Leadership

Vytau K. Virskus, Principal

Founder, Millenium Energy Company

Vytau K. Virskus is the principal founder of Millenium Energy Company. During his more than 40-year career, he has honed his expertise in facility operations, computerized energy management systems, and energy efficiency projects.

He provides design and energy savings calculation and project management services on several multimillion-dollar projects for public-sector, institutional, and privately held clients. His major strengths are the development of creative energy solutions and a practical, empirically oriented approach to project solution development.

Mr. Virskus began his engineering career in 1975 as an Environmental Systems Manager and Operations Engineer for Michigan State University responsible for a staff of 35 HVAC and building maintenance and operations personnel serving over three million square feet of campus buildings.

He is noted for having developed and installed MSU’s first campus-wide energy management system, ultimately serving 80 major buildings. Accomplishments at MSU include:

• Formulating and implementing a plan that achieved a 10% energy cost reduction during the course of one year
• Design and implementation of energy management systems in several new campus buildings; developing a new concept for balancing and optimizing central chiller plant operations with variable volume pumping techniques
• Creating the campus-wide steam and electric metering system
• Initiating the use of infrared thermal imaging for identifying building energy losses
• Developing a process to convert large constant volume chilled water pumping systems to variable volume using differential energy control techniques

Over the course of his career, Mr. Virskus has designed numerous energy projects from computerized energy management systems and HVAC retrofits to Internet-accessed metering systems, large-scale variable flow chilled water cooling and heating systems, and on-site generation installations.

Professional Background

Regional Manager for the State of Michigan Responsible for the start-up of all energy services operations across the state, establishing an office in Southeast Michigan, creating a client base, developing analytical tools, and implementing utility cost reduction projects.

Vice President of Business Development and Regulatory Affairs for an energy/environmental and metal fabrication company serving the auto industry. He was responsible for developing numerous projects, including the use of catalytic reduction of paint fumes.

Founding Member and Vice President of Operations for Resource Energy Company, Inc. Responsible for developing power generation projects up to 100 megawatts, negotiating agreements with five municipalities in Wayne County, and contract negotiations with Detroit Edison, Florida Power, Baltimore Gas and Electric, and Bechtel Corporation. Individual projects had development budgets up to $2 million, and total project costs up to $85 million.

Energy Management Consultant for Michigan Public Schools Technical analyses for energy management projects through Michigan School Business Officials (MSBO), a nonprofit organization offering technical services to the state’s public schools. Mr. Virskus conducted over 800 energy audits of school buildings and was on contract with the Michigan Energy Administration to perform energy audits for state facilities. He also conducted numerous seminars and classes on pneumatic and electric controls and building automation systems.

Legislative & Regulatory Experience

Mr. Virskus has over 15 years of experience in the legislative and regulatory process, monitoring changes in the EPAct, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, RCRA, OSHA, and other federal and state environmental statutes and regulations. He developed a procedure for in-depth comparative analysis for regulatory programs in all 50 states. He led a team that developed a strategy for implementing an air emissions inventory under the Clean Air Act for large clients in the auto industry utilizing the federal CAA database.

Mr. Virskus served on the Michigan Underground Storage Tank Financial Assistance (MUSTFA) fund advisory panel in 1994-1995, working with legislative and administration staff to draft $800 million in underground storage tank legislation. During his career, he has participated in the drafting and passage of several bills relating to power and environmental issues.

Under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA), he participated in drafting and negotiating contracts for the sale of electric power by private generators to public utilities, including a power purchase agreement for $13.5 million for 35 years.

He has spoken to commissions, boards, and councils across the state of Michigan, from county to local levels about energy efficiency and management and testified before Senate and House committees at the state legislature on energy and environmental issues.

Patents

In 2016, Mr. Virskus was awarded a U.S. patent for dynamic differential energy control of hydronic heating or cooling systems. Known commercially as E~flow, this patented mathematical algorithm uses building energy demand rather than pressure as the primary control variable to slow down or speed up a hydronic pump through a variable speed control thereby increasing or decreasing volume flow.