Putting the A.C. in AuCom

New Zealand & PA-based company agrees to contract for 2022 FIFA World Cup

While the world’s best footballers showcase their skills at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, an electric motor control manufacturer will kick up the A.C. to relieve their perspiration.

Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, Qatar, currently under renovations for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

New Zealand-based AuCom Electronics, the motor control specialist with North American headquarters in Freedom, Penn., has signed a contract to provide MV soft starters for chillers to be used in the event facilities, which will likely see extreme heat. AuCom’s equipment is designed to help cool eight outdoor stadiums, expected to see 122 degree heat in the Middle Eastern country’s desert on the Arabian peninsula. Organizers also pledged to lower winter temperatures in the stadiums to 79 degrees. The main focal point will be Khalifa Stadium, the 50,000-capacity, multi-purpose structure in Doha that will host the Cup’s biggest games. Here’s a highly romanticized rendering of what the stadium experiences could be like:

AuCom CEO Brent Archer told Tim Fulton of stuff.co.nz that its Khalifa Stadium contract was worth almost $3 million, comparable to a job it did in Turkey supplying MV motor controls that pumped water 300 kilometers to the water-starved city of Ankara. The company hopes to double revenue by 2019 and hire more staff, according to Archer. It currently has 136 employees in Christchurch, New Zealand and offices in Germany, Shanghai, and Dubai in addition to the United States location.

AuCom specializes in “soft-start” motor controls that reduce mechanical system wear and motor inrush and electricity demand. It will use recently introduced Smart Card technology to link components to computer sensing systems. These will drive large chiller motors that require hundreds of thousands of kilowatts of power.

AuCom isn’t the only New Zealand-based company locked in for the Cup. Two other Christchurch firms, Chris Glasson Landscape Architects and Thom Craig Architects, are landscaping outside the venues. AuCom is shipping its first Smart Card to India, Chile and Taiwan after launching it at the Hannover Messe trade fair in Germany last month.

Karen Alberts, VP of Sales & Marketing for AuCom North America, told EA “we are proud to be part of AuCom’s global team of soft start motor control experts.  This project in Qatar is just one example of how our company applies advanced soft start technology to deliver motor control solutions, right from the start.”