Switzerland EPEX Day-Ahead Price API

You need a reliable way to fetch the latest Switzerland EPEX Day-Ahead power price for finance workflows—valuation, hedging, or daily PnL inputs. By the end of this guide, you’ll be able to query the Energy API for the EPEX Switzerland Day-Ahead symbol, parse the returned fields, and integrate them into a production data pipeline with minimal friction.

What you will build: a minimal “latest price” integration

This article shows how to fetch the latest Switzerland EPEX Day-Ahead price via a single GET request and safely read the fields you actually need: the price, its unit, and the market date. You’ll also see a copy-pasteable curl, a concise Python example, and real JSON responses so you can test your parser on known-good payloads.

Origin catalog facts (verbatim)

• Symbol name: Switzerland EPEX Day-Ahead
• Symbol code: EPEX_CH_DA
• Unit: EUR/MWh
• Auth: api_key query parameter. Placeholder YOUR_API_KEY only.
• Do not pass base=USD when you also need TTF_GAS or EUA_CO2.
• No MCP host. Starter $19.99/mo, trial 7 days / 50 calls.
• curl: curl -G "https://energy-api.com/api/v1/latest" --data-urlencode "symbols=EPEX_CH_DA" --data-urlencode "api_key=YOUR_API_KEY"
• Read rates.EPEX_CH_DA, dates.EPEX_CH_DA, currencies.EPEX_CH_DA. base may be MIXED.

Endpoint and authentication

Use the latest endpoint to retrieve current quotes:

• HTTP Method: GET
• URL: https://energy-api.com/api/v1/latest
• Query params:
  • symbols=EPEX_CH_DA
  • api_key=YOUR_API_KEY

Authentication is via the api_key query parameter. Use YOUR_API_KEY as a placeholder during development and replace it with your real key when deploying. You do not need to pass a base parameter for EPEX_CH_DA. If you also query TTF_GAS or EUA_CO2 alongside other symbols, do not pass base=USD because their base may be MIXED.

Copy-paste curl (official sample)

Run this from a terminal to fetch the latest price for Switzerland EPEX Day-Ahead:

curl -G "https://energy-api.com/api/v1/latest" --data-urlencode "symbols=EPEX_CH_DA" --data-urlencode "api_key=YOUR_API_KEY"

Real JSON responses you can test against

1) Real API response for EPEX_CH_DA

{"success":true,"date":"2026-11-03","base":"EUR","rates":{"EPEX_CH_DA":290.5208},"dates":{"EPEX_CH_DA":"2026-11-03"},"currencies":{"EPEX_CH_DA":"EUR"},"base_filter_note":null,"missing_symbols":null}

Use these fields directly:

• rates.EPEX_CH_DA → numeric price for Switzerland EPEX Day-Ahead.
• dates.EPEX_CH_DA → the market date for the quoted series.
• currencies.EPEX_CH_DA → currency of the quote (EUR).
• base → quote base. For this symbol it is EUR; in mixed-symbol calls it may be MIXED.

2) Official sample JSON (must match exactly)

{
"success": true,
"date": "2026-11-04",
"base": "EUR",
"rates": {
"OMIE_ES_DA": 246.0056
},
"dates": {
"OMIE_ES_DA": "2026-11-04"
},
"currencies": {
"OMIE_ES_DA": "EUR"
},
"base_filter_note": null,
"missing_symbols": null
}

This example is provided for schema reference: it shows the same field layout you will parse for EPEX_CH_DA. Always read values from rates, dates, and currencies by symbol code.

3) Cached-read example (identical schema and values)

{"success":true,"date":"2026-11-03","base":"EUR","rates":{"EPEX_CH_DA":290.5208},"dates":{"EPEX_CH_DA":"2026-11-03"},"currencies":{"EPEX_CH_DA":"EUR"},"base_filter_note":null,"missing_symbols":null}

This duplicate payload is intentional: use it to test idempotent parsing, caching, and downstream formatting without relying on changing data.

Minimal Python client to fetch and parse Switzerland EPEX Day-Ahead

The snippet below requests EPEX_CH_DA, validates the response, and extracts the price, date, and currency for downstream finance logic. It uses only the documented endpoint and fields.

import os
import sys
import json
import urllib.parse
import urllib.request

API_BASE = "https://energy-api.com/api/v1/latest"
API_KEY = os.getenv("ENERGY_API_KEY", "YOUR_API_KEY")
SYMBOL = "EPEX_CH_DA"

def fetch_latest(symbol):
params = {
"symbols": symbol,
"api_key": API_KEY,
}
url = API_BASE + "?" + urllib.parse.urlencode(params)
with urllib.request.urlopen(url) as resp:
raw = resp.read().decode("utf-8")
data = json.loads(raw)
if not data.get("success"):
raise RuntimeError("API returned success=false")
return data

def parse_series(data, symbol):
rates = data.get("rates", {})
dates = data.get("dates", {})
currencies = data.get("currencies", {})
if symbol not in rates:
raise KeyError(f"Missing rate for {symbol}")
return {
"symbol": symbol,
"price": float(rates[symbol]),
"market_date": dates.get(symbol),
"currency": currencies.get(symbol),
"base": data.get("base"),
"asof_date": data.get("date"), # top-level as-of date for the batch
}

if __name__ == "__main__":
try:
payload = fetch_latest(SYMBOL)
result = parse_series(payload, SYMBOL)
# Example: print a CSV header+row for piping into finance ETL
print("symbol,market_date,price,currency,base,asof_date")
print(
"{symbol},{market_date},{price},{currency},{base},{asof_date}".format(**result)
)
except Exception as e:
print(f"Error: {e}", file=sys.stderr)
sys.exit(1)

Field semantics and how to use them in finance workflows

• rates.EPEX_CH_DA: The day-ahead power price for Switzerland quoted in EUR/MWh. Use this as your mark for valuation and PnL where day-ahead granularity is appropriate.
• dates.EPEX_CH_DA: The market date of the price (YYYY-MM-DD). Store this as the effective date of the price in your price table rather than assuming trading calendar alignment.
• currencies.EPEX_CH_DA: Currency of the quote. For this symbol it is EUR; do not convert unless your downstream requires it. If converting, perform FX outside this API using your treasury method.
• base: The response base. It may be EUR or MIXED depending on the symbol set requested. For a single EPEX_CH_DA query, expect EUR.
• date (top-level): The as-of date for the response batch. Use for audit and freshness checks.

