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Bayou Energy October 2026 Utility API Update

1 day ago by Theo Michel

Overview

  • Free Tier: For new companies on the free tier, the dashboard now shows how many of the 10 free-tier meters have been used, and data unlocking is blocked once the limit is reached.
  • API Improvements:
    • bills sent to the Upload New Bill endpoint are now matched to their utility for every utility we support, and a bill uploaded for an existing customer goes to that customer's utility when the bill's text doesn't identify one.
    • Southern California Edison meters now include their POD ID in additional_attributes.
  • Handling Utility Portal Account Issues: The account-issue handling we introduced last month now covers PG&E, Southern California Edison, and Versant Power. When one of these utilities says the customer must take an action in its portal before the connection can continue, the Bayou onboarding form tells the customer what to do.
  • Bill and Interval Data Improvements: AES Ohio, previously bills-only, now has 15-minute interval data for customers with smart meters. AEP customers with several accounts under one login now get bills for all of them, and SDG&E business accounts now load data. We also made parsing and data-quality improvements across over 20 utilities, including solar credits.
  • Utility Website Updates: Adapted to portal and login changes at 11 utilities, and made sign-ins more reliable at several more.

More info on all of these below, and check out our utility support page for detailed info on our coverage and reliability.

Free Tier

On the free tier, the dashboard header now shows your meter usage on every page, for example "7/10 free meters". It turns gold when you reach the limit and links to our pricing overview.

Once you reach 10 meters:

  • Meters you've already unlocked keep unlocking as new bills arrive.
  • New meters stay locked, whether the unlock is automatic, from the dashboard, or through the API.
  • The Unlock Bill endpoint returns the error unlock_meter_limit_reached when every meter in the request is past the limit. When only some are, it unlocks the rest and lists each meter's result in unlock_result.

To unlock more meters, contact [email protected] about a paid plan.

API Improvements

Uploaded bills matched to their utility

When you upload a bill through the Upload New Bill endpoint, Bayou reads the bill to identify its utility. That now works for every utility we support, up from 23.

If you upload a bill for an existing customer and its text doesn't identify a utility, Bayou uses that customer's utility.

Southern California Edison POD IDs

Each meter on a Southern California Edison bill now includes the 18-digit POD ID printed on the bill, as pod_id in the meter's additional_attributes, next to service_id. See the bill endpoint reference.

Handling Utility Portal Account Issues

Last month we introduced account-issue handling in the Bayou onboarding form: when a utility says the customer must take an action in its portal before the connection can continue, the form tells the customer what to do so they can come back and finish connecting. It now covers three more utilities:

  • PG&E: finish re-registering the online account.
  • Southern California Edison: set up multi-factor authentication, which SCE has required since October 6.
  • Versant Power: finish multi-factor authentication setup.

As before, the auth_status field of the Customer record shows onboarding_customer_action_required, or refresh_customer_action_required when a refresh hits the issue. If you use the Bayou onboarding form, there's nothing you need to do.

We also improved how we handle Smart Meter Texas customers whose data-sharing agreement has expired or can't be found, so they're marked as needing to reconnect.

Bill and Interval Data Improvements

AES Ohio interval data

AES Ohio now supports 15-minute interval data, alongside bills. Intervals are available for customers with a smart meter. AES Ohio's smart meter rollout runs through 2028, so customers without one get bills only for now. Previously onboarded AES Ohio customers with smart meters will have their interval history loaded.

More accounts at AEP and SDG&E

  • AEP: one AEP login can hold many accounts. Bayou now loads bills for every account under the login.
  • SDG&E: business customers sign in to SDG&E's business portal. Bayou now loads their bills and usage from it.

Parsing and data-quality improvements

We made bill parsing, bill retrieval, and interval data improvements at over 20 utilities: AEP Ohio, AES Ohio, Ameren, Arizona Public Service, ComEd, Con Edison, El Paso Electric, Eversource, Florida Power & Light, Green Mountain Power, National Grid, NV Energy, Pacific Power, PECO, Pepco, PG&E, PPL Electric, Puget Sound Energy, Southern California Edison, Southern Company, and Versant Power.

The changes include support for Time of Use bills and oversized bills, steadier account numbers and bill IDs, correct dates on billing periods that cross the new year, solar and community solar credits on more bill types, retries for bills the utility hasn't published yet, more complete interval history, and more.

Utility Website Updates

We continue to adapt as utilities update their portals, login systems, and security measures. Some of the changes we handled since the last update:

  • AEP Ohio began moving its website to ohiopowerco.com as part of its rename to Ohio Power Company
  • Consumers Energy changed its Okta sign-in flow
  • Eversource changed its bill IDs and began rejecting long bill-history searches
  • PECO and ComEd began returning an error page for some bill downloads
  • Portland General Electric moved its API to a new address
  • PPL Electric began asking for a second captcha on some sign-ins
  • Southern Company and Austin Utilities began showing new error pages during outages
  • Tampa Electric added an account selection page for customers with more than one account
  • Xcel Energy added a new step to its login flow