Getting Started

Registering for Pelm

To start using Pelm, first register at pelm.com/register. Your Company will be displayed to users in Connect (more details below). Upon successful account creation, you'll receive an email with your Pelm-Client-Id and Pelm-Secret. These will be essential for making requests to Pelm. Please keep these secret and in a safe place.

If you need to update any of these fields or need help with anything else, email us at [email protected].

The next few sections walk you through connecting with a user's utility account and querying their data. If you'd like to view example code, check out the Quickstart App.

Sandbox mode

If you aren't ready to use real data yet or don't have access to a utility account, you can test Pelm with a Sandbox User. More details can be found here.

Getting Authorization for User Data through Connect

Connect is a JavaScript plugin that allows your users to securely and seamlessly connect their utility accounts to Pelm. It creates an access_token associated with your user that you'll use to access their data.

You can view the repo for our convenient React wrapper here.

Install

npm install --save react-pelm-connect

Via Script

<script src="https://api.pelm.com/connect/pelm-connect.js"></script>

Connect Token

The first step is creating a Connect Token. This is an extra security measure that abstracts away information like your Pelm-Client-Id and user_id from the web client.

To retrieve a Connect Token, make a POST to the /auth/connect_token endpoint:

curl -X POST https://api.pelm.com/auth/connect-token -H "Pelm-Client-Id: {CLIENT_ID}" -H "Pelm-Secret: {CLIENT_SECRET}" -F "user_id={YOUR_USER_ID}" -F "utility_id={UTILITY_ID}"

Included in the form parameters must be your own unique identifier for the user. This identifier will be how you can associate responses from API endpoints with a particular user record stored in your backend.

Pelm will infer which flow (either update or create) the User will see based on the user_id you pass. In create mode, the user will see the following screens:

Terms of Service Screen (accepting terms of service)
Utility Selection Screen (selecting a utility)
Credentials Screen (entering utility credentials)

In update mode, the user will start directly at the Utility Selection Screen.

If you submit a new user_id for a user that has already connected their account with you, your previously submitted user_id will be overwritten by the new value. Make sure you change this appropriately in your backend.

Include the optional utility_id parameter if you want your User to skip the Utility Selection Screen. You can find a list of utility_ids here.

Connect Tokens expire after 30 minutes.

More information on the Connect Token can be found in the docs here.

Config

The next step is creating a Config object to initialize Connect. The config is used to specify your Connect Token and callbacks for the success and exit cases. You can find a full Connect API reference here.

Once the User completes this flow, your onSuccess callback will be called with an authorization code. You will need to exchange this code for an access_token in order to access API resources. The code is only valid for 10 minutes after it is generated, so you must exchange it for an access_token during this time or go through the Connect flow again.

The Config option takes in the following parameters.

connectToken: the Connect Token created in the previous step
onSuccess: this is the callback that is called when your User successfully connects their utility account. This callback should take an authorizationCode: string parameter, which you'll use to get an access_token.
onExit: this is the callback that is called when Connect is exited but the user has not successfully connected their utility account. The callback will be called if the user manually exits Connect or if an error occurs causing Connect to close.

Example Config object:

config: Config = {
    connectToken: 'CONNECT_TOKEN',
    onSuccess: (authorizationCode: string) => {...},
    onExit: () => {}
}

Using Connect

Hook Implementation

Implementation using React Hooks.

import { useConnect, Config } from 'pelm-connect';

const Connect = (props: Props) => {
    const config: Config = {
      connectToken: 'YOUR_CONNECT_TOKEN',
      onSuccess: (authorizationCode: string) => {...},
       onExit: () => {...}
    }

    const { open, ready, error } = useConnect(config);

    return <button
        type="button"
        className="button"
        onClick={() => open()}
        disabled={!ready}
    >
        Connect your utility
    </button>
}

export default Connect

Styled Button

We also provide a styled button you can use.

import { ConnectButton, Config } from 'pelm-connect';

const Connect = (props: Props) => {
    const config: Config = {
      connectToken: 'YOUR_CONNECT_TOKEN',
      onSuccess: (authorizationCode: string) => {...},
       onExit: () => {...}
    }

    return <ConnectButton config={config} />
}

export default Connect

Via script

If you want to implement Connect into a non-React web application, follow this implementation.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <title>My test page</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>Pelm Connect javascript example</h1>
    <button onClick="launchPelm()">Connect utility</button>
    <script src="http://api.pelm.com/connect/pelm-connect.js"></script>
    <script>
        const launchPelm = async function() {
            const connectToken = "YOUR_CONNECT_TOKEN";
            const onSuccess = (authorizationCode) => {
                // exchange authorization code for access_token
            };
            const onExit = () => {};

            const config = {
                connectToken,
                onSuccess,
                onExit
            }

            const pelm = await window.PelmConnect.create(config);
            pelm.open()
        }
    </script>
    </body>
</html>

Getting an Access Token

An access_token gives you access to a given user's data.

To exchange an authorization code for an access_token, make a POST request to <https://api.pelm.com/auth/token> (API reference). In the request body, include the code. You also need to include a grant_type parameter set to "code".

The code is the string argument that is passed to the onSuccess callback after a user successfully completes the Connect flow.

