National Energy System Operator (NESO)

The National Energy System Operator (NESO) is Great Britain's publicly owned, operationally independent electricity system operator and whole-energy system planner, created on 1 October 2024 when the UK government purchased National Grid Electricity System Operator Limited and folded in gas system planning from National Gas Transmission. NESO balances the GB electricity system in real time, runs the connections queue, publishes Future Energy Scenarios, and sits at the centre of the value chain between generators, interconnectors, transmission and distribution networks, and suppliers. Its API posture is the sector's classic split, and NESO lands firmly on the open side of that split. Market and system data is genuinely open and anonymous - the NESO Data Portal exposes 128 datasets over a public CKAN API at api.neso.energy with no key, no account and no application, all under the permissive NESO Open Data Licence, and the Carbon Intensity API for Great Britain that NESO develops is one of the most openly consumed public energy APIs in the world. There is no consumer data surface at all, and none is expected, because NESO holds no retail customer relationships, Britain has no consumer energy data-portability mandate comparable to the Australian Consumer Data Right, and smart-meter consumption data travels through the licensed Smart DCC monopoly rather than through the system operator. NESO's open-data obligation comes from Ofgem's Data Best Practice Guidance embedded in its RIIO-2 licence, and unlike most of the sector that obligation is visibly implemented rather than merely claimed.

National Energy System Operator (NESO) publishes 5 API contracts indexed on the APIs.io network, including Datastore API, Discovery API, Metadata API, and 2 more. Tagged areas include Energy, United Kingdom, Electricity, Energy Markets, and Grid.

The National Energy System Operator (NESO) catalog on APIs.io includes 1 Spectral governance ruleset.

National Energy System Operator (NESO)’s developer surface includes authentication, documentation, developer portal, API reference, support, product news, and 24 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Profile data on GitHub

41.5/100 developing ▬ flat Agent 25/100 agent aware Front door AI 2/6 trace Heartbeat 100/100 alive saas Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-11-06 · rubric v0.27.0 · Show this score on your site →

AccessOpen

1 published contract 4 Agent Skills

Energy United Kingdom Electricity Energy Markets Grid Open Data Carbon Renewables Gas Demand Response Carbon Intensity

What this lets a business do 1

Business capabilities this provider's published APIs can perform, derived from its own contracts. Browse all capabilities →

Data & Reference Information Services

AE-230

DatastoreDiscoveryMetadata

GET /datastore_search GET /datastore_search_sql GET /package_list GET /package_show

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-11-06 · rubric v0.27.0

Composite quality — 41.5/100 · developing

Contract Quality 9.2 / 21

Developer Ergonomics 7.6 / 17

Access Clarity 3.6 / 17

Operational Transparency 4.9 / 11

Contract Governance 1.9 / 10

Discoverability 5.7 / 9

Regulatory Posture 4.8 / 15

Agent readiness — 25/100 · agent aware

Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 0 / 10

Documented Reversibility 6 / 6

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 10

Idempotency 9 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 8 / 8

Request/Response Examples 0 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 7 / 7

Typed Event Surface 0 / 6

Agent Skills 5 / 5

Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3

A2A Agent Card 0 / 8

Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 4 / 4

Delegated User Identity 0 / 6

Protected Resource Metadata 0 / 5

Registration Without a Human 0 / 6

Agentic Commerce Well-Known Document 0 / 5

Pagination 5 / 5

Distinct Operations 3 / 3

MCP Tool Quality 6 / 6

Regulatory Posture applies to this provider. Its tags matched the Energy & Utilities regime, so Regulatory Posture carries 15 points of the composite. If this regime is wrong for your business, say so on your provider repo — the applicability map is public and we will correct it.

Create-or-Update Ergonomics does not apply to this provider. The published contracts declare no write operations, and a read-only API cannot create-or-update. The facet is excluded from this provider's denominator entirely — not scored zero. A reference or data API is not deficient for being unable to upsert.

The six quality facets above are damped to 85 points between them, because the conditional facet above carries the other 15. That is why each facet's contribution is shown against a damped maximum: raising a quality facet moves the composite by 85% of its nominal weight, not 100%. The full arithmetic is at apis.io/rating/.

Show this score on your site.

