CAISO APIcaiso.com ↗
Access real-time CAISO grid data: electricity demand, supply mix by fuel type, CO2 emissions, carbon intensity, LMP price maps, and grid status via 6 endpoints.
What is the CAISO API?
The CAISO API provides 6 endpoints covering live California ISO grid data — including current system demand and forecasts, generation by fuel type, CO2 emissions rates, and locational marginal prices. The get_current_supply endpoint alone returns generation breakdowns across 14 fuel sources plus a renewable percentage, while get_grid_status surfaces active emergency notices and event counts in real time.
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'
Typed, relational, agent-ready
A generated client with real types, enums, and the links between objects — the structure a flat JSON response can't carry. Autocompletes in your editor and reads cleanly to coding agents.
- Fully typed · autocompletes
- Objects link to objects
- Typed errors & pagination
Typed Python client. Set up the SDK in your uv project, then pull this API’s typed client:
uv add parse-sdk uv run parse init uv run parse add --marketplace caiso-com-api
uv run parse add --marketplace pulls a pinned snapshot of this canonical API — it won’t change underneath you. To customize it, subscribe and swap to your own copy.
"""CAISO Energy Market — real-time California grid monitoring."""
from parse_apis.caiso_energy_market_api import Caiso, NotFoundError
client = Caiso()
# Current demand snapshot — single fetch, typed fields.
demand = client.demands.get()
print(f"Demand: {demand.current_demand_mw} MW | Capacity: {demand.current_capacity_mw} MW")
print(f"Reserves: {demand.current_reserves_mw} MW | Peak today: {demand.forecasted_peak_today_mw} MW")
# Supply mix — fuel breakdown as a typed dict.
supply = client.supplies.get()
print(f"Renewables: {supply.renewables_percent}% ({supply.total_renewables_mw} MW)")
for fuel, mw in supply.generation_by_fuel_mw.items():
if mw > 500:
print(f" {fuel}: {mw} MW")
# CO2 emissions snapshot.
emissions = client.emissionses.get()
print(f"CO2 intensity: {emissions.co2_intensity_mt_mwh} mt/MWh | Total: {emissions.co2_total_mt_h} mt/h")
# Demand trend — paginated list of 5-min intervals, capped.
for point in client.demandtrendpoints.list(limit=5):
print(f" {point.time}: demand={point.current_demand}, forecast={point.hour_ahead_forecast}")
# Grid status with typed error handling.
try:
status = client.gridstatuses.get()
print(f"Grid: {status.status} | Demand: {status.demand_mw} MW")
print(f"Active events: {status.active_events.current_events_count}")
except NotFoundError as exc:
print(f"Grid status unavailable: {exc}")
print("Exercised: demands.get / supplies.get / emissionses.get / demandtrendpoints.list / gridstatuses.get")
Fetch current and forecasted electricity demand from CAISO Today's Outlook. Returns current system demand, available capacity, reserves, and forecasted peak demand for today and tomorrow. All values in megawatts. Timestamp is Pacific time in YYYYMMDDHHmmSS format.
No input parameters required.
{
"type": "object",
"fields": {
"timestamp": "string, Pacific time 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": "20260611003456",
"current_demand_mw": 27874,
"current_capacity_mw": 35066,
"current_reserves_mw": 2796,
"forecasted_peak_today_mw": 37091,
"forecasted_peak_tomorrow_mw": 35943
},
"status": "success"
}
}About the CAISO API
Demand and Forecasts
The get_current_demand endpoint returns a snapshot of current system demand, available capacity, reserves, and forecasted peak demand for both today and tomorrow — all in megawatts, timestamped in Pacific time (YYYYMMDDHHmmSS format). For time-series analysis within the current day, get_demand_trend returns 5-minute interval arrays with four parallel series: current demand, hour-ahead forecast, day-ahead forecast, and demand response values, enabling intraday comparisons against forecast models.
Supply Mix and Emissions
get_current_supply breaks down live generation across 14 fuel sources including Solar, Wind, Nuclear, Natural Gas, Large Hydro, Imports, Batteries, Geothermal, Biomass, Biogas, Small Hydro, Coal, Solar Hybrids, and Wind Hybrids. It also returns total_renewables_mw and renewables_percent alongside total system demand. The get_current_emissions endpoint adds a carbon lens: it returns co2_total_mt_h (metric tons per hour), co2_intensity_mt_mwh (metric tons per MWh), current demand, and renewables share — all at the same timestamp granularity.
Prices and Grid Status
get_price_map returns nodal Locational Marginal Prices (LMPs) across the CAISO grid. Each node in the l layer array carries coordinates, a name, area, and price components: energy (dp/de), congestion (dc), and loss (dl) — available for both day-ahead and real-time markets. A color-coded price legend in the g object maps price ranges to visual bands. The get_grid_status endpoint returns the current operating status string (e.g., Normal, Alert Active), current demand in MW, and an active_events object with counts and arrays for current and upcoming grid events.
The CAISO API is a managed, monitored endpoint for caiso.com — not a raw scraper you maintain. Every endpoint is automatically health-checked on a schedule, and when caiso.com changes and a check fails, the API is automatically queued for repair and re-verified. It is built to keep working as the site underneath it changes.
This isn't an official caiso.com API — it's an independent, maintained REST wrapper over public data. Where the source has no official API (or only a limited one), Parse gives you a stable contract over a source that never promised one, and keeps it current. Need a new endpoint or field? You can revise it yourself in plain English and the agent rebuilds it against the live site in minutes — contributing the change back to the shared API is free.
Will this API break when the source site changes?+
Is this an official API from the source site?+
Can I fix or extend this API myself if I need a new endpoint or field?+
What happens if I call an endpoint that has an issue?+
- Track real-time renewable penetration percentage for sustainability reporting using
get_current_supply - Build a carbon-intensity alerting tool that triggers when
co2_intensity_mt_mwhexceeds a threshold - Visualize intraday demand versus hour-ahead and day-ahead forecasts using
get_demand_trendtime series - Monitor grid emergency notices and alert counts via
get_grid_statusactive_events for operational dashboards - Map locational marginal price congestion components across CAISO nodes using
get_price_maplayer data - Automate battery storage dispatch decisions by comparing current solar generation with forecasted peak demand
- Research correlation between Natural Gas and Import generation levels during high-demand periods
| 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 | 100 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 have an official developer API?+
What does `get_price_map` return, and how are LMP components structured?+
l array of layer objects where each node marker includes geographic coordinates, a node name, area label, and three price components: energy (dp/de), congestion (dc), and loss (dl). Both day-ahead and real-time market prices are present. The g object provides a color-coded legend mapping price ranges to visual bands, and monitor returns counts of all, active, and pending grid monitors.Does the API return historical grid data or multi-day time series?+
get_demand_trend covers the current day at 5-minute intervals, and the remaining endpoints return point-in-time snapshots. You can fork this API on Parse and revise it to add endpoints targeting historical CAISO data ranges.Does the API cover individual utility or sub-regional data within California?+
How fresh is the data returned by these endpoints?+
get_demand_trend data is explicitly structured at 5-minute interval granularity. Timestamps are returned in Pacific time so callers can verify data recency directly from the response.