Open Data about Energy production and consumption

(this page is part of my Open Data, Open Society report. Please follow that link to reach the introduction and Table of Content, but don’t forget to check the notes to readers!)

Energy PSI (Public Sector Information) is easy to define: these are the sets of data that would show, with at least daily updates, how much energy is used by a whole community and by all its public structures and offices and at which hours, together with information that explains where it was produced, by which sources (coal, oil, solar, wind…) and at which cost.

Having this information constantly updated on public websites would allow everybody to build dynamic graphs and table that display supply and demand of electricity, highlight wastages or show which areas are more dependent from energy coming from other areas. Another reason to open up the data from electricity suppliers would be to justify and make more acceptable for their customers migrations to time-sensitive tariffs or other programs meant to reduce energy wastes.