It updates itself when the score changes. Paste this where you link to your API docs:

<a href="https://apis.io/providers/neso/"><img src="https://apis.io/badge/neso/card.svg" alt="National Energy System Operator (NESO) on APIs.io — Kin Score by API Evangelist"></a>

Other styles, a README pill and a shields.io endpoint are on the badge page.

Raise your score.

Agent readiness — checks not met, largest first (exact, from this profile):

MCP Server +12 pts — deployment.mode + probe verdict on the mcp/ manifest, not the pointer; an unprobed slug falls back to authorship
Agentic Access Contract +10 pts — agentic_access artifact present (x-agentic-access), graded by author
A2A Agent Card +8 pts — a2a/-a2a.yml manifest, graded on conformance.grade against A2A 1.0.0
Request/Response Examples +7 pts — share of operations carrying request/response examples; else an Examples / Code Samples link
Registration Without a Human +6 pts — a `registration_endpoint` in the served RFC 8414 / OIDC discovery document
Delegated User Identity +6 pts — a served discovery document listing authorization_code in grant_types_supported (served), else an oauth2 authorizationCode flow or openIdConnect declared in an OpenAPI (documented)

5 more unmet checks in the Agent Readiness table above.

Kin Score — facets with the most composite points still available (weight × headroom):

Access Clarity scores 21.1 — up to +15.8 composite points
Contract Quality scores 43.5 — up to +14.1 composite points
Developer Ergonomics scores 44.6 — up to +11.1 composite points

Each check links to what satisfies it. Publish the artifact, or tell us where it already lives, and the score moves on the next scoring run.

Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. Every facet and dimension name above is a link: it opens that measurement's own page — what it means, the exact checks that feed it, how the whole catalog distributes on it, and the providers at the top of it. This rating is computed from the provider profile at artifacts.apis.io/neso/apis.yml: open an issue on github.com/api-evangelist/neso to ask a question or point us at an artifact you publish. Submit an artifact on GitHub — free → Manage your own listing — the Influence plan, $499/mo →

Standards implemented 1

Standards this provider implements or carries. De facto ones are profiled and measured by the API Commons; formal ones come from the standards directory and are linked by the provider's own tags. The evidence column says how each claim was established — not that it was made.

OpenAPI

measured — observed by APIs.io (published)

APIs 5

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

Carbon Intensity API

The official Carbon Intensity API for Great Britain, developed by NESO, giving national and regional carbon intensity of GB electricity - actual, forecast up to 96+ hours ahead,...

National Energy System Operator (NESO) Datastore API

Query tabular data with filters or PostgreSQL-style SQL.

National Energy System Operator (NESO) Discovery API

Discovery endpoints for organizations, datasets, and tags.

National Energy System Operator (NESO) Metadata API

Retrieve metadata for datasets and resources.

National Energy System Operator (NESO) Search API

Search endpoints for datasets and resources.

Agent Skills 4

Packaged agent skills for driving this provider's APIs from an AI assistant.

Read and forecast GB carbon intensity

AGENT SKILL

Run SQL analytics against a NESO data file

AGENT SKILL

Find and query a NESO Data Portal dataset

AGENT SKILL

Get regional GB carbon intensity by postcode or DNO region

AGENT SKILL

National Energy System Operator (NESO) API pricing

Rate limits

CKAN Action API requests: 1 requests per second
Datastore API requests: 2 requests per minute
Carbon Intensity API: unpublished

Rate-limit details →

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Neso Rate Limits

3 limits

RATE LIMITS

Spectral Rules 1

Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.

National Energy System Operator (NESO) API Rules

54 rules · 52 errors 1 warnings 1 info

SPECTRAL

Security Posture 3

Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.

