Décret tertiaire · Éco Énergie Tertiaire · OPERAT

Getting right the figures you will file on OPERAT

Before you read any further: Softee does not file on your behalf. The declaration is submitted by you, on ADEME’s OPERAT platform — which applies the statutory weather correction itself and generates the annual attestation. What Softee takes on is the work that comes before it: gathering consumption across all your sites, relating it to a floor area and a documented reference year, and flagging the invoices you should not rely on.

For energy managers, estate managers and technical directors with part of their portfolio in scope. Regulatory sources retrieved on 19 August 2026 and 21 August 2026, each dated in the list at the foot of the page.

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Who does what, exactly?

This is the first thing to settle, because the market is noisy about it. Here is the split, with no grey area.

  • Filing annual consumption on OPERAT: you, on ADEME’s platform. Softee exchanges nothing with any ADEME system.
  • Determining which buildings are in scope, and under which target: you, with your advisers. Softee does not classify a building in law.
  • Gathering consumption across every site and every energy: Softee — automatic daily collection, file import, invoices, manual entry.
  • Correcting declared consumption for the weather, in the sense of the scheme: the OPERAT platform, automatically. Not Softee — a point we set out in detail below, because it is routinely stated the wrong way round.
  • Relating consumption to a floor area and a reference year: Softee — ratio-type indicators (kWh/m²), site parameters, comparison against a chosen reference year.
  • Flagging invoices that cannot be relied on: Softee — 13 consistency rules, duplicate and credit-note detection.
  • Generating the annual digital attestation: the OPERAT platform, from the corrected data. Softee produces no attestation.

Which buildings are in scope, and under which target?

The scheme applies to existing and new construction whose tertiary-activity floor area, or cumulative floor area, is 1,000 m² or more.

The statutory target is a reduction in final energy consumption of “at least 40 % by 2030, 50 % by 2040 and 60 % by 2050, relative to 2010”. Article L. 174-1 of the French construction and housing code opens a second route: instead of that relative reduction, a party in scope may aim for “a level of final energy consumption set in absolute value, according to the energy consumption of new buildings in their category”.

That choice is yours, and it determines which figure matters. It is also why Softee treats the reference year as an explicit setting rather than a hidden convention: if your target is relative, your reference year underpins the entire trajectory.

What exactly do you declare on OPERAT?

Seven items, listed in article R. 174-27 of the French construction and housing code, for each building, part of a building or group of buildings in scope. The first four are unconditional; the last three apply “where applicable”.

  1. The tertiary activities carried out.
  2. The floor area subject to the obligation.
  3. Annual energy consumption, by type of energy.
  4. Where applicable, the reference year and the associated reference consumption, by type of energy, with the corresponding supporting documents.
  5. Where applicable, the usage-intensity indicators for the activities hosted.
  6. Where applicable, the modulations. The one based on activity volume is calculated automatically by the platform, not by you.
  7. Where applicable, consumption from charging electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles.

This list is useful because it is the measure of what you are missing. Items 2 to 4 are where a multi-site filing comes apart: a floor area recorded nowhere, an energy source forgotten on one site, a reference year whose supporting documents nobody still holds. That is precisely the scope Softee works on — collecting, checking and reporting the portfolio.

Item 4 deserves a careful reading. The text asks for the reference year, the associated consumption and the corresponding supporting documents. A reference year with nothing to back it is not a declarable reference year.

If your reference is an old one, the question to settle now is who still holds that year’s invoices — not which tool will display the percentage.

What is the OPERAT filing deadline?

30 September each year, for the previous year’s consumption. For the current cycle that means 30 September 2026 for 2025 consumption data.

The date is not in the decree, and that detail has consequences. Article R. 174-27 of the construction and housing code says only: “These data are transmitted each year by deadlines set by a joint order of the ministers responsible for construction and for energy.” The date itself lives in article 13, II of the arrêté of 10 April 2020: “Each year from 2022, the data relating to the previous year are transmitted by 30 September at the latest.”

The practical consequence: because the deadline is set by ministerial order rather than by decree, two signatures are enough to move it. That order has already been amended several times, and its article 13 was rewritten by the order of 1 August 2025. We re-check this date every January rather than carrying it over from one cycle to the next out of habit.

On the year-end “tolerance”. A tolerance until 31 December did exist, but for the first cycle only, presented as a bedding-in year. The order provides for no permanent tolerance mechanism.

As of 19 August 2026 we found no official source publishing a tolerance for the current cycle. We put it that way — “none found” — rather than “there is none”: a measure that has not been published is not a measure that does not exist.

Who applies the weather correction, and who issues the attestation?

Both answers are: the OPERAT platform. These are the two points a software vendor is most tempted to claim as its own work, so the split is worth stating plainly.

