By Mike Boyer
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Rodney Thiemann (center), president of Delta Power Supply Inc., is flanked by Jean-Marc Gagnon (left), vice president of sales and marketing, and Denny Beasley, vice president of engineering. The Cincinnati Enquirer/CRAIG RUTTLE

A tiny Blue Ash company that developed the first electronic control for high-intensity discharge lighting is quietly transforming the market for energy-efficient lighting for large buildings such as warehouses, aircraft hangars and retail stores.

"This little company has changed an entire industry,'' said Denny Beasley, a founder and senior vice president of Delta Power Supply Inc., which employs nine at its offices on Grooms Road.

But it hasn't always been easy.

"The naysayers said we couldn't build it,'' said Beasley, who invented an electronic ballast, or power source, for high-intensity discharge (HID) lamps more than a decade ago. "Well, we built it. They said we couldn't patent it. OK, we patented it. Then it was: 'It's too expensive, you can't sell it.' "

But after more than a decade of effort, Delta Power is proving it can sell its products. Sales of the privately held company were $1.3 million last year, up from $100,000 just three years ago.

Rodney Thiemann, president and CEO, said revenues could approach $5 million this year thanks to a manufacturing and distribution agreement signed earlier this year with Venture Lighting Co., a large Solon, Ohio-based maker of metal halide lighting products.

IF YOU GO

What: Innovest, the state's annual venture-capital conference When: Thursdy and Friday Where: Westin Hotel in downtown Cincinnati Why to go: This is the first time since 2001 that Innovest has been held in the Queen City. Developing companies can put themselves before venture capitalists. Over the last decade, the conference has raised more than $640 million for the presenting companies. What's new: A pre-conference meeting Thursday morning for so-called "angel investors,'' typically high net-worth investors who take an active hand in projects that aren't ready for venture-capital funding. Open only to active angel investors, the meeting will give them the opportunity to exchange ideas and trends. Who: Four Cincinnati companies, among 30 presenting business plans: • Atomic Dog Publishing, a Main Street publisher of interactive college textbooks. • Charles H. Mack Inc., a Blue Ash supplier of care management and human resources software for health facilities. • Delta Power Supply Inc., a Blue Ash designer and manufacturer of electronic power supplies for commercial lighting. • SaccoSport Technology in Mount Lookout, developer of software to help individuals improve the effectiveness of fitness regimes. For more information, go to Web site.

Venture is setting aside a portion of a plant it has in India to produce Delta's units. Thiemann said the plant should produce up to 200 units a day when it's up and running later this year.

Besides working with lighting manufacturers, Delta also has marketed its power supplies through commissioned sales agents and working directly with electric utilities, which offer incentives to large customers, adopting energy-saving technology.

Thiemann said a typical lighting installation using Delta's ballasts requires 20 percent fewer fixtures using lower-wattage lamps.

Delta Power is one of four Cincinnati companies making investment pitches at Innovest, the state's venture-capital conference, Thursday and Friday in Cincinnati. Thiemann said the company would like to raise about $3 million to expand its engineering and sales staff.

Slow-moving industry

Delta's struggles illustrate that bringing new technology to the market is no guarantee of immediate success.

More than a decade ago, Beasley, a University of Cincinnati electrical-engineering graduate, patented an electronic ballast, or power source for high-intensity discharge lamps. It replaces traditional large magnetic ballasts for lamp lighting.

Using an electronic ballast dramatically improves the performance and energy consumption of the already energy-efficient lamps. Delta has focused on electronic ballasts for metal halide high-intensity discharge lamps, which produce light by striking an electric arc across electrodes inside an inner gas-filled tube.

It produces a brighter light than high-pressure sodium light, with lower wattage and fewer lamps needed to light a given area.

"The problem with HID was that it was either on or off," said Beasley. "If you turned it off, it was 10 or 15 minutes before the lights came back on. It was very difficult to manipulate."

Delta's electronic dimming ballasts can adjust the lights up and down in a matter of seconds.

In practice, that means that instead of having lights burning continuously in a largely unoccupied warehouse, they can be turned down and linked to a motion sensor. When the lights are needed - say, when a forklift operator needs to make a pickup or delivery - they come up quickly and go back down.

The idea sounds like a natural. But Beasley said for the large lighting equipment suppliers that typically sell large volumes, pricing ballasts at a dollar or two over cost, there was little incentive to introduce new technology.

"This is an industry that moves like a snail," he said.

Still, Delta Power continued to invest in its technology. It has five patents and four more pending for lighting controls. It won an emerging technology award for Ohio's Thomas Edison program in 1998 and in 2001 received one of Ohio's Awards for Excellence in Energy Efficiency.

The company's technology also has been recognized by the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America.

High-profile customers

In the last three years, through a series of supplier and distributor agreements, the company moved into the design and manufacture of dimming electronic ballasts for metal halide high-intensity discharge lamps from 150 to 450 watts.

And with growing interest in saving energy on the East and West coasts, where electricity costs run three or four times higher than in Cincinnati, a number of high-profile companies are using Delta's ballasts to cut their lighting costs.

Customers include Boeing Co., retailer Costco, the U.S. Postal Service and Dyess Air Force Base in Texas.

Delta's lighting ballasts cost more than magnetic ballasts, but the company markets the lower total cost of its products, says Jean-Marc Gagnon, vice president of marketing and sales.

"We have to explain that: yes, initially it's more. But you get your money back over time," he said.

E-mail mboyer@enquirer.com