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AEE’s 2024 International Awards celebrate innovation and excellence in energy
October 8, 2024 By Anthony Capkun
Photo shows Eaton’s microgrid project at its facility in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. October 8, 2024 – The Association of Energy Engineers (AEE) announced the honorees of its 2024 International Awards, which celebrate “individuals, organizations, agencies, and corporations who are leading the way in innovation and excellence”. Those honorees include:
Energy Engineer of the Year – Tristan Schwartzman
Schwartzman is a designer and champion of energy efficiency in Greater New York City. Under his direction, Goldman Copeland’s Energy Services Department has completed energy audits and retro-commissioning projects for over 70 million square feet of commercial and institutional properties in the tri-state area.
Corporate Energy Management – Gilead Sciences
Biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences completed energy assessments at its 10 largest locations, which resulted in a detailed analysis of system operation, and the generation of opportunities and strategy for implementation. Gilead then implemented a program for continuous improvement in the areas of energy, water and refrigerant management, and emissions reduction.
Institutional Energy Management – Fairfax County Public Schools
An Energy Star partner since 1998, Fairfax’s energy management strategy is epitomized by the Capital Asset Replacement initiative, in which it systematically replaces or upgrades physical assets that have outlived their useful life or are uneconomical to repair. This approach includes significant maintenance investments, focusing on optimizing asset performance and extending operational life.
Energy Manager of the Year – Kimberly Jarden
Senior global energy manager Kimberly Jarden leads Goodyear’s energy optimization strategy across 52 manufacturing facilities. Her work is helping Goodyear work toward its net-zero ambition, achieving a 22% reduction in GHG emissions since 2019. Under her direction, Goodyear’s energy management program is an aligned, global strategy focused on energy efficiency programs, renewable energy procurement and generation, fuel switching, and technology development.
Energy Professional Development – Mathieu Côte
Mathieu Côte is the executive director of Canadian Institute for Energy Training (CIET), an organization delivering energy management capacity-building across Canada and around the world. The core of CIET’s professional development efforts are AEE Certification courses (training 431 professionals from 2022 to 2023). Through CIET, close to 5000 professionals have graduated AEE courses since 2012.
Energy Project of the Year – Mount Sinai Hospital (United States)
Mount Sinai Hospital installed a real-time energy management (RTEM) platform to manage peak power demands through advanced feedback-control technology. By gradually adjusting power to individual loads—such as air-handling units (AHUs), fans, motors, pumps—the platform avoids the effects of on-off demand controllers, and ensures that the facility’s aggregate power demand remains below the desired threshold based on live energy data and user priorities.
Energy Project of the Year – Eaton Arecibo (International)
In collaboration with Enel North America, Eaton has established the largest clean energy microgrid in Puerto Rico at its manufacturing facility in Arecibo, contributing over 9000 MW of renewable power annually. The facility will now operate with a 55% reduction in energy consumption and a yearly decrease in emissions by about 7100 metric tonnes. The project not only reduces the facility’s carbon footprint but also strengthens the regional power grid.
Energy Innovator of the Year – Duane Warren
Duane Warren is the engineering director and senior energy engineer at JLL in the Energy and Sustainability Services Group. He holds a patent in chiller optimization and a trademark in chilled water system optimization. Warren has invented a new commissioning and testing procedure for electrical harmonics testing, and is developing fault detection and AI routines for building management systems (BMS) and remote monitoring for mechanical, electrical, and irrigation systems. Among his notable projects is a regenerative cool gas defrost lab system, which reduces energy use by 30% at ALS Environmental Services in Edmonton.
Young Energy Professional of the Year – Priya Raghuraman
Priya Raghuraman in a systems engineering professional at Siemens Industry, where her role involves research and publication in substation automation, IIoT, microgrid control, and digital substations. A mentor and power system protection instructor, she helps foster relationships between Siemens and universities to encourage students to pursue a career in the electrical manufacturing industry.
Young Energy Professional of the Year – Keith Katyora
Keith Katyora is a senior transmission grid advisor and technical delivery support at the USAID Southern Africa Energy Program, where he champions emissions reductions and energy resilience, specifically in healthcare electrification projects, where he has supported 17 health facilities across four provinces in South Africa through energy audits.
Young Energy Professional of the Year – Faisal Alkatheri
Faisal Alkatheri is an energy engineer at Saudi Aramco where he led the organization’s efforts to achieve energy savings of millions of megawatt-hours. Adhering to ASHRAE Levels 1 and 2, he spearheaded over 70 energy audits, which led to the implementation of energy conservation measures that resulted in substantial cost savings.
Distinguished Service – Eric Oliver
The founder of Earthwide LLC and a past-president of AEE, Eric Oliver possesses over 34 years of energy conservation experience, which started when helped the U.S. government launch EPA’s Energy Star Buildings Program. He has conducted several dozen training seminars, created energy awareness and education campaigns, and presented and moderated at numerous energy conferences.
The 2024 International Awards were presented at a special banquet last month, in conjunction with the AEE World Energy Conference & Expo.
The Association of Energy Engineers is a non-profit society with over 17,000 members in over 125 countries. Its mission is to promote “the scientific and educational interests of those engaged in the energy industry, and to foster action for sustainable development”.
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