Celebrating 1 Year of Plug Intervals: Expanded coverage and new features

Talk to anyone in the energy industry — whether a residential solar developer, corporate energy manager, demand response provider, or procurement advisor — and they will likely tell you that interval data is a valuable input to their work. With numerous use cases, interval data enables a deep understanding of consumption patterns, leading to better analysis, optimization, and decision-making.

Despite its immense value, interval data can be notoriously difficult to obtain, as few utilities allow third party access in standardized, API-based formats. To address this challenge, Arcadia launched our Plug Intervals product in May 2024, making it easier for energy users and service providers to access normalized interval data via a single API. 

Arcadia’s product and engineering teams have been very busy in the intervening year, so to celebrate the 1-year anniversary of our Plug Intervals launch, we’re highlighting several new features that we’ve released in recent months:

Coverage expansion to Texas and beyond

Arcadia completed our integration with Smart Meter Texas in December 2024, which expanded interval data access to over 17 million electric meters in the ERCOT market. We are continuing to add new providers across the US and Canada, most recently expanding to Alliant Energy, Ameren, and Central Maine Power.  

With these coverage expansions, Arcadia now supports data access to over 70% of US electric AMI meters. Combined with our broad utility provider coverage — we can access bill data across 9,000+ providers in 50+ countries - Arcadia offers the industry’s most comprehensive utility data platform.

AI-powered gap filling

Utility-published data often contains gaps that can distort calculations and lead to inaccurate analysis. Our normalized API now employs a machine learning model to fill gaps in interval data with estimated values, ensuring a continuous data stream for more accurate analysis. With accuracy typically exceeding 90%, this innovation means users can spend less time cleaning data and more time focusing on their core business objectives.

CSV download flexibility

While API access remains the most powerful way to integrate interval data, we've added CSV download functionality to the Arcadia Dashboard for maximum flexibility. Users can now download data for a single meter or multiple meters, choose between raw or normalized data formats, and select their preferred timezone. This feature offers a convenient alternative to API access for manual checks, onboarding, comparing with legacy data sources, and for users without engineering resources to build API integrations.

Instant Intervals for real-time decisions

For businesses that need data quickly, our Instant Intervals feature dramatically reduces wait times to just a few minutes for single meter credentials. Currently available for nine major providers including Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric, and Commonwealth Edison, this feature enables near real-time calculations and proposal generation, particularly benefiting residential solar proposal teams.

Enhanced Discovered Meters for informed decision making

Our Enhanced Discovered Meters feature gives users valuable insight before they commit to activating a meter. When a new meter is discovered, Arcadia automatically runs a discovery job to check the most recent interval data available and exposes that information. This critical metadata helps users make informed decisions about which meters to activate based on data availability and recency. For activated meters, we continuously update this information with each interval extraction job, ensuring visibility into data freshness. This feature is particularly valuable for users who want to optimize their meter portfolio and ensure they're only accessing interval data for meters with useful, recent data.

Auto-Activation for streamlined workflows

For users who prioritize speed and comprehensive coverage, our auto-activation feature automatically enrolls eligible interval meters upon discovery. This opt-in capability removes manual steps from the process, streamlining workflows for teams that need immediate access to all available meter data.

Looking Ahead

While we're excited about what we've built in one year, we're continuously working to expand provider coverage, enhance data normalization capabilities, and build additional features based on user feedback. One upcoming feature that we’re particularly excited about is Interval Upload, which will allow for manual data uploads, ensuring data availability even when automated collection fails.  We’re also working to improve integration between our interval data platform and our tariff calculator, which will enable users to seamlessly translate usage patterns into cost implications, identifying opportunities for savings that would otherwise remain hidden.

As we move forward, user input remains invaluable in shaping the future of our products. Have you experienced the difference our new features make? We'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions as we continue to evolve the industry’s leading utility data platform.