Central collection and publication of electricity generation, transportation and consumption data and information for the pan-European market.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Introduction

ENTSO-E is pleased to present its transparency platform. Its objective is very simple: to facilitate access to information by all market participants and stakeholders in promoting the transparency goals of the IEM.

Overview

Currently, there are four main categories of topics:
 

How to read and use FAQ

Clicking on a question will show answer below the question.

Questions

  1. Navigation
    How can I navigate between the areas?
    Select an item in the hierarchical filter in the left panel named "Area" or switch to Map view and select areas throughout the Europe. Note that in some Data views it is possible to select several borders at once.
    How can I change the displayed date?
    Click on the calendar to select the date. It's also possible to use the Previous / Next arrows. Note that in some Data views also Time interval can be selected using two calendars.
    How can I change the hour? (Map view only)
    Select the Time Zone in drop down list. Supported Time Zones are WET/WEST, CET/CEST, EET/EEST. It is also possible to display data in UTC.
  2. Data
    How can I download the displayed data ?
    Click on the "Export Data" drop list and choose data and type of file (xml or ZIP). Each Data Item is offered in separated XML files. These files with different Data items are also offered in a single ZIP file. Default export works in a way "What you see is what you download", but it is also possible to download file for complete Year.
    Please note, direct downloads, such as screen scarpping, which exceed's 40 request with-in 60 seconds, from the same user IP address, might lead to temparary ban of the user to access the platform upto 10 minutes.
    What is the content of the chosen period (day, week, month, etc.) and yearly download files?
    The xml file containing the data for chosen period (day, week, month, year, etc.). The xml file marked as "Year" contains data for chosen period for whole year.
    The ZIP file contains compresed xlm files for all present Data items.
    Is it possible to download the data with an automated tool or sftp access?
    At the present, downloads are possible via Data view.
    You can use Restful API to download data. Please refer the Restful API user guide for details.
    Also SFTP to download data. Please refer the SFTP User guide for details.
    Where can I find my Web API Security Token?
    Once ENTSO-E Helpdesk granted Restful API access, Web API Security Token could be found, after logging in Transparency Platform, under user Account Settings.
    How can I download the data from another year?
    Select a period in the desired year and click on the Year xml file.
    What is the meaning of N/A, n/e, - ?
    N/A - Not Available.  "N/A" means that data is expected, not received and therefore missing.
    n/e - not expected. "n/e" means that data is not expected, data provider is not configured for this data item,   area, border.
    " - " - ahead of time. " - " means that data is ahead of time and therefore can't be published at the moment. This usually can be seen for future time intervals.
    "  " - blank space. Blank space is published when data doesn't exist. This can happen for example for balancing data (17.1.f), when there are no activated offers and therefore price don't exists.

    Question about xml format?

    Check Wikipedia for more information about the xml format.
    Xml format was chosen by ENTSO-E EDI.
    If you have any problem to read XML files, you can use XML Copy Editor to open the XML files.
    What is the publication time for the data?
    Data are published according to internal configuration of the platform. In most cases data are published as soon as received and processed.
    What are the Cross-Border Physical Flows?
    Cross-Border Physical flows are the "live" data, provided hour after hour during the day.
  3. Administration
    How can I change my Email address?
    E-mail address in My account Settings Menu is used as login and can not be changed. Please register a new user in case you can not use the previous account any more.
  4. General information
    What are the EIC area codes?

    Areas are identified within the system by EIC codes. EIC codes are unique identifiers for the geographical same area, but could have different functions (i.e. country, control area, bidding zone, etc.).

    For instance an EIC code can identify a Country and a Control Area with the same unique code, as long as the geographical area of both are the same.

    A list of the area codes used can be found here:

    EIC area codes.
    Do you have a link to the TSO's websites?
    Here is the list of the TSOs Websites.
    How can I understand the content of XML files available for download from the Platform?

    Testing