Neso Authentication

none · 0 schemes

SECURITY

Neso Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · HSTS · DNSSEC · DMARC

SECURITY

Neso Vulnerability Disclosure

Hackerone · security.txt · contact published

SECURITY

Resources

Get Started 1

Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call

Portal

Portal

Documentation 2

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation

Documentation

APIReference

APIReference

Agent Surfaces 4

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

WellKnown

WellKnown

X-MCPServerCandidate

X-MCPServerCandidate

AgentSkill

AgentSkill

LLMsTxt

LLMsTxt

Design & Contract 5

Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events

Conventions

ErrorCatalog

Lifecycle

Conformance

DataModel

Build 2

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

Packages

Packages

GitHubOrganization

GitHubOrganization

Access & Security 5

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

VulnerabilityDisclosure

VulnerabilityDisclosure

Security

SecurityTxt

DomainSecurity

Authentication

Operate 3

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

IssueTracker

IssueTracker

RateLimits

RateLimits

Support

Support

Commercial 2

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

TermsOfService

TermsOfService

PrivacyPolicy

PrivacyPolicy

Company 4

The organization behind the API

Website

Website

LinkedIn

BlogRSS

BlogRSS

News

News

Other 2

Properties that don't map to a standard resource type

CapabilityMap

CapabilityMap

Licensing

Licensing

Source (apis.yml)

