Giving Rise To Excellence

 CALGARY HERALD, BY VALERIE BERENYI JANUARY 14, 2009

Much like baking a fine loaf of bread, there's a rich mix of ingredients giving rise to a culture of innovation in Calgary.

When the Herald set out to identify some of the top ideas circulating in the city-- which, like a warm, yeasty dough, quickly expanded to the eight you'll read about shortly --it became necessary to find out why Calgary is such a hotbed of innovation.

We talked to people who work with creators of all kinds, day in and day out, for some insights into how this foothills city of just over one million people seems to have become an incubator for hatching new ideas, research, businesses and products.

"There's enormous talent here for the size of our population," says David Mitchell.

Zapping Grow Ops (Wireless)

Since marijuana grow operations suck a lot of illegal power, a former sergeant on a police drug unit hit on the idea of developing a special, wireless meter that detects electricity theft--and busts drug crime in the process.

After a 20-year career that included attending more than 800 grow ops and becoming a court expert on marijuana propagation, Roger Morrison left the Calgary Police Service in 2007 to found dTechs, a small high-tech company.

"As a drug sergeant I was trying to find a better way to do things and I always treated electricity like water," says Morrison. "It's simply flowing and you should be able to somehow detect where it's flowing to and the amount being used."

A primary electrical line typically feeds eight to 10 transformers, each in turn sending power to eight to 10 houses through the electrical meters we're all familiar with. They record a household's legal electrical use. But marijuana grow operators steal electricity by tapping the lines before they reach the meters.

An estimated $1.5 billion of electricity is stolen every year in Canada to power about 100,000 grow ops, 10,000 of which are in Alberta, Morrison says.

The dTechs technology is an electricity grid surveillance tool that works by detecting and reporting atypical consumption between the primary power line and the transformers.

If an excessive power draw is noted, the utility company is immediately notified and its workers can then use dTechs's infrared technology to pinpoint the culprit within minutes.

In May, Morrison tested the system in 927 homes in the Chestermere area, working with the local utility and police. Four marijuana grow ops were busted and $750,000 worth of packaged marijuana and plants were seized.

Although dTechs is being marketed to utility companies to help them save money, stamping out organized crime benefits us all, says Morrison. "Marijuana is basically the free ATM of organized crime. The reason we have large amounts of cocaine, meth and ecstasy is because it's seeded by marijuana money."

Morrison has patented the dTechs wireless meter, is in his first round of financing and has two final production unit tests in the works.

Safer Communities for Canadians, Innovative New Technology to Locate Marijuana Grow Operations

More than $750,000.00 worth of potent marijuana plants and approximately 70 pounds of packaged marijuana were discovered in Chestermere, Alberta homes, thanks to technology created by Calgary-based dTechs epm Ltd (dTechs).  A total of four homes with marijuana grow operations in an area of over 900 homes were located with the new dTechs technology used in testing efforts in collaboration with the local utility, the RCMP, and the Calgary Police Service.

dTechs, founded by a former Calgary Police Service Drug Sergeant, announced today that it has completed and tested a specially developed wireless electrical meter suite which detects and reports excessive use of electricity. Excessive electricity use is often coincident with electricity theft, which in many cases is the result of a marijuana grow operation along the line.

This is the full system test for the innovative technology, following a ‘proof of concept’ test completed in 2007 with another Utility Company (unnamed due to contractual obligations) where nine marijuana grow operations were located in a residential area of 603 homes.

“We are extremely pleased with our results and after three years of hard work on this project, we have a great sense of achievement,” said Roger Morrison, President and Founder of dTechs

Morrison developed the high-resolution wireless primary-metering system as a result of his policing career, which involved dismantling marijuana grow operations. “I became frustrated with the vast number of organized crime grow operations in Canada and the lack of any proven or economical technology to combat them on a large scale,” added Morrison.

This recent testing effort involved the monitoring and assessment of a large area in the Chestermere area. Only nine test points each with the dTechs meter were required to narrow down and close in on the four marijuana grow operations; which were previously undetected in a total of 927 homes.

Electricity theft is estimated to exceed $1 billion per year in Canada, leaving law abiding utility customers to pay for this power.  The implementation of smarter grid technologies nationwide would result in extensive savings to electrical consumers.

The dTechs Meter Suite is designed to be permanently deployed in order to fill a gap in electricity distribution monitoring which presently exists between the meter on your home and the substation many kilometers of wire away. This new technology would now allow public utilities companies to accurately and cost-effectively monitor the use of electrical power.

The dTechs Meter Suite can locate stolen power and inefficient power lines, in addition to providing immediate outage notification and power forecasting capabilities.

“The overall societal aspects of this technology are endless. It can help locate electrical theft, stop marijuana grow operations, and reduce unbilled electricity loss; which will improve the operating efficiency of public utilities. The impacts related to public safety, organized crime issues and electrical-efficiency potential are unprecedented,”

Grow ops sprout in upscale 'burbs

Massive drug operations springing up under noses of unsuspecting residents.                             (Click here for Article)