Reference · built on requestCommons signalEnergy & grid

BPA Balancing Authority Load and Generation Data

Bonneville Power Administration 5-minute balancing authority load, wind, solar, hydro, thermal, and net interchange, 2007 to now.

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About

Bonneville Power Administration publishes operating data for its balancing authority area on transmission.bpa.gov. A near-real-time page charts BPA load against total variable energy resources, hydro, fossil and biomass, and nuclear generation over the last 7 days, refreshing every 5 minutes, with a tab-separated download. Yearly Excel workbooks hold 5-minute Total Load, Wind Gen, Wind Forecast, Solar Gen, Solar Forecast, Hydro, Thermal, and Net Interchange back to 2007, and Reserves Deployed back to 2009.

On Fibric, an operator reads the latest 5-minute rows, compares the wind and hydro share with your site's flexible load, and proposes when to run it, for your approval.

This is a reference listing. It documents what Fibric would read from BPA Balancing Authority Load and Generation Data and what it could propose, based on the publisher's published interfaces. Fibric builds it under a managed deployment when you request it; selecting it here installs nothing.

Inputs

  • BPA Balancing Authority Load and Total VER, Hydro, and Fossil/Biomass Generation, refreshed every 5 minutes over a 7-day window, as baltwg.txt
  • Total Wind and Solar generation and basepoint, and BPA Reserves Deployed, on the near-real-time charts
  • WindGenTotalLoadYTD yearly workbooks with 5-minute Total Load, Wind Gen, Wind Forecast, Solar Gen, Solar Forecast, Hydro, Thermal, and Net Interchange
  • TotalWindLoad_5Min files for 2007 through 2010, and ReservesDeployedYTD files from 2009 onward, in 5-minute increments
  • Nameplate capacity by wind and solar plant, and the plant list with capacities and in-service dates
  • Meteorological data from BPA sites as 5-minute averages over a rolling 10-day period

Proposed actions

Read-only. This feed informs operators; it changes nothing.

Proposed actions are target capabilities. Every action runs propose-first and needs a validated deployment and the appropriate permissions.

What you can build

  • Run flexible load on a wind and hydro surplus

    Read baltwg.txt every 5 minutes. When wind and hydro make up most of the generation on the BPA system, the operator proposes running deferrable loads and records the rows it used.

    With Carbon Window

  • Hold demand through a system peak

    Watch BPA load climbing in the 5-minute series alongside your own meter. Near a peak, the operator proposes a temporary setpoint change or equipment hold for your approval, with the timestamp attached.

    With Peak Demand

  • Score wind forecast error before a charging plan

    Compare the Wind Forecast and Wind Gen columns in the yearly workbook for the hours you plan to charge. The operator reports the error band and proposes a charging window that tolerates it.

    With Forecast Variance, Battery Dispatch

Requirements

  • A reader for .xlsx and legacy .xls workbooks, since the yearly history ships as Excel files
  • Acknowledgement of Bonneville Power Administration wherever the data is reused, as BPA requests
  • Handling for the 2022 format change: files for 2022 onward use a new layout
Authentication
None. Pages and files are served over HTTPS without registration or a key.

Limits

  • History ships as Excel workbooks rather than an API; the near-real-time text download covers only the last 7 days
  • The 2022 format change means files before and after 2022 have different layouts
  • BPA Load excludes energy scheduled to other balancing authority areas, and total generation usually exceeds BPA load
  • Bonneville makes no warranty regarding information made available on the website

Access and pricing

Reference listing. Public feed access is separate from Fibric integration. If you request this feed, your quote covers the build, usage, and support.

Request BPA Balancing Authority Load and Generation Data ↗

Questions and answers

Is registration or a key needed?
No. The pages and files on transmission.bpa.gov are open. The site is owned and operated by the Bonneville Power Administration, part of the United States Department of Energy.
What formats are the files in?
The near-real-time chart offers baltwg.txt, a tab-separated file covering the last 7 days. Yearly history is Excel: .xlsx for 2022 onward and .xls for earlier years, including TotalWindLoad_5Min files for 2007 to 2010 and ReservesDeployedYTD files from 2009.
Can the data be reused?
Yes. BPA's terms state that government information on its website is in the public domain and may be freely distributed and copied. BPA asks for appropriate acknowledgement in any subsequent use and reserves its registered marks.
Ask about BPA Balancing Authority Load and Generation Data

Ask about the capabilities and requirements in this listing.

For project-specific requirements, contact Fibric.

This Commons signal listing is developed, published, and supported by Fibric. It reads public data published by Bonneville Power Administration, US Department of Energy (transmission.bpa.gov). Upstream agencies and projects are the property of their respective owners, who are not affiliated with Fibric and do not sponsor or endorse this listing. Trademark policy