UFTO is the multiclient technology scouting program conducted for a select group of major energy companies,  providing clients with an extra expert set of eyes and ears on new energy technology, on a leveraged and cost-shared basis.

UFTO offers a broad energy-related "early-warning" technology-watch which could be of value to many areas throughout your company, e.g. corporate development, business development, venture investment, R&D, strategic planning, competitive intelligence, etc. As such, the benefits-and the cost- of my services can be spread anywhere in the entire organization.

UFTO keeps its clients alerted to developments, threats and opportunities on an ongoing basis.
- Informal briefings (or conversations) appropriate to particular needs
- On tap to answer questions
- Full time "technology watch", investigating new leads
- Regularly scan a long list of newsletters and trade magazines  (over 30  at last count)
- Extensive personal network of relationships -- startups, corporations,
      utilities, venture capital, government, and other institutions

For companies outside the U.S., there is the added advantage of gaining another window on technology developments here in the U.S., and help to introduce technology from international sources in to the U.S.

Now in its tenth year, the UFTO multiclient program continues to provide vital competitive intelligence on technology to energy utilities, suppliers, and investors.

Note below the list of past UFTO Notes. I would be pleased to send you samples of any that catch your attention. Just let me know the dates of the Notes you'd like to see.

Current UFTO client companies:
  -- Xcel Energy -- Cinergy --  First Energy --
         -- Nth Power -- BC Hydro -- Ontario Power
 

To be successful in the new energy marketplace, energy companies need immediate, relevant, and accurate information ("competitive intelligence") about the latest technologies and technical breakthroughs. At the same time, companies are inundated with huge volumes of information, but have fewer employees available to evaluate and act upon new ideas and approaches.

Utility Federal Technology Opportunities (UFTO) is a multiclient program that provides a means to gain access to information about new technology, to select and distill what is significant, and to help clients act on it. Through its broad network of contacts, UFTO investigates technologies from entrepreneurs, industry, venture capitalists and international sources. UFTO also actively pursues opportunities from the R&D programs of the U. S. government (the National Laboratories, DOD, DOE, NASA, etc.).

Over the last ten years, UFTO has successfully identified significant new energy technology developments that meet clients' needs. UFTO is in effect an extension of a client's staff -- a specialized, cost effective, and valuable resource.

"UFTO gives us insights into the R&D and national lab world that we just don't find elsewhere."
   Nancy Floyd, Founding General Partner, Nth Power Technologies

"We're using UFTO materials extensively. It's on the right track, and it's on the cutting edge. We're very pleased."
    Bill Naughton, Director of R&D, ComEd (UFTO client since '94)

• Obtain thorough understanding of a client’s needs and goals,
• Identify those technologies that help to achieve those goals,
• Provide early warning and insights about new technologies or  challenges, and
• Help clients implement those technologies to achieve their goals.

To meet these objectives, UFTO:
 

• Attends conferences and scans news sources*, watching for new developments that merit a closer look.
• Develops strong personal rapport with entrepreneurs who are developing innovative new technology.
• Provide regular, detailed reports on relevant programs and technologies (often before information is made public.)
• Monitors and reports on relevant activities in federal agencies and labs, through regular visits and a network of established relationships with each lab’s management and staff.
• Provides an educated evaluation of key aspects for each technology, issue, or development reported.

As an additional benefit, UFTO also brings utility industry needs and interests to the attention of the labs (and other technology developers). UFTO's clients are thus in a position to influence the labs’ priorities and programs, stake out positions, and establish commercial relationships.  With a client’s permission, UFTO also can share a client’s individual concerns with the labs, who then respond with their own approaches and proposals.

In effect, UFTO adds a full-time professional to the staff of each client company, who is committed to gaining access to important technological developments across a wide territory. Because UFTO has a multi-client base, the cost is a fraction of what it would take to support comparable in-house capabilities. The UFTO fee is $15,000/year ($18,000 in the first year)**. As part of the service package, each subscriber also receives 3 days of dedicated consulting time.

UFTO limits the number of client companies to a maximum of fifteen, which allows it to provide a high degree of individual attention to each client's requirements.

UFTO's reports (called "UFTO Notes") are distributed to clients via e-mail and materials are maintained in a searchable website database that is available only to clients.

