counts each year.

It is especially important to edit the GFA in the Property Use Details as this maintains a historical record of any floor area changes from the past. The GFA that is entered under Property Use Details is also used in calculating the Energy Use Intensity (EUI) for that property.

Classifying property use type in Portfolio Manager

The Guide to Energy Reporting for the Broader Public Sector contains information on the Portfolio Manager property types that correspond to the prescribed operation types under O. Reg. 25/23. Please see  Property Types in Portfolio Manager for available property types.

Adding a property to Portfolio Manager

Any properties that were previously reported to the Ministry of Energy and Electrification were transferred into the corporate accounts that were created for BPS organizations. Organizations must add any additional buildings that meet the prescriptions of O. Reg. 25/23 to their portfolio.

Learn more in How to set up your property.

Historical data

The previous SharePoint 2013 portal is no longer active. Historical energy consumption data from 2016 to 2020 has been transferred to the Portfolio Manager corporate accounts that were created for all BPS organizations.

Data from earlier years (2011-2015) is still publicly available on the Ontario Data Catalogue, and organizations are welcome to add this data to their Portfolio Manager accounts if they wish.

Report submission

Next steps after uploading consumption data

After you have added your consumption data to Portfolio Manager, you must complete the reporting process by completing the data request from the Ministry of Energy and Electrification. Submissions must be done through the link provided by the ministry. Please see the following section for instructions on how to submit your completed report after you have successfully uploaded your consumption data for the reporting year.

Submitting data to the Ministry of Energy and Electrification

Each year, we provide BPS organizations with a unique reporting link to submit their reports to the Ministry of Energy and Electrification. If you have successfully uploaded your energy consumption data to Portfolio Manager and are ready to submit your completed report, you must use the link that your organization received from the Ministry of Energy and Electrification.

Log in to your Portfolio Manager account, click the link, and follow the instructions to complete the data request.

If your organization has not received the annual reporting link, please contact bpssupport@ontario.ca.

Confirmation of successful submission

Upon successful submission of your report, a confirmation email along with a copy of the report as an Excel attachment will be sent to the email address associated with the Portfolio Manager account. You can review your account contact information in your Account Settings.

Additional information and support

Receiving information and updates from the Ministry of Energy and Electrification

We communicate with BPS organizations primarily via email. Contacts on our list receive communications such as update memos and invitations to training webinars.

If you are not on our email contact list, please contact bpssupport@ontario.ca if you would like to be added, if you are replacing the current reporting lead at your organization, or if an additional contact needs to be added.

Additional training resources

The Ministry of Energy and Electrification hosts various training and transition webinars. The schedule for these events is shared with our BPS contacts through email communications. Please reach out to us at bpssupport@ontario.ca if the contact for your organization needs to be updated.

Portfolio Manager offers a variety of training webinars and demonstration/instructional videos.

Additional questions

Have additional questions? Let us know at bpssupport@ontario.ca.