Dataframe: CAISO:caiso_lmp_real_time_15_min - CAISO LMP Real-Time 15-Min

Description

CAISO real-time market locational marginal prices (LMPs) at 15-minute resolution. Each row is one location (trading hub, AP node, or node) for one 15-minute interval, with the LMP and its four additive components (energy, congestion, loss, greenhouse gas). The schema is identical to the day-ahead hourly LMP dataset, differing only in market and interval length.

In this project the dataset serves as the default real-time (RT) leg of the DAM-RT spread: day-ahead hourly prices are compared against the average of the corresponding four 15-minute real-time intervals at the same location.

Data Dictionary

• interval_start_utc: datetime64[ns] Interval start, UTC (naive - no timezone offset stored)

• interval_end_utc: datetime64[ns] Interval end = start + 15 minutes, UTC

• market: str Market label for the real-time 15-minute market

• location: str Node / AP node / trading hub ID, long format (one row per location per interval)

• location_type: str Location category; AP Node / Trading Hub in this extract

• lmp: float64 Locational marginal price, $/MWh

• energy: float64 System marginal energy component, $/MWh

• congestion: float64 Congestion component, $/MWh

• loss: float64 Loss component, $/MWh

• ghg: float64 Greenhouse-gas component, $/MWh - 0 for locations outside California

Notes

• Decomposition identity: lmp = energy + congestion + loss + ghg.

• 15-minute granularity. The source (CAISO OASIS) retains roughly 39 months; the extract used here covers 2023-05-11 onward, the full retained depth.

• Coverage is restricted to the five hub APNodes:

  • TH_NP15_GEN-APND - NP15 (Northern California)

  • TH_SP15_GEN-APND - SP15 (Southern California)

  • TH_ZP26_GEN-APND - ZP26 (Central California)

  • TH_PACE_GEN-APND - PACE (PacifiCorp East BAA, WEIM/EDAM)

  • TH_PACW_GEN-APND - PACW (PacifiCorp West BAA, WEIM/EDAM)

• PACE and PACW prices begin exactly at midnight Pacific on 2026-05-01 across all markets - the market go-live date for those hub AP nodes, not a data gap. NP15, SP15, and ZP26 cover the full window.

Data Preview

Rows: 369,394  |  Columns: 10  |  Cache: data/opensource/caiso_lmp_real_time_15_min.parquet

Sample rows

First and latest 5 rows by interval_start_utc.

interval_start_utc	interval_end_utc	market	location	location_type	lmp	energy	congestion	loss	ghg
2023-05-11 07:00	2023-05-11 07:15	REAL_TIME_15_MIN	TH_NP15_GEN-APND	Trading Hub	9.217	10.005	0.0	-0.787	0.0
2023-05-11 07:00	2023-05-11 07:15	REAL_TIME_15_MIN	TH_ZP26_GEN-APND	Trading Hub	9.531	10.005	0.0	-0.474	0.0
2023-05-11 07:00	2023-05-11 07:15	REAL_TIME_15_MIN	TH_SP15_GEN-APND	Trading Hub	9.99	10.005	0.0	-0.015	0.0
2023-05-11 07:15	2023-05-11 07:30	REAL_TIME_15_MIN	TH_ZP26_GEN-APND	Trading Hub	10.773	11.311	0.0	-0.538	0.0
2023-05-11 07:15	2023-05-11 07:30	REAL_TIME_15_MIN	TH_SP15_GEN-APND	Trading Hub	11.282	11.311	0.0	-0.029	0.0
…	…	…	…	…	…	…	…	…	…
2026-08-27 06:45	2026-08-27 07:00	REAL_TIME_15_MIN	TH_NP15_GEN-APND	Trading Hub	37.332	139.161	-120.423	-5.08	23.674
2026-08-27 06:45	2026-08-27 07:00	REAL_TIME_15_MIN	TH_PACE_GEN-APND	AP Node	135.396	139.158	1.734	-5.497	0.0
2026-08-27 06:45	2026-08-27 07:00	REAL_TIME_15_MIN	TH_PACW_GEN-APND	AP Node	51.364	139.159	-82.855	-4.94	0.0
2026-08-27 06:45	2026-08-27 07:00	REAL_TIME_15_MIN	TH_SP15_GEN-APND	Trading Hub	244.965	139.161	89.572	-7.442	23.674
2026-08-27 06:45	2026-08-27 07:00	REAL_TIME_15_MIN	TH_ZP26_GEN-APND	Trading Hub	22.71	139.161	-135.321	-4.804	23.674

Column summary

Column	Dtype	Nulls	Min	Max
interval_start_utc	Datetime[ns]	0	2023-05-11 07:00	2026-08-27 06:45
interval_end_utc	Datetime[ns]	0	2023-05-11 07:15	2026-08-27 07:00
market	String	0	REAL_TIME_15_MIN	REAL_TIME_15_MIN
location	String	0	TH_NP15_GEN-APND	TH_ZP26_GEN-APND
location_type	String	0	AP Node	Trading Hub
lmp	Float64	0	-120.754	2000.0
energy	Float64	0	-136.879	2000.0
congestion	Float64	0	-879.67	850.367
loss	Float64	0	-107.325	19.553
ghg	Float64	0	0.0	225.364

DataFrame Glimpse

Rows: 369394
Columns: 10
$ interval_start_utc <datetime[ns]> 2026-08-27 06:45:00
$ interval_end_utc   <datetime[ns]> 2026-08-27 07:00:00
$ market                      <str> 'REAL_TIME_15_MIN'
$ location                    <str> 'TH_ZP26_GEN-APND'
$ location_type               <str> 'Trading Hub'
$ lmp                         <f64> 22.70982
$ energy                      <f64> 139.16055
$ congestion                  <f64> -135.32137
$ loss                        <f64> -4.80363
$ ghg                         <f64> 23.67425

Dataframe Manifest

Dataframe Name	CAISO LMP Real-Time 15-Min
Dataframe ID	caiso_lmp_real_time_15_min
Data Sources	CAISO OASIS (PRC_RTPD_LMP)
Data Providers	CAISO
Links to Providers	http://oasis.caiso.com
Topic Tags	Lmp, Real-Time, Spreads
Type of Data Access
How is data pulled?	src/pulls/pull_caiso_lmp_real_time_15_min.py via the open-source gridstatus library
Data available up to (min)	N/A
Data available up to (max)	N/A
Dataframe Path	data\opensource\caiso_lmp_real_time_15_min.parquet

Linked Charts:

• CAISO:caiso_dam_vs_rt_sp15

Pipeline Manifest

Pipeline Name	Project-Lab-Energy-Weather-Natgas-Quanto-CAISO
Pipeline ID	CAISO
Lead Pipeline Developer	Brian Nguyen
Contributors	Brian Nguyen, Claire Kim
Git Repo URL
Pipeline Web Page	Pipeline Web Page
Date of Last Code Update	2026-08-27 10:08:05
OS Compatibility	Windows, Linux, macOS
Linked Dataframes	CAISO:caiso_lmp_day_ahead_hourly CAISO:caiso_lmp_real_time_15_min CAISO:caiso_lmp_real_time_5_min CAISO:caiso_fuel_prices CAISO:caiso_fuel_regions CAISO:caiso_load CAISO:caiso_load_hourly CAISO:caiso_fuel_mix CAISO:caiso_renewables_hourly CAISO:caiso_curtailed_non_operational_generator_report CAISO:caiso_outages_aggregated_hourly CAISO:openmeteo_temperature_daily CAISO:eia860m_generators CAISO:us_ba_boundaries

Build Commands:

doit