CMS Viron president named Energy Executive of the Year

CMS Energy Corporation's energy performance contracting unit, CMS Viron Energy Services, today announced its president John W. Mahoney has been awarded the Energy Executive of the Year award from the Association of Energy Engineers (AEE).

The association, a non-profit professional association of 8,000 members involved in all areas of the energy field, gave Mahoney the award at the recent World Energy Congress in Atlanta, Ga., where he was the keynote speaker. He also presented a paper on "The State of the Energy Industry: The User's Perspective."

AEE presented Mahoney the award because of CMS Viron's significant growth in the industry under Mahoney's leadership. During his tenure, which began in 1996, CMS Viron secured several large and important energy performance contracts including a Department of Defense contract valued at $150 million involving facilities in 46 states and the Military District of Washington contract valued at $213 million, which is the largest energy performance contract issued to date.

Mahoney has 18 years of experience in the energy performance contracting field. He began his career in the energy management business with Honeywell in Philadelphia.

Recently, CMS Viron announced three significant energy performance contracts:

• the Williamson County School District in Franklin, Tenn., a contract valued at $5.7 million that will lower energy and operational costs by nearly $900,000 a year for the 28-school district;
  
• Valparaiso University of Valparaiso, Ind., a contract valued at almost $2 million that will lower the university's energy costs by about $2.9 million; and
  
• the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, a contract valued at $43 million, which is the largest energy performance contract ever implemented at a college or university in the United States.

CMS Viron also developed and introduced in November its proprietary Web-based energy data analysts system UtilityVision that enables facility managers to track energy usage with the click of a mouse.

Mahoney earned a bachelor of science degree in business administration from University of Minnesota Carlson School of Business in 1981.

CMS Marketing, Services and Trading (CMS-MST), the energy marketing business of CMS Energy and parent company of CMS Viron, offers a broad array of products and services, including commodity supply, risk management and energy savings projects. CMS-MST is well-positioned to offer full-service energy supply and demand-side management to businesses and institutions throughout the United States.

CMS Viron Energy Services is a subsidiary of CMS Energy Corporation. CMS Viron is an engineering-based energy services company specializing in energy performance contracting and turnkey energy efficiency projects. CMS Viron's team of engineers and energy specialists provide building automation and energy management system services, power quality monitoring and assessment solutions as well as summary billing and rate analysis along with other energy services. Retrofitting existing buildings for energy conservation has been Viron's only business since its founding in 1974.

CMS Energy Corporation has annual sales of $9 billion and assets of about $16 billion throughout the U.S. and around the world with businesses in electric and natural gas utility operations; independent power production; natural gas pipelines, gathering, processing and storage; oil and gas exploration and production; and energy marketing, services and trading.