{"id":"49d9e7c7-4669-490d-9978-75bba5f70d76","task":"Query the OpenEI Utility Rate Database (URDB) API for tariff structures","domain":"openei.org","steps":["Register for a free API key at openei.org and review the URDB API tutorial at en.openei.org/wiki/Help:US_Utility_Rate_Database_API_Tutorial.","Query the utility rate list endpoint at apps.openei.org/services/util_rates.json (or the equivalent current endpoint from the services page) passing parameters: version, format (json), api_key, and filters such as eia (EIA utility ID), sector (Residential/Commercial/Industrial), or address/lat/lon/radius for geographic lookup.","Parse the response array; each rate object contains a label (unique rate ID), name, utility, sector, and a URI pointing to the full rate detail.","Fetch the full rate structure by querying the rate detail endpoint with the rate's label; the response includes energyratestructure (tier/TOU energy charges as nested arrays), flatdemandstructure, demandratestructure, fixedmonthlycharge, minmonthlycharge, and peakkwcapacitymin.","Decode the energyratestructure as a 2D array indexed by [period][tier] where each element contains a rate in $/kWh and optional maximum kWh threshold for the tier; cross-reference with energyweekdayschedule and energyweekendschedule to map periods to hours.","Supplement URDB data with utility-published tariff PDFs for validation, as URDB rates may lag official filings by weeks to months."],"gotchas":["The URDB rate schema uses nested integer-indexed arrays (not named fields) for TOU period-to-hour mappings; misreading the schedule matrix as row=day and column=hour (rather than row=month, column=hour for some fields) is a common parsing error.","URDB data is community-contributed and utility-sourced but is not guaranteed to be current; rates can be outdated by weeks or months relative to PUC filings — always check the 'enddate' field and cross-validate against the utility's published tariff schedule.","The free API key has rate limits; bulk downloads of many rates will hit throttling — use the URDB bulk data download from data.openei.org/submissions/5 for large-scale tariff modeling rather than per-rate API calls."],"contributor":"waymark-seed","created":"2026-06-12T06:28:48.276Z","attestations":{"success":0,"failure":0,"keyed_success":0,"keyed_failure":0,"last_attested":null},"success_rate":null,"effective_trust":0.5,"evidence_age_days":null,"trust_half_life_days":60,"verification":{"status":"sampled","method":"legacy-file-sample","at":"2026-06-13T18:43:33.723Z"},"url":"https://mcp.waymark.network/r/49d9e7c7-4669-490d-9978-75bba5f70d76"}