Active Power, Inc. (ACPW)

Active Power, Inc. was an Austin, Texas maker of flywheel-based uninterruptible power supply systems. Instead of relying on banks of chemical batteries, its UPS units stored energy in a spinning flywheel and released it as kinetic energy to bridge the gap between a utility outage and the start of backup generators. The company sold these systems, along with continuous power products and modular power solutions, mainly to data centers, industrial plants and other users that could not tolerate interruptions.

The business began in 1992 as Magnetic Bearing Technologies, Inc., a developer of magnetic bearings, and took the Active Power name in 1996 as it shifted toward energy storage. Its flywheel designs became the core of the CleanSource UPS product line. The company later added integrated offerings that packaged UPS equipment, switchgear and generators into containerized or modular power systems for data center operators.

Active Power traded on NASDAQ under the symbol ACPW. Like many small energy technology companies it struggled to reach steady profitability, facing competition from large electrical equipment vendors whose battery-based UPS systems dominated the market. Over the years the company carried out cost reductions, management changes and a reverse stock split while trying to grow revenue from its flywheel and modular product lines.

In 2016 the company agreed to sell its business, substantially all of its assets and operations, and the Active Power name to Piller Power Systems Inc., the US arm of the Piller division of UK-based Langley Holdings. The sale closed in the weekend before November 21, 2016. Piller, itself a long-time supplier of rotary UPS equipment, continued the flywheel product line under the Active Power brand.

Because the sale agreement required it to give up its name, the listed company became P10 Industries, Inc. It left NASDAQ, and its shares began trading on the OTC Pink market under the symbol PIOI around December 1, 2016. The remaining shell said it planned to raise new capital, license or sell its non-core patents in thermal and compressed air energy storage, and acquire profitable commercial and industrial businesses.