NEW YORK CITY-The Bloomberg administration has effectively extended the deadline for compliance with Local Law 84, which requires all existing residential and commercial buildings of 50,000 square feet or more to benchmark their energy and water use. The law takes effect May 1, but the Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability said this week it won’t assess penalties for failure to comply with the benchmarking requirements until at least August 1.

The Urban Green Council, the New York City chapter of the US Green Building Council which has been conducting educational outreach to building owners at the request of the Bloomberg administration, says the extension provides “some much-needed breathing room.” Additionally, OLTPS is setting up a hotline to answer questions about benchmarking or using the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Portfolio Manager tool to measure energy and water consumption. It will be available starting March 31 by calling 311 and inquiring about the EPA tool, and is cosponsored by the city, the City University of New York system and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

In late February, the Community Preservation Corp. launched its CPC Energy Benchmark Plus, a program to collect energy data from multifamily property owners and to help those owners reduce operating costs.  CPC says its program will also help owners of buildings larger than 50,000 square feet to comply with Local Law 84 providing all the energy usage information that the city will require from these owners.

Local Law 84 is one of four bills approved by the City Council in December 2009 and signed into law by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Collectively known as the Greener Greater Buildings Plan, the package of laws creates a New York City energy conservation code and implements standards for lighting retrofits and tenant submetering and audit and retro-commissioning measures as well as building performance benchmarking.

In February, Margaret O’Donoghue Castillo, president of the American Institute of Architects’ New York chapter, told GlobeSt.com “It’s a big deal to measure your building and know your energy use index.” Using the EPA tool, Castillo said, “gives you several pieces of information. You know your energy use and cost, your greenhouse gas emissions and also your water use. When you upload the information, you will have several measurements of your building.”