Frequently Asked Questions - FAQs

We are committed to sharing data with our customers and stakeholders on a presumed open basis. We recognise that access to data and information will be a key enabler in our ability to achieve Net Zero, and that we have an important role in facilitating efficient whole system planning and operation and supporting the development of new market opportunities. Our Open Data Portal is a centralised repository for all data that can be shared openly, providing a method to easily search our data and consume data via an Application Programming Interface (API).

We have created a short video to show you how to register, find data and maximise our Portal’s services. Registration to our Open Data Portal is free and can be done at any time by clicking here, or via the ‘Signup’ button at the top of the page. If you already have an account on a different Opendatasoft portal, you can request access to ours here, or via the 'Login' button at the top of the page. If you require any support, please contact the Open Data Team by email at opendata@spenergynetworks.co.uk.

If you are having issues with your Opendatasoft account, please contact their support team at support@opendatasoft.com.

You can provide feedback at a dataset or row level by logging in to our Open Data Portal, accessing the individual dataset via our Data Catalogue, navigating to the feedback tab, and selecting the “Feedback” icon. You can also provide general feedback by following this “Provide Feedback” link, which can also be found within the “Contact Us” section at the top of any Portal page.

Our Open Data Portal provides access to data about our Distribution and Transmission networks under our Open and Shared Data Licences. These licences align with Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public Licence. You are encouraged to use and re-use Licensed Material under our Open Data Licence freely and flexibly, with only a few conditions. Any Licensed Material accessed under our Shared Data Licence must be kept confidential under the terms of this Licence and is not Open Data. For full details see Open Data Licence / Shared Data Licence.
We would love to hear about what you are doing with our data. Reach out to our Team at opendata@spenergynetworks.co.uk to share your case studies and help us understand how our data is being used.

The metadata of each dataset – found within the ‘Information’ tab of the dataset – provides information on how frequently it is updated, and when the last update was carried out. For any specific enquiries on individual datasets please send an email to opendata@spenergynetworks.co.uk. You can also provide general feedback by following this “Provide Feedback” link, which can also be found within the “Contact Us” section at the top of any Portal page.

Some of our datasets are very large and may exceed the maximum row limitation of Excel (varies between versions), and you will be unable to download the complete datasets. As this is a limitation of Excel, it is not something that we have control over. You should filter the data to your requirements prior to exporting, which will also reduce download times. If this does not resolve your issue, please contact us at opendata@spenergynetworks.co.uk. You can also provide general feedback by following this “Provide Feedback” link, which can also be found within the “Contact Us” section at the top of any Portal page.

In order to view any of the data within our feature pages, all users are required to register and login to our Open Data Portal. See FAQ “How do I access SPEN Open Data Portal and view datasets?”. For more information on how to register or view our “Getting Started” video.

APIs require a user specific key to fetch data from our Portal. To produce your API key, you will need to navigate to the ‘Your account’ page by clicking your name in the top right corner of the home page. Your specific key is shown within the “API keys” tab, which can be used to generate an API for any of our datasets.

We are committed to sharing our data with our stakeholders and will be publishing additional datasets as the development of our Open Data Portal progresses. We will continue to work with our internal and external stakeholders to identify potential new datasets for publication. If you have ideas for what data you would like to see us publish, please let us know by selecting this link Request Data or follow the “Request Data” within the “Contact Us” section at the top of any Portal page.

This will depend on the individual dataset. The description of the individual dataset will detail what volume of data is available. For any specific enquiries on individual datasets please send an email to opendata@spenergynetworks.co.uk.

We are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. Our privacy practices are designed to ensure that your personal data is handled securely, fairly, and lawfully. We collect, use and store personal data only when it is necessary for legitimate purposes. Find out more information in our Privacy Notice: SP Energy Networks Privacy Policy. Should you require the removal of data you believe to be private or sensitive, please contact us directly at opendata@spenergynetworks.co.uk and we will review your request.

We strive to provide helpful and accurate information, but we understand that sometimes you may need more. If you didn’t find exactly what you were looking for, please let us know by using our feedback form or contact us at opendata@spenergynetworks.co.uk. We are here to help you and improve your experience!