California Power Flex Alert (CAISO)

James_Huang · July 12, 2021, 6:28pm

We Californians get Flex Alerts quite often during the summer. I’ve created some basic sensors to gather that information and present it in Home Assistant. Please note that the automation only presents the NEWEST alert or cancellation.

This code goes out and grabs the RSS feed provided by CAISO that has the latest flex alerts.

sensor:

  - platform: rest
    resource: http://content.caiso.com/awe/noticeflexRSS.xml
    scan_interval: 300 #5 minutes
    name: Flex_Alert_Newest
    value_template: "OK" #'{{ value_json["rss"]["channel"]["item"][0] |truncate(210,True) }}' #255 character max?
    json_attributes_path: "$.rss.channel.item.[0]"
    json_attributes:
      - title
      - link
      - description

This code provides the times that the latest flex alert applies to.

  - platform: template
    sensors:
       flex_alert_cancellation_datetime:
        friendly_name: Flex Alert Cancellation Datetime
        value_template: >
          {% if state_attr('sensor.flex_alert_newest', 'title').split(" ")[0] == "CANCEL" %}
          {{ strptime( (state_attr('sensor.flex_alert_newest', 'description').split(' ')[4] + ' ' + state_attr('sensor.flex_alert_newest', 'description').split(' ')[6] + ' ' + state_attr('sensor.flex_alert_newest', 'description').split(' ')[7]), '%d-%b-%Y %I:%M %p') }}
          {% endif %}
        unit_of_measurement: "timestamp"
       flex_alert_starttime:
        friendly_name: Flex Alert Start Time
        value_template: >
          {% if state_attr('sensor.flex_alert_newest', 'title').split(" ")[0] == "NOTICE" %}
          {{ strptime( (state_attr('sensor.flex_alert_newest', 'description').split(' ')[1] + ' ' + state_attr('sensor.flex_alert_newest', 'description').split(' ')[3] + ' ' + state_attr('sensor.flex_alert_newest', 'description').split(' ')[4]), '%d-%b-%Y %I:%M %p') }}
          {% endif %}
        unit_of_measurement: "timestamp"
       flex_alert_endtime:
        friendly_name: Flex Alert End Time
        value_template: >
          {% if state_attr('sensor.flex_alert_newest', 'title').split(" ")[0] == "NOTICE" %}
          {{ strptime( (state_attr('sensor.flex_alert_newest', 'description').split(' ')[6] + ' ' + state_attr('sensor.flex_alert_newest', 'description').split(' ')[8] + ' ' + state_attr('sensor.flex_alert_newest', 'description').split(' ')[9]), '%d-%b-%Y %I:%M %p') }}
          {% endif %}
        unit_of_measurement: "timestamp"

This is a basic notification utilizing the raw flex alert data.

- alias: Monitoring - Flex Alert
  trigger:
    platform: state
    entity_id: sensor.flex_alert_newest
  action:
    - service: notify.peopletonotify
      data_template:
        title: "{{ state_attr('sensor.flex_alert_newest', 'title') }}"
        message: "{{ state_attr('sensor.flex_alert_newest', 'description') }}"

donaldcjackson · July 22, 2021, 4:30pm

Thank you for developing and sharing this code!

I am attempting to integrate it into my HA system…

I do not seem to be getting correct start/end timestamps, and the value for the Flex_Alert_Newest seems wrong, see:

Any ideas or suggestions about things I should do/try to fix this?

dproffer · July 22, 2021, 5:33pm

You might double check the YAML/Jinja lines for the rest sensor and make sure your editor did not modify it in some way. The YAML/Jinja code in this section does seem to confuse my syntax checker in Sublime Text but does not modify. Other editors might try to be ‘helpful’ .

The sensor values for my setup, as shown in the ‘Developer Tools’ section of Home Assistant are shown below:

donaldcjackson · July 22, 2021, 6:58pm

Thank you for this info/clarification.
AFAICT everything is working OK on my system, I changed one line of your code, which explains the difference I was seeing. If I were to change it back, I would get exactly the same thing you showed above, this is very helpful.
Thank you again!

P.S. It would “sure be nice” if CAISO also published FlexAlerts in a more structured machine-to-machine format, e.g. JSON…

esev · September 8, 2022, 5:15am

I ended up spending some time yesterday evening getting binary_sensors for the Flex/EEA1/EEA2/EEA3 alerts. In case someone else finds this useful, here is the AppDaemon app.

