New Energy Datasets and APIs

The Genability Application Programming Interface (API) is just one of many energy-focused APIs that are available to developers. We encourage creative mash-ups of our electricity pricing data with other energy apps and datasets. We think that the potential value-add is enormous.

There are numerous sources for open energy data. Here are some sources with rich datasets: energy.data.gov, openei.org, Linked Governments, factual.com, infochimps and others. As well, there are tons of APIs that provide real value, for example: Commercial Building EnergyIQ, PVWatts Grid Data Calculator, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory’s Home Energy Saver, Texas Energy Load Predictions, California Load Profiles, Google Prediction API, to name a few.

For example, check out the slick Wattvision API.  You can see live energy usage data, historical data, set alerts, and if you like, make some of your house data public in a little competition, and even tweet your data to the world! See your data at any moment from anywhere on the web, and they have a neat iPhone version of their website (no app to install). The Wattvision API allows developers to create products that are wattvision-enabled.

Here are some other APIs to check out: Wattzon, Plotwatt, and these public datasets: Financial Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency, PVWatts Grid Data Calculator, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory’s Home Energy Saver, Texas Energy Load Predictions, California Load Profiles, Google Prediction API, to name a few.

Useful Datasets: PVWatts, NREL SAM, Homer energy, DSIRE USA Database.

1. Linked Government Energy Datasets
2. Database of Federal Energy Datasets
3. Open Energy Information Datasets
4. Electricity Generation by State by Type of Producer by Energy Source
5. Power Plant Electricity Generation and Emissions
6. Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey
7. Commercial Building Profiles

Also here are a few tools and datasets that you might find interesting and helpful:

1. National Solar Irradiation Database
2. Rate your Building’s Energy Performance
3. California On-Grid Renewables

Also, if you need some useful load profile data, check out the freely available usage data available from our friends at Pachube! (Or grab someone from Genability and we can give you access some ‘private’ usage data.)