I don't know what brand you are looking at, but I just looked at a brochure for a Joslyn Clark Fire Pump Controller and see the kind of mistake that is likely behind the confusion here. Their brochure (page 3 of
this pdf) says "
Short-Circuit Current Withstand Rating Standard 100,000 AIC".
That is basically some ignorant technical writing work, likely by a marketing person and not properly vetted by an engineer for the correct use of terminology. That should have said "Short Circuit Current Withstand Rating
100,000A". Period, no "IC".
A
IC stands for "Amps
Interrupting Capacity" and that terminology ONLY applies to things that directly interrupt the flow of fault current, i.e. circuit breakers and fuses. A PANEL cannot have an "AIC", because the PANEL is not interrupting anything. A PANEL however has a "SCCR" as explained earlier, which is NOT the same as the AIC of the protective devices inside. If the panel manufacturer submitted their panel to UL under whatever UL's rules are for attaining an SCCR for a fire pump controller,
and UL passed it for having an SCCR at 100kA (again, leave the "IC" out of this), then that is all that is necessary.
It does not always necessarily matter what the individual components used inside of the panel are listed at, so long as the
assembly as a whole passes. One of the ways a mfr can attain an SCCR is by using components already tested and listed, but
another way they can do it is to submit the entire assembly for testing as a unit. If they did that and it passed, there is no further need to question the listing value.