Prichett named campus energy manager

Wilson Prichett, senior engineer and project manager at ASEGI Inc. in Tennessee, has been named to the new position of campus energy manager at Virginia Tech beginning July 6.

A registered professional engineer, a certified energy manager, a green-lights surveyor ally, and a registered energy professional, Prichett also holds a boiler-operations certificate and has more than 20 years' experience in energy conservation, facilities management, and sustainable-facility design. He also has expertise in renewable energy technologies and supplemental energy sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, small hydro, biomass, biogas, and fuel cells) for domestic and international projects. He has been with ASEGI since 1985 and has performed more than 500 facilities energy audits and obtained approximately $10 million in savings for clients. He has directed hundreds of commercial, industrial, and governmental clients' efforts to design and build energy-efficient/sustainable facilities and conducts workshops in his expertise areas.

As campus energy manager, Prichett will aid Assistant Vice President for Facilities Bill Elvey and will "act as team leader for the development and implementation of a university-wide energy-management plan and initiate actions internal to Virginia Tech operations and programs consistent with a goal of reducing energy consumption to the maximum extent feasible," according to Elvey. Prichett also "will monitor and use the Efficiency and Operational Performance Contracting Act as a procurement mechanism to accomplish energy conservation measures and projects."

Prichett is a senior member of the Association of Energy Engineers and a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the National/Tennessee Society of Professional Engineers, and the Association for Energy Services Professionals. He received a bachelor's in engineering from Princeton University and a master's in environmental sciences from the University of Virginia.

Founded in 1872 as a land-grant college, Virginia Tech has grown to become the largest university in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Today, Virginia Tech's eight colleges are dedicated to putting knowledge to work through teaching, research, and outreach activities and to fulfilling its vision to be among the top 30 research universities in the nation. At its 2,600-acre main campus located in Blacksburg and other campus centers in Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Roanoke, Virginia Tech enrolls more than 28,000 full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries in 180 academic degree programs.