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Yang Leiming from Towngas: “AI + Smart Energy: The Digital Transformation of a Century-Old Enterprise”

The wave of digitalization is reshaping industries worldwide, and the gas sector—a critical infrastructure tied to national economies and social stability—is at a key turning point. The era of “AI + Smart Energy” is accelerating.

Mr. Yang
At the recently held 2025 Global Business Innovation Conference (GBIC·2025) in Shenzhen, Mr. Yang Leiming, Executive Director and CFO of The Hong Kong and China Gas Company Limited (Towngas), delivered a keynote titled “AI + Smart Energy: The Digital Transformation of a Century-Old Enterprise”.

Towngas: A Journey of Digital Transformation​

Founded in 1862, Towngas (HK. 00003) is Hong Kong’s first public utility and one of the world’s largest energy suppliers, with over 160 years of history. It now operates more than 1,000 projects across 29 provinces in mainland China, serving 44 million customers.
Mr. Yang highlighted: “We’ve partnered with Yonyou for 14 years. We were their ‘guinea pig’ for new products—and we were happy to be.”

14 years ago, Towngas adopted Yonyou’s then-new NC6 system (predecessor to BIP 5), co-creating and scaling it across joint ventures in cities like Foshan, Nanjing, Wuhan, and Xi’an. The system served over 40,000 users with a response time of 1.2 seconds. In May 2025, Towngas upgraded to Yonyou BIP 5, committing to another decade of collaboration.

Mr. Yang-2

The “Three Brothers” of Digital Intelligence​

Towngas focuses on two goals: ① Improving efficiency and increasing profitability through traditional methods; ② Enabling AI-powered servitization and integrated management

Their digital strategy is led by three core teams:

  • “Big Brother”: AI Enablement Group (co-built with Yonyou)
  • “Second Brother”: Innovation Enablement Center
  • “Third Brother”: Innovation Application Center

AI in Action: Quality, Efficiency, Cost Reduction​

Towngas uses AI to reduce three types of costs: human resources, management, and waste.
Organizational learnings from Huawei inspired the creation of a Center of Excellence (COE) and eight “corps” covering infrastructure, cybersecurity, advanced technology, shared services, procurement, budgeting, treasury, and HR—all driving AI transformation.
IT strategy encourages front-office system development per business unit, supported by a unified backend database via Yonyou BIP 5. This integrates finance, HR, procurement, and supply chain, promotes digital employees, and aims to build an AI analytics platform.
Driving Innovation Culture​: ​
  • An Innovation Enablement Center allows employees to propose projects with funding support and internal awards.
  • The TERA-Award Smart Energy Innovation Competition (with a $1 million prize) has been held for three years.
  • A dedicated R&D institute focuses on new energy technologies accelerated by AI.

​Looking Ahead

After more than a decade of collaboration through the TMS system and group-wide digital transformation, Towngas and Yonyou are continuing their partnership. Together, they are advancing AI adoption and moving toward a new decade of co-creation, shared development, and mutual success.

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