Watt Price Driver (.Net)
The Watt Price Driver (.Net) provides access to daily electricity market results published at http://www.ote-cr.cz. Data is retrieved from the official SOAP API available at: https://www.ote-cr.cz/services/PublicDataService.
Note: OTE introduced a new service endpoint in April 2026 (https://www.ote-cr.cz/pw-data/services/PublicDataService). As of independent testing on 31 August 2026, both the legacy and new endpoints return identical, working responses. OTE has not announced a firm cutover date, but migrating the Price API URI to the new endpoint when convenient is still recommended for long-term stability.
Driver Setup
- Add a PLC with a running .Net Server for Mervis RT to the project, see Installation / update guide for .Net Server for Mervis RT
- Enable .Net drivers in the PLC configuration:
PLC\Configuration ⇒ Common\Enable .NET Drivers: true
- Add a Channel to the PLC, Protocol: Watt Price (.Net)
- Add a Library Device to the Channel:
CzechRepublic\OTE\Watt Price 15-Minute Period (Array)
- The following parameters are preconfigured on the added device:
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| Price API Type | The protocol used to query the price source. Preconfigured as SOAP and should not need to be changed. |
| Price API URI | The service endpoint URL the driver queries for price data. Defaults to OTE's public SOAP endpoint. |
| Price API Time Zone | The time zone used when interpreting and aligning price data. Defaults to Europe/Prague. |
| Date Shift Days | Which day's prices to retrieve, relative to today. 0 returns today's prices. -1 returns yesterday's prices, -2 the day before, and so on. Positive values shift forward (e.g. 1 returns tomorrow's prices, once published). |
- Data point mapping is done via
Variable Identifier:- PriceInQH_0xx (e.g. PriceInQH_001) – price for the specific quarter-hour
- PriceInQH – array of prices for the quarter-hours of the day
- QuarterHoursInDay – number of quarter-hours in the day
- PriceMinimum – minimum price
- PriceMaximum – maximum price
- PriceAverage – average price
- PriceCurrent – current price
- Variables can be created and linked manually, or by using the Set Autogen function
About Quarter-Hour Pricing
OTE publishes day-ahead prices at hourly resolution. The Watt Price Driver retrieves this hourly data and derives the four quarter-hour (PriceInQH) values for each hour by dividing the hourly price evenly across its four 15-minute periods. This is expected, correct behavior — the driver does not query OTE for a separate, genuinely 15-minute-resolution dataset, since OTE's day-ahead market does not publish prices at that granularity in the first place.
ENTSO-E Transparency Platform: API Access Reference
The Watt Price Driver uses OTE as its data source. For teams that also want to query electricity market data directly from ENTSO-E's Transparency Platform (for example, for markets outside the Czech Republic, or for independent verification of OTE data), the platform offers a public REST API. Access requires a free registered account and an approved security token.
Setting Up API Access
- Register for a free account on the Transparency Platform, then email
transparency@entsoe.euwith “Restful API access” in the subject line, including your registered email in the body.
- ENTSO-E support confirms access has been granted, typically within a few business days, along with a link to the REST API user guide.
- Once access is granted, log in to the Transparency Platform and open My Account from the account menu in the top right.
- Under Web API Access, click Generate Token to create your security token.
Format Reference
For teams comparing OTE's SOAP response against ENTSO-E's REST response (for example, when writing custom integrations), the two formats differ as follows:
| Feature | ENTSO-E REST (A44) | OTE SOAP |
|---|---|---|
| Protocol | REST GET | SOAP POST |
| Price field | <price.amount> inside <Point> | <PriceCZ> |
| Time field | <timeInterval><start> + <position> (1–24) | <Date> + <Hour> |
| Resolution | PT60M (hourly) only | Hourly |
| Error format | Acknowledgement_MarketDocument XML | SOAP Fault |
| Auth | securityToken query parameter (requires registration + approval) | None |
Both sources publish day-ahead prices at hourly resolution only, consistent with how the Watt Price Driver derives quarter-hour values from hourly data (see “About Quarter-Hour Pricing” above).