UFTO believes that its program provides a competitive edge for its client companies. A detailed proposal  on how UFTO can help your company is available here for your review. Please contact me at any time with any questions you may have. I look forward to talking with you.
_____________________________

**Additional first-year fees are used to bring new clients up to speed quickly, giving them full access to all prior results and information. There is an on-site briefing together with a day of meetings with individuals and groups in the company to learn more about the client's needs and interests, and to begin making matches. (Additional costs may be applied for clients outside the US, e.g. for travel.)
* See list of sources reviewed on a regular basis
       http://www.ufto.com/documentspublic/sources.html
 

 RECENT UFTO NOTES  (samples available on request)  

07 Oct 2004    UFTO Update - Ultrapurification of Oil
13 Sep 2004    UFTO Note - True Plug&Play for Energy Advances
26 Aug 2004    UFTO Update - Sag Line Mitigator is Ready
01 Jun 2004    UFTO Note - Openshark Coordinates Digging Streets
05 May 2004    UFTO Note - EEStor Ultracapacitor and Ultrabattery
05 Mar 2004    UFTO Note - DG Update
03 Feb 2004    UFTO Note - Calif Treasurer Proposes Green Wave to Invest $1.5B in Cleantech
23 Jan 2004    UFTO Note - Plug Pulled on Regenesys
06 Jan 2004    UFTO Note - Gas-to-Liquid: Its Time Has Come

05 Nov 2003 UFTO Note - Cost-Effective Dimmable Fluorescent Ballast
19 Oct 2003 UFTO Note - Short Subjects
17 Sep 2003 UFTO Note - DOE Office of Electric Transmission & Distribution (OETD)
01 Sep 2003 UFTO Note - Humid Air Injection Boosts CT Output
16 Jul 2003 UFTO Note - Update on Alchemix HydroMax
06 Jul 2003 UFTO Note - Bicarb Cleans Up Stack Gas Emissions
26 Jun 2003 UFTO Note - Non-Thermal Plasma H2, no CO2
23 Jun 2003 UFTO Note - Firefly Re-invents the Lead Acid Battery
11 Jun 2003 UFTO Note - Energy Efficiency as a Resource
30 May 2003 UFTO Note-DOE H2&FC Reviews'03
19 May 2003 UFTO Note - Cleantech Venture Forum II
12 May 2003 UFTO Note - New New Solar PV
02 Apr 2003 UFTO Note - Photolytic Hydrogen from Sunlight
21 Mar 2003 UFTO Note - T&D R&D Gaining Attention
18 Mar 2003 UFTO Note - Preheat Standby Diesels with Heat Pump
28 Feb 2003 UFTO Note - Bipolar NiMHydride Battery
13 Feb 2003 UFTO Note - Virtual Utility Technology License Available
04 Feb 2003 UFTO Note - Leveraging the Feds
08 Jan 2003 UFTO Note - Sugar to Hydrogen by Aqueous Catalysis

08 Dec 2002 UFTO Note - 2002 Fuel Cell Seminar
05 Dec 2002 UFTO Note - H2 from Multiple Fuels & Polymeric Membrane Separation
15 Nov 2002 UFTO Note - H2 Production Adapts Smelting Technology
03 Nov 2002 UFTO Note - Optic Fiber Inside Transm Cable Measures Temperature
29 Oct 2002 UFTO Note - Solid State Power Breakthrough
14 Oct 2002 UFTO Note - Thermoelectrics Revisited
01 Oct 2002 UFTO Note - Short Subjects
17 Sep 2002 UFTO Note - CEATI Provides Technology R&D
09 Sep 2002 UFTO Note - Current Developments in DG Interconnection
06 Sep 2002 UFTO Note - Ice Mitigation
19 Aug 2002 UFTO Note - Staged Combustion with Nitrogen-Enriched Air (SCNEA)
05 Aug 2002 UFTO Note - Utility Telecom Has a Future-PurOptix
01 Aug 2002 UFTO Note - E-lecTrade Enables Trading of Structured Products
12 Jul 2002 UFTO Note - EESAT'02 Electricity Storage Conference
08 Jul 2002 UFTO Note - Digital Hubbub-IEEE Spectrum
10 Jun 2002 UFTO Note - DOE H2&FC Reviews
24 May 2002 UFTO Note - NREL VISIT
20 May 2002 UFTO Forward- NRECA DG tools
17 May 2002 UFTO Note - Small scale Gas to Liquids (GTL)
25 Apr 2002 UFTO Note - PowerWAN PLC to Solve Last-Mile
22 Mar 2002 UFTO Note - New Small Turbines, 600 Watts to 2 MW
16 Feb 2002 UFTO Note - IEEE 1547 Interconnection Working Group
15 Feb 2002 UFTO Note - DOE Distributed Power Review
26 Jan 2002 UFTO Note - Fluid Mechanical Energy Recovery
23 Jan 2002 UFTO Note - 2001 IEEE T&D Expo
17 Jan 2002  UFTO Note - NEETRAC R&D Focused on Power Delivery