Screenshot 2022-09-07 4.22.56 PM

gist.github.com

https://gist.github.com/esev/6bed9bb1cbd1d7837e19c4b72901c9a9

caiso.py

# Copyright 2022 Eric Severance.
#
# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
# You may obtain a copy of the License at
#
#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
#
# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,

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noticeRSS.xml

<rss version="0.91">
 <channel>
   <title>CAISO Alerts, Warnings, and Emergency (AWE) Notices</title>
    <link>http://www.caiso.com/awe/systemstatus.html</link>
    <description>Active AWE Notices</description>
    <language>en-us</language>
<item>\n<title>NOTICE 202202657: CAISO Grid Restricted Maintenance Operations
</title>\n<link>http://www.caiso.com/awe/noticelog.html#202202657</link>\n<description>Effective: 07-Sep-2022 12:00 PM Terminates: 07-Sep-2022 10:00 PM</description>\n</item>\n<item>\n<title>NOTICE 202202694: CAISO EEA Wat NOTICE
</title>\n<link>http://www.caiso.com/awe/noticelog.html#202202694</link>\n<description>Effective: 07-Sep-2022  4:00 PM Terminates: 07-Sep-2022  9:00 PM</description>\n</item>\n<item>\n<title>
NOTICE 202202695: Flex Alert STATEWIDE 09/07/2022 16:00 through 09/07/2022 21:00

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noticeflexRSS.xml

<rss version="0.91">
 <channel>
   <title>CAISO Flex Alert Notice Log</title>
    <link>http://www.caiso.com/awe/ noticelogflex.html</link>
    <description>Flex Alert Notice Log</description>
    <language>en-us</language>
<item>\n<title>
NOTICE 202202708: Flex Alert STATEWIDE 09/08/2022 15:00 through 09/08/2022 22:00
</title>\n<link>http://www.caiso.com/informed/Pages/Notifications/Flex-Alerts.aspx</link>\n<description>Effective: 08-Sep-2022  3:00 PM Terminates: 08-Sep-2022 10:00 PM</description>\n</item>\n<item>\n<title>CANCEL Flex Alert Notice</title>\n<link>http://www.caiso.com/informed/Pages/Notifications/Flex-Alerts.aspx</link>\n<description>CANCEL NOTICE: 202202676 at 06-Sep-2022  9:00 PM</description>\n</item>\n<item>\n<title>
NOTICE 202202695: Flex Alert STATEWIDE 09/07/2022 16:00 through 09/07/2022 21:00

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donaldcjackson · September 8, 2022, 4:39pm

This is great, thank you for developing this and sharing!
I’ve never used AppDaemon, so I am slogging through that, and hope to have this running today or tomorrow

esev · September 8, 2022, 5:14pm

You’re welcome. I’ve added another AppDeamon app to adjust the thermostat temperature in response to alerts. This is still a work in progress though so there may be bugs. I’m hoping to test it tonight.

gist.github.com

https://gist.github.com/esev/758683159839fa17c4557197783c5e51

apps.yaml

caiso_climate:
  module: caiso_climate
  class: ThermostatSetback
  #disable: true
  thermostat: climate.main_floor
  disable_entity_id: input_boolean.enable_caiso_alert_temperature_setbacks
  grid_connected_entity_id: binary_sensor.grid_status
  cool_setbacks:
  - alert_entity_id: binary_sensor.caiso_alert_eea1
    temperature_setpoint: 78

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caiso_climate.py

# Copyright 2022 Eric Severance.
#
# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
# You may obtain a copy of the License at
#
#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
#
# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,

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donaldcjackson · August 5, 2023, 8:52pm

@eesv, @James_Huang

I recently learned that CAISO provides the same/similar data in a JSON file:

https://www.caiso.com/TodaysOutlook/FlexAlert/FlexAlerts.json

The API includes the following information:

1. date
1. time range
1. region - Statewide, Northern CA, Southern CA, and/or Valley Electric Association (VEA region)

AFAICT there may be one or two binary characters at the start of the returned file, which upsets/breaks some clients, curl and Firefox don’t like it, but Chrome seems to just handle it.

According to CAISO:

The value of the “ID” of a specific FlexAlert remains constant for the life of that FlexAlert
The file will refresh every minute
While Flex Alerts include the region – Statewide, No Cal, So Cal or VEA – the ISO doesn’t specifically define these regions nor do all of the customers in these regions fall in the ISO’s balancing area
VEA is located in Pahrump, NV, and is part of our balancing area although we’ve never called a Flex Alert specifically for VEA.

An example (made up) contents:

{
    "IsFlexAlertActive":  true,
    "UpdatedOn":  "06-11-2021 09:05:29",
    "Active":  [
                   {
                       "ID":  6,
                       "Title":  "Flex alert for 06/11/2021",
                       "StartDate":  "06-11-2021 09:00",
                       "EndDate":  "06-11-2021 21:00",
		       "Region":  "Northern California;VEA Region"
                   }
               ],
    "Future":  [
                   {
                       "ID":  1,
                       "Title":  "Flex alert for 06/14/2021",
                       "StartDate":  "06-14-2021 16:00",
                       "EndDate":  "06-14-2021 21:00",
		       "Region":  "Statewide"
                   },
                   {
                       "ID":  2,
                       "Title":  "Flex alert for 06/15/2021",
                       "StartDate":  "06-15-2021 15:00",
                       "EndDate":  "06-15-2021 21:00",
                       "Region":  "Southern California"
                   }
               ]
}

donaldcjackson · August 5, 2023, 9:10pm

FYI, my long term wish/goal is to read/parse this JSON file, and publish them to MQTT, and then configure MQTT sensors in Home Assistant (because I prefer running things thru MQTT so more than just HA can see/use them…)