The statutory weather correction is performed by OPERAT, automatically. Article 5, I of the arrêté of 10 April 2020 sets it out precisely: the adjustment is made “at departmental level”, on the basis of the “mean unified degree-day figure over the 2001-2020 period for the reference weather station”, and the platform “automatically assigns by default a Météo-France station in the department in which the building is located” — you may change it from a list covering that department and its neighbours. Article 13, III adds that OPERAT “automatically adjusts final energy consumption data for climatic variation”.

The annual digital attestation is generated by OPERAT, “on the basis of that corrected data”, and the platform’s “party in scope” profile carries the function “issue an attestation on the basis of the items declared”. It is completed by an “Éco Énergie Tertiaire” rating. Softee produces no attestation and is no substitute for one.

What is the real exposure if you fall short?

This section probably says the opposite of what you have read elsewhere, so it is cited article by article. The regime is in article R. 185-2 of the construction and housing code, the competent authority is the préfet, and it has three paragraphs with different consequences. The fine is not attached to filing.

I

Not transmitting the data — no fine

Where data is not transmitted without justification, the préfet may issue a formal notice to comply within three months, stating that failing that, the “document recording formal notices that went unheeded” will be published on a French government website. This paragraph provides for no fine.

II

Missing the reduction targets

The préfet may require an action plan submitted for approval. If none is filed within six months, individual formal notices at three months may follow, warning of publication. Only at the end of that escalation may an administrative fine be imposed: “no more than €1,500 for natural persons and €7,500 for legal persons”.

III

Not honouring an approved plan

After an adversarial procedure, a finding of default may be issued by reasoned order of the préfet, providing for its publication on a French government website. A fine may then be imposed on that basis, “proportionate to the seriousness of the failures found”.

  • The amounts have not changed since 1 October 2019 and are not index-linked: the repealed article that preceded R. 185-2 already carried €1,500 and €7,500.
  • The text says “may” at every step. Nothing is automatic.
  • “€1,500 per building” is false. That multiplier is widely repeated; the article does not contain it. We will not repeat it, and it is worth asking anyone who quotes it for their source.
  • The publication mechanism is written into the law. We have not established that any such publication has taken place, or on which site: “the mechanism exists” and “organisations have been named” are two different claims, and we only verify the first.

What that changes about your priorities. If the immediate financial exposure attaches not to filing but to the reduction trajectory, then the value of a monitoring tool is not saving you a fine at the deadline.

It is giving you, year after year, a measurement you can defend to the préfet — and early enough to act on.

Concretely, what does Softee work on?

On the reliability of the data, which is the real problem in an annual multi-site declaration. Five mechanisms in the product serve it directly.

Weather correction by degree days

Heating consumption is shown corrected for degree days and compared against a chosen reference year. Heating (18 °C base) and cooling (26 °C base) degree days come from Météo-France’s climatological API, from the nearest active station to the site, resolved from its latitude and longitude — or from a station you pin manually. This is a steering correction, distinct from the one OPERAT applies to your declared data.

kWh/m² per site

Ratio-type indicators let you define a kWh/m². Floor area comes in through site parameters, a set of fields you define yourself and fill in bulk on a grid — the same mechanism carries the target and the headcount.

13 invoice quality rules

On a site with no remote reading, the invoice is the consumption data. Every imported invoice is graded OK, warning or error against 13 rules — five errors and eight warnings — including inverted periods, overlapping periods, probable duplicates and consumption outside the contract.

Sites × indicators matrix

The whole portfolio in one table: one row per site with its category and typology, one column per indicator, units shown. This is the view that lets you find the site whose data is missing before you notice its absence in a filing.

Configurable spreadsheet export

An export where you choose the sources, the interval, the aggregation — day, month, quarter, half-year, year — and the grouping. That is how the data comes out to be used in your filing; not through an automatic upload, which does not exist.

What Softee does not do for your obligation

This list is the necessary counterpart to the one above. If any line here is a blocker for you, better to know now.

  • Softee does not file on OPERAT, and we are not announcing it for later either. No code in the shipped product exchanges anything with an ADEME system. Entering the declaration on the platform remains yours.
  • Softee does not produce a file in the OPERAT import format. That format exists and is standardised: article 13, II of the arrêté provides for a “standardised summary file in CSV format” whose content and form are set in annex VI, transmissible through the platform’s application programming interface. Softee does not write it and does not feed that interface. Exports come out as spreadsheets, CSV or JSON, on a configuration you choose; there is no regulatory report generator in the product.
  • Softee does not apply the weather correction in the sense of the scheme, and does not generate the attestation. Both are functions of the OPERAT platform — see the detailed split above.
  • Softee does not determine whether you are in scope, or under which target. Neither the 1,000 m² threshold, nor the choice between a relative target and an absolute value, nor the classification of a floor area is calculated by the product. Those are legal decisions, and this page is not legal advice.
  • Softee does not calculate your energy performance certificate. The product can grade a site A to G on the thresholds of the 2021 French DPE method, from measured values. That is not a regulatory diagnosis and it does not replace one.
  • Softee promises no reduction percentage. The product compares one year against the previous one and against a target; it does not attribute a fall in consumption to its own use. A reduction figure must be documented with its method and period.

