Cranberry Township, PA, June 4, 2020 – Westinghouse Electric Company and Guardhat today announced that they will deliver the first connected worker solution to the nuclear energy industry. Leveraging Westinghouse’s nuclear industry expertise and Guardhat’s technology, the WEConnect system will help utilities initiate or accelerate their digitalization strategies.
“Westinghouse and Guardhat are an impressive combination of industry expertise and technology,” said David Howell, president, Westinghouse Americas Operating Plant Services Business Unit. “Together we are capable of providing groundbreaking human-centric digital solutions for our customers when they need it most, throughout the entire life cycle of nuclear assets.”
Westinghouse will globally offer the WEConnect system, a mobile connected worker solution that can be utilized across an entire site or plant population. The WEConnect system provides utility customers with the ability to limit the amount of required personnel on-site, while giving those who are on-location real-time access to remote experts and resources for optimizing the performance of the onsite crews. Flexible packages can either build or leverage an existing digital ecosystem to offer enhanced features that help to improve workforce safety and optimize asset management strategies. The system can also be connected to other digital devices, enterprise applications and platforms, enabling efficient workforce and job management.
“We are pleased to join forces with Westinghouse to deliver ‘smart’ technology to the nuclear industry,” said Indranil RoyChoudhury, Guardhat’s executive vice president of Growth. “Our comprehensive safety monitoring and data analysis system offers enhanced features and benefits that can help plants improve safety while remaining cost-competitive.”
Westinghouse has piloted Guardhat’s connected worker technology at several utilities during their scheduled refueling outages.