Summary / TL:DR

In building our utility API at Bayou Energy we’ve talked with over 300 developers, product managers, and founders building software at companies deploying clean energy devices. They all say the same thing: you can’t effectively sell clean energy solutions without customer utility data—it’s the single source of truth for cost and usage, making it a foundational building block for deploying clean energy devices.

In this series, we’ll break down the 6 must-have requirements for accessing that data and cover:

• Why each requirement matters

• Supporting details about the requirement

• Key Questions to ask solution providers

What is a utility aPI?

A utility api is software that lets your product access customer-authorized utility data automatically.

Terms (to help you better understand the rest of the post):

• Company: The business that needs access to utility data

• Customers: The end users who own utility accounts, pay bills, and must grant data-sharing permission

• Solutions: Any method (from a third-party provider or direct from the utility) to access customer-permissioned data.

The Six Must-Have Utility-API Requirements

(This serves as a table of contents – click on any individual requirement to directly dive into that post)

1. Broad Coverage: Access electric and gas, data, including utility bill data, interval meter data (15/30/60-min smart meter data collection via Green Button) and account info in standardized formats (JSON, CSV)

2. Frictionless Customer Experience: A quick, intuitive process for customers to grant data-sharing permission, including customers without existing utility logins and utilities that require multi-factor authentication. After authentication data should be delivered instantly and be refreshed often

3. Reliable with Great Support: Consistent authentication and data retrieval—plus a responsive support team when things get tricky

4. Developer-Friendly Experience: Setup and maintenance should be simple for your engineering team, without heavy overhead

5. Security: Strong encryption (in transit and at rest), secure credential handling, and compliance with relevant data protection standards

6. Total Cost of Ownership: The combined value of a solution, plus the costs to implement and maintain it, should beat building your own in-house alternative

A solution that performs well across these 6 must haves will deliver strong value to your business by:

1. Growing Your Revenue with Happy Customers

2. Saving Your Developers’ Time

Getting Started

If you have any questions about implementing a utility API or would like more details on how these requirements fit your unique use case, schedule a call with James (Bayou’s CEO). We’d love to learn more about what you’re building and how we might be able to help.

To continue reading, Here are the six parts of this series:

1. 6 Must-Have Requirements For Getting Meter Data With A Utility API (Summary)

2. Utility API Must-Haves #1: Coverage, Utility Bill Data & Interval Meter Data

3. Utility API Must-Haves #2: Customer Experience For Accessing Utility Data

4. Utility API Must-Haves #3: Reliable Utility Data Management

5. Utility API Must-Haves #4/5: Dev Friendly Meter Data Collection & Security

6. Utility API Must-Haves #6: Total Cost Of Ownership