Carina helps utilities offer services more efficiently

Companies, customers gain with remote control options

In the world of $100 oil and corn emerging as the new fossil fuel, Carina Technology Inc. is betting utility companies are ready to rethink how they interact with their customers.

The Huntsville-based firm, which recently moved to an expanded office in Cummings Research Park, has a patented technology that includes both hardware and software for smart metering and power management.

"In 2005, Congress passed the Energy Act which encourages the utility industry toward energy efficiency and consumer friendliness," said Jay Newkirk, Carina's chairman and CEO. "We are responding to that evolving market."

Newkirk, who turns 67 this week, was co-founder of Computer Systems Technology Inc., which he helped build into a $100 million a year company, before CST was sold to SAIC in 2003.

He came to Huntsville in the 1960s to work on the Apollo program for Northrop. He was part of the team that simulated rocket launches to determine flight trajectory. After Apollo's success, he worked on defense systems, examining flight patterns of missile systems and later went into business for himself.

Despite being well-positioned for a comfortable retirement, Newkirk is happily wading into the new venture and expects 2008 to be a very strong growth year for Carina.

Carina has 27 employees and will add to that number this year. It has some 90 utility customers and more than 9,000 units deployed.

Carina began in 2000 with a technology spun out of Teledyne Brown by Clyde Luttrell, who eventually sold his share of the company to Newkirk.

Carina today offers a range of products, including a collar that is put on an electricity meter and sends back information to a utility company database. The collar allows the company to shut off or turn on the meter remotely, saving the cost of sending out a crew to switch off the meter and in many cases, return the next day to switch it back on.

"We use the remote disconnect as our lead item because it pays for itself in six months," Newkirk said. "One of the biggest headaches utilities face nationally is they are turning off and on thousands of people per day."

The ability to remotely monitor power usage and provide communication between the utility and the customer has broader applications, Newkirk said.

Companies generally have between 3 and 5 percent of utility customers who struggle with paying the energy bill. The collar system would typically be deployed with customers who have history of inconsistent payments.

But Newkirk said the company has not only developed technology that can advise customers they are near a payment deadline and potentially shut down some systems for power usage management, it has a pre-pay system, similar to a phone card, that can allow power customers to pay some of their bill to keep the lights on.

Carina is working with a Huntsville-based outdoor advertising company, which has a national customer base. The technology allows for remote control of lighting for billboards, timing when the lights should be on, thus saving energy costs.

Carina is also working closely with Bristol, Tenn., as its utility lays a fiber optic network that includes Carina smart metering over an Ethernet connection.

That means Bristol's Department of Essential Services can manage its power network more efficiently and regularly communicate with customers.

The company teaches customers how to use its systems and provides extensive tech support. Newkirk said the focus is on the Southeast market, but the company has sales representatives based in Arizona, Florida and Illinois. A utility in Hawaii recently began a pilot program with the technology.

For Newkirk a major appeal of running the company is working with its talented young staff and giving them a stake - every employee owns Carina stock - in the company's future.

"I have a dream in my head, if we're doing things just for ourselves it tends to cave in on you eventually," Newkirk said. "You need a bigger vision for your life. I want to share with young people the success ideas I've learned, while they are young."

He is committed to working with the company and also developing a "Pearls of ɢ series, that will focus on such issues as business, wellness and success.

The future includes working to persuade larger utilities to adapt the technology. Newkirk said smaller utilities have been quicker to sign on as customers, but as the technology proves itself, business is expected to grow.

"What got me to this place was understanding the law of attraction," Newkirk said. "Helping this team get what they want, by first giving people what they want."