Grid Intensity CLI - Overview

The electricity that powers the computers on which code is run comes from a variety of sources - renewable, low-carbon, and fossil fuel based. We call this the fuel mix. And it's this fuel mix that can influence the carbon intensity of code.

The Grid Intensity CLI aims to make global carbon intensity data more accessible to developers. By doing so, developers can be better informed to make decisions about where and/or when to run their code.

What is the Grid Intensity CLI?

It is a tool that enables developers and operations teams to surface, monitor, and understand the carbon intensity of the code they run.

Why use it?

The fuel mix will be different depending when and where you run your code. Because of this, you can influence the carbon intensity of the code you write by moving it through time and space.

Moving through time

Sometime code needs to be run in a particular location. In these instances, developers can use grid information to identify periods of low carbon intensity. These are times when more green or renewable electricity is in the fuel mix. Scheduled jobs or heavy computational tasks can then be run during these time, making them less carbon intensive.

Moving through space

Increasingly, code is deployed to multiple locations around the world. In this scenario, developers can use the Grid Intensity CLI to easily consolidate carbon intensity data for different areas into a single dashboard or dataset.

With this information at hand, they can look for ways to run code in locations with a greener fuel mix. This can be extended to smarter, carbon-aware routing so that more requests are directed to code running in locations with a lower carbon intensity.

The above a just a few examples of the many and varied ways the Grid Intensity CLI can be used. If you’re using the Grid Intensity CLI in production we’d love to hear how! Contact us via our website.