onTAP SOAP WEB SERVICE

Introduction

The onTAP web service is the XMLRPC component to the Tariff Analysis Project (TAP). In order for third-party applications to use TAP as a resource, a communication method or web service called onTAP has been developed. The onTAP web service is based on the Simple Object Application Protocol (SOAP), a standard protocol used for executing remote procedures. SOAP web services employ a basic server-client relation; when interacting with TAP's web service TAP acts as the server, which processes requests from third-party systems who act as the clients.

For a more detailed description of the TAP project, and an example of the of the onTAP web service used in a larger application please reference the following publications:

• K. Coughlin, R. White, C. Bolduc, D. Fisher, and G. Rosenquist, The Tariff Analysis Project: A database and analysis platform for electricity tariffs (May 12, 2006). Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Paper LBNL-55680.
  http://repositories.cdlib.org/lbnl/LBNL-55680
• Margaret J. Pinckard, Richard E. Brown, Evan Mills, James D. Lutz, Mithra M. Moezzi, Celina Atkinson, Chris Bolduc, Gregory K. Homan, and Katie Coughlin, Documentation of Calculation Methodology, Input data, and Infrastructure for the Home Energy Saver Web Site (July 13, 2005). Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Paper LBNL-51938.
  http://repositories.cdlib.org/lbnl/LBNL-51938

Access to use the onTAP is a free service, and as such is unsupported. Please read our terms of use for more information.

To begin, click here to register your server.

onTAP Server

WSDL

http://eplus2.lbl.gov/soap.tariffs.lbl.gov/ontap.php?wsdl

URL

http://eplus2.lbl.gov/soap.tariffs.lbl.gov/ontap.php

URN

onTAP

Decription of Methods

Utility Listing Methods

The following methods accept different inputs and return the same utility data.

doGetUtilityListByState

This accepts either a state's full name or its 2 letter abbreviation as a string.
(example xml:request | response)

doGetUtilityListByZip

This accepts a 5 digit zip code as an integer.
(example xml:request | response)

The XML returned contains the following values:

name

the name of the utility

util_id

onTAP query id

state

the state in which the utility is headquartered

country

the country in which the utility operates

url

a link the to the utility's home page within TAP

eia_code

a unique code given to each utility in the United States by the E.I.A.

Tariff Listing Methods

doGetUtilityTariffs

This accept one value: util_id as a string.
(example xml:request | response)

The XML returned contains the following values:

util_id

onTAP utility query id

tariff_id

onTAP tariff query id

schedule

the name of the tariff as named by the utility

state

the state that the tariff is valid within

market

the commercial market for which the tariff serves

service

the service classification of the that the tariff delivers

commodity

the commodity that the tariff covers

TOU

is the tariff time-of-use or not

minDemand

the minimum demand required by the customer to use the tariff as defined by the utility

maxDemand

the maximum demand allowed by the customer as defined by the utility

url

a link the to the tariff's description page within the TAP web site

Tariff Description Methods

doGetTOU

Returns specific time-of-use information for the tariff tariff_id. This accepts 1 value: tariff_id. It returns the Time-of-use data for tariff_id as follows: An array with items for each month of the year is returned. Each item contains the following.
(example xml:request | response)

The XML returned contains the following values:

monthName

Is the name of a calendar month

peakDays

Is an array of the days of the week for which the time-of-use period apply

hourEnding_01 ... hourEnding_24

Is the time-of-use billing period, each of can have a value can of: onPeak, offPeak, or shoulder.

Bill Calculation Methods

doGetMonthlyBill

This accepts 8 values, all of them integers: tariff_id, onPeakDemand, onPeakConsumption, shoulderDemand, shoulderConsumption, offPeakDemand, offPeakConsumption, and month. It returns bill information contained in a string indexed array. The bill data returned is the same for both time-of-use tariffs and standard block rate types.
(example xml:request | response)

The XML returned contains the following values:

totalCharges

the sum of all charges

consumptionTotal

the sum of all consumption charges

demandTotal

the sum of all demand charges

fixedTotal

the sum of all fixed chages

offPeakConsumptionTotal

the sum of all consumption charges that occur during the off-peak time-of-use period.

offPeakDemandTotal

the sum of all demand charges that occur during the off-peak time-of-use period.

onPeakConsumptionTotal

the sum of all consumption charges that occur during the peak time-of-use period.

onPeakDemandTotal

the sum of all demand charges that occur during the peak time-of-use period.

shoulderConsumptionTotal

the sum of all consumption charges that occur during the shoulder or partial-peak time-of-use period.

shoulderDemandTotal

the sum of all demand charges that occur during the shoulder or partial-peak time-of-use period.

annualConsumptionTotal

the sum of all other consumption charges that occur regardless of the time-of-use period.

annualDemandTotal

the sum of all other demand charges that occur regardless of the time-of-use period.