Startup Triacta Power Technologies unwrapped its Christmas present early Monday, winning its largest contract to date at $15 million.

The contract, with energy conservation services firm Stratacon, Inc., comes about eight months after Triacta emerged from whisper mode with its power monitoring and control products.

Triacta's monitor device is connected to a customer's breaker panel where it detects and tracts power usage. A computerized report is then generated that identifies power wastage.

The company launched its products last spring after a trial with local utility Ottawa River Power Corp. yielded power savings of 10 to 30 per cent.

Under the terms of Monday's deal, Triacta will supply its products to Stratacon under a three-year contract.

Stratacon is a Toronto-based player in the sub-meter market in which technology like Triacta's is used to help customers identify and eliminate electricity wastage. The company's clientele includes business owners, as well as commercial and multi-residential buildings across Canada.

"Triacta is well-positioned to capture a large share of Ontario's sub-meter market," president and CEO Rob Brennan said in a statement.

"It would take a utility room full of regular smart meters to do what we can do in a single device – which is smaller in size than a clipboard. We've drawn upon our data networking experience to provide both landlords and tenants with effective energy conservation tools."

The company boasts some veterans of the local tech scene. Mr. Brennan is an engineer and former executive of the old Mitel Systems, Nortel Networks and Marconi. VP of engineering and operations Wes Biggs is founder and former CEO of Meriton Networks.

Triacta cites studies that have found that electricity bills drop an average of 24 per cent once tenants are billed for their power usage individually. At this point, more than 60 per cent of Ontario's multi-tenant, or apartment buildings, are not individually metered.

The company also expects to garner business from the new requirements that the Ontario Liberals under Premier Dalton McGuinty intend to implement to crack down on power wastage across the province.

"We're very excited about our partnership with Triacta," added Stratacon COO Peter Mills. "It's products like Triacta's that help us differentiate our service offering and

provide added value services to our customers."