UK Power Networks’ DSO launches open data analysis package

Developed in collaboration with researchers at the University of Birmingham, as part of efforts through the ‘Supergen energy networks hub’ project to improve data accessibility, the Python package – ‘ukpyn’ – is aimed to gives researchers and others a simple and consistent way to work with datasets from UK Power Networks’ open data portal. 

The free to use toolkit should enable users to discover the datasets, fetch records using simple Python functions, filter results, for example by licence area or time, build reproducible analysis in notebooks and scale up from simple calls to larger workflows without needing to manually search for data, request it from different sources or write code to connect directly to raw data feeds. 

This should thus allow users to spend less time preparing data and more time doing the work that matters, including forecasting trends, analysing network behaviour, exploring flexibility markets or supporting research and business decisions that contribute to the country’s transition to a lower carbon future.  

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“Python is widely used across the energy sector for research, forecasting and modelling, but working with APIs and raw data can still be a real barrier for people trying to use open data in practice,” comments Dr Jamie Bright, data science and development manager at UK Power Networks’ DSO. 

"This is about making our data more accessible to a wider range of users. Whether someone is just getting started or already working at an advanced level, the Python package helps them use our data more quickly, more consistently and with greater confidence.”  

The coding toolkit is free to use and available through Python’s packaging index and on GitHub, with ten tutorials, reference documents and API guidance to support users from beginner to advanced level. 

Users can raise issues, suggest examples and contribute improvements, helping the library evolve with user needs. It also uses AI to automatically update the package to any changes or new data on the open data portal, maintaining reliability for users as the data evolves.  

UK Power Networks’ datasets are claimed one of the UK's biggest sets of information about the electricity network, with the open data portal bringing together thousands of datasets from a vast range of sources to provide visibility of its network assets, where they are, what capacity they have and how they are being used. 

This includes the latest figures on flexibility dispatches and power flows as well as details of nearly 1,000 large-scale energy generation sites in its service area across London, the southeast and east of England in a range of maps and tables. 

The Supergen energy networks hub project is a £9 million government funded initiative bringing together collaborative teams from industry, academia, government and civil society for research on the networks to become a driving force in the energy transition. 

The main pillars of the research are on net zero whole systems, large scale energy networks and regional and local energy networks with a focus in each on digitalisation, policy, markets and regulation and risk and resilience. 

The project is directed by Professor Phil Taylor, Vice Chancellor of the University of Bath.