11 Dec 2001 UFTO Note - CSFB Energy Technology Investment Conf.
06 Dec 2001 UFTO Note - New Solid State Heat to Electricity
05 Dec 2001 UFTO Note - Nickel Hydrogen Battery Ready for Commercialization
28 Nov 2001 UFTO Note - Eneco Announces Direct Heat-to-Electricity Device
29 Oct 2001 UFTO Note - CO,CO2 Removal from reformate H2
10 Oct 2001 UFTO Note - Power Quality 2001
28 Sep 2001 UFTO Note - Investment Bankers Talk Energy Technology
22 Aug 2001 UFTO Note - EPRI Distributed Resources Venture Forum
02 Aug 2001 UFTO Note - Small Modular Biopower System
09 Jul 2001 UFTO Note - Hologram PV Windows
14 May 2001 UFTO Note - On-Line Transformer and Battery Monitoring
11 May 2001 UFTO Note - Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PMBR)
22 Mar 2001 UFTO Note - RAMGEN Update
05 Mar 2001 UFTO Note - Fluid Dialysis Makes Oils Cleaner Than New
05 Mar 2001 UFTO Note - Zero Emission Engine
25 Feb 2001 UFTO Note - New Stirling Engine with Higher Temp, Effic
16 Feb 2001 UFTO Note - On Site Hydrogen for Generator Cooling
02 Feb 2001 UFTO Note - AET - Solar Hot Water
31 Jan 2001 UFTO Note - Fuel Cell info; DOE DP Program
23 Jan 2001 UFTO Note - Fuel Cell Seminar, CADER/DPCA

11 Dec 2000 UFTO Note - Smart Setback for Room Thermostats
20 Nov 2000 UFTO Note - World Commission on Dams
29 Oct 2000 UFTO Note - Travel Reports
01 Sep 2000 UFTO Note - Las Vegas Energex2000
14 Aug 2000 UFTO Note - TeamFuel-Intelligent Fuel Management
12 Jul 2000 UFTO Note - CO2 Sequestration - DOE Resources
10 Jul 2000 UFTO Note - Fast Pyrolysis of Biomass
22 Jun 2000 UFTO Note - NxtPhase Optical I, V Transducers for Hi V
13 Jun 2000 UFTO Note - Zero Emission Coal (Los Alamos)
13 Jun 2000 UFTO Note - ELISIMS: Detailed Simulation of Power Industry
31 May 2000 UFTO Note - DOE Distributed Power Website
21 May 2000 UFTO Note - DOE Hydrogen Program
07 May 2000 UFTO Note - Amorphous Metal Motors
25 Apr 2000 UFTO Note - Energy Storage Assoc Meeting Notes
30 Mar 2000 UFTO Note - Fuel Cells Discussed on Investors Net Radio Show
27 Mar 2000 UFTO Note - Powercosm: George Gilder
27 Mar 2000 UFTO Note - Sag Line Mitigator -UPDATE
22 Mar 2000 UFTO Note - Biomass Cofiring
13 Mar 2000 UFTO Note - DOE Final POST Report on Outages
03 Mar 2000 UFTO Note - Startup Company to Develop Wireless Sensors
29 Feb 2000 UFTO Note - QuickStab Stability Limit Predictor Enhanced
21 Feb 2000 UFTO Note - BPA Conf on DG, Renewables
14 Feb 2000 UFTO Note - IEEE DistGen Stds update
04 Feb 2000 UFTO Note - A Proposition for a New "Regulatory Contract"
24 Jan 2000 UFTO Note - Xenergy Distrib Power Study
21 Jan 2000 UFTO News Watch - Not your Father's utility industry
06 Jan 2000 UFTO Note - DOE Power Outage Study