RTE éCO2mix & EcoWatt smart home integration, free and open source
French grid in real time: CO₂ per kWh, electricity mix and RTE EcoWatt alerts.
Published by guim31
- Devices
- Version 1.0.2
- Requires Gladys >=5.1.0
- ★ 0
Follow the French power grid in Gladys, as RTE publishes it in open data: how much CO₂ each kilowatt-hour produced right now emits, where the electricity comes from (nuclear, wind, solar, dams, gas…), and the EcoWatt signal, the "electricity weather" that warns when the grid is tight and consumption should go down.
Enough to start the dishwasher, the water heater or the car charge when electricity is cleanest, and to be told the day before an orange or red day.
Developed without access to the RTE APIs: feedback welcome. This integration was built and tested on the formats RTE documents (éCO2mix on ODRÉ, EcoWatt API v5), without an EcoWatt account or a real call. If something does not work as described, say so on the Gladys forum or in the issues.
Independent integration, not affiliated with RTE. The data remain RTE's.
Overview
The integration reads two RTE sources:
- éCO2mix (open data, no account, no key): the production mix of mainland France every quarter-hour, the national consumption and the CO₂ intensity in grams per kilowatt-hour.
- EcoWatt (free key to create, optional): the signal of today and the next three days, hour by hour. Green: no tension. Orange: tight grid, saving energy helps. Red: very tight grid, power cuts are possible if consumption does not go down.
It adds two devices, a dashboard widget and an "EcoWatt alert announced" scene trigger.
EcoWatt is already in Gladys
Gladys already shows EcoWatt, without this integration or an RTE key: the Ecowatt (France) dashboard widget (the hour-by-hour signal of today and the next days) and the Condition on Ecowatt (France) scene condition ("Continue scene if the network is" ok, warning or critical, for the hour the scene runs). Gladys gets these data through its own servers (the Gladys Plus ones), with no subscription and no account to create. Gladys has no EcoWatt device and no EcoWatt trigger.
- To see EcoWatt on the dashboard, the Gladys widget is enough: no need to fill in a key here.
- The EcoWatt part of this integration is for those who want EcoWatt in their scenes: a device (today, tomorrow, current hour) with its history and the native "A device changes state" trigger, and the EcoWatt alert announced trigger, which starts a scene as soon as an orange or red day is announced. It reads RTE directly with your own key, without going through the Gladys servers.
- éCO2mix (CO₂ intensity, production mix, national consumption) only exists in this integration.
Requirements
- Gladys Assistant 5.1.0 or later.
- Internet access from Gladys (the data come from RTE's servers).
- For EcoWatt only: a free account on data.rte-france.com and an
application subscribed to the Ecowatt API:
- Create your account on data.rte-france.com and sign in.
- In the API catalog, open Ecowatt (version 5), then Subscribe to the API: the portal offers to create an application, give it a name (for example "Gladys").
- In My applications, open that application: it shows a client ID and a secret ID. Those are the two values to copy into Gladys.
Without a key, the integration works with éCO2mix alone.
Configuration
- Install the integration from the Gladys catalog (or Integrations → Install from GitHub with the address of this repository).
- In Configuration, paste the EcoWatt client ID and the EcoWatt client secret if you want EcoWatt. The secret stays in Gladys and never appears in the logs.
- Choose the Language of the feature names (French by default). Names are given when a device is added and do not change afterwards.
- Save, then open the Discovery tab: add French power grid and, with a key, EcoWatt.
"Test the connection to RTE" button
Reads éCO2mix at once and shows the CO₂ intensity of the last quarter-hour published. With a key, also checks that RTE accepts it and gives the EcoWatt signal of the day. RTE allows only one call to the EcoWatt signals every quarter-hour: if the last one is too recent, the button checks the key alone and says in how many minutes the signals will be read again.
The devices
French power grid
Updated every quarter-hour, at the pace of RTE's data:
| Feature | What it measures |
|---|---|
| CO₂ intensity | Grams of CO₂ per kilowatt-hour produced in France (g CO₂eq/kWh) |
| National consumption | The consumption of mainland France, in kW (Gladys has no GW unit) |
| Low-carbon share | Nuclear and renewables, in % of the production |
| Renewable share | Hydro, wind, solar and bioenergy, in % of the production |
| Nuclear share, wind share… | The share of each source in the production, in whole % |
| Imports (+) / exports (−) | What the neighbours supply (+) or take (−), in % of the consumption |
In France, the CO₂ intensity mostly stays between 15 and 80 g/kWh; it rises when gas or coal plants run, usually on winter evenings. Gladys colors the badge: green under 150, orange up to 400, red above.
EcoWatt
With a key, three features give the EcoWatt signal as RTE numbers it:
| Feature | Values |
|---|---|
| EcoWatt today | 1 green, 2 orange, 3 red |
| EcoWatt tomorrow | 1 green, 2 orange, 3 red |
| EcoWatt this hour | 0 carbon-free production, 1 green, 2 orange, 3 red |
Gladys shows them as a risk level: 0 "No risk", 1 "Low", 2 "Medium", 3 "High". A green day thus shows as a yellow "Low" badge: that is Gladys' color for a low risk, not an alert. The current hour changes on every full hour.
