Ask the Grid
LiveMetiscast · probabilistic price forecast · ERCOT zonal

Metiscast Zonal

metis/ercot-zonal

Price forecasts for the eight ERCOT load zones.

Forecasts at the level where load and retail positions settle — ERCOT's eight load zones — with the same probabilistic band and issuance cadence as the nodal product.

How it works

The same Metiscast model as the nodal product, addressed at zonal settlement points. A load zone aggregates many nodes, so its path is smoother and its band typically tighter than any single node inside it; that is a property of what is being forecast, not a different model or a different confidence. Issued every 15 minutes at five-minute resolution, across horizons from one hour to one week.

Inputs

  • ERCOT settlement-point prices — real-time (SCED) and day-ahead
  • System load, generation mix, and renewable output
  • Weather fields — forecast and observed
  • Grid geography — settlement-point coordinates and network topology

Outputs

  • A p50 price path with its p10 and p90 band, per horizon
  • Five-minute resolution across a 48-hour realized and forward window
  • An issuance timestamp, so a forecast can be scored against what it knew

Three ways to consume it

product · inference · MCP
01

In the product

Metiscast Zonal powers Ask the Grid directly — the live map, the radar, and the grid agent read it in place, so the same model you'd call is the one already reasoning over the grid on screen.

02

Developer inference service

A direct, typed inference API: request forecasts or embeddings by node and horizon and get structured results back. This is a plain inference endpoint — not MCP — for pipelines, notebooks, and services that want the model output without an agent in the loop.

See the developer surface
03

MCP

The same model outputs, exposed as tools your own agent can call. Point a compatible client at the Ask the Grid MCP server and the model becomes a tool in your agent's own loop.

Build with MCP

Intended use

  • Forecasting retail and load-serving positions
  • Scoring a forecast vintage against what actually settled
  • Feeding dispatch, hedging, and position models that need a distribution rather than a point

Limitations

  • ERCOT only today; other markets follow as evaluation lands
  • Probabilistic, not a guarantee — the band is the forecast, not decoration
  • Bands widen with horizon; a one-week path is not a five-minute nowcast

Consume it in the product, over the inference API, or through MCP.

Every model reaches the same three surfaces. Start where you work and the model output comes back with its source and as-of attached.