Tariff Fetch

A CLI tool, and python library, to simplify downloading electric and gas utility tariff data from multiple providers in a consistent data format.

• Github repository: https://github.com/switchbox-data/tariff_fetch/
• Documentation: https://switchbox-data.github.io/tariff_fetch/
• PyPI page: https://pypi.org/project/tariff_fetch/

Requirements

• Python 3.11+

• Credentials for the providers you intend to call:

  • Genability / Arcadia Data Platform: ARCADIA_APP_ID, ARCADIA_APP_KEY

    Create an account, navigate to Applications dashboard, create an application, then copy the Application ID and Key.

  • OpenEI: OPENEI_API_KEY

    Request a key at the OpenEI API signup. The key arrives by email.

  • RateAcuity Web Portal: RATEACUITY_USERNAME, RATEACUITY_PASSWORD

    There is no self-serve signup. Contact RateAcuity to request Web Portal access. No API key is required for tariff_fetch.

• Google Chrome or Chromium installed locally (for RateAcuity)

Configuration

Populate a .env file (or export the variables manually). Only set the values you need.

ARCADIA_APP_ID=...
ARCADIA_APP_KEY=...
OPENEI_API_KEY=...
RATEACUITY_USERNAME=...
RATEACUITY_PASSWORD=...

Running CLI with uvx

If you have uv installed, you can run the cli simply with

uvx --env-file=.env --from git+https://github.com/switchbox-data/tariff_fetch tariff-fetch

Or, for gas tariffs:

uvx --env-file=.env --from git+https://github.com/switchbox-data/tariff_fetch tariff-fetch-gas

Installation

uv sync
source .venv/bin/activate

Alternative using plain pip:

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .

Running the CLI

python -m tariff_fetch.cli [OPTIONS]
python -m tariff_fetch.cli_gas [OPTIONS]

With uv:

uv run tariff-fetch [OPTIONS]
uv run tariff-fetch-gas [OPTIONS]

With Just:

just cli
just cligas

Options:

• --state / -s: two-letter state abbreviation (default: prompt)
• --providers / -p: (only for electricity benchmarks) repeat per provider (genability, openei, rateacuity)
• --output-folder / -o: directory for exports (default: ./outputs)

Omitted options will trigger interactive prompts.

Examples

# Fully interactive run
uv run tariff-fetch

# Scripted run for Genability and OpenEI
uv run tariff-fetch.cli \
  --state ca \
  --providers genability \
  --providers openei \
  --output-folder data/exports

The CLI suggests filenames like outputs/openei_Utility_sector_detail-0_2024-03-18.json before writing each file so you can accept or override them.