BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - Nighthawk Total Control, a Dallas-based subsidiary of Birmingham's McWane Inc., has signed a deal to provide its cell-network connected electric meters on Saipan in the Mariana Islands, the company said today.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed, though Nighthawk vice president Michael Mayer said the technology eventually will be in place in 100 percent of Commonwealth Utilities Corp.'s electric grid on the small island.

Nighthawk, which McWane affiliate McWane Technology LLC acquired in September, provides smart-meter hardware that allows electric meters on homes and businesses to wirelessly transmit usage and other data via cell phone networks. In addition to lessening the need for utility employees on the ground to read meters, it can improve response time to weather-related outages by instantly reporting losses of service to utilities, Mayer said.

The company's smart-grid hardware is used by about 70 electric utilities, but is "utility agnostic," Mayer said. It is expected to have applications in gas and water delivery, too, he said.

The company also uses "mesh network" technology to allow meters to communicate with one another. That technology is a product of Huntsville-based Synapse Wireless, which McWane also acquired last September.

Saipan is in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. Commonwealth in the Pacific, to the east of the Philippines.

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Article Written by Stan Diel of al.com
Posted on February 11, 2013