Pushing Measurements to the alitiq Solar API 📊

This guide explains how to push measurements from a Solar PV power plant to the alitiq Solar API. Measurements are critical for enhancing forecast accuracy and for monitoring performance.

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Overview

The alitiq Solar API allows you to submit real-time or historical measurement data from your Solar PV systems. Each measurement includes details about the time of recording, power output, and additional optional information like irradiance.

Key Features ✨

• Real-time Measurements: Submit live data for improved forecast accuracy.
• Historical Measurements: Push past data for performance analysis and enhanced forecasting.
• Optimized Forecasting: With historical measurement data of up to 90 days, the API provides highly optimized forecasts tailored to your PV system.
• Flexible Time Intervals: Define custom intervals for measurements (e.g., 15 minutes).

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Required Measurement Data

When pushing measurements, you need to include the following information:

Field	Type	Description	Default
location_id	str	Unique ID of the location where the measurement was recorded.	None
dt	datetime	Timestamp of the measurement (ISO 8601 format).	None
power	float	Power output recorded (in specified unit).	None
irradiance	float	(Optional) Irradiance value in W/m².	-1.0
power_measure	str	Unit of power measurement (kW, W, etc.).	kW
timezone	str	Timezone of the measurement data.	UTC
interval_in_minutes	int	Interval between measurements (in minutes).	15
window_boundary	str	Defines the interval's alignment (begin, center, or end).	end

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Note on Historical Measurements

To provide highly optimized forecasts, the API requires at least 90 days of historical measurement data for a given Solar PV system. This data enables the system to fine-tune forecasts to match the unique characteristics of your setup. This data needs to updated once per day for the last 24 hours. In case of diurnal updates, alitiq will adapt the forecast tot the latest observations every 15 minutes.

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Example Code to Push Measurements

Here’s an example demonstrating how to submit measurement data using the measurement/add endpoint and the python-SDK method post_measurements:

python requestsalitiq-pycURL

import requests

url = "https://solar.alitiq.com/measurement/add"

payload = [
    {
        "location_id": 2,
        "dt": "2022-03-06T09:45:00.000",
        "power": 201,
        "irradiance": -1,
        "interval_in_minutes": 15,
        "timezone": "UTC",
        "window_boundary": "end",
        "power_measure": "kW"
    },
    {
        "location_id": 2,
        "dt": "2022-03-06T10:00:00.000",
        "power": 213,
        "irradiance": -1,
        "interval_in_minutes": 15,
        "timezone": "UTC",
        "window_boundary": "end",
        "power_measure": "kW"
    },
    {
        "location_id": 2,
        "dt": "2022-03-06T10:15:00.000",
        "power": 242,
        "irradiance": -1,
        "interval_in_minutes": 15,
        "timezone": "UTC",
        "window_boundary": "end",
        "power_measure": "kW"
    },
    {
        "location_id": 2,
        "dt": "2022-03-06T10:30:00.000",
        "power": 270,
        "irradiance": 234,
        "interval_in_minutes": 15,
        "timezone": "UTC",
        "window_boundary": "end",
        "power_measure": "kW"
    },
    {
        "location_id": 2,
        "dt": "2022-03-06T10:45:00.000",
        "power": 320,
        "irradiance": -1,
        "interval_in_minutes": 15,
        "timezone": "UTC",
        "window_boundary": "end",
        "power_measure": "kW"
    },
    {
        "location_id": 2,
        "dt": "2022-03-06T11:00:00.000",
        "power": 397,
        "irradiance": -1,
        "interval_in_minutes": 15,
        "timezone": "UTC",
        "window_boundary": "end",
        "power_measure": "kW"
    }
]
headers = {"Content-Type": "application/json", "x-api-key": {api-key}}

response = requests.request("POST", url, json=payload, headers=headers)

print(response.text)

from datetime import datetime
from alitiq import alitiqSolarAPI, PvMeasurementForm

# Initialize the API client
solar_api = alitiqSolarAPI(api_key="your-api-key")

# Create measurement data
pv_measurements = [
    PvMeasurementForm(
        location_id="SP123",
        dt=datetime(2024, 6, 10, 10).isoformat(),
        power=120.5,
        power_measure="kW",
        timezone="UTC",
        interval_in_minutes=15,
        window_boundary="end",
    ),
    PvMeasurementForm(
        location_id="SP123",
        dt=datetime(2024, 6, 10, 10, 15).isoformat(),
        power=90.8,
        power_measure="kW",
        timezone="UTC",
        interval_in_minutes=15,
        window_boundary="end",
    ),
    PvMeasurementForm(
        location_id="SP123",
        dt=datetime(2024, 6, 10, 10, 30).isoformat(),
        power=150.0,
        power_measure="kW",
        timezone="UTC",
        interval_in_minutes=15,
        window_boundary="end",
    ),
]

# Push measurements to the API
response = solar_api.post_measurements(pv_measurements)

# Print the API response
print("API Response:", response)

curl --request POST \
  --url https://solar.alitiq.com/measurement/add \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --header 'x-api-key: {api-key}' \
  --data '[
    {
        "location_id": 2,
        "dt": "2022-03-06T09:45:00.000",
        "power": 201.0,
        "irradiance": -1,
        "interval_in_minutes": 15,
        "timezone": "UTC",
        "window_boundary": "end",
        "power_measure": "kW"
    },
    {
        "location_id": 2,
        "dt": "2022-03-06T10:00:00.000",
        "power": 213.0,
        "irradiance": -1,
        "interval_in_minutes": 15,
        "timezone": "UTC",
        "window_boundary": "end",
        "power_measure": "kW"
    },
    {
        "location_id": 2,
        "dt": "2022-03-06T10:15:00.000",
        "power": 242.0,
        "irradiance": -1,
        "interval_in_minutes": 15,
        "timezone": "UTC",
        "window_boundary": "end",
        "power_measure": "kW"
    },
    {
        "location_id": 2,
        "dt": "2022-03-06T10:30:00.000",
        "power": 270.0,
        "irradiance": 234.0,
        "interval_in_minutes": 15,
        "timezone": "UTC",
        "window_boundary": "end",
        "power_measure": "kW"
    },
    {
        "location_id": 2,
        "dt": "2022-03-06T10:45:00.000",
        "power": 320,
        "irradiance": -1,
        "interval_in_minutes": 15,
        "timezone": "UTC",
        "window_boundary": "end",
        "power_measure": "kW"
    },
    {
        "location_id": 2,
        "dt": "2022-03-06T11:00:00.000",
        "power": 397,
        "irradiance": -1,
        "interval_in_minutes": 15,
        "timezone": "UTC",
        "window_boundary": "end",
        "power_measure": "kW"
    }
]'

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API Response

• A successful request will return a confirmation message indicating the data was received and processed.
• If there are validation errors (e.g., missing fields, incorrect formats), the API will return an error message with details.

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Notes on Best Practices

• Batch Submissions: Push multiple measurements in a single API call for efficiency.
• Time Synchronization: Ensure timestamps (dt) are accurate and in the correct timezone.
• Historical Data: Provide at least 90 days of measurements to unlock optimized forecasting.
• Validation: Use the SDK's PvMeasurementForm for automatic data validation.

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For further assistance, please reach out to support@alitiq.com. 🌟