caiso.com APIcaiso.com ↗
Real-time California ISO grid data: electricity demand, supply mix, renewables, CO2 emissions, LMP prices, and grid status via 6 structured endpoints.
No input parameters required.
curl -X GET 'https://api.parse.bot/scraper/1be3e69c-3794-478b-94ee-9407ecee9262/get_current_demand' \ -H 'X-API-Key: $PARSE_API_KEY'
Fetch current and forecasted electricity demand from Today's Outlook. Returns current demand, capacity, reserves, and peak forecasts for today and tomorrow.
No input parameters required.
{
"type": "object",
"fields": {
"timestamp": "string, timestamp in YYYYMMDDHHmmSS format",
"current_demand_mw": "number, current system demand in megawatts",
"current_capacity_mw": "number, available generation capacity in megawatts",
"current_reserves_mw": "number, current reserves in megawatts",
"forecasted_peak_today_mw": "number, forecasted peak demand for today in megawatts",
"forecasted_peak_tomorrow_mw": "number, forecasted peak demand for tomorrow in megawatts"
},
"sample": {
"data": {
"timestamp": "20260514005456",
"current_demand_mw": 23434,
"current_capacity_mw": 32283,
"current_reserves_mw": 2835,
"forecasted_peak_today_mw": 28870,
"forecasted_peak_tomorrow_mw": 28959
},
"status": "success"
}
}About the caiso.com API
The CAISO Energy Market API exposes 6 endpoints covering real-time and intraday data from California's electricity grid, including generation by fuel type, carbon intensity, and locational marginal prices. The get_current_supply endpoint returns a full breakdown of active generation sources — solar, wind, nuclear, natural gas, imports, and batteries — alongside total renewables percentage. Demand forecasts, grid status, and nodal LMP price maps are also available as structured JSON.
Demand and Forecasting
The get_current_demand endpoint returns a snapshot of current system demand (current_demand_mw), available generation capacity (current_capacity_mw), operating reserves (current_reserves_mw), and peak demand forecasts for both today and tomorrow. For time-series analysis, get_demand_trend returns 5-minute interval data points throughout the current day, each containing Current demand, Hour ahead forecast, Day ahead forecast, and Demand response values — useful for intraday demand modeling.
Supply Mix and Emissions
get_current_supply provides a generation_by_fuel_mw object mapping each fuel type to its current output in megawatts, along with total_renewables_mw and renewables_percent. get_current_emissions pairs that renewable share data with co2_total_mt_h (metric tons of CO2 per hour) and co2_intensity_mt_mwh (carbon intensity per megawatt-hour), giving a direct measure of the grid's carbon footprint at any moment.
Prices and Grid Status
get_price_map returns nodal Locational Marginal Prices across the CAISO grid. The response includes a color-coded price legend, an array of node markers with geographic coordinates, node names, total LMP values, and the energy, congestion, and loss price components for each node. get_grid_status returns the current operating condition (Normal, Alert Active, etc.), current demand, and structured event data including counts and arrays of current and upcoming grid emergency events.
- Track real-time California grid carbon intensity for carbon-aware workload scheduling using
co2_intensity_mt_mwh - Monitor solar and wind generation share via
generation_by_fuel_mwto optimize behind-the-meter battery dispatch - Alert energy traders when LMP prices at specific nodes cross thresholds using
get_price_mapnode data - Build demand response dashboards comparing
Current demandagainstHour ahead forecastfromget_demand_trend - Integrate
get_grid_statusactive events into grid reliability monitoring or alerting systems - Calculate hourly CO2 emissions budgets for EV fleet charging using
co2_total_mt_handrenewables_percent - Forecast peak demand exposure for commercial buildings using
forecasted_peak_today_mwandforecasted_peak_tomorrow_mw
| Tier | Price | Credits/month | Rate limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | 100 | 5 req/min |
| Hobby | $30/mo | 1,000 | 20 req/min |
| Developer | $100/mo | 5,000 | 250 req/min |
One credit = one API call regardless of which marketplace API you call. Exceeding the rate limit returns a 429 response. Authenticate with the X-API-Key header.
Does CAISO offer an official developer API?+
What does `get_price_map` actually return — can I get prices for a specific node by name?+
l), where each marker includes coordinates, a node name, the total LMP, and the energy, congestion, and loss components. You can filter the returned array client-side by node name. The endpoint does not accept a node name or region as an input parameter — it returns all nodes in a single response.Does the API cover historical CAISO data, such as prior days or months of demand or LMP values?+
How fresh is the data returned by endpoints like `get_current_demand` and `get_current_supply`?+
timestamp field reflecting the time of the underlying data. CAISO's Today's Outlook data updates at approximately 5-minute intervals, so the data age is typically within that window, though it depends on CAISO's own update cadence. The API does not expose a separate field for data staleness or age.Does the API include CAISO inter-tie or imports/exports data broken down by source region or counterparty?+
get_current_supply includes an aggregate Imports value within generation_by_fuel_mw but does not break out imports by source region or inter-tie path. You can fork this API on Parse and revise it to add a dedicated endpoint targeting inter-tie flow data.