Data sources

This is a list of primary data sources that are helpful for power system modeling of Europe. For other open data projects that collect or vizualize data see data projects.

The list is a work in progress; it is neither complete nor comprehensive. If you are missing something, please tell us. The list is considerably broader in scope than the OPSD data platform.

ENTSO-E Transparency, the central data platform of the European transmission system operators, provides a lot of data as required in EU regulation 543/2013. The database can be accessed through the website and several download options.

In practice, the confusing design and slow response times make the website hard to use and a lot of the data is missing. Documentation on what the data mean and on how to use the platform is inconsistent and scattered across multiple pages and documents. Some useful resources are:

• The FAQ, the Help Center and the page for new users.
• The Detailed Data Descriptions for documentation on the meaning of the individual datasets.
• The overview of data download options. For bulk access to the data in CSV format we recommend the FTP solution.
• A review of the Platform conducted by some of the Open Power System Data contributors.

The platform only features data for 2015-01-05 onwards.

1.1 European load data

ENTSO-E Hourly Load Data is available through three different gateways:

• ENTSO-E Data Portal (data up to 2015). Features a comparatively convenient download option (all countries in monthly data sheets), but was decommissioned at the end of 2016. Note that “hourly load values” are often inconsistent with “monthly consumption”. The difference is not fully captured by the “representativity factor“. It will be replaced by
• ENTSO-E Power Statistics (data from 2016 onwards). Allows download only for one country per month.
• ENTSO-E Transparency (data from 2015 onwards). With the limitations mentioned above.

IEA Monthly Electricity Statistics. Monthly electricity consumption for OECD member countries; methodology aligned with Eurostat.

1.2 German load data

AG Energiebilanzen. Yearly energy balances for Germany, including yearly electricity consumption by sector.

BDEW Strom-Kennzahlen. Monthly power consumption for Germany.

Statistisches Bundesamt. Monthly power consumption for Germany.

Load by balancing area. By TSOs Amprion, 50Hertz, TenneT, Transnet BW; hourly resolution.

2.1 Installed capacity

IRENA RE Capacity Statistics. Installed renewable capacity since 2006 for all countries world-wide. PDF.

Eurostat nrg_113a. Click on the plus-sign next to the “Energy Indicator” drop-down menu to select more fuel types. Comprehensive coverage and xls/csv download option. Does not cover the most recent year.

Eurelectric Power Statistics. Freely accessible (ignore the price tag), somewhat outdated. However, to our knowledge this is the only comprehensive source of combined heat and power (CHP) data. PDF.

EurObserv’ER Database. Different renewables-related statistics covering all EU member countries.

EWEA European Statistics Archive. Installed wind power by country for each year since 2009. Several PDFs. Older reports are not linked, but still online, such as 2006.

SolarPower Europe (formerly EPIA). Does not seem to provide any data anymore besides the Global Market Outlook (registration required).

IEA PVPS. Global solar PV capacities dating back to 1992.

United Nations Statistics Division Energy Statistics Database. Annual capacity data.

ENTSO-E Statistical Factsheet. Annual data on installed capacity as well as generation and physical flows by technology and country 2009–2015. PDF files.

ENTSO-E mid-term Adequacy Forecast. (Formerly System Outlook and Adequacy Forecasts) Includes downloadable datasets of generation capacity (XLSX).

2.2 Generation

Eurostat nrg_105m. Monthly electricity generation for European countries. Click on the plus-sign next to the “Energy Indicator” drop-down menu to select fuel types. Comprehensive coverage and xls/csv download option. Does not cover the most recent year.

IEA Monthly electricity statistics. Monthly electricity generation since 2007 by fuel category for OECD member countries. User-friendly XLS-download of the entire dataset available.

ENTSO-E Production Data. Monthly generation by fuel type—more detailed fuel categories than the IEA.

ENTSO-E Inventory of Generation. Includes, inter alia, detailed hydro categories.

ENTSO-E Statistical Factsheet. Annual data on installed capacity as well as generation and physical flows by technology and country since 2009. PDF files.

BP Statistical Review. Annual generation data for many countries globally, some dating back to 1965.

ENTSO-E Incerconnector Data. Hourly physical flows, scheduled flows, and NTCs from 2011 to 2014—but be prepared for quite some work to clean up the files.

CASC flow-based market coupling data. Available transfer capacity, price spreads, and other data.

4.1 Germany

BNetzA Anlagenregister: PV and other renewables. Renewable power plants, provided by Bundesnetzagentur.

Netztransparenz. Renewable power plants, provided by the four German TSO’s. See also 50Hertz, Amprion, TenneT, and TransnetBW, which individually provide data on renewable power plants. Reportings are discontinued since mid/end 2014. EnergyMap (see Data Projects) aggregates and processes the data.

BNetzA Kraftwerksliste. German power plants, collected by the regulators. Downloadable as CSV/XLS.

BNetzA List of pow­er plant clo­sure no­ti­fi­ca­tions German power plants scheduled for final or temporary shutdown or mothballing, collected by the regulators. Downloadable as CSV.

UBA Kraftwerksliste. By Umweltbundesamt, XLS.

BDEW: projects. Planned power plants, only as PDF.

4.2 Other European countries

BE ELIA. Belgium power plant list, downloadable as XLS.

