Photos by Jeanna Duerscherl | The Roanoke Times

Arnie Tamagni, a principal engineer and co-founder of ADMMicro, tests equipment and works to refine the company's products. The Roanoke-based company is growing steadily as the demand for energy monitoring increases.

ADMMicro President and Chief Executive Don Howell (from left), vice president of sales John Richmond and vice president of client relations Vic Stewart said the Roanoke-based company has grown to more than 50 employees and branch offices in Ohio and Nevada since its startup in 2001.

ADMMicro's patented technology offers commercial customers a unique way to monitor and revise energy use. The company's products can, among other things, offer around-the-clock monitoring of energy use and pinpoint sources of high energy consumption.

Middle-aged guys launch startups, too.

In 2001, four electrical engineers left American Electric Power Co., put their own money on the line, held their breath and plunged into entrepreneurship.

The result was ADMMicro -- a Roanoke-based company whose patented technology helps big retailers and other customers monitor, manage and cut energy costs.

As energy prices rise, ADMMicro seems well-positioned to grow. It's already expanded to 50 employees and has branch offices in Columbus, Ohio, and Carson City, Nev.

The company is little known in the region because most of its customers are headquartered elsewhere.

"We're a well-kept secret," said Don Howell, president and chief executive officer.

Today, ADMMicro's Fortune 500 customers include Advance Auto and Target. Fortune 1000 clients include O'Reilly Automotive and Bob Evans Farms. The U.S. Postal Service is another client.

But for two years, as the company turned ideas into products, ADMMicro's revenues were zero -- a common reality for startups.

"We took a gamble but we decided it was worth the risk," said Howell.

Don Howell is the D in the company name. Arnie Tamagni, a principal engineer, is the A. Mark Vinson, vice president of engineering, and Mike Campbell, a principal engineer, supply the M's.

Two others joined early as co-founders. Frank Blevins, chief technology specialist, already had retired from AEP. Joe Tatum, executive vice president and managing director, never worked at AEP. He brought business experience.

The five from AEP had worked together for more than 25 years. Four were Virginia Tech graduates. As industry deregulation kicked in, the men helped AEP develop a Web-based energy information system to attract and retain commercial customers. The system was designed to help customers, who might have choices for an electricity provider, track energy use.

Deregulation proceeded fitfully. AEP decided to focus efforts elsewhere.

The men faced a decision -- should they remain with AEP and risk transfers to other cities or stay in the Roanoke Valley?

"We had opportunities if we wanted to relocate. But we took a severance package and used that money to found the company," Howell said.

ADMMicro began in 2002 as a limited liability company but has since incorporated.

The men who'd worked together all those years wanted to stay together. And they had a hot idea for a product that could appeal to large commercial customers fretting about energy consumption.

Howell said ADMMicro did not plunder AEP ideas but, instead, adapted and applied what the men had learned at the utility to advance energy management choices for customers.

"There are no hard feelings with AEP," he said.

Todd Burns, an AEP spokesman, agreed.

"As our company went through a period of refocusing our business on core services, some ventures were let go," Burns said.

What does ADMMicro offer in a competitive field of energy management solutions?

Its patented controller combines two functions.

First, according to the company, the controller provides pinpoint, around-the-clock monitoring of utility consumption -- electricity, natural gas, propane and water. Its "sub-metering" devices track individual circuits, allowing ADMMicro and the customer to identify any system operating outside its normal limits and map energy use throughout the building.

For example, the device allows detection of a heating, ventilation and air conditioning unit that runs continuously or, say, a single, malfunctioning compressor, reports ADMMicro.

Such feedback quickly alerts the company to energy drains. So, if the controller determines that a Target store experiences a consumption surge each morning as it prepares to open, Target might decide to prep the store in stages.

Or, if a cardboard compactor spins a utility meter like a propeller each time it's used, Target might schedule compacting for non-peak hours when rates can be lower.

Second, the controller not only constantly measures and detects energy use but also uses that data to control how the building uses energy.

"Sub-metering has been around for a while," Howell said. "It's the marriage of those two capabilities, sub-metering and energy management, that was the basis of the patent."

That union has apparently worked for Advance Auto. In 2006, Advance said energy savings from about 800 installations in stores were good enough to outfit another 1,000 stores. John Richmond, vice president of sales, said most of those installations have been completed.

The 24/7 monitoring of customers' energy consumption occurs at ADMMicro's headquarters in downtown Roanoke. Research and development happens there, too.

Manufacturing occurs elsewhere. Two Roanoke Valley companies participate -- Keltech and Dominion Metallurgical.

ADMMicro did not disclose how much its products cost.

Richmond said application of the technology varies from client to client. Some installations are new and some are related to store retrofits, he said. There also are competitive reasons for not sharing product costs, he said.

ADMMicro is also mum about sales, said Vic Stewart, vice president of client relations.

Richmond said the company's products are now in about 5,000 sites.

During a recent interview, Howell, Stewart and Richmond teased one another relentlessly.

"We work hard but we have fun," Richmond said.

Might ADMMicro elect someday to sell the company or its technology to a larger player?

Nothing's impossible, Howell said. The company could someday team with a "strategic partner," but ADMMicro will always be in Roanoke, he said.

On the Net: www.admmicro.com