The data

Rights and licensing

Every source has a machine-readable rights mode, and the API enforces it on every response. When in doubt, it fails closed: the value is withheld, the record is not hidden.

Rights modes

rights modes
Mode	We fetch and store	The API serves the value	In short
redistribution_allowed	yes	yes	Fetched, stored and served.
commercial_use_with_attribution	yes	yes, with attribution	Fetched, stored and served, with the attribution string the licence asks for.
derived_only	yes	no	Fetched and stored, not served: the licence allows derived products only, and V1 derives nothing.
internal_cache_only	yes	no — listed, value withheld	Fetched and stored, not served. Records are listed with the value withheld and a link to the operator.
link_only	no	no — metadata and link only	Not fetched. Metadata and a link to the operator's own publication.
pending_review	yes	no — listed, value withheld	Fetched and stored so the history is not lost, not served. Records are listed with the value withheld until the operator's terms are clear.
blocked	no	no	Not fetched and not served.

A source’s mode is on its page under sources, with the licence, the evidence it was decided on (a URL, a short quote and the date it was read) and any note. It can change: an operator of this service can set any source to blocked instantly, and a source moves to a granting mode only when its licence clearly allows commercial reuse.

Withheld records

A value from a source that does not permit redistribution is withheld. The record is still listed — so you know the operator publishes something there, and where — with:

{
  "capacity": {
    "type": "available",
    "value": null,
    "unit": "MW",
    "value_mw": null,
    "qualifier": null,
    "status": null,
    "status_label": null
  },
  "access": {
    "status": "withheld",
    "reason": "pending_review",
    "source_url": "https://operator.example/hosting-capacity"
  }
}

A withheld value never satisfies a numeric filter: min_capacity_mw=10 cannot match a null.
Withheld records are included by default. include_withheld=false leaves them out.
A request that names only restricted sources is 451 source_rights_restricted, so a filter on one source cannot quietly return a list of nulls.

Why unclear sources are still read

Operator portals overwrite their files, and a history that was not recorded when it happened can never be recovered. So publications whose reuse terms are unclear are read and kept internally, and nothing from them is served. If the operator clears redistribution, customers get the history as well as the present. If an operator objects even to that, the source goes to blocked and its stored copies are deleted.

How a mode is decided

A granting mode requires a licence name, a licence URL, dated evidence and an explicit yes on commercial use. Anything less is not granted.
When signals conflict — a dataset marked CC BY 4.0 on a site whose terms forbid commercial reuse — the more restrictive reading wins until the operator confirms otherwise in writing.
An obligation to publish is not a licence to redistribute. Regulators oblige operators to publish capacity; the licence the operator attaches is what counts.

Attribution

Where a licence asks for attribution, granted records carry the exact string in access.attribution, and the source’s page shows it. Show it wherever you show the figure — in your product, your report or your export. It is the operator’s condition, not ours.

Redistribution

Your plan decides how you may pass data on: redistribution to third parties is an Enterprise term, and only ever as far as each operator’s own licence allows. The terms say so in full.

Personal data

Some registers name customers or staff. Those fields are dropped when the file is parsed and are never stored, so no record carries them.

Rights modes#

Withheld records#

Why unclear sources are still read#

How a mode is decided#

Attribution#

Personal data#