Regulatory sources

Frequently asked questions about the French tertiary decree

No. The declaration is entered by you on ADEME’s OPERAT platform, and no code in the shipped product exchanges anything with an ADEME system. Softee prepares and validates the figures you have to declare: automatic daily collection, comparison against a chosen reference year, kWh/m² per site, and 13 consistency rules on invoices. The statutory weather correction and the annual attestation are functions of the OPERAT platform, not of Softee. We are not announcing it as a future development either.
30 September each year, for the previous year’s consumption — so 30 September 2026 for 2025 data. The date is not in the decree: article R. 174-27 of the French construction and housing code delegates deadlines to a joint ministerial order, and it is article 13, II of the arrêté of 10 April 2020 that provides that “each year from 2022, the data relating to the previous year are transmitted by 30 September at the latest”. Because the date is set by order, it can be moved without a decree: it is worth re-checking each year. Sources retrieved on 19 August 2026.
No, not for failing to file alone. Article R. 185-2 of the French construction and housing code provides for three distinct consequences. Where data is not transmitted (paragraph I), the préfet may issue a formal notice to comply within three months, then have the document recording unheeded formal notices published on a government website: that paragraph provides for no fine. The fine of “no more than €1,500 for natural persons and €7,500 for legal persons” comes at the end of an escalation that begins with missing the reduction targets (paragraph II) or with failing to honour an approved action plan (paragraph III). The préfet “may” at every step: nothing is automatic. Source retrieved on 19 August 2026.
No. Several trade sources put forward that per-building multiplier; article R. 185-2 of the French construction and housing code does not contain it. The text sets a ceiling of €1,500 for natural persons and €7,500 for legal persons, with no per-building multiplier, and specifies that the fine is proportionate to the seriousness of the failures found. Those amounts are unchanged since 1 October 2019 and are not index-linked.
No, and nothing other than OPERAT does. Article 13, III of the arrêté of 10 April 2020 provides that, on the basis of the corrected data, “the OPERAT platform generates the annual digital attestation referred to in article R. 174-32 of the French construction and housing code”. The platform’s “party in scope” profile carries the function “issue an attestation on the basis of the items declared” (article 13, I), and the attestation is completed by an “Éco Énergie Tertiaire” rating. Third-party software therefore cannot supply you with that attestation: it can help make sure the declared data is right before the attestation is generated. Source retrieved on 21 August 2026.
The OPERAT platform, automatically. Article 5, I of the arrêté of 10 April 2020 provides that the adjustment of consumption for climatic variation is “performed automatically by the collection and monitoring platform”, “at departmental level”, on the basis of the “mean unified degree-day figure over the 2001-2020 period for the reference weather station”; the platform assigns a Météo-France station in the department by default and lets you change it from a list covering that department and its neighbours. The degree-day correction Softee displays is a steering correction, on a different basis — the nearest active station to the site, on an 18 °C and 26 °C base. There is no reason for the two values to coincide, and Softee does not present its own as the statutory correction. Source retrieved on 21 August 2026.
Seven items, listed in article R. 174-27 of the French construction and housing code, for each building, part of a building or group of buildings in scope: the tertiary activities carried out; the floor area subject to the obligation; annual energy consumption by type of energy; where applicable the reference year and the associated reference consumption by type of energy, with the corresponding supporting documents; where applicable the usage-intensity indicators for the activities hosted; where applicable the modulations, the one based on activity volume being calculated automatically by the platform; and where applicable consumption from charging electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles. Data may be entered directly on the platform or transmitted through its application programming interface, as a standardised summary file in CSV format described in annex VI of the arrêté of 10 April 2020. Softee does not produce that file and does not feed that interface. Sources retrieved on 21 August 2026.
Existing and new construction whose tertiary-activity floor area, or cumulative floor area, is 1,000 m² or more. The statutory target is a reduction in final energy consumption of at least 40 % by 2030, 50 % by 2040 and 60 % by 2050 relative to 2010; article L. 174-1 of the French construction and housing code opens, as an alternative, a consumption level set in absolute value according to building category. Whether a given building is in scope is not calculated by Softee: that decision is yours.
Through five mechanisms verifiable in the product: automatic daily collection from eleven data sources; correction of heating consumption by degree days, calculated from the nearest active Météo-France station to the site, compared against a chosen reference year — a steering correction, distinct from the weather adjustment the OPERAT platform applies to declared data itself; ratio-type indicators giving a kWh/m², fed by site parameters you define; 13 consistency rules applied to every imported invoice; and a sites × indicators matrix showing the whole portfolio, which lets you find missing data before the filing rather than after it.

Let’s look at your filing data as it stands today

Bring the list of your in-scope sites and how their consumption reaches you — remote reading, invoices, manual readings. We will show you what Softee makes of it, where the gaps are, and what would remain yours to do.

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