CH Schweizerischer Wasserkraftverband. Swiss hydro power plants. More data: Hydro Geodata, Hydro Excel ZIP, Nuclear Geodata.

CZ CEPS

DE AT CH EEX Transparency. Provides geographic information for some power plants.

DE, NO Hydro power plants of renpass. The open source simulation energy model renpass (Renewable Energy Pathways Simulation System) includes a detailed register of hydropower plants, pump storage, and reservoirs. You can find the data in the renpass MySQL database. Last update 2014.

FR RTE. Power plants >100MW, downloadable as XLS.

GB DECC. Power plant list and other relevant data, downloadable as XLS.

GB National Grid: Projects. Planned power plants.

IE Single Electricity Market Committee (SEM). PLEXOS Forecast Model for 2016–17 for Ireland., including input data (thermal generator characteristic, hourly wind profiles and hourly demand profiles).

IT TERNA. Italian power plants. The English version is outdated.

NL TenneT. Dutch power plants.

4.3. America

US United States Wind Turbine Database (USWTDB). Location data and technical information on Wind Turbines in the US.

4.3. Global datasets

Global Power Plant Database
Collaboration led by WRI that maintains a comprehensive, open source database of power plants around the world. Each power plant is geolocated and entries contain information on plant capacity, generation, ownership, and fuel type. As of April 2018, the database includes around 25,500 power plants from 162 countries.

Global Energy Observatory. The Global Energy Observatory (GEO) lists powerplants by country and fuel type. It covers 40–95% of installed capacity of European countries (self-reported).

industryAbout. Global list of powerplants.

Wikipedia. List of power plants. Data can be extracted using DBpedia.

5.1 Nordic region

NO NVE. Norwegian hydro power reservoir levels by week (Norwegian). For more information and data see NVE’s English website.

SE Svensk Energi. Swedish hydro power data (Swedish). XLS-download requires registration.

SE Svenska Kraftät. Hourly generation data (Swedish).

FI Finnish Energy. Monthly hydro power generation in Finland (Finnish).

5.2 Alps region

FR eaufrance. Day-by-day river flow data (French).

FR RTE. Aggregated French hydro power reservoir levels by week.

CH Hydropower statistics and Geodata. Excel and PDF files with detailed data on hydro stations in Switzerland.

CH Hydro runoff data. River runoff data for Swiss hydrological network.

6.1 Spot

Energinet.dk. Fabulous website of the Danish TSO, providing day-ahead spot prices for DE/AT, NO, SE, DK (all bidding zones), dating back to 2002.

OMIE. Extensive archive of Spanish and Portugese price and market data.

EXAA. Spot price data for DE/AT from the Energy Exchange Austria from 2002 to today.

Power Exchanges. EPEX (DE/AT, FR, CH, NL, UK) and Nordpool (NO, SE, DK, FI) provide price data, but they charge for data access.

6.2 Balancing

DE Regelleistung.net. German and Dutch tendering plattform. Expect messy data files! See analysis slides.

DE Imbalance Price (Amprion). Since 2008, the German TSOs charge a uniform imbalance price for deviations from schedules. Also from 50Hertz. See article.

DE Activation (50Hertz). Activation of secondary control in Germany (Netzregelverbund) and Europe (IGCC), starting in 2010.

GB Imbalance Price (Elexon). The UK has a two-price system, featuring the System Sell Price (SSP) and the System Buy Price (SBP). Elexon provides price data via the Balancing Mechanism Reporting System. See guidance.

UCTE Network frequency. Time series from RTE. Visualized UCTE live data without data download at Netzfrequenzmessung.de, Swissgrid and Netzfrequenz.info.

7.1 Emission data

UNFCCC greenhouse gases inventories. Greenhouse gases by country and activity (industry, transport, power, …) from 1990 until t-2. XLS file by year.

EDGAR. The Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR) by EU’s Joint Research Centre.

CDIAC. The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC) is the primary climate-change data and information analysis center of the U.S. Department of Energy.

OECD. GHG emissions by country, source, and year.

IEA. Emissions data from the International Energy Agency.

CAIT. CAIT Climate Data Explorer: historical emissions by country. Provided by the World Resource Institute.

BP Statistical Review. Annual emissions by country.

EIA. U.S. Energy Information Agency.

World Bank. GHG emissions by country/year.

EEA. EU ETS data viewer; provides aggregated data on emissions and allowances by country, sector, and year. Data stem mainly comes from the EU Transaction Log.

EEA: Trends and projections. Emissions data by country and sector (PDF).

7.2 ETS price data

ICE: EUA prices. Via Quandl.

EEX: Primary auction results. Since 2012, XLS.

EEA: Prices 2005-11 and 2008-12. EUA future prices, XLS download option available.

AT E-Control and Statistik Austria

DE Netztransparenz (TSOs)

10.1 Transparency websites

Since REMIT (Regulation on Wholesale Energy Markets Integrity and Transparency) was adopted in 2011, both system operators and market participants are oblidged to publish a range of “transparency data”. The goal of REMIT is to combat insider trading and market manipulation, hence it is focused on short-term and real-time data. REMIT data are published on different data portals (see Acer overview), some of which also provide longer historical time series. Data portals that narrowly focus on power plant unavailability data are not listed here.

GB neta. Since 2014, Elexon publishes British REMIT data on its neta website.

BE Elia Transparency

IT Terna

SE Svenska Kraftnät