City entrepreneur hailed in ‘Oscars of controls industry’

Ronan McElholm’s firm ACS Controls, which identifies solutions to energy management by looking at a building through the eyes of the occupier and tailoring controls around their requirements, was one of the winners in the 2015 Building Controls Industry Association Awards.

The company took the top prize in the Independent Building Controls and BEMS Installer of the Year category.

The company was started by Ronan from humble beginnings: he started out with an office in a box bedroom in his house and began building control panels in his garage in Prehen. He secured a small premises in the North West Business Park in Skeoge Industrial Estate where he started properly in October 2007 and a few years later moved to larger premises after securing a few high profile projects including Leinster Rugby (Dublin) and the Maldron Hotel (formerly the Tower Hotel) in Londonderry.

He was nominated in the prestigious BCIA awards by Priva UK in the category of Independent building controls and BEMS installer of the year – and was shortlisted down to the last four eventually winning out after being pitted against much larger companies from within the control industry.