Add your Pelm-Client-Id and Pelm-Secret in the header. For example:

curl --data "code={AUTHORIZATION_CODE}&grant_type=code" https://api.pelm.com/auth/token -H "Pelm-Client-Id: YOUR_CLIENT_ID" -H "Pelm-Secret: YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET"

If you've done this correctly, you'll receive the access_token and refresh_token in the JSON response:

{
  'access_token': '57f20230-4ee7-11ec-9b0c-acde48001122',
  'access_token_expires_in': 3600,
  'refresh_token': 'aea9b417e72b3978c5bfcd0782c3a486ec63abf5e85ce9a62ba36d1b18b12488',
  'refresh_token_expires_in': 1314000
}

The access_token will not expire. Make sure you securely store it in your database so you can make future requests for the given user.

The fields access_token_expires_in, refresh_token, and refresh_token_expires_in can be ignored. These are included for applications using our legacy authorization framework.

Requesting Accounts

A given User can have multiple accounts corresponding to different meters. For example, they can have a primary home, a vacation home, and a rental property all under the same utility login, each with its own set of interval data. Thus, energy interval data is tied to an Account; a given User can have multiple Accounts, but a given Account can only be linked to one User.

To get all the accounts for a given User, make a request to <https://api.pelm.com/accounts> (API reference).

You'll need to include the following headers:

Authorization = Bearer {ACCESS_TOKEN}
Pelm-Client-Id = {CLIENT_ID}
Pelm-Secret = {CLIENT_SECRET}

For example:

curl https://api.pelm.com/accounts -H "Authorization: Bearer {ACCESS_TOKEN}" -H "Pelm-Client-Id: {CLIENT_ID}" -H "Pelm-Secret: {CLIENT_SECRET}"

You'll get a list of Account objects in the response:

[
  {
    "id": "b5d64e61-4d05-4dde-ab85-cfd071024b81",
    "account_number": "5777345636",
    "address": "1 WARRIORS WAY SAN FRANCISCO CA 94158",
    "usage_unit": "kwh",
    "emissions_unit": "kg_co2e_per_kwh"
  },
  {
    "id": "d9a14c1c-746b-43fc-83f2-e93b6f94f05d",
    "account_number": "8011757182",
    "address": "1 FERRY BUILDING SAN FRANCISCO CA 94105",
    "usage_unit": "kwh",
    "emissions_unit": "kg_co2e_per_kwh"
  }
]

Note the id here. This id is a required parameter for making requests for an Account's interval data, bills, and more.

Requesting Interval Data

Now you can request interval data for a given Account. Make a GET request to <https://api.pelm.com/intervals> with the desired account_id, start_date, and end_date. Similar to the previous request, you need to pass your access_token, Pelm-Client-Id, and Pelm-Secret as headers.

For example:

curl https://api.pelm.com/intervals?account_id={ACCOUNT_ID}&start_date={START_DATE}&end_date={END_DATE} -H "Authorization: Bearer {ACCESS_TOKEN}" -H "Pelm-Client-Id: {CLIENT_ID}" -H "Pelm-Secret: {CLIENT_SECRET}"

The start_date and end_date should be in UNIX time and refer to the bounds of the interval data that you want. The account_id was retrieved in the previous step.

If you don't enter a start_date and end_date, the default response will include the past two months of historical interval data.

If all has gone correctly, you should receive a JSON response with the Utility name, the Account object, and a list of Interval objects. Each Interval object has the following fields:

start: the start time of the interval in UNIX time
end: the end time of the interval in UNIX time
usage: the electricity used between start and end times
ghg_emission: the amount of greenhouse gases emissions caused by the electricity usage in this time interval. This is currently only available for PG&E and SCE users.

The Account object will contain the units used in the Intervals.

{
  "utility": "Pacific Gas and Electric",
  "account": {
    "id": "b5d64e61-4d05-4dde-ab85-cfd071024b81",
    "account_number": "5777345636",
    "address": "1 WARRIORS WAY SAN FRANCISCO CA 94158",
    "usage_unit": "kwh",
    "ghg_emissions_unit": "kg_co2e"
  },
  "intervals": [
    {
      "start": 1646996400,
      "end": 1647000000,
      "usage": 0.7526,
      "ghg_emissions": 0.2925
    },
    {
      "start": 1647000000,
      "end": 1647003600,
      "usage": 0.7536,
      "ghg_emissions": 0.2325
    }
  ]
}

Congratulations! You've successfully queried your user's usage intervals.

Requesting Bill Data

To access bill data, first you need to figure out for which Account you want the data for. You should have gone through this in the previous step, so we won't repeat ourselves here.

Next, you'll need to retrieve a list of bills for a given Account by making a GET request to <https://api.pelm.com/users/{ACCOUNT_ID}/bills>. The header structure should look familiar:

Authorization = Bearer {ACCESS_TOKEN}
Pelm-Client-Id = {CLIENT_ID}
Pelm-Secret = {CLIENT_SECRET}

curl https://api.pelm.com/{ACCOUNT_ID}/bills -H "Authorization: Bearer {ACCESS_TOKEN}" -H "Pelm-Client-Id: {CLIENT_ID}" -H "Pelm-Secret: {CLIENT_SECRET}"

You'll get a list of bill ids in the response, along with their start and end dates:

{
  "577850911877": {
    "bill_end_date": "Thu, 13 Jan 2022 08:00:00 GMT",
    "bill_start_date": "Wed, 15 Dec 2021 08:00:00 GMT"
  }
}