Reference · built on requestCommons signalEnergy & grid

Carbon Intensity API

Half-hourly carbon intensity for Great Britain, national and regional, with forecasts up to two days ahead and the generation mix.

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About

The Carbon Intensity API is published by the National Energy System Operator at api.carbonintensity.org.uk. It gives the forecast and actual carbon intensity of electricity in Great Britain for each half-hour settlement period, an index band for each period, the fuel mix behind it, and a regional view for 17 regions that can be looked up by outward postcode. The forecast covers CO2 from generation only: large metered power stations, interconnector imports, and transmission and distribution losses.

An operator on Fibric pulls the 48-hour forward series for your region, ranks the half-hours, and proposes moving flexible load and EV charging into the lowest-intensity windows for your approval.

This is a reference listing. It documents what Fibric would read from Carbon Intensity API 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

  • The current half-hour national intensity through GET /intensity, with forecast, actual, and index fields and UTC from and to timestamps
  • Intensity for a date or a settlement period 1-48 through /intensity/date/{date} and /intensity/date/{date}/{period}
  • Forward and past windows through /intensity/{from}/fw24h, /fw48h, and /pt24h, and ranges up to 14 days through /intensity/{from}/{to}
  • Average, maximum, and minimum over a range up to 30 days through /intensity/stats/{from}/{to}, with optional block sizes of 1 to 24 hours
  • Generation mix by fuel through /generation: gas, coal, biomass, hydro, imports, solar, wind, nuclear, other
  • Regional intensity and mix through /regional, /regional/postcode/{postcode}, and /regional/regionid/{regionid}, with England, Scotland, and Wales as regions 15 to 17
  • Carbon intensity factors per fuel type through /intensity/factors

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

  • Charge the fleet in the cleanest overnight hours

    Read the 48-hour regional forecast for the depot postcode, rank the half-hours by intensity, and propose each vehicle's charge window inside the lowest band. The depot lead approves; the estimate is kept for reporting.

    With Carbon Window, Depot Charging

  • Set the battery schedule against intensity, not only price

    Combine the forward intensity curve with the site load forecast and propose charge and discharge blocks that favour low-carbon half-hours, for your review before tomorrow.

    With Battery Dispatch

  • Charge thermal storage when the grid runs cleanest

    Use the national forecast to pick the overnight hours for an ice or chilled-water charge target and record the intensity band that justified it.

    With Thermal Storage

Requirements

  • The outward postcode (for example RG41) or region id for each site you want a regional series for
  • ISO 8601 handling for the from and to timestamps, which are returned in UTC
  • Attribution under CC BY 4.0 wherever the intensity figures are shown or republished
  • A retry policy that respects the rate limit the terms describe
Authentication
None. Each operation is documented as not requiring authentication. Use is subject to the API Terms of Use on GitHub.

Limits

  • Intensity ranges are capped at 14 days per call and statistics ranges at 30 days
  • NESO applies a rate limit and states it may block applications that make a large number of calls
  • The regional series is described as an indicative trend of carbon intensity, not a metered value
  • The terms provide the API as is and say it may have bugs, inaccuracies, or interruptions

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.

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Questions and answers

Does the Carbon Intensity API require a key?
No. The API definitions mark each operation as not requiring authentication. The API Terms of Use still apply, including a rate limit that NESO says may lead to blocking of applications making a large number of calls.
How far ahead does the forecast go?
Up to two days ahead of real time. The fw48h endpoints return 48 hours forward from a given timestamp, fw24h returns 24 hours, and pt24h returns the previous 24 hours. Values are given per half-hour settlement period with both a forecast and, once known, an actual.
Which regions are available?
Seventeen: regions 1 to 14 are distribution network operator areas, and 15, 16, and 17 are England, Scotland, and Wales. You can query by region id or by the outward part of a postcode, such as RG41. National figures come from the /intensity and /generation endpoints.
Ask about Carbon Intensity API

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 National Energy System Operator, NESO (api.carbonintensity.org.uk). 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