From December 3 to 5, 2025, Estelle Brachlianoff, CEO of Veolia Group, participated in a series of events in China as a representative of the French business delegation accompanying French President Emmanuel Macron's visit.
On December 4, Brachlianoff attended the Sino-French Corporate Innovation and Internationalization Cross-Perspective Innovation Summit and the 11th FCC Innovation Awards Ceremony, where she joined a roundtable discussion, exchanging insights with multiple stakeholders on corporate innovation and internationalization.
At the event, Veolia's AHEAD system received the FCC Innovation Award, presented by Roland Lescure, France's Minister for the Economy, Finance, Industry, Energy, and Digital Sovereignty. As a result of joint Sino-French R&D innovation, the project highlights Veolia's leading capabilities in smart, low-carbon heating.
Facing severe winter heating challenges in Heilongjiang Province due to extreme cold, Veolia's AHEAD (Advanced Heating Distribution) system integrates artificial intelligence and IoT technologies, treating building thermal mass as a "virtual energy storage battery." Using predictive optimization algorithms, the system intelligently adjusts district heating dispatch over the next 24 hours by analyzing weather conditions, indoor temperature requirements, and building thermal storage capacity, enabling automatic optimization of secondary network temperature (TT21) control to improve energy efficiency and comfort.
After two generations of development and pilot testing across more than 150 units, the AHEAD system was officially deployed in Harbin's heating project in October 2025. Leveraging data from hundreds of thousands of indoor temperature sensors and the group's advanced algorithm models, the system delivers smart, green heating services to approximately 700,000 residents across 40 million square meters of heated area in Harbin. Each heating season, it is expected to save around 2% in energy and reduce CO₂ emissions by approximately 60,000 tons annually.
The AHEAD project team comprises members from Veolia's headquarters in France, the China T&P department, and the Harbin project. This award reflects the success of a deep collaboration. Moving forward, Veolia will continue to strengthen local innovation and digital applications, promote the replication and expansion of the "smart warm winter" model, enhance urban energy efficiency, and support sustainable development.