API and MCP
One connector for AI assistants, one REST API for code. Same tools, same data.
Every call needs a free account: email sign-in, no card, 20 calls a day, 100 a month. Assistants sign you in when you connect; code uses a key from your account.
Connect an AI assistant
Pick your assistant below. Every option signs you in with your email and a 6 digit code (free account, no card), and every connection on your account shares the same plan. If an app cannot do sign-in, use a personal connector URL instead. To ask without connecting anything, Dub on the map runs the same tools.
Server URL:
Claude (web, desktop, mobile)
- On claude.ai or the desktop app: Settings, Connectors, Add custom connector.
- Name:
Barrio Grid. URL:https://grid.barrioenergy.com/mcp. Leave the advanced OAuth fields blank. - Press Connect. Enter your email, then the 6 digit code from your inbox. You land back in Claude.
- In a chat, make sure Barrio Grid is switched on in the tools menu, then ask something from the list below.
Once added on the web or desktop, it works in the Claude mobile app too. On Team and Enterprise, an owner may need to add it for the organization first.
ChatGPT
- Settings, Apps and Connectors (called Plugins in some versions), Advanced settings: turn on Developer mode. Needs Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise or Edu; on a workspace an admin may need to allow it.
- Back in Apps and Connectors, press Create. Name:
Barrio Grid. MCP server URL:https://grid.barrioenergy.com/mcp. Authentication: OAuth. Tick the custom connector notice and create it. - Sign in with your email and code when the Barrio Grid window opens.
- Start a new chat, open the tools menu, turn on Barrio Grid, and ask a question. If ChatGPT answers from memory, say "use Barrio Grid".
Muse
- Send Muse this message:
- When it asks you to connect, sign in with your email and the 6 digit code. If it asks for a token instead, give it your personal connector URL or key through Muse's secure prompt, never in the chat.
Claude Code
Then run /mcp inside Claude Code, pick barrio-grid, and choose Authenticate to sign in.
Codex CLI
Cursor
Or add this to ~/.cursor/mcp.json, then press Connect next to barrio-grid in Settings, MCP:
VS Code (GitHub Copilot agent mode)
Or add to .vscode/mcp.json and press Start above the entry:
Gemini CLI
Add to ~/.gemini/settings.json, then run /mcp auth barrio-grid:
Windsurf
Add to ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json:
Anything else
Any app that takes a remote MCP server (streamable HTTP) works. Give it the server URL above and it will open the sign-in page. If the app has no sign-in support, use the personal connector URL below. Or paste this into the assistant and let it set itself up:
Personal connector URL (no sign-in needed)
On Account, press "Make a connector URL and key". You get https://grid.barrioenergy.com/mcp/k/grid_.... Paste it anywhere the steps above ask for the server URL and skip the sign-in. It works like a password: keep it private, and make a new one on Account if it leaks. The same key works as Authorization: Bearer grid_... for apps that take headers.
First questions to ask
- What substations are within 5 miles of Edna, TX, and who owns them?
- Find parcels over 50 acres within a mile of a 138 kV substation in Jackson County.
- Which ERCOT nodes had the best battery spreads (TB4) in South Texas this month?
- Is 1201 Main St, Houston inside city limits, and which school and groundwater districts is it in?
- Screen this site for a 20 MW data center: 28.97, -96.65.
Limits and upgrading
Free: 20 calls a day, 100 a month. Pro: 5,000 calls a month, the map and the Pro tools, $499 a month (first month $249) or $4,990 a year. Enterprise Lite: everything in Pro plus tract search, landowner and appraisal records, and land values, $999 a month total; Pro subscribers switch in place with proration from Account. When you hit a limit, the assistant can call upgrade_to_pro and hand you a checkout link. Pay with Link or a card and that same connection becomes Pro right away; no reconnecting. Limits are per account and shared by every assistant you connect.
REST API
Base URL https://grid.barrioenergy.com/v1/. GET with query parameters or POST JSON. Full schemas: /v1/tools.
