A niche market

Trinidad and Tobago

Avinarsh Chinaikan, technical specialist at AC-Tech & Engineering Services, talks to The Energy Year about the impetus behind establishing the company in a niche market and how its services benefit the energy industry. AC-Tech provides technical and engineering services in the field of automation and controls.

What was the impetus behind establishing the company in a niche market and how has the company fared since?
AC-Tech was established as a niche company specialising in the servicing of automation control systems. It is a field I have developed over 20 years of experience in and I took the opportunity to start this company after UniversalPegasus closed its operations in Trinidad in 2019. Typically, you tend to find automation and control under a particular division in larger electrical service companies, but we chose to specialise in this field.
We are now a regional agent for Rockwell Automation and its Allen-Bradley product line. Rockwell is one of the Americas’ leading manufacturers of equipment and instrumentation, along with control software.

How are your services usually applied in sectors of the energy industry?
In the industrial world, automation and control has similarities regardless of the sector of industry. At the fundamental level, every sector from energy to food and beverage manufacturing will have control systems installed. Clients usually have OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] install their control systems, but afterwards those systems require support. That is where our market exists: we assist them by servicing the systems or troubleshooting problems which may arise.
More importantly, we have been upgrading outdated control systems for clients. Certain technologies have been discontinued by the manufacturer which presents an opportunity for us to upgrade them with Rockwell or Allen-Bradley products. The majority of our clients are in the energy industry. So far, our key clientele for these types of upgrades consists of multinational upstream and downstream operators, as they have been managing assets in Trinidad for a number of years.

How do you expect to see the market for automation control services grow in the region over the next two to three years?
Ever since the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a major push for companies to optimise their operations. A key part of optimisation is upgrading systems and keeping up with evolving technologies. For the next two to three years, I can see operators across Trinidad heading in the direction of upgrading and optimising their systems for two reasons: either because their technology has become outdated and they have no other choice, or because they want to take the initiative to optimise the entirety of their systems and equipment. The only way you can optimise your system is by upgrading your equipment.

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