Milbank Earns Chance to Show Off Microgrid Work to Peers

Kansas City Business Journal – Kansas City-based Milbank Manufacturing Co. Inc. has an 85-year history in the electrical industry, and the research-and-development work the company has been doing for the past four years represents its desire to stay relevant for the next eight decades.

Milbank’s work resulted in products known as its “SynapSuite” solutions. The products placed the company once again on the leading edge of the industry, something not lost on its electrical industry peers and clients.

Milbank was recently selected to be the presenting sponsor of the 2016 National Conference on Microgrids. It gives the company a chance to show off its latest products to more than 200 engineering and utility professionals. The conference will be from April 13-16 at Milbank’s National Training Center in Kansas City. It will include technical sessions on a wide range of topics pertaining to microgrids, and the highlight of the conference will be a behind-the-scenes look at the microgrid that runs Milbank’s facility.

Milbank is well known as the company that makes the electrical meters you see on most buildings. Although that remains an important business for Milbank, CEO Lavon Winkler is not willing to rest on that legacy product. Since 2011, he’s been investing millions of dollars into research and development to produce next-generation electric controllers for more complicated electrical networks that get power not only from the main grid, but from wind, solar, portable generators and storage batteries. These multi-source systems, installed at businesses or homes, are called microgrids.

“Microgrid controllers convert seemingly random energy movement into an amazing harmony of electricity flow that is both reliable and economical,” Winkler said in an e-mail. “With distributed energy generation and storage becoming an increasingly important consideration in addressing the world’s energy needs, the full capabilities of these technologies will only be realized through the sophisticated management of electricity flow — both generation and consumption — via a microgrid.

“Our commitment to microgrid research and development has been driven by a desire to be more than just a spectator in the evolution of the energy management industry. We want to play a part in defining and shaping the future of distributed energy and microgrids, both in the U.S. and abroad.”

James Dornbrook
Reporter – Kansas City Business Journal
Original Article