Tools
| Tool | Returns | Main inputs |
|---|---|---|
| Grid and siting | ||
| grid_context | Likely utility, 3 nearest substations, lines, queue projects and planned upgrades around a site, plus railroads: nearest rail lines with owner and type, and whether a railroad lies between the site and its nearest substation (or a point you pass) | address or lat/lng, radius_mi, to_lat/to_lng Each substation carries an osm block: high and low side voltage (voltages_kv, high_side_kv, low_side_kv), OpenStreetMap class (transmission, distribution, switching, or not_mapped), source OpenStreetMap (ODbL); mapped transformer count on Pro. |
| nearest_substation | Closest substations with kV, owner, distance in miles. Also returns planned, unbuilt substations nearby (built:false, status, docket, expected date, pin confidence and the docket's location caveat) and warns when a planned and a built station share a name. | address or lat/lng, min_kv, limit, osm_class (distribution, transmission, switching), bus_kv_max (Pro: keep stations with a bus at or below that kV, so a 345/138/69 kV station passes 69) Each substation carries an osm block from OpenStreetMap (ODbL): osm_class (transmission, distribution, switching, or not_mapped with a reason), distribution_bus_mapped (free), osm_name and match distance. Pro adds voltages_kv, high_side_kv, low_side_kv (when more than one voltage is mapped), transformer_count and transformer voltages, and osm_only_substations: up to 5 stations within 5 miles that are mapped in OpenStreetMap but not in the federal substation layer. |
| find_powered_land (Enterprise Lite) | Parcels near a qualifying substation, with acres, owner and owner type, situs, legal and appraised values, and wetland_pct (mapped wetland and open water share, USFWS NWI). Filter by owner type; max_wetland_pct=10 drops wetter parcels. bus_kv_max=69 or osm_class=distribution keeps parcels whose nearest substation has a lower-voltage or distribution bus mapped in OpenStreetMap. Enterprise: max_gas_mi, min_gas_diameter_in and gas_interstate (all, interstate, intrastate) keep parcels near a mapped gas line, and every parcel then carries nearest_gas_mi and nearest_gas_interstate. min_flat_pct keeps parcels with at least that share under 5 percent slope (USGS 3DEP) and adds flat_pct, mean_slope_pct and wells_active; measure_terrain=true and measure_gas=true add those fields without filtering. group_by_owner=true rolls parcels up by landowner and ranks owners by total acres (see Landowners). Free and Pro get the count of qualifying parcels and their acreage. | county or location + radius_mi, min_acres, max_sub_mi, min_kv, bus_kv_max, osm_class, max_gas_mi, min_gas_diameter_in, gas_interstate, same_side_of_rail (Enterprise: no railroad between parcel and its substation), owner_type, group_by_owner, min_total_acres, min_parcel_acres |
| parcel_owner (Enterprise Lite) | Parcels at an address, around a named substation, or by property ID, with owner name, care-of and mailing address. Free and Pro get the one parcel record at the point (property ID, acres, situs, legal description, values) without the owner, and counts of parcels and owners around it. Each parcel carries owner_class (university_lands, state, federal, county, city, school_district, special_district, railroad, utility, company, individual, trust_estate), undivided_interest when several owners share one property ID, city_limits_per_cad from the ICL/OCL legal token, and value_status (not_published_by_county means zeros are missing data, not a $0 parcel). utility_pad says whether a utility-owned parcel under 10 acres (a likely substation pad) sits within the radius: yes or no and a count for everyone, owner and property ID on Enterprise Lite and Enterprise; site_screen adds it as a flag within 1 mile. | address, lat/lng, substation, or prop_id + county |
| jurisdiction | County, inside city limits (which city), ETJ estimate, nearest city, school district, groundwater district or rule of capture, load zone, likely utility, FEMA flood zone, mapped wetlands at the point and within 0.5 mi (free: yes or no; Pro: type, acres and distance), USFWS critical habitat within 5 mi, Qualified Opportunity Zone now and from 2027 (tract, county and rural flag on Pro) cad_city_limits compares the appraisal roll's ICL/OCL legal token for the parcel at the point with the boundary layer and warns when they disagree. | address or lat/lng |
| pipelines_near | Gas (optionally liquids) pipelines by system: operator, commodity, nominal diameter, interstate or intrastate, transmission or gathering, distance, miles in radius; nearest 12-inch-plus and nearest interstate; gas_regulation_note on interstate (FERC) versus intrastate (Railroad Commission) tap and rate process; Pro filters with interstate=interstate|intrastate; within 15 mi, trunklines (20 in+ or interstate), compressor stations (certificated HP), processing plants (MMcf/d) and EIA capacity projects by those operators | address or lat/lng, radius_mi, gas_only, min_diameter_in, interstate (Pro) |
| fiber_near | Fiber routes within a radius grouped by provider and path basis (gis_published = provider GIS, real cable path; carrier_on_corridor = carrier reported on a highway corridor, path inferred), nearest ten carrier hotels, colo and data centers within 100 mi, and FCC fiber-to-premises providers nearby. Free: provider, distance and path basis; facility operator, type and distance; fiber-to-premises provider names. Pro adds fiber count, placement, use, status, route names, facility names and cities, fiber-to-premises locations and top speed | address or lat/lng, radius_mi (5, max 25), limit |