Widget
The French power grid widget goes on the dashboard. It shows:
- the CO₂ intensity, the national consumption in GW and the low-carbon share;
- with a key, the EcoWatt signal of today and tomorrow, in green, orange or red;
- the 24-hour CO₂ curve as bars, once the device is added (Gladys keeps the history);
- the production mix as bars, source by source, with the imports or exports;
- the time of the quarter-hour shown.
Scene trigger
EcoWatt alert announced (in the Integrations category of the scene editor): RTE announces an orange or red day, today or in the next three days. The trigger fires once per announcement: when a day turns orange, then again if it turns red, never on every reading, even after a restart.
Filters (left empty, everything matches): the Signal (orange, red) and the Day concerned (today, tomorrow, in two or three days).
Information passed on to the scene actions: the signal (orange or red), the EcoWatt level
(2 or 3), the date of the day concerned, in how many days, and RTE's message.
To react to the CO₂ intensity, no dedicated trigger is needed: the native Gladys trigger "A device changes state" already compares the CO₂ intensity feature with a threshold.
Scene examples
- Low CO₂ → start the dishwasher or the charge. Trigger: "A device changes state", CO₂ intensity under 40 g/kWh. Condition: between 10:00 and 16:00 (or in your off-peak hours). Action: turn on the plug of the dishwasher loaded in the morning, or the charging station.
- Red day tomorrow → tell the household. Trigger: EcoWatt alert announced, red signal, day concerned tomorrow. Action: send a message "Red EcoWatt day tomorrow: no oven or washing machine from 8:00 to 13:00 and from 18:00 to 20:00".
- Orange or red hour → delay the car charge. Trigger: "A device changes state", EcoWatt this hour greater than or equal to 2. Action: turn the charging plug off. A second scene turns it back on when the value goes under 2.
Reading pace and quotas
- éCO2mix is read every quarter-hour, only when the device is added or the widget is shown: 96 calls a day at most, no key. RTE publishes each quarter-hour about an hour late: the figures shown are often an hour old.
- EcoWatt is read every 30 minutes. RTE allows only one call to the signals every 15 minutes
per application: the integration never calls more often, remembers it after a restart (in
/data) and waits as long as RTE asks when it answers "too many requests". - Only the changes are sent to Gladys, and every value is sent again at least every 6 hours to stay dated.
The use of the data follows RTE's terms: ODRÉ's open licence for éCO2mix, the terms of use of the data.rte-france.com portal for EcoWatt.
Troubleshooting
- "EcoWatt refuses the client id and secret" in the configuration screen: copy both values again from My applications on data.rte-france.com, without spaces, and check that the application is subscribed to the Ecowatt API.
- "éCO2mix (RTE) does not answer": RTE's service is down or Gladys has no internet access. The integration tries again by itself every quarter-hour.
- No value on the power grid: a value more than three hours old is not sent (better no value than a wrong one). Use the Test the connection to RTE button.
- More details: the integration logs (Supervision tab) only show the useful events. To see
everything, set the variable
LOG_LEVEL=debug.
Limits
- Mainland France only (without Corsica or the overseas territories), like éCO2mix.
- The shares by source are whole percentages; the widget shows a decimal under 10 %.
- The consumption is in kW on the device: Gladys has no MW or GW unit. The widget shows GW.
- Oil (under 1 % of the production) has no feature of its own; it appears in the widget above 0.5 %.
- The RTE message passed on to scenes is in French, as RTE publishes it.
- EcoWatt gives no CO₂ forecast: there is no forecast of the CO₂ intensity in this integration.
Configuration settings
These are the settings RTE éCO2mix & EcoWatt asks for in its configuration screen in Gladys.
| Setting | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open data from RTE | section | No | The electricity mix and the CO₂ of the French grid (éCO2mix) need nothing: they are read every 15 minutes. The EcoWatt signal needs a free key from the RTE data portal. Not affiliated with RTE. |
| EcoWatt client ID | string | No | Optional. On data.rte-france.com: My applications, then the application subscribed to the EcoWatt API. |
| EcoWatt client secret | secret | No | Optional, given with the client ID. Stays in Gladys, never written in the logs. |
| Language of the feature names | select | No | Names given to the features when a device is added, and texts of the configuration screen. |
How to install RTE éCO2mix & EcoWatt in Gladys
- In Gladys, open Integrations: RTE éCO2mix & EcoWatt appears in the catalog, next to the native integrations, with a community badge.
- Click Install. Gladys pulls the Docker image (
ghcr.io/guim31/gladys-rte:1.0.2), starts it in a sandbox isolated from the core, and generates the integration's interface (devices, discovery and configuration). - Open the Configuration screen of the integration, fill in the settings, and save.
- You can also install it directly from its repository URL: https://github.com/guim31/gladys-rte.
RTE éCO2mix & EcoWatt requires Gladys >=5.1.0. The catalog inside Gladys refreshes every hour, so a new version becomes available at most one hour after its release.
Not running Gladys yet? It is free and open source: follow the installation guide to get started.
About external integrations
RTE éCO2mix & EcoWatt is an external integration: a community integration packaged as a Docker container and published on GitHub, that Gladys installs in one click and runs in a sandbox isolated from its core. It is published and maintained by guim31, not by the Gladys core team.
- Browse all integrations, native and community
- Build and publish your own external integration
- Source code on GitHub — source of this documentation