Metadata

This page describes how to search for data in the API. All examples below expects you to have an initialized instance of the client called eq.

Operations described here are available under eq.metadata.*.

Curve search

The API allows you to query for curve names in many ways. It is using the same operation as the data search on Energy Quantified’s web application.

Searching for curves in the API

Method reference: eq.metadata.curves()

When looking for curves, specify q to do a free-text search:

>>> eq.metadata.curves(q='nuclear germany forecast')
[<Curve: "DE Nuclear Production MWh/h 15min Forecast", curve_type=INSTANCE>]

You may filter on attributes:

>>> from energyquantified.metadata import Area, DataType
>>> eq.metadata.curves(
>>>    area=Area.DE,
>>>    data_type=DataType.FORECAST,
>>>    category=['nuclear', 'production']
>>> )
[<Curve: "DE Nuclear Production MWh/h 15min Forecast", curve_type=INSTANCE>]

Or you can specify area and data_type as strings:

>>> eq.metadata.curves(
>>>    area='DE',
>>>    data_type='FORECAST',
>>>    category=['nuclear', 'production']
>>> )
[<Curve: "DE Nuclear Production MWh/h 15min Forecast", curve_type=INSTANCE>]

See energyquantified.api.MetadataAPI.curves for a full reference.

Pagination

The curve search returns as a Page type, which is similar to Python list – but with extra flavour. Let’s do a curve search that returns many curves:

>>> page1 = eq.metadata.curves(area=Area.DE, page_size=10)
>>> page1.total_items
607
>>> page1.total_pages
61
>>> page1.page
1
>>> page1.page_size
10

You can now go to the next page and previous page like so:

>>> page2 = page1.get_next_page()
>>> page1 = page2.get_previous_page()

You can, of course, also return a specific page directly when searching:

>>> page61 = eq.metadata.curves(area=Area.DE, page_size=10, page=61)
>>> page61
[<Curve: "CZ>DE Exchange Net Transfer Capacity MW 15min REMIT", curve_type=TIMESERIES>,
 <Curve: "DE @Goldisthal Hydro Pumped-storage Capacity Available MW REMIT", curve_type=INSTANCE_PERIOD>,
 <Curve: "DE @Mainz-3 Natural Gas Power Capacity Available MW REMIT", curve_type=INSTANCE_PERIOD>,
 <Curve: "DE @Weisweiler-F Lignite Power Production MWh/h H Actual", curve_type=TIMESERIES>,
 <Curve: "DE @Weser-Porta River Temperature °C H Actual", curve_type=TIMESERIES>,
 <Curve: "DE Hydro Snow-and-Groundwater MWh D Normal", curve_type=TIMESERIES>,
 <Curve: "DE Nuclear Capacity Available MW REMIT", curve_type=INSTANCE_PERIOD>]

Metadata is cached. So, if you try to load the same page twice, it is fetched from the cache, and thus not hitting the server.

Places

Method reference: eq.metadata.places()

Similar to the curve search, you can look up places with a free-text search:

>>> nuclear_powerplants = eq.metadata.places(q='nuclear germany')
>>> nuclear_powerplants
[<Place: key="pp-brokdorf", name="Brokdorf", kind=PRODUCER, fuels=['Nuclear'], location=[53.851095, 9.345944]>,
 <Place: key="pp-emsland", name="Emsland", kind=PRODUCER, fuels=['Nuclear'], location=[52.481878, 7.306658]>,
 <Place: key="pp-grohnde", name="Grohnde", kind=PRODUCER, fuels=['Nuclear'], location=[52.035641, 9.413497]>,
 ...

You can also filter by attributes:

>>> eq.metadata.places(area=Area.DE, fuel='nuclear')
[<Place: key="pp-brokdorf", name="Brokdorf", kind=PRODUCER, fuels=['Nuclear'], location=[53.851095, 9.345944]>,
 <Place: key="pp-emsland", name="Emsland", kind=PRODUCER, fuels=['Nuclear'], location=[52.481878, 7.306658]>,
 <Place: key="pp-grohnde", name="Grohnde", kind=PRODUCER, fuels=['Nuclear'], location=[52.035641, 9.413497]>,
 ...

Places are not very useful by themselves, but they have a list of all referenced curves. Here you can see the actual production curve and the REMIT capacity curve for the German nuclear powerplant Brokdorf:

>>> brokdorf = nuclear_powerplants[0]
>>> brokdorf.curves
[<Curve: "DE @Brokdorf Nuclear Capacity Available MW REMIT", curve_type=INSTANCE_PERIOD>,
 <Curve: "DE @Brokdorf Nuclear Production MWh/h H Actual", curve_type=TIMESERIES>]

See energyquantified.api.MetadataAPI.places for a full reference.

Categories

Method references: eq.metadata.categories() and eq.metadata.exact_categories()

Curve names are, among other attributes, built by combining categories. You can list categories by using the categories()-method. It will return a set of all available categories:

>>> eq.metadata.categories()
{'API-2',
 'Auction',
 'Available',
 'Base',
 'Bioenergy',
 'Biogas',
 'Biomass',
 'Brent',
 ...

Since curve names are the combination of these categories (such as Spot Price, Wind Power Production etc.), there is also an operation for listing all combinations of categories. Use the exact_categories()-method to list these:

>>> eq.metadata.exact_categories()
{'Bioenergy Power Production',
 'Biogas Power Production',
 'Biomass Power Capacity Available',
 'Biomass Power Production',
 'CHP District-heating Power Production',
 'CHP Industry Power Production',
 'CHP Power Production',
 'Consumption',
 'Consumption Capacity Available',
 'Consumption Holiday-Reduction',
 'Consumption Index Chilling',
 'Consumption Index Cloudiness',
 ...

As with other metadata, the responses are cached.

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Next steps

Learn how to load time series, time series instances, period-based series, and period-based series instances.