The Fingrid open data service that has been in testing since February offers users open data about the electricity market and power system. The service has been developed from the customer perspective.

“Customers’ interest in open data has increased enormously. From Fingrid’s standpoint, the target of the new system is to also promote market functioning and efficiency. One of the prerequisites for a well-functioning market is for actors to have access to correct and up-to-date information in a format that is easy to use,” says Antti Aarnio, Fingrid’s ICT Manager for Digital Services.

The online service allows people to download data in machine-readable format at no charge. The terms of use are open. The published data is available to everyone in accordance with the licensing terms.

“There are no limits on using this data. I believe that the best way to respond to the new challenges of our rapidly changing electricity market is by making our real-time data available to external actors,” continues Aarnio.

Data requires visualisation

According to Aarnio, visualisation plays an important role when developing new services based on open data.

“The main grid, import systems and kilowatts are technical matters that are difficult for consumers to grasp. However, the consumer should be the focus when developing services. I hope that our partners will take the opportunity to use our open data to create easy-to-understand and concrete visualisations of what happens in the electricity market,” explains Aarnio.

Fingrid’s student cooperation with Demola Helsinki was aimed at finding new opportunities for visualising energy data. Aarnio says that the experience was a positive one.

“Just like competitions and hackathons, these collaboration projects are inspiring ways to start creating new open data-based services,” Aarnio says.