Oneonta firm to research ultracapacitors

ONEONTA — Most people don’t think about capacitors, unless they’re talking about the flux capacitor in the DeLorean time machine in the 1985 movie “Back to the Future,” but capacitors help make our modern world go around.

Capacitors, which are energy-storage devices, are in just about everything from our cars to our cellphones, according to Thor E. Eilertsen, chief technology officer at Custom Electronics, Inc., a 50-year-old, Oneonta-based company that employs 85 people. “Capacitors are everywhere,” he says. “That’s what excites us.”

The devices are exciting, in part, because Custom Electronics has received $250,000 in cost-sharing seed money from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to develop ultracapacitor technology that provides increased energy-storage potential.

The funding is part of $1.4 million that NYSERDA has awarded to six members of the New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology Consortium (NY-BEST) for projects that will add resiliency to the electric grid or provide increased energy efficiency to products such as hybrid cars, fuel cells, or electronic devices. The five other projects to get funding include companies based in Albany, Peekskill, Ronkonkoma, Manhattan, and Port Washington, according to NYSERDA.

NY-BEST describes itself as “a rapidly growing, industry-led, private-public coalition of corporate, entrepreneurial, academic, and government partners building a vibrant, world-class advanced battery and energy storage sector, from R&D to commercialization, in New York State.” The group says its members include Fortune 500 companies, start-ups, universities, national research centers, and laboratories spanning all parts of the energy industry. Besides Custom Electronics, NY-BEST’s Southern Tier members include The Raymond Corp., New York State Electric & Gas, Binghamton University, Corning Inc., and Primet Precision Materials, Inc.

Capacitors and batteries are both energy storage and discharge devices, Eilertsen notes. Capacitors have the advantage of being able to both store and discharge that energy much faster than batteries, giving them an advantage in certain applications, he says. One example is solar energy. An ultracapacitor, which has a much greater capacity, would be able to receive energy generated from solar panels much faster than a battery system, allowing that energy to be stored up quickly before a rainy day arrives, for example.

The disadvantage of ultracapacitors is that while they have a very long lifespan, they can only deliver power in short bursts. That’s why Custom Electronics will be researching technology to pair ultracapacitors with conventional batteries to capture energy and supplement the battery. One such way this technology could be used, Eilertsen says, is by utilizing capacitors to capture energy generated by a braking vehicle and then using that energy to augment the battery. It’s all about capturing energy quickly while it is available, he says.

“We’re very interested in commercializing it,” Eilertsen says of the ultracapacitor technology. Developing such a product would open up new markets, such as the green industry, to Custom Electronics. The company could add as many as 60 more employees, to its current 85, if it can bring this technology to market, he says. The goal, with the help of the NYSERDA funding, is to have a product ready to commercialize in the next two or three years, Eilertsen says.

They NYSERDA funding, which Custom Electronics will match, will help defray the costs of research including equipment and material expenses. “These grants help us employ people as well,” Eilertsen notes, adding the company recently hired a new scientist to help with the ultracapacitor research.

Custom Electronics must adhere to the milestones it noted in its proposal to NYSERDA and provide regular progress reports, he says.

Company background

Headquartered at 87 Browne St. in Oneonta, Custom Electronics (www.customelec.com) provides commercial and military products including mica paper capacitors, integrated electronic assemblies, and bus bar assemblies. The company does not disclose its revenue figures.

Custom Electronics was founded by Peter Dokuchitz in 1963 and incorporated a year later, according to its website.

Its first product was a reconstituted mica-paper capacitor and it initially focused on developing products for the military. Custom Electronics’ first client was General Electric, for which it produced capacitors for the F-111 aircraft’s ground-surveillance radar system. The Oneonta company’s first production order was for Raytheon, which to this day remains one of its key customers.

Custom Electronics later expanded into providing capacitors for sophisticated oil-and-gas exploration tools and government space satellites. More recently, capacitors that started out for use in military applications began to find a place in commercial applications, according to the company’s website.

Custom Electronics says on its site that it believes its emergence into the power electronics field with its bus bars and snubber capacitor line will help the business gain market share in the military and commercial markets. The company adds that expansion in Europe and Asia are also expected to open up new business opportunities.

Michael Pentaris is the CEO of Custom Electronics.

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