Astute commentary and wry observations from Mike McGee have been a mainstay of my work for many years now. A highly regarded and well-liked energy management specialist, Mike has long been a prominent advocate for the real estate industry’s interests. His untimely death Aug. 15 saddens colleagues, peers and clients who appreciated his expertise, enthusiasm and humour.

Mike was the founder and managing director of the Toronto-based consulting firm, Energy Profiles Ltd. (EPL), and a respected member of the Building Owners and Managers Association of Greater Toronto (BOMA Toronto). In the early years of Ontario’s electricity market, he was the commercial customers’ representative on the Independent Electricity Market Operator’s (now known as the Independent Electricity System Operator or IESO) technical panel and, since then, continued to champion the sector and offer guidance through complex terrain.

“We have certainly lost a great friend and trusted advisor on many issues,” says Bala Gnanam, BOMA Toronto’s director of sustainability and building technologies. “Personally, he was also one of my mentors.”

Commercial and multi-residential electricity customers in general have been beneficiaries of Mike’s knowledge and ability to foresee the fallout of proposed and adopted regulatory initiatives. Among his many contributions, he helped shape an informed industry response to electricity price caps, hydro security deposits, conservation and demand management programs, sub-metering issues and the global adjustment, which he fittingly and habitually called a “witches’ brew.”

As a journalist, I was the beneficiary of his patient explanations, clarifying analogies and unfailing, friendly support as I stretched my liberal-arts-trained brain around unfamiliar technical concepts. Over the course of a dozen years, he generously answered my questions and steered me through the evolution of a once-envisioned competitive electricity market to today’s hybrid model, sharing his fascination and chagrin in an undeniably infectious way. Never shy to be feisty, Mike also called it a “bogus market.”

Our last conversation – shortly after the extreme storm, floods and massive power outage that hit Toronto earlier this summer – found him somewhat at the epicentre of events. In addition to his role as BOMA Toronto’s representative on the IESO’s crisis management support team, both his home and office had been without power for approximately 36 hours.

“I am directly living this fun,” he told me.

Although “fun” was meant ironically, it underscored Mike’s essential joy in his work and abiding interest in every aspect of the electricity system. Despite the annoyance, he was relishing the newly acquired firsthand anecdotes to illustrate scenarios that he had earlier predicted.

Mike always advised me not to be too reverential of his profession. Nevertheless, he was central to a group of reliable, knowledgeable sources – who, happily, have also become my friends – that I have fallen into the habit of calling “my engineers.”

He leaves a very big void.

Barbara Carss is the editor-in-chief of Canadian Property Management and Building Strategies & Sustainability magazines.