Five years ago, nuclear power was on the road to extinction – plants were closing every year.  Many hoped that solar, wind and other renewable sources would be sufficient to power a net-zero future. But we were mistaken.

Today, with AI data centers devouring huge amounts of energy while the impact of climate change is more evident than ever, existing nuclear plants represent a carbon-free and reliable form of energy that we cannot ignore.  Last year, the United Nations COP 28 report formally recognized the key role that nuclear energy plays in the fight against climate change. Rather than shutting down old nuclear plants, we must now make them more safe, efficient and cost effective to last for decades in the future.

It is within this context that the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) created the first ever Innovation Award to improve existing nuclear plants.  39 candidates from 9 countries competed for four awards. On September 17th, the IAEA declared Cypress Envirosystems and Southern Company a winner. Hank Strahley, Operations Support Supervisor from Southern Company, and Harry Sim, CEO of Cypress Envirosystems, received the award at the UN Headquarters in Vienna. The IAEA recognized the proven benefits resulting from the deployment of 300 Wireless Gauge Readers at Plant Hatch, leveraging IoT, Machine Vision and AI technologies.

At Cypress, we are honored for the opportunity to support the global nuclear industry, and we are especially fortunate to work with an innovative and forward-looking utility like Southern.

See the award winning submission here.

Learn more about the IAEA General Session in Vienna here:
Summary of United Nations 68th IAEA General Session
IAEA Innovation to Support Operating Plants (ISOP) working group

This week, we held the 3^rd Cypress Nuclear Industry Users Group Meeting, hosted by Xcel Energy at their headquarters in Minneapolis.  The meeting’s objective is to share cases studies, return on investment and best practices for using non-invasive digitization technologies to modernize nuclear plants.  Participants included representatives from Operations, Engineering, I.T. and Innovation from both new and existing Cypress users: Xcel Energy, Southern Company, Constellation Energy, Duke Energy, NextEra, PSEG, South Texas, Nebraska Public Service, Bruce Power, OPG and EPRI.    The group also visited the impressive new Xcel Energy Innovation Center in Minneapolis.

The next Users Group meeting is scheduled in March 2024.  If you would like to attend, please contact harry.sim@CypressEnvirosystems.com.  You must be a professional working in the nuclear industry to attend.  There is no fee for participation.

The Southern Company is the second largest utility in the US in terms of customer base.  The annual Technical Conference  brings together over 1,400 Southern Company and external attendees to share and discuss technical information related to best practices, experiences around equipment and processes, fleet initiatives & standards and other system/technology topics of interest.

Cypress is invited to speak and share our case study at the Southern' Farley nuclear generation plant.  Our patented Wireless Gauge Reader solution helps to digitize the 40 year old plant with a minimum of cost and disruption, while complying with stringent cyber security and nuclear safety requirements.  The best practices at plant Farley will be shared with the broader Southern fleet of nuclear, fossil, and renewable generation assets.

In 1883, Warren Johnson invented the first pneumatic thermostat.  It used compressed air to automatically regulate the heating in large buildings. It is astonishing to think that this technology was deployed before electricity was even available in cities.

Today, 130 years later, the company founded by Johnson – Johnson Controls – is a world leader in building controls with $24 billion in annual revenue.  Incredibly, there are still tens of millions of pneumatic thermostats still working in existing buildings.  However, compared to modern digital programmable and communicating thermostats, these legacy units are incapable of executing basic energy savings strategies, and cannot report occupant discomfort or mechanical faults.  Retrofitting these thermostats to modern “DDC” thermostats is labor intensive and disruptive to occupants, and is very costly.

With the introduction of the WTL, this retrofit can be completed in only 10 minutes, at a fraction of the cost, with virtually no occupant disruption.  Using the WTL, “no building will be left behind” - even older buildings can be easily upgraded to save energy and improve occupant comfort. 

For more than 60 years, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has been at the forefront of the exploration of our solar system - sending probes to Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Europa, Titan, and deploying robotic rovers and helicopters on Mars. The twin Voyager spacecraft have even ventured beyond our solar system, to be the first interstellar travelers from Earth.

In 1989, JPL established the Microdevices Laboratory to develop cutting edge semiconductors and sensors specially suited to the extreme demands of space exploration.  The lab's inventions help make possible the planetary missions that JPL is famous for. 

This month, the Microdevices Laboratory asked Cypress Envirosystems to help modernize their existing facility.  Using our Wireless Gauge Reader family of products, we digitized many critical facility systems at MDL to reduce labor and enable fault detection and condition based maintenance: process gases, cooling loops, air compressors, chillers etc.

