Finistère wants to make its rural areas smart

The département of Finistère is to roll out a smart city scheme across its entire territory. The contract has been awarded to Eiffage Énergie Systèmes. It involves deploying an intelligent network across the 269 communes that make up the Syndicat Départemental d’Énergie et d’Équipement du Finistère (SDEF), the client for the project.

A first at départemental scale

Today, smart city projects in France are confined to neighbourhoods, towns or metropolitan areas. This project moves up a scale, as it is conceived for the whole Breton département, excluding the Brest metropolitan area.

While Finistère is the first département to take on this challenge, it is worth noting that its rollout of fibre-optic broadband (FTTH) is far from exemplary (see the coverage of Finistère on the Arcep website).

What does the Finistère smart city project actually involve?

The scheme was trialled in the communauté de communes du pays d’Iroise, on the island of Ouessant. It is now being extended to all the communes of the département of Finistère.

This smart city project covers the management of public lighting networks, the monitoring of energy consumption in public buildings, the monitoring of meters to detect leaks, real-time management of parking spaces, air quality measurement and waste collection management.

In addition to these technical services, the project sets up a platform allowing residents to report information to the public authorities.

A project led by Eiffage

Having won the “Territoire intelligent et connecté” contract, Eiffage Énergie Systèmes has teamed up with the search engine Qwant, Sensing Vision and Dolmen. The network dedicated to the internet of things has been signed under a four-year contract.