specification: FinOps Framework
specificationVersion: '1.0'
alignedWith:
  framework: FinOps Foundation Framework
  frameworkUrl: https://www.finops.org/framework/
  dataSpec: FOCUS
  dataSpecVersion: '1.3'
  dataSpecUrl: https://focus.finops.org/focus-specification/v1-3/
provider: Carbon Intensity API
providerId: carbon-intensity
publisherName: National Energy System Operator (NESO)
serviceCategory: API
created: '2026-06-13'
modified: '2026-06-13'
tags:
  - Environment
  - Energy
  - Carbon Intensity
  - FinOps
  - Cost Management
  - FOCUS
description: >-
  FinOps framework definition for the Carbon Intensity API. The API is provided
  entirely free of charge by NESO; there are no monetary costs to consumers.
  This document captures operational cost awareness (infrastructure, engineering
  effort, and fair-use compliance) rather than billing costs, and maps to the
  FOCUS 1.3 data specification for consistency with FinOps tooling.
principles:
  - name: Visibility
    description: >-
      Track API consumption volume and latency to ensure compliance with NESO
      fair-use expectations even though the API has no monetary cost.
  - name: Allocation
    description: >-
      Tag every API call with the consuming team, application, and feature to
      understand internal engineering usage and dependencies on free public data.
  - name: Optimization
    description: >-
      Cache 30-minute settlement period responses; avoid redundant polling.
      Use date-range and regional endpoints to batch fetch rather than
      individual per-period calls.
  - name: Accountability
    description: >-
      Maintain awareness of fair-use obligations in NESO Terms of Use;
      document any high-volume use cases and consider contacting NESO.
domains:
  - name: Understand Usage and Cost
    capabilities:
      - Data Ingestion
      - Allocation
      - Reporting and Analytics
      - Anomaly Management
  - name: Quantify Business Value
    capabilities:
      - Planning and Estimating
      - Forecasting
      - Benchmarking
      - Unit Economics
  - name: Optimize Usage and Cost
    capabilities:
      - Architecting for Cloud
      - Workload Optimization
      - Cloud Sustainability
  - name: Manage the FinOps Practice
    capabilities:
      - FinOps Practice Operations
      - FinOps Education and Enablement
      - Onboarding Workloads
billingModel:
  pricingCategory: Free
  billingFrequency: N/A
  billingCurrency: GBP
  chargeCategories:
    - Usage
  chargeFrequency: N/A
  note: >-
    The Carbon Intensity API has no monetary cost. All billing fields are
    provided for FOCUS schema completeness but carry zero values.
focusColumns:
  ServiceName: Carbon Intensity API
  ServiceCategory: Developer Tools / API
  ProviderName: National Energy System Operator (NESO)
  PublisherName: National Energy System Operator (NESO)
  InvoiceIssuerName: National Energy System Operator (NESO)
  PricingCategory: Free
  PricingUnit: request
  BillingCurrency: GBP
  ChargeCategory: Usage
meters:
  - name: api_requests
    description: Count of API requests made to api.carbonintensity.org.uk
    unit: request
    aggregation: sum
    dimensions:
      - endpoint
      - region
      - consumer_team
      - application
  - name: data_egress
    description: Approximate bytes received in API responses
    unit: GB
    aggregation: sum
    dimensions:
      - endpoint
      - region
      - consumer_team
apis:
  - name: Carbon Intensity API
    baseURL: https://api.carbonintensity.org.uk
    tags:
      - Carbon Intensity
      - Energy
      - Environment
    serviceName: Carbon Intensity API
    serviceCategory: API
unitEconomics:
  - name: Requests per Day
    metric: api_requests / active_days
    target: Minimize redundant calls through caching
  - name: Engineering Cost per Data Point
    metric: engineering_hours_cost / data_points_consumed
    target: Reduce through batched range queries
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com