Terms of Service

Last updated: 21 September 2026.

Acceptance of these terms

By accessing or using the GB National Grid Live dashboard ("this dashboard"), published by UK Politics Decoded, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, please do not use this dashboard.

What this dashboard is

This dashboard is a free, public interest tool that visualises Great Britain's national electricity grid: generation mix by fuel type, wholesale electricity price, carbon intensity, system frequency, interconnector flows with mainland Europe and Ireland, and regional carbon intensity across all 14 GB Distribution Network Operator (DNO) regions. It is built entirely on data obtained from the Elexon Insights Solution (BMRS) API, the National Energy System Operator (NESO) Data Portal, and the Carbon Intensity API (a project by NESO and the University of Oxford Department of Computer Science). It is not an official government service, and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated on behalf of NESO, Elexon, Ofgem, or any other public body.

Data sources

This dashboard is built entirely from the following official, publicly available sources. We do not collect or generate any original grid telemetry ourselves:

• Elexon Insights Solution (BMRS) — 5-minute metered generation by fuel type (FUELINST), wholesale electricity price (MID), system frequency, and net imbalance/balancing volume. This covers transmission-connected generation and every GB interconnector.
• NESO Demand Data Update — half-hourly estimates of embedded (distribution-connected) wind and solar generation, which the Elexon feed above does not capture, since it only meters transmission-connected generation.
• NESO Carbon Intensity API — 30-minute national and regional carbon intensity, a 48-hour forecast, and fuel-mix percentages used as a fallback solar estimate for history older than the embedded generation dataset's rolling ~2 month window.

Neither Elexon nor NESO have reviewed, endorsed, or approved this dashboard or any figure derived from their data.

Methodology

This dashboard performs independent processing on top of the raw sources listed above. In summary:

• Settlement alignment. 5-minute FUELINST readings are floored to their enclosing half-hour settlement period to align with the half-hourly NESO feeds.
• Embedded generation. Solar and wind figures combine Elexon's transmission-connected metered output with NESO's embedded generation estimate, so totals reflect the whole of GB, not just transmission-connected sites.
• Total demand. Calculated as active generation + net interconnector transfers + storage discharge − storage charging, so that per-fuel percentages sum to approximately 100% of demand.
• Decarbonisation share. The zero-carbon percentage sums wind, solar, nuclear and hydro output as a share of total generation.
• Refresh cadence. Data is fetched and republished roughly every 15 minutes by an automated pipeline; historical views (today, previous day, week, month, year) are regenerated from a local data warehouse on every run.

Full implementation detail, including the data pipeline's source code, is published in the GitHub repository, for anyone who wants to audit or reproduce the methodology exactly.

No warranty, use at your own risk

This dashboard is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to accuracy, completeness, timeliness, or fitness for a particular purpose. In particular, and without limiting the general disclaimer above:

• Figures may be incomplete, delayed, or revised after publication, as explained via the (i) info icons throughout the dashboard (e.g. embedded generation coverage, storage accounting, and upstream latency caveats).
• Solar and wind figures for history older than the NESO embedded generation dataset's rolling ~2 month window fall back to a percentage-based estimate, which is less precise than directly metered/embedded data.
• Battery storage currently shows -- because Elexon does not yet publicly publish battery charge/discharge data — this affects every dashboard built on this data, not just this one.
• Underlying source data may itself contain errors, omissions, or reporting inconsistencies introduced by Elexon or NESO.
• This dashboard, its underlying pipeline, and its published JSON data files may be unavailable, incorrect, or discontinued at any time without notice.

You should not rely on this dashboard as the sole basis for any legal, financial, safety, journalistic, or other significant decision. Always refer to official sources (Elexon and NESO) to verify any figure before relying on it.

Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, UK Politics Decoded and its contributors shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, or other damages arising from your use of, or inability to use, this dashboard or the data it displays.

Underlying data and source code licensing

The published JSON data files that power this dashboard are available in the public GitHub repository and are, in turn, derived from Elexon Insights Solution and NESO open data. Each source retains its own licence terms — Elexon's licence requires the attribution shown in this dashboard's footer, and NESO's Carbon Intensity API and Data Portal are published as open data — check each source directly for full terms before reuse. See the repository for the licence terms that apply to this project's own code.

Acceptable use

You agree not to use this dashboard in any way that could damage, disable, overburden, or impair it (for example, automated scraping at a rate that degrades service for other users — please fetch the underlying JSON files from GitHub directly for bulk/automated use instead), or to misrepresent the figures shown as being more precise, complete, or officially endorsed than the caveats on this page describe.

Responsible use & how to reference this dashboard

This dashboard is an analytical layer built on public data, not an official statistical product in its own right. When using figures derived from this dashboard in reporting, analysis, or commentary, please reference the underlying official sources alongside UK Politics Decoded's processing, so readers understand:

• Elexon and NESO are the authoritative, original data providers;
• UK Politics Decoded performs independent processing, aggregation, and analysis on top of that data;
• this dashboard is not an official statistical product, and figures should be verified against the original sources before being relied on for any significant decision.

Appropriate wording for citing this dashboard includes, for example:

• "According to UK Politics Decoded's analysis of Elexon and NESO grid telemetry…"
• "Based on UK Politics Decoded's processing of NESO embedded generation data…"
• "UK Politics Decoded's GB National Grid Live dashboard shows that…"

When referencing a specific figure, please also link back to this dashboard (nationalgrid.ukpoliticsdecoded.uk) so readers can check the same caveats that applied when the figure was produced. Please do not present figures from this dashboard as official Elexon or NESO statistics.

Changes to these terms

These terms may be updated from time to time; continued use of this dashboard after changes are published constitutes acceptance of the updated terms.

Contact

Questions about these terms can be directed via UK Politics Decoded.