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]

With uv:

uv run tariff-fetch [OPTIONS]
uv run tariff-fetch ni arcadia MASTER_TARIFF_ID [EFFECTIVE_DATE] [OPTIONS]
uv run tariff-fetch ni rateacuity fuzzy STATE UTILITY_QUERY --tariff TARIFF_QUERY [--tariff TARIFF_QUERY ...] [OPTIONS]
uv run tariff-fetch ni rateacuity eia-id EIA_ID --tariff TARIFF_QUERY [--tariff TARIFF_QUERY ...] [OPTIONS]
uv run tariff-fetch gas [OPTIONS]
uv run tariff-fetch gas ni STATE UTILITY_QUERY --tariff TARIFF_QUERY [OPTIONS]
uv run tariff-fetch gas urdb [OPTIONS]
uv run tariff-fetch gas urdb ni STATE UTILITY_QUERY --year YEAR --tariff TARIFF_QUERY [OPTIONS]
uv run tariff-fetch urdb ni MASTER_TARIFF_ID YEAR [OPTIONS]

With Just:

just cli

Options:

• --state / -s: two-letter state abbreviation (default: prompt)
• --provider / -p: provider to fetch (genability, openei, rateacuity)
• --output-folder / -o: directory for exports (default: ./outputs)
• --effective-date: provider query date in YYYY-MM-DD format
• --no-input: fail instead of prompting for interactive input
• --log-dir: directory for log files
• --log-file: exact log file path

Omitted options will trigger interactive prompts.

Use --no-input for automation or CI runs when you want missing required inputs to fail fast instead of opening an interactive prompt.

When the CLI reaches the utility selection step, it caches the EIA utility parquet for 1 hour in the platform-specific user cache directory so repeated runs do not re-download it every time. You can clear that cache with:

uv run tariff-fetch cache clear

Examples

# Fully interactive run
uv run tariff-fetch

# Scripted run for Genability
uv run tariff-fetch \
  --state ca \
  --provider genability \
  --effective-date 2025-06-01 \
  --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.

Direct Arcadia to URDB Conversion

For direct conversion of a single Arcadia master tariff to URDB JSON:

uv run tariff-fetch urdb ni 522 2025

Useful options:

• --output / -o: output file path
• --apply-percentages / --no-apply-percentages
• --charge-class: repeat to include multiple charge classes
• --cc: compact charge-class selector using S T D t C U A O N n
• --property: repeat key=value to pre-fill Arcadia tariff properties
• --force / -f: overwrite an existing output file

Arcadia property overrides accept either the machine-readable property key or the user-facing property name. For CHOICE properties, the value can be either the Arcadia option value or the user-facing choice label.

Example:

uv run tariff-fetch urdb ni 522 2025 \
  --property territoryId=123 \
  --property "Territory=Primary Territory"

Direct Arcadia Raw Fetch

Fetch a single Arcadia master tariff as raw JSON without going through the interactive utility picker:

uv run tariff-fetch ni arcadia 522
uv run tariff-fetch ni arcadia 522 2025-06-01

If EFFECTIVE_DATE is omitted, the command uses today.

Useful options:

• --output / -o: output file path
• --force / -f: overwrite an existing output file
• --log-dir: directory for log files
• --log-file: exact log file path

Direct RateAcuity Fetch

RateAcuity does not expose a stable tariff identifier like Arcadia's master_tariff_id, so the non-interactive commands work by fuzzy-matching your input against the live dropdown choices shown in the RateAcuity web portal at runtime.

Available commands:

uv run tariff-fetch ni rateacuity fuzzy ny "con ed" --tariff "residential service"
uv run tariff-fetch ni rateacuity eia-id 123 --tariff "residential service"
uv run tariff-fetch gas ni ny "con ed gas" --tariff "firm gas service"
uv run tariff-fetch gas urdb ni ny "con ed gas" --year 2025 --tariff "firm gas service"

How fuzzy matching works

• The CLI loads the current RateAcuity utility list for the requested state.
• It lowercases both your query and every available RateAcuity choice before scoring them.
• It picks the highest-scoring utility match.
• After selecting that utility, it loads the current tariff list and fuzzy-matches each --tariff query the same way.
• If multiple --tariff queries resolve to the same RateAcuity tariff, the duplicate is ignored and that tariff is only fetched once.

This means your query does not need to be an exact string from the portal. Shortened, lowercased, or partial input is usually fine.

Examples:

# Utility query does not need to match RateAcuity text exactly
uv run tariff-fetch ni rateacuity fuzzy ny "con ed" --tariff "residential service"

# Tariff queries are also fuzzy-matched and case-insensitive
uv run tariff-fetch ni rateacuity fuzzy ny "consolidated edison" \
  --tariff "RESIDENTIAL" \
  --tariff "time of use"

# Electric raw fetch using EIA-based utility lookup from the cached parquet
uv run tariff-fetch ni rateacuity eia-id 123 --tariff "small commercial"

Important fuzzy-matching behavior

• Matching is performed against the live strings that RateAcuity returns in the browser session.
• Matching is case-insensitive because both sides are compared as lowercase.
• The command does not stop to ask "did you mean X?" in non-interactive mode. It chooses the best match and proceeds.
• If your query is too broad, the "best" result may still be the wrong tariff.

In practice, use queries that are distinctive enough to narrow the target:

• Better: "residential service"
• Riskier: "residential"
• Better: "firm gas service"
• Riskier: "service"

When you are unsure what RateAcuity calls a tariff, start with the interactive flow once, note the exact names shown in the dropdowns, and then use those strings in the non-interactive commands.

RateAcuity command summary

• tariff-fetch ni rateacuity fuzzy: electric raw fetch by state plus fuzzy utility/tariff matching
• tariff-fetch ni rateacuity eia-id: electric raw fetch by utility EIA id, then fuzzy tariff matching
• tariff-fetch gas ni: gas raw fetch by state plus fuzzy utility/tariff matching
• tariff-fetch gas urdb ni: gas URDB conversion by state plus fuzzy utility/tariff matching

For tariff-fetch gas urdb ni, you must also provide the conversion year and any URDB metadata you want to override:

uv run tariff-fetch gas urdb ni ny "con ed gas" \
  --year 2025 \
  --tariff "firm gas service" \
  --label ceg \
  --sector Commercial \
  --servicetype Delivery \
  --apply-percentages

Show Arcadia Properties

Inspect the Arcadia property keys, user-facing names, descriptions, and CHOICE aliases for a master tariff before running conversion:

uv run tariff-fetch show-properties 522
uv run tariff-fetch show-properties 522 2025-06-01

Cache Management

Clear the cached utility parquet used by the interactive utility picker:

uv run tariff-fetch cache clear