ERCOT Hourly Actual Load

Actual hourly electricity demand in ERCOT, one row per hour with a system total and one column per weather zone.

Load data ERCOT market

Query with the agent

Native record

one row per operating hour, wide by sub-area

hourly publication cadence

Evidence

Observed market data

Published observations from the named source

Time basis

Interval-end records

UTC · event_time

Overview

119,475 hours, 2013-01 to now. Columns: system_mw plus coast_mw, east_mw, far_west_mw, north_mw, north_central_mw, south_central_mw, southern_mw, west_mw. system_mw is ERCOT's own published total, and the eight zones sum to it to within 0.03 MW — so a zone share is simply zone_mw / system_mw. Wide rather than long, so "load right now" and "the 8 weather zone shares of it" are one row, not 9. Every market's load table in this catalog shares the system_mw column and the same hourly grain, so a cross-market demand comparison needs no reshaping.

Query contract

One row is the canonical hourly value; the refresh already collapsed the source's restatements. Read the hour you want and use its columns together.

Analysis rules

Take every value for one hour from that hour's single row. Never combine a system total from one hour with area values from another.
An area's share of demand is <area>_mw / system_mw within the same row. Do not sum the 8 area columns and system_mw together — that double-counts the whole market.

Interpretation

event_time is ERCOT's HOUR-ENDING stamp, passed through from ercot.system_load: the row at 18:00 is the 17:00-18:00 hour. Label it hour-ending, as ERCOT documents do.
Hourly, and ERCOT publishes it about 54 minutes behind the hour. For ERCOT demand in the last few minutes use series='realized' from ercot.supply_demand. ercot.system_wide_demand is settled 15-minute demand posted hourly, not an instantaneous live substitute.

Access

Query from your own tools

Use the guarded HTTP endpoint directly, or connect an MCP client and load the dataset contract with describe_data before calling query_data.

ERCOT MCP API reference

HTTP endpoint

POST /api/v1/datasets/ercot_load/query

Need the full history of this dataset in Snowflake, Databricks or your own storage? Data services delivers it on a schedule.

Schema10

Column

Type

event_timeDateTime64(6, 'UTC')

system_mwNullable(Float64)

coast_mwNullable(Float64)

east_mwNullable(Float64)

far_west_mwNullable(Float64)

north_mwNullable(Float64)

north_central_mwNullable(Float64)

south_central_mwNullable(Float64)

southern_mwNullable(Float64)

west_mwNullable(Float64)