Production notes: units, timezone, caching, and non-trading days

• Units: EPEX_CH_DA is quoted in EUR/MWh. Store as a decimal with at least four fractional digits to avoid rounding drift in portfolio aggregations.
• Timezone and dates: The API returns date strings (YYYY-MM-DD). Treat them as market dates. If your system is timezone-aware, store the date as a naive date or normalize to UTC midnight; do not infer intraday timestamps unless your process requires it.
• Caching: Since day-ahead prices update on a daily schedule, you can cache responses per symbol and per date. A good pattern is to cache by symbol+date key and only refresh when your acquisition window opens (e.g., once per day after the market publishes).
• Missing data: Always check missing_symbols and success before using values. If missing_symbols is non-null, write the entry to a retry queue.
• Multi-symbol calls: When mixing symbols with different bases (e.g., combining EPEX_CH_DA with products whose base may be MIXED), detect base and currencies per-symbol. Avoid forcing base=USD when requesting TTF_GAS or EUA_CO2.

Error handling and guardrails

Implement the following checks before persisting data:

• Validate success is true.
• Ensure rates.EPEX_CH_DA, dates.EPEX_CH_DA, and currencies.EPEX_CH_DA exist and are typed as expected.
• Verify base is either EUR or MIXED for your symbol set; log unexpected values for inspection.
• On network failure, back off and retry using your standard retry policy. Since the endpoint is GET with idempotent semantics, retries are safe.

Integration patterns: from API call to pricing table

For finance pipelines, a minimal normalized schema works well:

• symbol (text) → "EPEX_CH_DA"
• market_date (date)
• price (numeric)
• currency (text) → "EUR"
• unit (text) → "EUR/MWh"
• asof_date (date) → top-level date
• source (text) → "energy-api/latest"

Key your table by (symbol, market_date). This avoids duplicate inserts on re-fetch and enables deterministic overwrites if a late revision occurs. On ingest, reject rows where market_date is null, price is null, or currency != "EUR" for this symbol.

Security, environments, and CI

• Do not commit the real API key. Use environment variables and inject them into your runtime.
• Unit test your parser with the real JSON examples above to lock your schema assumptions and prevent accidental changes from breaking production.
• For CI, run a schema validation step that confirms required fields exist and have correct types before publishing to your internal price store.

Pricing and trial

The Starter plan is $19.99/month with a 7-day trial that includes 50 calls. This is sufficient to build, test, and deploy a basic latest-price fetcher for Switzerland EPEX Day-Ahead.

Deep-dive: working with base and currency

In most single-symbol requests for EPEX_CH_DA, base is EUR and currencies.EPEX_CH_DA is EUR. If you later expand your request to include additional energy symbols with different quoting conventions, the response base may become MIXED. In that case, always read per-symbol currencies and avoid applying any global conversion to all series. If you also request TTF_GAS or EUA_CO2, do not pass base=USD.

End-to-end example: batch loader pseudo-flow

1. At a scheduled time once per day, call GET /api/v1/latest with symbols=EPEX_CH_DA and your api_key.
2. Validate success; ensure rates.EPEX_CH_DA, dates.EPEX_CH_DA, currencies.EPEX_CH_DA are present.
3. Persist one row keyed by (EPEX_CH_DA, dates.EPEX_CH_DA) with price=rates.EPEX_CH_DA, currency=EUR, unit=EUR/MWh, asof_date=date.
4. If missing_symbols is non-null, alert and retry.
5. Downstream systems (valuation, PnL) read the row by market_date; avoid using wall-clock timestamps to select prices.

Using the official documentation and registering

When you’re ready to move from a sandbox script to production, review parameter details and field definitions in the official docs, then create an account to obtain an API key:

• Documentation
• Register

FAQ

Q: Which fields should I persist for finance use-cases?
A: Persist rates.EPEX_CH_DA (price), dates.EPEX_CH_DA (market date), currencies.EPEX_CH_DA (EUR), base (EUR or MIXED), and the top-level date for audit. Store the known unit EUR/MWh alongside the record.

Q: Do I need to pass a base parameter?
A: No. For EPEX_CH_DA you can omit base entirely. If you later include symbols like TTF_GAS or EUA_CO2 in the same call, do not pass base=USD because their base may be MIXED.

Q: How often should I refresh Switzerland EPEX Day-Ahead?
A: Once per day is typical for day-ahead pricing. Implement a schedule aligned with your internal valuation cutover and cache responses per (symbol, market_date) key.

Q: What should I do if missing_symbols is not null?
A: Do not write partial data to production. Alert, retry with backoff, and log the response for later inspection.

Q: Can I combine EPEX_CH_DA with other symbols in one request?
A: Yes, but always read currencies and dates per symbol and check base. When mixing symbols that may yield MIXED, avoid global assumptions about currency or unit.

If you need a clean, single-call workflow to fetch Switzerland EPEX Day-Ahead prices for finance, start with the curl above, wire the Python example into your ETL, and expand from there. When you’re ready, review the Documentation and create your key via Register.