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<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />Build it and businesses will come. <br />That was Pat Kennedy’s hope in building a $5.5 <br />million public-private fiber network in San <br />Leandro, where he founded and runs OSIsoft <br />LLC, an industrial equipment and processes <br />management software firm. <br /> <br />Now a new cleantech company called Power <br />Factors LLC, which monitors vast arrays of solar <br />panels domestically and abroad, has proven <br />Kennedy right by locating in this East Bay <br />industrial city. <br /> <br />Power Factors is a six-person startup run by <br />power industry veterans. It monitors the <br />performance of 20 solar power plants, including <br />three large ones in California and 17 in Italy, <br />collecting data from hundreds of thousands of <br />data points per second 24 hours a day. <br /> <br />The fiber network it will access is run by Lit San <br />Leandro, a public-private partnership between <br />Kennedy and the city of San Leandro. It offers <br />data transmission speeds 2,000 times faster <br />than the average U.S. connection at relatively <br />affordable prices. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />“That is a very compelling reason for us to <br />locate our network operations center in San <br />Leandro,” said CEO Steve Hanawalt. Power <br />Factors also uses OSIsoft’s PI System software <br />to be hosted in a large data center in nearby <br />Oakland. When problems arise at a solar <br />installation, it dispatches local contractors to do <br />field work. <br /> <br />Existing city businesses are also raving about <br />the new public-private service, which is partially <br />operational. <br /> <br />Steve Song, the owner of FH Dailey Chevrolet, <br />said switching to Lit San Leandro from using a <br />couple of T1 lines has increased efficiency and <br />improved employee morale. The dealership <br />does most things over the Internet these days, <br />S AN L EANDRO’S F IBER N ETWORK L URES <br />N EW C OMPANY <br /> <br />San Francisco <br />Business Times <br /> November 23, 2012 <br />By Patrick Hoge <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />San Leandro, CA <br /> <br />