Great Britain electricity generation by fuel type

At a glance

Publisher

Elexon · homepage

Category

Energy & electricity

Jurisdiction

Great Britain

Publisher updates

Every five minutes

SourceFinch checks

Hourly by default

Records per run

20 in the latest run

Record key

fuel_type

Acquired from

Publisher's public API: https://data.elexon.co.uk/bmrs/api/v1/generation/outturn/current?format=json

Recipe

v1.0.0, approved October 13, 2026

Verified since

October 13, 2026

Last green run

October 13, 2026

What the data contains

Elexon runs the Balancing Mechanism Reporting Service (BMRS), which publishes operational data for the Great Britain electricity market. Its current generation outturn view (dataset FUELINSTHHCUR) summarises transmission-connected generation by fuel type (CCGT, nuclear, wind, biomass, pumped storage, hydro, coal, oil, other) and imports over each interconnector, updated every five minutes. This source reads it hourly and makes one record per fuel type or interconnector, keyed by the BMRS fuel type code, with the latest output in MW and its share of the total, the same for the most recent half hour, and the energy and share over the last 24 hours. Embedded solar and small wind that do not report to the transmission system are not included. A monitor reports how the mix changes through the day. SourceFinch is independent of Elexon.

Fields and types

Every record has these fields. The key field fuel_type identifies a record across runs, so changes are reported field by field.

Sample output

The first 5 of 20 records from SourceFinch's own run on October 13, 2026, exactly as delivered.

[
  {
    "dataset": "FUELINSTHHCUR",
    "day_mwh": 68576,
    "day_pct": 9.099582413878668,
    "fuel_type": "BIOMASS",
    "current_mw": 2460,
    "current_pct": 8.949685305780914,
    "half_hour_mw": 2457,
    "half_hour_pct": 8.885754583921015
  },
  {
    "dataset": "FUELINSTHHCUR",
    "day_mwh": 192511,
    "day_pct": 25.544938609399736,
    "fuel_type": "CCGT",
    "current_mw": 5160,
    "current_pct": 18.772510641394113,
    "half_hour_mw": 5644,
    "half_hour_pct": 20.41155835231999
  },
  {
    "dataset": "FUELINSTHHCUR",
    "day_mwh": 0,
    "day_pct": 0,
    "fuel_type": "COAL",
    "current_mw": 0,
    "current_pct": 0,
    "half_hour_mw": 0,
    "half_hour_pct": 0
  },
  {
    "dataset": "FUELINSTHHCUR",
    "day_mwh": 0,
    "day_pct": 0,
    "fuel_type": "INTELEC",
    "current_mw": 0,
    "current_pct": 0,
    "half_hour_mw": 0,
    "half_hour_pct": 0
  },
  {
    "dataset": "FUELINSTHHCUR",
    "day_mwh": 59,
    "day_pct": 0.007828910441245354,
    "fuel_type": "INTEW",
    "current_mw": 0,
    "current_pct": 0,
    "half_hour_mw": 0,
    "half_hour_pct": 0
  }
]

Evidence behind every value

• Each run keeps the publisher's exact response, hashed with SHA-256. This sample came from a response with hash 78d819c09f31e94d10fd03bd83fd9132c99baf955678164081488187684a8ec7.
• Every value records where it came from in that response: a JSON Pointer into the retained capture.
• Each run gets a signed manifest (Ed25519) timestamped by an RFC 3161 authority: this run's manifest hash is 71f660e49124b613679c21c2b700fcbe311fc34ebfbae37472f00b253f36ce49, timestamped October 13, 2026.
• The compliance state at capture is recorded with the evidence: robots.txt hash and verdict, AI-preference signals, crawler identity and the usage rights below.
• Download any run as an evidence bundle (WACZ) and check it offline, without trusting SourceFinch: sourcefinch verify-bundle run.wacz.

Terms posture and usage rights

Elexon's licence to use BMRS open data grants a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive licence to copy, publish, distribute, adapt and exploit BMRS data, including commercially, provided users acknowledge the source with the statement 'Contains BMRS data © Elexon Limited copyright and database right [year]', link to the licence where possible, do not suggest official status or endorsement, and do not misrepresent the data. data.elexon.co.uk serves no robots.txt (HTTP 404), which RFC 9309 treats as allowing access; the Insights Solution API needs no key. This source makes one request per hourly run.

Contains BMRS data © Elexon Limited copyright and database right 2026. Licence: https://www.elexon.co.uk/bsc/data/balancing-mechanism-reporting-agent/copyright-licence-bmrs-data/. SourceFinch is independent of and not endorsed by Elexon.

Usage rights travel with every record SourceFinch delivers (API, exports, webhooks and evidence bundles). They are our documented understanding of the publisher's stated terms, not legal advice.

Reliability

Runs, last 30 days

1

Green

100%

Failed

0

Median run time

0.9 s

Latest run

success, October 13, 2026

Measured on completed runs of this recipe version across SourceFinch, anonymized, within a rolling 30-day window. First successful observation: October 13, 2026. A new recipe has only the history collected since that date; this is not a 30-day uptime guarantee.