Thanks to the non-invasive nature of Cypress' technology, we performed the upgrade at a fraction of the cost and time required for conventional upgrades.  There was no disruption to the lab's operations - no downtime, no running wires, no cutting pipes, no leak checks, no lengthy engineering design and review.   The whole upgrade was completed in three days.

Steve Putnam, Innovation Manager at Duke Energy Nuclear, is presenting this week at the American Nuclear Society conference in Marco Island FL.

Duke Energy has deployed the Cypress IoT  Wireless Gauge Reader (WGR) to all six of their nuclear power plants, and is sharing the significant operational experience they have gained over the past three years. View presentation here:

Background on Wireless Gauge Reader:
The WGR is an non-invasive clamp-on optical device which allows plants to digitize existing mechanical gauges and indicators in minutes with virtually no operational disruption.   It costs a fraction of conventional sensor technology, and helps to reduce operator rounds, improve trending and fault detection, reduce radiation exposure to workers, and gathering data for rapid troubleshooting. The data collected by the WGR's can be seamlessly exported to OSI PI and other plant applications.

San Diego is known as the “birthplace of California” where the first Europeans visited and settled on the West Coast of the North American continent almost five hundred years ago. Today, the city of San Diego is the second largest city in California after Los Angeles.

This week, Cypress Envirosystems completed an IoT thermostat upgrade for two buildings at the San Diego City Hall and Civic Center at the direction of the San Diego Sustainability Team. The project is funded by the California Energy Commission, with a goal to improve energy efficiency of the 56 year-old buildings. The unique Wireless Pneumatic Thermostat from Cypress Envirosystems was selected as the only technology which can achieve the upgrade without significant disruption and cost to city operations.

Harry Sim, CEO of Cypress Envirosystems

To me, the intersection of the Chicago River and the Magnificent Mile (otherwise known as N. Michigan Ave) is the defining iconic image of Chicago. The beautiful Riverwalk, the historic bridges, and above all the stunning architecture - spanning over a century of skyscraper design - never fails to make me stop and gawk in awe even if I have been there countless times.   I certainly hope that the majestic structures will continue to endure for many future generations to enjoy.

But to do that, the buildings must be modernized to be more functional, comfortable, and energy efficient. That is why we at Cypress Envirosystems are proud to help Zeller Realty, the building manager, upgrade the HVAC controls at 401 N. Michigan Ave. with wireless IoT thermostats. The 35-story tower built in 1965 hosts historic Pioneer Court and the new flagship Apple Store sitting right on the riverfront.

Once the controls renovation is completed next month to reduce energy consumption, Peoples Gas is expected to award one of the largest rebates ever granted to a commercial building.

The Lincoln Center in New York City is arguably the most famous and prestigious performing arts center in the United States. It is home to iconic companies including the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic, and the New York City Ballet. The world-renowned Juilliard School is also a key part of the Lincoln Center, training generations of top artists in dance, music, and drama.

This month, Cypress Envirosystems is helping the Juilliard School modernize its HVAC controls to improve comfort and to reduce energy use. Although the Juilliard building was state-of-the-art when it was constructed in the 1960’s, it lags in automation, sensing and controls technology which we now take for granted in modern buildings. We are proud that our Wireless Pneumatic Thermostat can help improve the operations of this priceless institution.

Exelon’s massive Calvert Cliffs Nuclear plant was built in the 1970’s.   It is hard to remember, but that was a time before the internet and cell phones, and even before digital sensors.  It is a marvel of engineering so much was accomplished using mechanical, analog, and pneumatic technology to deliver reliable and safe power over so many years.  But such a plant requires intensive manual labor to operate.  It is prohibitively disruptive and costly to upgrade to modern digital technology. 

In 2017, Exelon partnered with Cypress Envirosystems to deploy non-invasive IoT sensors to “digitalize” the plant – they can be installed in minutes at a fraction of the cost of conventional technologies.  Once installed, plant systems can be remotely monitored to enable “Condition Based Maintenance”.

Tim Baugher and Bill Ansley from Exelon documented how the Cypress IoT sensors enabled early detection of faults in the plant’s feedwater control system.  This allowed preventive maintenance work to correct the problem in a timely manner and avoid costly last-minute repairs or unplanned downtime.

Read Bill Ansley’s case study here:

https://www.cypressenvirosystems.com/files/pdf/Exelon%20Case%20Study%20-%20Calvert%20Cliffs%20AOV%20Fault%20Detection%20using%20WGR.pdf