EcoWatt: electricity weather now has its application

In the midst of the energy crisis, the government is multiplying its strategies to give itself the maximum chance of getting through the winter without massive power cuts. Several measures have been taken in this direction, between load shedding measures and sobriety efforts, but the government is counting a lot on citizen eco-gestures to improve the situation. Turning off your internet box at night, limiting your showers to 5 minutes, covering the pot when boiling water, setting your thermostat to 19°C and wearing a turtleneck sweater are some of the gestures who have been entitled to some media coverage in recent weeks.

And to involve as many French people as possible in these daily efforts, the government has promoted the EcoWatt platform, which is none other than the weather or the smart Bison of energy. The website presenting this device, created almost two years ago by Ademe and RTE, has been reviewed and corrected, while a brand new application was put online this week on Android and iOS. The idea is simple: to give everyone access to a simple tool allowing them to know the situation on the electricity network, to better encourage sobriety efforts and – therefore – energy savings when the situation becomes tense.

“As winter approaches, the arrival of the EcoWatt application on mobile allows those who wish to be informed in real time about the balance of the electrical system and to realize, if they can, simple gestures to reduce consumption and avoid power outages on tense days”explains the manager of the electricity network.

Two alert thresholds

The EcoWatt “alerts” are also one of the most useful and ambitious functions. If, to date, 300,000 people are already registered, the arrival of EcoWatt on our smartphones will perhaps invite many more fellow citizens to activate them. This is the bet made by the government, which hopes that in the event of strong tension on the network, everyone can be quickly informed so that – at their level – adopt behaviors conducive to energy savings. As Emmanuel Macron had indicated at the start of the school year, several levels of alert are provided for by the system to avoid the blackoutgoing as far as shutting down industries that consume a lot of energy.

Two alert levels are provided: Orange, “the electrical system is tight, eco-gestures are welcome” and Red, “the electrical system is very strained, cuts inevitable if we do not lower our consumption“. The advantage is that if EcoWatt allows near real-time monitoring of the situation, prediction is at the heart of the system and forecasts (like those of the weather) must guide users. Thus, they can be warned up to three days before periods of tension, with a second alert when consumption peaks approach.The notifications of the application are, of course, configurable.

Civic sobriety bears fruit

Appealing to citizens’ efforts seems much more effective than one might imagine, and we can see that repeated calls for energy sobriety are bearing fruit. Indeed, last week, excluding weather or calendar effects, French electricity consumption was 6.2% lower at the same period between 2014 and 2019 on average. Nobody can, moreover, really escape EcoWatt since most of the major media, on television or on the Internet, have planned to play the game by broadcasting this electricity weather report. This will be the case during the TF1 weather spot as well as with our colleagues from Worldwhich just launched a real-time power consumption dashboard, among other things.

While gas and electricity prices are soaring on the markets, France is entering this tense period with only half of its nuclear production capacities available, the fault of maintenance and safety operations on many reactors . So much so that between October 17 and 23, 30.1 GW of electricity was delivered by the French nuclear fleet, out of a total capacity of around 61.4 GW, four of our 18 power plants being completely at the stop. A situation which obliges us to import massively from the networks of our neighbors and to burn more gas, which is problematic from an ecological point of view. Recent negotiations have put an end to a strike movement in certain French nuclear power plants which, according to RTE, could have greatly complicated a situation which should remain manageable in the event of a normal to mild winter.

The newly launched EcoGaz platform

Note that if EcoWatt focuses on electricity, Ademe and GRTgaz, the leading gas transmission network in France, have just presented the EcoGaz system. For the time being, no application is planned, but the platform is ready to report periods of tension on the gas supply in France. Always with the same idea: to promote eco-gestures and encourage the French to adapt their consumption. Here too, it is already possible to subscribe to alerts.