Mike Stowe Receives 2021 ACEEE Champion of Energy Efficiency in Industry Award

We are thrilled to announce that Mike Stowe, one of our senior energy engineers, recently won an American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) Champion of Energy Efficiency in Industry award in the industrial leadership category. He joins a select group of efficiency leaders acknowledged by the organization.

According to ACEEE, Mike was awarded “for his devotion to encouraging long-term and widespread industrial energy efficiency and strategic energy management.”

Mike’s work in industry dates back nearly 40 years. Before coming to Advanced Energy in 2011, he held roles in various levels of management in facility and process engineering, including running industrial facilities and a U.S. Navy submarine.

At Advanced Energy, Mike’s tenure has been defined by his proficiency at helping facilities make more with less. He focuses his approach around strategic energy management (SEM), guiding sites along a range of activities, from more basic energy-bill tracking to pursuing certification in energy management programs, such as 50001 Ready™, ISO 50001 and Superior Energy Performance (SEP) 50001™.

Mike’s — and Advanced Energy’s — SEM journey began in 2012. When he returned from his first SEM cohort pilot, it took time to appreciate what he was talking about; back then, few in the U.S. were doing ISO 50001, especially in the Southeast, where energy is relatively inexpensive. Fortunately, this lack of understanding did not deter Mike, and he has gone on to build a long list of accomplishments in this arena.

Over the years, Mike has been a lead trainer for the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) national ISO 50001 cohort pilot for wastewater facilities; delivered cohort trainings with support from the Federal Energy Management Program to agency facilities in the U.S. Department of Justice, Department of Defense (DOD) and NASA; directed 50001 Ready cohorts for North Carolina; and helped dozens of other industrial facilities build cultures of continual energy improvement.

One reason Mike has been so successful is his enthusiasm for his work. Mike can easily capture and hold people’s attention while identifying precisely what they need. The connections he makes are immediate, and it’s powerful to watch. Combine this with the skills he has developed as an energy expert, and he has instant credibility with industrial facilities at all stages of management. He cares about his clients and does all he can to make them successful, and it shows.

To ensure he stays at the top of his game, Mike consistently strives to further his knowledge and capabilities. He has attained certification as a Professional Engineer, Certified Energy Manager, Professional Energy Manager, 50001 Certified Practitioner in EnMS, SEP Performance Verifier and 50001 EnMS DOE Qualified Instructor. For several of these achievements, Mike was initially one of just a handful of individuals nationwide to be recognized.

He also has a knack for innovation. This talent has been apparent not only in his ability to take complex processes and break them down into actionable solutions, but also in his flexibility over the last year, as COVID-19 forced our commercial and industrial team to reinvent itself. Historically, most of our delivery has been done at facility sites; with the pandemic, that was no longer an option. Mike figured out how to move our entire approach to a remote environment, using webinars and follow-up meetings by phone and video conference. Within this new framework and by shifting on the fly, he has still been able to lead eight large sites to ISO 50001 certification and numerous others along their 50001 Ready voyages.

But even facilities that Mike doesn’t engage with directly can feel his impact. For example, his assistance with the largest military base in the U.S. has produced 50001 Ready playbooks that DOD is using with other bases. Furthermore, he is a member of the ISO/TC 301 standards committee for energy management and energy savings, which is strengthening the industry as a whole. He additionally supports utilities for wider program adoption with SEM and holds or has held officer positions in several industrial trade associations.

To take SEM implementation further, Mike pursues every opportunity to share his knowledge and expertise. He cherishes mentoring junior engineering staff members and frequently presents at state, regional and national conferences.

We at Advanced Energy are extremely proud of Mike and all that he has accomplished in industrial energy efficiency. Please join us in congratulating him on this achievement!