Axis Technologies Inc. is nearing completion of the development of the company's next generation ballast that will focus on the utility industry. The company is currently testing working prototypes of the design. The new product builds on the successful design of Axis's current daylight harvesting energy efficient ballast and will offer additional performance refinement and flexibility. Significantly, the new ballast will expand the target market into more lighting products and applications. The seamless operation and increased flexibility will enable lighting designers to incorporate green technology with high energy savings performance and high user acceptance.

Private and public buildings and utilities can benefit from this emerging Axis technology that can greatly assist their critical Peak Demand reduction and kilowatt reduction goals. The existing power grid infrastructure is at maximum capacity in many parts of the country, and utilities must find ways to reduce existing electric loads to ensure power distribution to all their customers during Peak Demand periods. New power lines to expand capacity aren't expected to be installed in the near future, so the existing power requirements must be maintained within the grid's capacity. The only effective method to do so is to reduce power use through higher energy efficiency and coordinated load shedding. The Axis ballast will offer a readily deployable and cost effective solution to reduce, and control, electric lighting loads during peak periods, allowing utilities to immediately impact their power management requirements.

Axis Technologies' next generation ballast is currently in testing of working prototypes of the design -- a wirelessly addressable, load-shedding ballast which offers power companies the ability to reduce the lighting load (load shedding) for their commercial customers during peak demand periods. Most utility companies charge their customers a surcharge, or "peak demand," charge during those times of the day when the load on the power plants are at the highest level. Usually this high demand results in the power companies starting up higher cost generators, and/or buying power from the electrical grid at even higher power rates.

Load-Shedding Ballast Targeted at Power Utilities Market

Private and public utilities will benefit from an emerging technology that can greatly assist their critical Peak Demand reduction and kilowatt reduction goals, with immediate deployment and reliable performance. Building owners will be able to increase their property values by incorporating environmentally friendly, and cost efficient building design.

Axis's new load-shedding ballast allows the building owner or the power company to reduce the output of the ballast. The consumer who installs the new ballast can agree to participate in the power company's Peak Demand Reduction Program, which can offer reduced electric rates to the participating company. The ballast is being developed through Axis's affiliate membership with the California Lighting Technology Center (CLTC) -- http://cltc.ucdavis.edu/content/view/239/161/ -- at the University of California, Davis.

Consistent with Axis' emphasis on simplified design, the new ballast will offer the simplest method of incorporating complex controls with ease of installation, and no maintenance. The ballast will offer increased lamp type and function options, greatly expanding Axis' market into more fluorescent lighting products. Ultimately, the new ballast will offer more than twenty times (20X) the ballast product options now available. Despite the increased options, inventory management efficiency will be improved with the use of core multi-lamp ballasts and modular components.

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