Australian Control Engineering
Every time you turn on a tap, flick a light switch, or step onto a train platform, invisible systems are working to make that moment possible. Somebody has to build the intelligence behind those systems. Somebody has to care enough to get it right.
That somebody is ACE.
"Our clients' success is how we measure our own. We bring expertise and genuine care to every challenge, delivering on time, on budget, and to the highest standard, because when our clients thrive, so do we."
— Jordan Zhao, Founder & Managing DirectorThe Invisible Infrastructure
There is a layer of intelligence beneath modern life that most people never see. It lives in the control rooms of water treatment plants that keep cities healthy. In the substations that balance solar and wind power across a national grid. In the battery storage systems that catch energy from the sun and release it at midnight when a hospital needs it most.
This layer, the SCADA systems, the automation networks, the control logic that makes critical infrastructure reliable, is the foundation everything else (in particular ERP and AI) stands on. When it works, nobody notices. When it fails, everything stops.
"ACE exists to solve our clients' toughest data visualisation and operational challenges, with solutions built to last."
— Jordan Zhao, Founder & Managing DirectorWhy This Matters Now
Australia is in the middle of the largest energy transformation in its history. The country is shifting from a century-old fossil fuel grid to a distributed, renewable energy network — one that must be more reliable than the system it replaces, not less.
That transition doesn't happen with solar panels and batteries alone. It happens when someone builds the intelligence that makes those assets behave as a system: responding to demand in real time, stabilising frequency, managing voltage, dispatching power where it's needed, and doing it all autonomously at the speed of electrons.
At the same time, Australia's water utilities are managing ageing infrastructure across vast geographies. Transport networks are growing more complex. Industrial operations demand higher efficiency with lower environmental impact. Every one of these challenges comes back to the same question: who builds the intelligent systems that make it all work?
Where It Began
Most engineering firms are founded when someone spots a gap in the market. ACE was founded because one engineer refused to accept a gap in standards.
In 2004, Jordan Zhao arrived in Western Australia carrying a degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering and a conviction that would prove more valuable than any business plan: that the difference between infrastructure that works and infrastructure that fails comes down to whether the engineer who built it genuinely cared.
He didn't come to start a company. He came to become the kind of engineer that clients could trust completely — the kind who treats every pump station with the same rigour as a gigawatt-scale BESS. That distinction is rare. And it's the reason clients stay with ACE long after the first project is complete.
At Curtin University, Jordan chose a research thesis that the rest of the industry would take two decades to catch up with: improving the efficiency of a SCADA-controlled solar battery desalination plant. While others followed the work that was fashionable, he followed the work that was right. Today, that same instinct protects ACE clients from the costly surprises that come when their engineering partner is learning on the job.
The Apprenticeship
What followed was a decade of immersion. Jordan worked at CSIRO designing control system panels for research drilling. At Schneider Electric, he engineered SCADA networks and radio communication systems. At ABB (Hitachi) for six formative years, he led factory acceptance tests, site commissioning, and full project lifecycle delivery, becoming the cornerstone of his team's Electrical, Instrumentation and SCADA operations.
He studied the best in the world. Not to replicate them, but to understand the thinking behind what they built. Every system he worked on became a lesson. Every project added to a growing library of knowledge about what it truly takes to deliver engineering that people can depend on.
"We study the world's best methodologies. When our engineers master them, they solve problems others can't."
In 2014, Jordan earned Chartered Engineer status in Engineers Australia's ITEE and Electrical College. That same year, when ABB closed their WA SCADA engineering operation, he saw what others might have missed: not an ending, but a calling.
In December 2014, Australian Control Engineering was founded. One engineer. One conviction. One rule that would become the company's DNA:
Not quantity, quality. Take any job, big or small, and deliver excellence every time.
Building Something That Lasts
The path from a one-person startup to a nationally trusted engineering firm is never a straight line. It's measured in projects delivered flawlessly, in clients who return because they know what they'll get, and in the quiet accumulation of trust that no marketing budget can buy.
To be the engineering intelligence behind the infrastructure that sustains communities
Making water safer, energy cleaner, and essential services more reliable for every Australian.
For Our Industry
We are proving that a SCADA integrator can be a trusted strategic partner, not just a vendor. That engineering firms can be built on craft and care rather than scale and speed. Our vendor-neutral approach and triple ISO certification mean we serve our clients' interests, not a manufacturer's. When ACE delivers a project, it should set the standard that others measure themselves against.
For Our Communities
Behind every control system is a community that depends on it. The families whose drinking water is monitored by SCADA-controlled plants. The towns whose power stays on because battery storage responds to grid instability in milliseconds. ACE's work is not abstract. It is deeply, practically human. That responsibility is what drives us.
For the Next Generation
Australia's energy transition will require thousands of skilled engineers who don't yet exist. ACE partners with universities to bridge research and real-world utility operations, fast-tracking innovative solutions from the lab to the field. We are building not just projects, but pathways — for young engineers who want to work on problems that matter.
Honest About Where We Stand
We're proud of what ACE has built. But we're honest about what we haven't yet achieved. The world's great engineering firms have decades of accumulated institutional knowledge — libraries of experience that can only be built through time, through problems solved under real pressure, through lessons that no textbook can teach.
We're building that library now. Every project adds to it. Every challenge we overcome becomes part of ACE's collective intelligence. And we move fast — because speed, combined with the humility to correct course immediately, is how determined companies outpace incumbents.
"Dare to act. Learn rapidly. When we get it wrong, correct it immediately. That's the framework."
We are not claiming to be the biggest. We are not claiming to have all the answers. We are claiming this: that no one will care more, work harder, or hold themselves to a higher standard. And that over time, that's the only thing that compounds.
Excellence Requires Collaboration
ACE holds certified partnerships with industry leaders — enabling us to support both current and legacy equipment across every utility sector. We partner with leading Australian universities to bridge academic research and field application, ensuring innovation reaches the people who need it.
The next decade will be defined by the people who choose to build alongside us
What started as one engineer's conviction now serves Water Corporation, Alinta Energy, Horizon Power, Perth Airport, PTA, TasWater, and dozens more — with projects spanning water, energy, transport, and industrial infrastructure across the nation.
If You're a Client
Seeking an engineering partner who delivers what they promise — on time, on budget, every time — we'd welcome the conversation.
If You're an Engineer
Who believes your craft should matter, who wants to work on problems that affect real communities, and who refuses to accept "good enough" — this is where you belong.
If You're a Partner
Who shares our commitment to quality and wants to build something meaningful together — let's talk.
Engineering Smart Utilities