Request a load profile and analyse it without Excel

You need the load profile of a metering point, the complete series of its quarter-hour values, and you want to see from it how high the base load is, when the peaks occur and which patterns repeat. For commercial connections that data is usually already recorded at 15-minute resolution. Collecting it takes most of the time: a single metering point produces around 35,000 values a year, and each of the more than 140 grid operators in Austria runs its own portal with its own login.

What a load profile is

A load profile is the time series of a metering point's quarter-hour values: one reading every 15 minutes, day and night. That makes 96 values a day and around 35,000 a year (96 a day over 365 days). Only this resolution shows what happens between monthly readings, such as the night-time load or the peak on a Tuesday morning. Our post on quarter-hour values in the ElWG explains how this resolution became the legal standard.

How to request the load profile

There are two ways to get a load profile. Which one suits you depends on how many metering points you manage and how many grid areas they are spread across.

Through the grid operator portal

Every grid operator runs a portal with a login and a data export, where you can download a metering point's load profile as a CSV. Some offer separate access for business customers with many metering points: Wiener Netze, for example, runs a business portal designed for this case. If your metering points are in several grid areas, each grid operator adds another portal with its own login, and every download has to be merged with the rest. The resolution of the export depends on the meter.

Through a service with an EDA connection

The second route bundles the grid operators behind a single connection. The end customer, meaning the company or person the metering point is registered to, consents once in their grid operator's portal to the data being shared. From then on the values arrive daily (T-1) from every grid area in one uniform format. The consent step itself stays manual and is up to the end customer; everything else runs over the EDA network. Our guide to reading out smart-meter data compares the methods in detail, with and without your own connection.

Which resolution you get

Whether a meter supplies quarter-hour values or only daily values depends on how it is configured. For most commercial metering points this is already settled: connections with PV feed-in, a heat pump, battery storage, a charging point or a dynamic electricity contract record quarter-hour values, because the ElWG (§ 54) excludes them from the transition period that allows daily values.^[1] For smaller consumers the transition period is phased out in stages: daily values are allowed until 31 December 2026 for an annual consumption of up to 5,000 kWh, and from 1 January 2027 only up to 1,500 kWh.

A second rule covers access to the data. Once the end customer consents to sharing the data with a third party, that third party receives the values at the finest available resolution. Since the ElWG, a separate opt-in for the granularity is no longer needed (§ 58).^[2] Consent remains the precondition: it decides whether you get the data at all, and the resolution then depends on the meter.

Why Excel reaches its limits with several metering points

With one metering point, a spreadsheet still works. The problems start with the second one, and almost all of them are organisational.

• Every grid area has its own access, which means another download to add to the rest.
• An export is a snapshot. Next month you download again and have to append the new values to the old ones.
• Then there is the volume of 35,000 rows per metering point and year, and with a dozen metering points you quickly reach hundreds of thousands of rows, which a spreadsheet will open but can barely handle.

All of this can be solved, but it stays repetitive manual work that grows with every metering point and every month.

How to analyse the load profile

Base load and peaks

The load duration curve ranks every quarter-hour of the year from highest to lowest, so you see at a glance how much load is there all the time and how often consumption approaches a peak. Next to it, the highest quarter-hours are listed with their time and value, which shows when the expensive peaks happen.

Patterns

A heatmap plots consumption by weekday and time of day. Operating hours, night-time consumption and outliers show up there as areas of colour. The day profile puts a working day and the weekend side by side.

Benchmark

Comparing a connection with the APCS standard load profiles, the Austrian reference profiles used in grid billing, shows whether it follows the expected curve or deviates from it. The deviations are where the search for savings starts.

Our post Consumption analysis: 5 patterns in quarter-hour values walks through the patterns that keep turning up, with concrete examples.

Request and analyse in one place

Once your metering points are connected to energiedaten.at, their 15-minute values arrive on the platform every day, for consumption and feed-in alike. There the load profile is a view: you switch the resolution between 15 minutes, hourly, daily and monthly, and from the Plus plan upwards the advanced analyses add the load duration curve with the highest peaks, the heatmap and the benchmark against the APCS standard load profiles. The data from all grid operators comes together in one view, so you no longer merge downloads.

If you do need a file in the end, you export the selected period as a CSV. If the values should go into another system on a regular basis, the API or a webhook delivers them there. You can also request periods before the connection retroactively. How far back depends on the grid operator and on your plan, currently up to about three years; older periods may arrive at daily resolution.

The pages for energy management and energy consulting show what this analysis looks like in day-to-day work.

Request load profiles from all grid operators in one format and analyse them straight away. Take a look at the energy analysis, compare the plans or book a demo.

Frequently asked questions

What is a load profile?

A load profile is the time-ordered series of a metering point's consumption values in quarter-hour steps. A metering point with quarter-hour values produces 96 values a day and around 35,000 a year. Only this resolution makes the base load, load peaks and consumption patterns over the day visible.

How do I request a load profile?

There are two routes. You can download it from your grid operator's portal as a CSV, one metering point and one grid area at a time. Or you use a service with an EDA connection: the end customer consents once to the data being shared, and the values then arrive daily, from all grid operators, in one format.

At which resolution do I get the load profile?

That depends on the meter. Commercial connections and installations with PV, a heat pump, storage or a charging point record quarter-hour values. Once the end customer consents to sharing the data, an authorised third party receives the values at the finest available resolution; since the ElWG, a separate opt-in for granularity is no longer required.

How far back can I request load profiles?

As far back as the grid operator holds the values, currently up to about three years. How far your access reaches also depends on your plan. For older periods the resolution can be coarser, and the values may arrive as daily values only.

What software do I need to analyse a load profile?

A single load profile still fits in a spreadsheet. With several metering points, Excel reaches its limits: around 35,000 values per metering point and year, plus a separate download for each grid area. A platform for energy analysis shows the load duration curve, the heatmap and the benchmark against the APCS standard load profiles as ready-made views, so you no longer assemble the values by hand.

[1] ElWG, BGBl. I Nr. 91/2025, § 54 (3): transition period for daily energy values (until 31 December 2026 at an annual consumption ≤ 5,000 kWh, from 1 January 2027 ≤ 1,500 kWh). Excluded, among others, are metering points with dynamic contracts, generation installations, heat pumps, storage, charging points and participation in shared energy use; these carry quarter-hour values.

[2] ElWG, BGBl. I Nr. 91/2025, § 58: authorised third parties receive the data at the finest available resolution; a separate opt-in for granularity no longer applies. The end customer's consent stays the precondition.