aid: neso
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/neso/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
name: National Energy System Operator (NESO)
kind: company
description: The National Energy System Operator (NESO) is Great Britain's publicly owned, operationally independent electricity
  system operator and whole-energy system planner, created on 1 October 2024 when the UK government purchased National Grid
  Electricity System Operator Limited and folded in gas system planning from National Gas Transmission. NESO balances the
  GB electricity system in real time, runs the connections queue, publishes Future Energy Scenarios, and sits at the centre
  of the value chain between generators, interconnectors, transmission and distribution networks, and suppliers. Its API posture
  is the sector's classic split, and NESO lands firmly on the open side of that split. Market and system data is genuinely
  open and anonymous - the NESO Data Portal exposes 128 datasets over a public CKAN API at api.neso.energy with no key, no
  account and no application, all under the permissive NESO Open Data Licence, and the Carbon Intensity API for Great Britain
  that NESO develops is one of the most openly consumed public energy APIs in the world. There is no consumer data surface
  at all, and none is expected, because NESO holds no retail customer relationships, Britain has no consumer energy data-portability
  mandate comparable to the Australian Consumer Data Right, and smart-meter consumption data travels through the licensed
  Smart DCC monopoly rather than through the system operator. NESO's open-data obligation comes from Ofgem's Data Best Practice
  Guidance embedded in its RIIO-2 licence, and unlike most of the sector that obligation is visibly implemented rather than
  merely claimed.
deliveryModel:
  model: saas
  license_evidence:
    not_product:
    - carbon-intensity/api-definitions
  open_source: unknown
  commercial: true
  callable_host: false
  label: Hosted service · you call their endpoint
  confidence: low
  source:
  - pricing
  - repository-not-product
  generated: '2026-09-25'
  method: derived
accessModel:
  pricing: unknown
  onboarding: open
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: true
  gated: none
  gated_source:
  - onboarding
  label: Open access
  confidence: medium
  source:
  - authentication
  - rate-limits
  - security
  generated: '2026-11-06'
  method: derived
image: https://www.neso.energy/themes/custom/neso_theme/logo.svg
tags:
- Energy
- United Kingdom
- Electricity
- Energy Markets
- Grid
- Open Data
- Carbon
- Renewables
- Gas
- Demand Response
- Carbon Intensity
created: '2026-07-27'
modified: '2026-07-27'
specificationVersion: '0.23'
apis:
- aid: neso:neso-carbon-intensity-api
  name: Carbon Intensity API
  description: The official Carbon Intensity API for Great Britain, developed by NESO, giving national and regional carbon
    intensity of GB electricity - actual, forecast up to 96+ hours ahead, half-hourly generation mix, per-fuel emission factors,
    and regional breakdowns by DNO region, region id, or postcode. Fully anonymous REST/JSON over HTTPS with no API key and
    no registration; documented as a Slate reference site rather than as a downloadable OpenAPI contract.
  humanURL: https://carbon-intensity.github.io/api-definitions/
  baseURL: https://api.carbonintensity.org.uk
  tags:
  - Carbon
  - Electricity
  - Renewables
  - Grid
  - Open Data
  properties:
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://carbon-intensity.github.io/api-definitions/
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://carbonintensity.org.uk/
  - type: GitHubOrganization
    url: https://github.com/carbon-intensity
  - type: SourceCode
    url: https://github.com/carbon-intensity/api-definitions
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://github.com/carbon-intensity/terms
  - type: Authentication
    url: authentication/neso-authentication.yml
  - type: Conventions
    url: conventions/neso-conventions.yml
  - type: ErrorCatalog
    url: errors/neso-error-codes.yml
  - type: DataModel
    url: data-model/neso-data-model.yml
- aid: neso:neso-datastore-api
  name: National Energy System Operator (NESO) Datastore API
  description: Query tabular data with filters or PostgreSQL-style SQL.
  humanURL: https://www.neso.energy/data-portal/api-guidance
  baseURL: https://api.neso.energy/api/3/action
  tags:
  - Datastore
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/neso-datastore-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.neso.energy/data-portal
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://www.neso.energy/data-portal/api-guidance
  - type: Licensing
    url: https://www.neso.energy/data-portal/neso-open-licence
  - type: RateLimits
    url: rate-limits/neso-rate-limits.yml
  - type: Authentication
    url: authentication/neso-authentication.yml
  - type: Conventions
    url: conventions/neso-conventions.yml
  - type: ErrorCatalog
    url: errors/neso-error-codes.yml
  - type: DataModel
    url: data-model/neso-data-model.yml
- aid: neso:neso-discovery-api
  name: National Energy System Operator (NESO) Discovery API
  description: Discovery endpoints for organizations, datasets, and tags.
  humanURL: https://www.neso.energy/data-portal/api-guidance
  baseURL: https://api.neso.energy/api/3/action
  tags:
  - Discovery
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/neso-discovery-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.neso.energy/data-portal
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://www.neso.energy/data-portal/api-guidance
  - type: Licensing
    url: https://www.neso.energy/data-portal/neso-open-licence
  - type: RateLimits
    url: rate-limits/neso-rate-limits.yml
  - type: Authentication
    url: authentication/neso-authentication.yml
  - type: Conventions
    url: conventions/neso-conventions.yml
  - type: ErrorCatalog
    url: errors/neso-error-codes.yml
  - type: DataModel
    url: data-model/neso-data-model.yml
- aid: neso:neso-metadata-api
  name: National Energy System Operator (NESO) Metadata API
  description: Retrieve metadata for datasets and resources.
  humanURL: https://www.neso.energy/data-portal/api-guidance
  baseURL: https://api.neso.energy/api/3/action
  tags:
  - Metadata
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/neso-metadata-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.neso.energy/data-portal
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://www.neso.energy/data-portal/api-guidance
  - type: Licensing
    url: https://www.neso.energy/data-portal/neso-open-licence
  - type: RateLimits
    url: rate-limits/neso-rate-limits.yml
  - type: Authentication
    url: authentication/neso-authentication.yml
  - type: Conventions
    url: conventions/neso-conventions.yml
  - type: ErrorCatalog
    url: errors/neso-error-codes.yml
  - type: DataModel
    url: data-model/neso-data-model.yml
- aid: neso:neso-search-api
  name: National Energy System Operator (NESO) Search API
  description: Search endpoints for datasets and resources.
  humanURL: https://www.neso.energy/data-portal/api-guidance
  baseURL: https://api.neso.energy/api/3/action
  tags:
  - Search
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/neso-search-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.neso.energy/data-portal
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://www.neso.energy/data-portal/api-guidance
  - type: Licensing
    url: https://www.neso.energy/data-portal/neso-open-licence
  - type: RateLimits
    url: rate-limits/neso-rate-limits.yml
  - type: Authentication
    url: authentication/neso-authentication.yml
  - type: Conventions
    url: conventions/neso-conventions.yml
  - type: ErrorCatalog
    url: errors/neso-error-codes.yml
  - type: DataModel
    url: data-model/neso-data-model.yml
common:
- type: CapabilityMap
  url: capabilities/neso-capability-edges.yml
  name: National Energy System Operator (NESO) Business Capability Map
- type: IssueTracker
  url: https://github.com/carbon-intensity/api-definitions/issues
- type: VulnerabilityDisclosure
  url: security/neso-vulnerability-disclosure.yml
- type: Security
  url: https://www.neso.energy/responsible-disclosure
- type: SecurityTxt
  url: well-known/neso-security.txt
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/neso-domain-security.yml
- type: WellKnown
  url: well-known/neso-well-known.yml
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/neso-authentication.yml
- type: Conventions
  url: conventions/neso-conventions.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/neso-rate-limits.yml
- type: ErrorCatalog
  url: errors/neso-error-codes.yml
- type: Lifecycle
  url: lifecycle/neso-lifecycle.yml
- type: Conformance
  url: conformance/neso-conformance.yml
- type: DataModel
  url: data-model/neso-data-model.yml
- type: Packages
  url: packages/neso-packages.yml
- type: X-MCPServerCandidate
  url: mcp/neso-mcp.yml
  note: 'Renamed from MCPServer 2026-09-03 (roadmap#247): the manifest self-describes as status: candidate — a tool list derived
    from the published API contracts, not an existing server. The scorer already read the manifest and reported mcp_server
    correctly; the MCPServer type was crediting the artifact-type surfaces with a server that does not exist.'
- type: AgentSkill
  url: skills/_index.yml
- type: LLMsTxt
  url: llms/neso-llms.txt
- type: Website
  url: https://www.neso.energy/
- type: Documentation
  url: https://www.neso.energy/data-portal/api-guidance
- type: Portal
  url: https://www.neso.energy/data-portal
- type: APIReference
  url: https://carbon-intensity.github.io/api-definitions/
- type: Licensing
  url: https://www.neso.energy/data-portal/neso-open-licence
- type: TermsOfService
  url: https://www.neso.energy/terms-and-conditions
- type: PrivacyPolicy
  url: https://www.neso.energy/privacy-policy
- type: Support
  url: https://www.neso.energy/contact-us
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/carbon-intensity
- type: LinkedIn
  url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/neso-energy
- type: BlogRSS
  url: https://www.neso.energy/rss.xml
- type: News
  url: https://www.neso.energy/news
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com

