As soon as the juice stopped flowing into
the makeshift laboratory of Gaia Power Technologies Inc. at 8 John
Walsh Blvd., one of the company's backup PowerTower units began
supplying energy. The lights never flickered. The researchers didn't
know electrical power was out until one of them turned on a radio and
got no reception. It was a good sign for the company, which was
working to develop and commercialize the PowerTower as a battery-based
system that would let people keep running their computers, air
conditioners, lights and appliances during power outages. The
blackout - and the numerous large-scale outages that have taken place
in the New York metro region since then - was also a great
advertisement for Gaia's products. Bige Doruk, the company's
chief executive, said the phones at her company's offices in Peekskill
and New York City always ring more during and after blackouts. The
calls are from folks who are fed up with the inconvenience and cost of
being without power when the electrical distribution system fails and
who want to place orders. Some of those customers are calling Gaia for
the first time, while others may have have asked in the past about
buying a PowerTower, she said. "Everybody's tipping point is different," she said. During
blackouts that took place last summer, the company, which can usually
ship a PowerTower to a customer within 48 hours, had about a two-month
backlog, she said. Sales got another bump just last week when
thunderstorms left about 37,000 Consolidated Edison Inc. customers in
Westchester County and Queens without power. Gaia, which Doruk
formed with her husband, Ib Olsen, and Olsen's friend, Pasquale, in
2002, has sold its units into 400 homes and businesses since putting
the product on the market early last year. Some of those customers
bought more than one unit, said Doruk, 40, a native of Turkey who moved
to the United States with her family when she was 16. The company
markets the units as an alternative to noisy, carbon-emitting
fuel-powered generators. Doruk would not comment on whether the company
is profitable yet but said sales are up significantly over last year. The company employs 25 people and could grow to 35 by the end of the year, Doruk said. The
units, which look like blue filing cabinets, contain eight to 12 lead
acid batteries designed to produce electricity for a period. The units
also contain sophisticated power electronics equipment that allow the
batteries to be charged and discharged and to interface with the
electrical system in the home or business. A pair of lines
protrude from one side of the PowerTower. One connects the unit to the
electrical grid so that the unit can recharge itself when it's not in
use. The second connects the PowerTower to the circuits in the building
that are being backed up. When a power failure occurs, the
PowerTower begins providing its supply within five to 15
one-thousandths of a second, said Matthew Johnson, Gaia's director of
business development. It costs an average of $10,000 to $20,000
to purchase a unit and have an electrician install it, Johnson said.
Customers can find an electrician on their own or use one Gaia
recommends. The company's largest system is 11 kilowatts but the
company also has a 5.5 kilowatt system. A system can provide power for
up to 48 hours but that really depends on how many circuits the owner
wants hooked up. For instance, a homeowner may want enough energy
just to keep basic necessities like lights, the refrigerator and air
conditioner running. But another customer may want to also keep
computers, TVs and stereos running. Elaine Voss of Pound Ridge
decided a couple years ago she was so sick of the blackouts that hit
her neighborhood regularly that it was time to think about buying a
generator. The blackouts shut down her refrigerator, causing food to spoil, and made it impossible to cook or shower. But she said she was turned off by the idea of getting a generator when she learned how noisy they are. She
called a company to inquire about providing her with a battery-based
unit, but was dismayed by the company's slow-motion customer service.
Then she heard about Gaia and bought a unit for about $12,000 and paid
another $1,500 for installation, she said. The unit, which is
five feet tall and three feet wide, was installed in her garage. But
because it looks like a storage cabinet, visitors to her home never
seem to notice it, she said. The system makes a low humming sound. A person standing more than a few feet away would not hear it. It provides power to the family room, refrigerator, master bedroom, water pump and furnace, Voss said. Voss
said her neighbors, many of whom have generators for backup power, have
endured power outages since she got the 11-kilowatt PowerTower last
September, but her power has never gone down - not even momentarily. She will have to replace the batteries in the unit within seven to 10 years, according to the company. Voss
is the type of customer Doruk, Olsen, who is now the chief technology
officer, and Pasquale, an electrical engineer who is no longer with the
company, envisioned when they started Gaia. Doruk, who holds a
master's degree in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M and a
master's in business administration from Harvard Business School, said
she could foresee that an overstressed electrical distribution system
and rising demand for electricity - driven by economic expansion and
the advent of computers, cell phones and other gadgetry - would lead to
outages. "You had a situation where you knew something was going to break down," she said. "That's what's happening now." Along
with her husband, who spent 13 years working on advanced battery and
fuel cell development, Doruk, who worked as a business consultant for
Fortune 500 companies, and Pasquale started their company in 2,000
square feet in a warehouse-style building.
(Original Publication: July 5, 2007)
PEEKSKILL - On Aug. 14, 2003, as millions of
homes and businesses in the United States and Canada lost their
electrical power, Nick Pasquale and a pair of his start-up company's
technicians continued their work without realizing the rest of the
region was in a blackout.