Sample data

event_time	system_mw	coast_mw	east_mw	far_west_mw	north_mw	north_central_mw	south_central_mw	southern_mw	west_mw
2026-10-12 03:00:00.000000	63880.83	15958.29	2104.44	7863.98	1745.29	17780.61	10694.56	5375.94	2357.71
2026-10-12 02:00:00.000000	66372.83	16562.64	2213.25	7945.4	1836.82	18605.93	11218.61	5552.54	2437.65
2026-10-12 01:00:00.000000	68614.88	17119.81	2293.24	8006.35	1902.77	19386.19	11688.74	5706.52	2511.26
2026-10-12 00:00:00.000000	70639.33	17687.33	2330.57	8036.7	1963.95	20149.74	12162.33	5744.23	2564.48
2026-10-11 23:00:00.000000	72843.63	18547.2	2155.96	8080.61	2009.68	20949.64	12574.2	5898.47	2627.85
2026-10-11 22:00:00.000000	73217.47	18971.55	2018.73	8080.71	2005.7	21001.63	12558.3	5981.42	2599.43
2026-10-11 21:00:00.000000	72038.37	18915.89	2002.55	8021.71	1960.1	20460.53	12198.51	5915.78	2563.3
2026-10-11 20:00:00.000000	70066.56	18431.36	1889.75	7939.47	1895.08	19804.04	11763.28	5824.81	2518.77
2026-10-11 19:00:00.000000	67459.01	17712.78	1773.41	7870.7	1823.4	18935.84	11232.66	5677.31	2432.9
2026-10-11 18:00:00.000000	64130.23	16765.83	1628.74	7722.34	1743.3	17843.96	10635.92	5448.95	2341.17
2026-10-11 17:00:00.000000	60627.79	15750.66	1493.52	7603.9	1622	16668.32	10015.97	5203.51	2269.9
2026-10-11 16:00:00.000000	57181.76	14681.55	1360.61	7545.25	1514.12	15554.55	9432.37	4896.3	2197.02
2026-10-11 15:00:00.000000	53432.67	13513.09	1289.23	7462.21	1432.62	14373.72	8756.32	4463.91	2141.57
2026-10-11 14:00:00.000000	50168.51	12420.34	1393.67	7430.28	1376.77	13200.33	8065.19	4215.26	2066.67
2026-10-11 13:00:00.000000	48620.28	11954.37	1473.16	7469.81	1338.94	12516.48	7705.62	4139.24	2022.66
2026-10-11 12:00:00.000000	48297.4	11926.77	1465.42	7439.18	1306.19	12289.56	7626.49	4261.51	1982.29
2026-10-11 11:00:00.000000	48029.85	11945.97	1450.01	7442	1303.73	12165.34	7559.8	4200.68	1962.32
2026-10-11 10:00:00.000000	48323.78	12037.91	1453.41	7499.82	1308.19	12191.92	7632.9	4241.84	1957.78
2026-10-11 09:00:00.000000	48958	12220.82	1496.37	7544.52	1314.51	12399.58	7775.85	4252.36	1953.98
2026-10-11 08:00:00.000000	50141.02	12526.97	1540.29	7586.47	1347.72	12768.53	8031.18	4356.86	1983
2026-10-11 07:00:00.000000	51722.98	12933.25	1570.78	7659.64	1391.2	13312.28	8354.02	4486.01	2015.82
2026-10-11 06:00:00.000000	53808.02	13443.66	1657.5	7716.86	1445.49	14079.87	8762.86	4631.62	2070.16
2026-10-11 05:00:00.000000	56335.55	14077.58	1735.86	7759.25	1503.28	14947.55	9307.37	4862.66	2142.01
2026-10-11 04:00:00.000000	58895.58	14768.1	1843.62	7801.44	1571.67	15882.34	9791.76	5034.78	2201.86
2026-10-11 03:00:00.000000	61138.99	15467.42	1907.1	7843.87	1668.97	16763.59	10241.04	5197.27	2049.72

Coverage

100.0% complete0 gap days5,033 days with data

Show coverage history

Coverage: 100.0%Days with data: 5,033Gaps: 0

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Related load data

Related load data
Dataset	Description
Current Supply, Demand & Intraday ForecastERCOT · 5-minute	ERCOT's public real-time supply and demand dashboard at five-minute resolution. This is the preferred dataset for a current actual-versus-forecast demand comparison: series='realized' reports observed demand_mw and committed capacity_mw; series='intraday_forecast' reports demand_mw, capacity_mw, and available_mw for the same target event_time at successive source_time vintages, where the on-the-hour values are hourly-average forecasts and the points between them are interpolated; and series='forward_forecast' reports forecasted_demand_mw and avail_cap_gen_mw farther ahead. Operators, traders, and researchers use it to measure current forecast error, headroom, and how forecasts converge toward realized demand.
Hourly Historical System LoadERCOT · hourly	Hourly weather-zone actual-load history for ERCOT, including the eight weather zones and a system total. Use it for zonal and historical hourly analysis; for current system-wide demand and intraday forecast error, prefer Current Supply, Demand & Intraday Forecast (ercot_supply_demand). Analysts use this archive to study load shape and peaks, normalize demand against temperature, and contextualize price moves and reserve conditions. It comes from ERCOT report NP6-345-CD.
Load Forecast (MTLF)ERCOT · hourly (7-day forecast)	ERCOT's mid-term load forecast (MTLF) for the Texas grid, giving the expected electricity demand for each of the next seven days at hourly resolution. The forecast is broken out by ERCOT's eight weather zones plus a system-wide total, and a new vintage is issued every hour, so you can also see how the outlook for a given day shifts as it approaches. Operators use this to plan generation and reserves, while traders and researchers use it to anticipate price and tightness conditions and to study how forecasts evolve and where they miss. The official source is ERCOT report NP3-565-CD, Seven-Day Load Forecast by Weather Zone.
NP3-910-ER, all generation/load/output membersERCOT · day publication	ERCOT's NP3-910-ER, all generation/load/output members. Each row preserves a publisher record, workbook row, or report document with its source member and row index. Source timestamps, units, geographic scope, and revision qualifiers are retained in record_json; event_time is collection time; completed_at is when the entire document became available.