National Energy System Operator (NESO) API — frequently asked questions

Does National Energy System Operator (NESO) have an API?

Yes. APIs.io lists 5 APIs from National Energy System Operator (NESO), including Carbon Intensity API, National Energy System Operator (NESO) Datastore API and National Energy System Operator (NESO) Discovery API, and 2 more.

Is there an OpenAPI specification for the National Energy System Operator (NESO) API?

Yes. APIs.io indexes 4 OpenAPI specifications for National Energy System Operator (NESO), each linked for download from this page.

How do I authenticate with the National Energy System Operator (NESO) API?

National Energy System Operator (NESO) uses bearer-token authentication (none · 0 schemes). The details are profiled on APIs.io as Neso Authentication.

Is the National Energy System Operator (NESO) API ready for AI agents?

National Energy System Operator (NESO) has a Kin Score of 41.5 out of 100 (developing) and an Agent Readiness score of 24.6 (agent-aware), scored by API Evangelist on 2026-11-06.

Work with this as data

Every provider here is available over the APIs.io API and to AI agents over MCP.

MCP server

One button, every client — Claude, Cursor, VS Code and the rest.

https://apis.io/mcp

Tools for providers

9 MCP tools reach this

find_providersBrowse and filter every provider in the catalog.
get_provider_artifactsEvery artifact this provider publishes, grouped by type.
get_provider_operationsEvery operation across all of their OpenAPIs — one call instead of parsing every spec.
get_provider_toolsEvery MCP tool they ship, with the operation each wraps.
get_provider_evidenceHow each part of their score was established. Free — the basis for a claim should not sit behind it.
get_provider_ratingPRO — composite, band, trend and facet scores.
apis_io_searchSTART HERE — APIs, providers and tags for one query, each with its total.
resolveTurn a domain, URL or GitHub org into the provider it belongs to.
find_cohortsEvery scored population of providers in the catalog.

All 92 tools →

Call it yourself

curl for this page

This provider

curl "https://apis.io/api/v1/providers/neso"

All providers

curl "https://apis.io/api/v1/providers?limit=25"

Every operation they expose

curl "https://apis.io/api/v1/providers/neso/operations?limit=25"

How their score was established

curl "https://apis.io/api/v1/providers/neso/evidence"

Calls without X-API-Key need no key. Calls with it need a paid plan — get a key.

Get an API key

Free tier, no form to fill in. Signing in shares your email address with us — we store it to create your key and to recognise you if you sign in with another provider. See our Privacy Policy and Terms.

GitHub Google LinkedIn

A second provider on the same verified email joins the account you already have.