Energy management-focused engineer wins international award

Mark Lenssen, a Puget Sound Energy engineer who helps commercial and industrial facilities become more environmentally sustainable through energy efficiency, receives Engineers Week award.

By Control Engineering Staff March 18, 2009

Bellevue, WA – Puget Sound Energy announced that Mark Lenssen, P.E., C.E.M., was named one of the “New Faces of Engineering 2009” by the National Engineers Week Foundation during Engineers Week (Feb. 15-21, 2009). Nominated by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), Lenssen beat out 19 other international candidates for an award that is one of the top honors available to engineers 30-years-old and younger.Lenssen, 30, joined PSE in August 2005, as an engineer-in-training. After a promotion

Mark Lenssen, P.E., C.E.M., one of National Engineers Week new faces of engineering was recognized for his sustainable engineering work.

to energy management engineer, Lenssen now helps commercial and industrial facilities become more environmentally sustainable through energy efficiency.”I find my work very gratifying because PSE’s conservation programs are helping our customers improve their business operations and bottom line,” said Lenssen. “Saving energy is good for both PSE’s and the customers’ businesses, and it’s good for the environment and our community. I’m honored to be recognized by ASHRAE, and I know that my work draws from a great team here at PSE.”Lenssen works with PSE commercial and industrial customers–as well as local and national contractors–to analyze energy efficiency projects in order to determine the level of PSE incentives individual business customers are eligible to receive. He also performs energy audits of customer facilities to identify systems and equipment that can be cost-effectively upgraded to be more energy efficient. Through his work at PSE, Lenssen has improved energy efficiency in more than 100 projects, saving more than 7.5 million kilowatt hours per year, or enough to power more than 600 homes in Western Washington for a year.Each year, the National Engineers Week Foundation, a coalition of engineering societies such as ASHRAE, major corporations and government agencies, asks its members to nominate qualifying colleagues. This year’s class of honorees, including Lenssen, reflected the most pressing issues that engineers are working to solve on a global scale, including energy resources, global climate change, infrastructure renewal, disease prevention and national security.– Edited by David Greenfield , editorial director Control Engineering News Desk Register here .