Angers and Engie launch smart city project

Angers has selected the Engie group to carry out a smart city project of 178 million euros, which will at the same time be a laboratory for the French group, the two partners said Thursday, on the sidelines of the Mayors of France show.

Engie will be the leader of a group which will equip the city with new sensors and install a hypervisor, an IT tool bringing together the data flows of 9 different services (from sanitation to video protection via public lighting).

Engie will also install in Angers a "global center of expertise" for the smart city, representing an investment of 5 million euros.

An incubator will be launched jointly with Sigfox, the French network operator for connected objects.

The project is one of the main smart city project carried out in France, with that carried out in Dijon (105 million euros of investment).

It should allow "an improvement of the service to the population", and "operating savings" for the urban community of Angers, declared to AFP its president, Christophe Béchu.

Engie is committed "to 101 million euros in savings" accumulated over the amortization period of the project, with penalties to the key if they are not there, said Mr. Béchu.

The switch to LED street lighting, and the installation of presence sensors to adapt lighting to traffic must for example reduce the annual bill from "2,7 million euros to 1 million d 'euros for the 29 municipalities of the agglomeration ", according to Mr. Béchu.

video surveillance to punish unscrupulous people coming to deposit waste near authorized containers or near waste reception centers.

The cameras will be able to read the license plates of the vehicles, making it possible to draw up a ticket.

But overall, "we do not expect a technological leap" on video surveillance, "we will not be at the forefront of what technology allows," said Mr. Béchu.

"Our angle is ecological transition, not social control," he said.

Engie solutions, a specialized subsidiary of Engie (the former Gaz de France), is leading a group in this dossier in which La Poste and the mutual insurer VYV are also participating.

The contract signed by Angers is € 178 million excluding tax over twelve years, including a firm tranche of € 121 million excluding tax.