specification: API Commons Rate Limits
specificationVersion: '0.1'
schema: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/interface-research/main/schema/api-commons.yml#/$defs/Plans
provider: CenterPoint Energy
providerId: centerpoint-energy
created: '2026-05-04'
generated: '2026-09-05'
modified: '2026-09-05'
method: searched
source: https://www.smartmetertexas.com/commonapi/gethelpguide/help-guides/Smart_Meter_Texas_Interface_Guide.pdf
docs: https://www.smartmetertexas.com/commonapi/gethelpguide/help-guides/Smart_Meter_Texas_Interface_Guide.pdf
reconciled: true
tags:
  - Energy
  - Utility
  - Smart Meter
  - Green Button
  - Rate Limiting
description: >-
  Upgrades the 2026-05-04 bulk-sweep generated file, which asserted that no numeric limit was visible
  without registration. One published numeric limit does exist and is stated in the open Smart Meter Texas
  3.0 Data Access Interface Guide (fetched HTTP 200, 2026-09-05): On-Demand Reads are capped at 3,000 per
  day per Transmission and Distribution Utility. That cap is shared across every caller reading meters on
  CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric's network, not allocated per API credential — an integrator competes
  for it with every other authorized third party on the same TDU. No other function publishes a numeric
  ceiling, and the guide documents no rate-limit response headers at all.
limit_count: 1
limits:
  - name: On-Demand Read (ODR) daily cap
    scope: per-TDU
    window: day
    limit: 3000
    metric: on-demand meter reads
    burst: null
    endpoint: /odr/
    evidence: >-
      "Get current Meter Read for one ESIID at a time. Note: The daily limit for ODRs is up to 3,000 per
      Transmission and Distribution Utility Company (TDU)." — SMT 3.0 Data Access Interface Guide,
      REST API quick reference, page 10.
    docs: https://www.smartmetertexas.com/commonapi/gethelpguide/help-guides/Smart_Meter_Texas_Interface_Guide.pdf
    note: >-
      Shared ceiling across all requesters against one TDU. CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric is one TDU,
      so this is the effective daily ODR budget for the whole CenterPoint electric footprint.
  - name: Ad-hoc interval / register / billing read throughput
    scope: per-DUNS
    window: null
    limit: null
    metric: requests
    evidence: >-
      No numeric ceiling is stated for 15-Minute Interval Data, Daily Register Reads, Monthly Billing
      Reads, Green Button, Meter Attributes or Premise Attributes. Bulk retrieval is steered into the
      asynchronous report/subscription flow instead of being rate-capped in the documentation.
    note: Honest gap — checked the published guide, no figure given.
  - name: Subscription and agreement operations
    scope: per-DUNS
    window: null
    limit: null
    metric: requests
    evidence: No numeric ceiling stated for New Subscription, UnSubscription, New Agreement or Terminate Agreement.
response_headers:
  published: []
  note: >-
    No RateLimit-*, X-RateLimit-* or Retry-After response header is documented anywhere in the guide, and
    no status code is assigned to limit exhaustion — the documented status table stops at 500. An agent
    therefore has no runtime signal that it is approaching or has crossed the ODR ceiling; the only way to
    know the limit is to read the PDF. This is the most consequential runtime gap on this surface.
response_codes:
  throttled: undocumented
  server_error: 500
policies:
  - name: Customer authorization bounds volume
    description: >-
      Calls operate only against ESI IDs covered by an executed Energy Data Sharing Agreement; the
      agreement's scope and duration constrain usable request volume more than any published throttle.
  - name: Asynchronous bulk retrieval
    description: >-
      Bulk requests return a correlation identifier and are collected via Report Status rather than served
      synchronously, which is the platform's actual load-shedding mechanism in place of a request throttle.
  - name: Backoff on 500
    description: >-
      The guide's only failure-retry guidance is the 500 message "Something went wrong. Please try again
      later."; exponential backoff with jitter is the caller's responsibility and is not specified.
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com