Le Mans Métropole Chooses Veolia for its Wastewater Treatment Plant Contract

Regulatory News:

Veolia (Paris:VIE), through its subsidiary CFSP, has been selected by Le Mans Métropole for the contract for its La Chauvinière wastewater treatment plant.

Worth a total of approximately €60 million, or €16.38 million for the construction of the new facilities by OTV-Veolia and €43.5 million for nine years’ operation, this contract reflects the aim to build a truly circular economy around wastewater with the installation of an anaerobic digester and the introduction of various innovative processes.

Under the lead of CFSP, Veolia’s local subsidiary, this new contract for the operation of the La Chauvinière wastewater treatment plant will result in OTV-Veolia establishing a multi-disciplinary team to design and build the new structures, including local architects Pièces Montées, and the engineering firm and assistant to the Program Manager Naldeo. A responsible consortium established to serve a project that will be environmentally, technically and economically efficient.

With Veolia, Le Mans Métropole is making a firm commitment to the circular economy and to transforming waste into a resource, conserving raw materials and helping combat climate change.

Work on the anaerobic digester will begin in 2018 for commissioning scheduled at the end of 2020. It will allow the La Chauvinière plant to produce energy in the form of biomethane from wastewater. The amount of gas the plant will inject into the local reticulated network will the equivalent to the gas consumed by one of the city’s buses.

Already in 2018, Veolia will introduce innovations to help make the La Chauvinière plant a virtuous model committed to minimizing the energy consumed by the plant and its facilities, while also developing new technology. For example, the Alcion process converts CO₂ from the purification of biogas into sodium bicarbonate that can be used by the neighboring household waste energy recovery facility. This is a first at such a scale for this type of plant. Similarly, the removal of phosphorus – in demand from agriculture – will also be the subject of a specific R&D phase at the plant.

With cutting-edge digital tools, the La Chauvinière wastewater treatment plant will be entirely managed by an integrated "Hypervision 360” control center that will use all service data and information to continuously optimize operation and production. The municipal services of Le Mans Métropole will also have direct access to this data and will be able to track the KPIs transparently and in real time.

Involved for many years in the development of the Le Mans region, Veolia’s subsidiary CFSP expects to hire 16 apprentices locally to join the water treatment plant’s team. An integration clause will be systematically included in all sub-contractor contracts and 85% of these will be signed with companies in the surrounding area.

The plant will also be a key factor in advancing the population’s ecological awareness through a new interactive educational visit. Finally, the La Sarthe river flowing past the plant will be the focus of another project to demonstrate how industry and nature can co-exist harmoniously.

"Working alongside Le Mans, we will make the La Chauvinière plant a real reference in the water treatment sector,” says Frédéric Van Heems, Chief Executive Officer of Water for Veolia in France. "This plant illustrates what tomorrow’s plants will be like, that is, firmly committed to the circular economy, benefiting from excellent service in the forefront of innovation, and delivering remarkable performance.”

Veolia group is the global leader in optimized resource management. With over 163,000 employees worldwide, the Group designs and provides water, waste and energy management solutions that contribute to the sustainable development of communities and industries. Through its three complementary business activities, Veolia helps to develop access to resources, preserve available resources, and to replenish them. In 2016, the Veolia group supplied 100 million people with drinking water and 61 million people with wastewater service, produced 54 million megawatt hours of energy and converted 30 million metric tons of waste into new materials and energy. Veolia Environnement (listed on Paris Euronext: VIE) recorded consolidated revenue of €24.39 billion in 2016. www.veolia.com

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