Ecowatt: The electricity weather forecast by RTE

Supported by RTE (in partnership with ADEME), Ecowatt is a citizen device that allows French people, businesses and communities to consume electricity at the best time.

In the image of a Electricity weather, Ecowatt assesses the level of consumption of the French. Obvious indicators guide the consumer towards the adoption of appropriate behaviors, thus guaranteeing an optimal power supply for all. SirEnergies comes back to this device.

What is the Ecowatt device?

When we all use electricity at the same time, especially in winter during weekdays during peak hours, the electrical system may not be able to meet all of our needs.

The Ecowatt device is an application implemented by RTE, the network manager, and ADEME, the ecological transition agency, which aims to help businesses, communities and individuals to consume their electricity better by alerting them when electricity consumption is too high, in order to promote “eco-gestures”, to rule out and To avoid power outages.

Source: Ecowatt

Why the implementation of the Ecowatt system?

The effective management of electricity supply in France is entrusted to RTE, which coordinates the mobilization of this resource throughout the country, and, if necessary, among our neighbours.

However, the French electrical system sometimes finds it difficult to meet our simultaneous electricity needs. This situation occurs frequently during winter cold spells or during periods of high consumption, mainly in the morning between 8 am and 1 pm, and in the evening between 6 and 8 pm.

Faced with these constraints, RTE issues an Ecowatt alert. If these measures are not sufficient to stabilize the network, power cuts may be considered by the manager. The load shedding is then implemented by electricity distributors, with Enedis covering 95% of continental metropolitan territory and local distribution companies (ELD) taking care of the remaining 5%.

These cuts can take various forms:

• Organized cuts: planned as a last resort, when all technical solutions have been exploited and electricity savings prove insufficient.
• Localized cuts: targeting geographical areas with an average of 2,000 customers (households and professionals) supplied by the same electrical line. This often concerns entire neighborhoods, or even several municipalities in rural areas.
• Temporary cuts: each outage lasts for two consecutive hours during peak periods, thus ensuring dynamic demand management.

Who is affected by organized power cuts?

Power cuts can affect all users connected to the public distribution network, as well as individuals That the undertakings Or the communities in France.

On the other hand, some installations, appearing on the list of priority users established and updated by the prefect of each department, are not affected by these cuts (hospitals, emergency services or industrial sites of particular interest for national defense).

How does the Ecowatt alert work?

Like a Electricity weather, Ecowatt qualifies the level of consumption of the French. Signals guide consumers to adopt the right actions of energy sobriety and ensure the good supply of electricity for all.

Three signals are emitted throughout the winter by Ecowatt:

🟢 Green signal : no alert, the level of electricity consumption is lower than the production available for the day.

🟠 Orange signal : the electrical system is tense. Actions to save electricity are welcome.

🔴 Red signal : the electrical system is very tense. Actions to save electricity are essential to avoid or reduce power cuts.

In the event of an orange or red signal, the objective is to adopt simple gestures to reduce our consumption between 8 am and 1 pm and between 6 pm and 8 pm.

Source: TF1

Ecowatt integrates a new notification aimed at encouraging the consumption of carbon-free electricity

Since Wednesday November 8, 2023, the Ecowatt device has been enriched with a new signal: green + carbon-free hours.

It is no longer a question of alerting the French to future tensions, but to The times of the day where France fully meets its electricity needs, with a 100% French and carbon-free production ” from our nuclear fleet or from our renewable energies ”, explains Xavier Piechaczyk, Chairman of the Management Board of RTE. ” 90% of our electricity production is carbon-free ”, he adds.

However, these 10% are still produced from gasses Or of coal, necessary to deal with certain tensions, not to mention imports from neighboring countries, which can also be carbon intensive.

In 2022, for example, French gas-fired power plants were called upon more than usual to compensate for the historic drop in nuclear and hydraulic production. ” This has led to a deterioration in the carbon balance of our electricity production, from 21.5 million tons of CO equivalent.₂ (MtCo₂eq) at 25 mTCO₂EQ ”, pointed out RTE in February 2023.

In summary, Xavier Piechaczyk believes that we can do better. In particular by planning our energy consumption more effectively. This is the main objective of this new Ecowatt signal, which encourages the French to give priority to these carbon-free production hours as much as possible to carry out their tasks, Recharge their electric cars, etc.

How do I download the Ecowatt application?

The Ecowatt application is available on Google Play and the App Store and allows you to receive directly on your smartphone, A notification If an orange or red signal is sent three days in advance.

Source: RTE

Finally, the web version is available on the site monecowatt.fr.

To go further, do not hesitate to consult our article to know The forecasts for the winter of 2023 — 2024 in electricity.