Use it

Every surface creates the same monitor from this Verified recipe. Monitors keep record history, report field-level changes and deliver by webhook, export or email. You confirm you have the right to collect the source (rights: true).

{
  "schema": "sourcefinch/source@1",
  "name": "Great Britain electricity generation by fuel type",
  "url": "https://data.elexon.co.uk/bmrs/api/v1/generation/outturn/current?format=json",
  "recipe": {
    "mode": "http",
    "format": "json",
    "items": "[*]",
    "fields": {
      "dataset": "dataset",
      "day_mwh": "twentyFourHourUsage",
      "day_pct": "twentyFourHourPercentage",
      "fuel_type": "fuelType",
      "current_mw": "currentUsage",
      "current_pct": "currentPercentage",
      "half_hour_mw": "halfHourUsage",
      "half_hour_pct": "halfHourPercentage"
    },
    "required": [
      "fuel_type",
      "current_mw"
    ],
    "types": {
      "current_mw": "integer",
      "current_pct": "number",
      "day_mwh": "integer",
      "day_pct": "number",
      "half_hour_mw": "integer",
      "half_hour_pct": "number"
    }
  },
  "schedule": "hourly",
  "key_field": "fuel_type"
}

{
  "name": "Great Britain electricity generation by fuel type",
  "url": "https://data.elexon.co.uk/bmrs/api/v1/generation/outturn/current?format=json",
  "recipe": {
    "mode": "http",
    "format": "json",
    "items": "[*]",
    "fields": {
      "dataset": "dataset",
      "day_mwh": "twentyFourHourUsage",
      "day_pct": "twentyFourHourPercentage",
      "fuel_type": "fuelType",
      "current_mw": "currentUsage",
      "current_pct": "currentPercentage",
      "half_hour_mw": "halfHourUsage",
      "half_hour_pct": "halfHourPercentage"
    },
    "required": [
      "fuel_type",
      "current_mw"
    ],
    "types": {
      "day_mwh": "integer",
      "day_pct": "number",
      "current_mw": "integer",
      "current_pct": "number",
      "half_hour_mw": "integer",
      "half_hour_pct": "number"
    }
  },
  "key_field": "fuel_type",
  "schedule": "hourly",
  "rights": true,
  "catalog": {
    "slug": "elexon-gb-electricity-generation-mix",
    "version_id": "0e49ac20-db2a-4f69-a4cb-53bcc63dbbe3"
  }
}

# the Verified entry (fields, recipe, sample, terms) as JSON
curl https://sourcefinch.com/v1/catalog/elexon-gb-electricity-generation-mix -H "Authorization: Bearer $SOURCEFINCH_API_KEY"

# create the monitor from source.json (below)
curl -X POST https://sourcefinch.com/v1/sources \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SOURCEFINCH_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: $(uuidgen)" \
  -d @source.json

# then run it now (later runs follow the schedule)
curl -X POST https://sourcefinch.com/v1/sources/$SOURCE_ID/runs \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SOURCEFINCH_API_KEY" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: $(uuidgen)"

sourcefinch login
sourcefinch catalog get elexon-gb-electricity-generation-mix --source-json > source.json
sourcefinch sources create --file source.json
sourcefinch runs create $SOURCE_ID --wait
sourcefinch records $SOURCE_ID

import { SourceFinch } from "@sourcefinch/sdk";

const sf = new SourceFinch({ apiKey: process.env.SOURCEFINCH_API_KEY });
const entry = await sf.catalog.get("elexon-gb-electricity-generation-mix");
const source = await sf.sources.create({
  catalog: { slug: entry.slug, version_id: entry.recipe.version_id },
  name: entry.name.slice(0, 100),
  url: entry.acquisition_path.endpoint,
  recipe: entry.recipe.definition,
  key_field: entry.recipe.key_field,
  schedule: entry.recipe.schedule,
  rights: true, // you confirm you have the right to collect this source
});
const run = await sf.runs.wait((await sf.runs.create(source.id)).id);
console.log(run.status);

claude mcp add --transport http sourcefinch https://sourcefinch.com/mcp

# then ask your agent:
"Use SourceFinch to monitor Great Britain electricity generation by fuel type: get_catalog_source elexon-gb-electricity-generation-mix,
then create_source with its create_source_args (dry run first), then run_source."

Pricing

Each check is one run, whatever the number of records, and failed runs are free. On its default hourly schedule this source uses about 720 runs a month. It uses HTTP acquisition, so no browser runs are needed. See plans.

Related sources

• Denmark power system by the minute · Energy & electricity, Energinet
• UK energy statistics releases · Energy & electricity, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
• Active insured banking institutions · Banking & financial statistics, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
• Active temporary flight restrictions · Transport & logistics, Federal Aviation Administration

More from Elexon and in energy & electricity.