| water_screen | Groundwater near a site from TWDB well records (Groundwater Database and Submitted Drillers Reports, cleaned, monthly): TWDB major and minor aquifers under the point, the groundwater conservation district, supply wells by depth band, reported yields (median and 75th percentile, weighted by test method), the highest-yield wells with depth, screen and aquifer, per-aquifer TDS and water-level trend, a wells-needed check for a stated demand, the groundwater district's adopted rules (exempt wells, permits, spacing, per-acre production caps, export, fees, metering) with rule numbers, pages and short quotes where two independent extractions agree, the acres of rights a per-acre cap implies, and flags. Free: aquifers, district, well counts by depth band. Pro adds yields, the well list, water quality, trends, district rules, the demand check and flags | address or lat/lng, radius_mi (5, max 15), demand_mgd or demand_gpm |
| water_report | PDF water site report: aquifers and groundwater district, formations ranked by grade, nearest graded water areas, the proposed well drawn beside its analog wells with the analog table, water quality by aquifer with sample years, the district rules with page numbers, a demand and water-rights check, and the method. Link expires in 30 minutes. Enterprise | address or lat/lng, radius_mi, demand_mgd or demand_gpm, acres |
| water_well_plan | Proposed groundwater supply well and water buy areas. Every well record is assigned to a water-bearing unit (formation); the tool ranks the units around the point, proposes a total depth and screen for the best one, gives expected yield (low, design, upside), TDS with sample years, depth to water and level trend, annual yield per well and under the district's per-acre cap, wells and acres of rights for a demand, the analog wells it rests on and a leave-one-out check. Buy-area grades: A = 75th percentile yield 300+ gpm, TDS under 1,000 mg/l, median depth 1,500 ft or less, levels falling no more than 1 ft/yr, 5+ analogs; B = TDS up to 3,000 or unknown; C = 130+ gpm, 3+ analogs. Enterprise; other tiers see the units present and the nearest buy-area grade | address or lat/lng, radius_mi (5, max 15), demand_mgd or demand_gpm, acres |
| water_cross_section | Geologic cross section along a line from the Texas Water Development Board groundwater availability models (Gulf Coast north and central-south, Yegua-Jackson, Carrizo-Wilcox central and south with Queen City and Sparta, Edwards Balcones Fault Zone north and Barton Springs, Trinity north with the Woodbine, Trinity Hill Country, Edwards-Trinity Plateau and Pecos Valley, High Plains): ground surface and every aquifer and confining unit with top and bottom elevation, fresh and brackish zones and outcrop, sampled on a 1-mile grid, plus the state wells within a buffer of the line with screens, depths, yields, TDS and their formation pick. Regional model layers, not a site survey. Enterprise; other tiers see the formations crossed | from_lat, from_lng, to_lat, to_lng; or address or lat/lng with bearing_deg (135) and length_mi (20, max 80); well_buffer_mi (1, max 3) |
| water_report | Print-ready PDF water report for a site: aquifers and groundwater district, formations ranked by grade, nearest graded water areas, a proposed supply well drawn beside the analog wells it rests on, the analog well table, a 12 mi geologic cross section through the site with unit depths at the site, water quality by aquifer and the district rules with page numbers. Returns a link that expires in 30 minutes. Enterprise | address or lat/lng, radius_mi (5, max 15), demand_mgd or demand_gpm, acres |
| industrial_neighbors | TCEQ emissions-inventory sites (industry, NOx tons/yr) and recent TCEQ air permit applications (dates, MW, data-center flag) | address or lat/lng, radius_mi |
| site_screen (Enterprise) | All of the above plus prices and queue crowding in one call, a flags list (strengths, neutral, risks) and a 0-100 screening score. Includes the parcel at the point with its owner and the same owner's holdings within 5 miles, and a railroad-crossing flag between the site and its substation. Free, Pro and Enterprise Lite get the score, flag counts, county, load zone and nearest substation; the flags and weights are Enterprise. | address or lat/lng, use, to_lat/to_lng |
| report_pdf | Makes a one-page, print-ready PDF site screen for an address or coordinate: screen score, a to-scale schematic map of the nearest substations, substations and transmission lines within 5 miles with kV and owner, likely utility and load zone, and a screening disclaimer. Returns a link that expires after 30 minutes (a snapshot taken when you call it). Pro: score, flag counts and grid facts. Enterprise: also the strengths and risks, prices, gas, flood, jurisdiction and the parcel at the point. Free: a description of the report. | |
| Queues | ||
| ercot_queue | ERCOT GIS report generation and storage projects: INR, project name, fuel, tech, MW, county, zone, POI substation, study phase, COD, entity. Summary with mw_by_fuel and mw_by_stage. Free: fuel, county, zone, distance_mi only. Pro: full project details. | county, poi, fuel (SOL, WIN, GAS, etc.), or location + radius_mi |
| battery_queue | Battery storage projects from the ERCOT GIS report: developer, MW, POI substation, stage (screening, fis_started, fis_complete, ia_signed, energized), COD, co-location; totals by stage and zone | county, poi, or location + radius_mi; min_mw, status |
| power_plants | Operating and planned plants and batteries from EIA-860M: plant, operator, technology, nameplate MW, storage MWh and duration, first operating year, planned retirement. battery_queue adds an operating_storage total and volatile_nodes an operating_storage_10mi per node. Free: location, kind and size band | county or location + radius_mi; kind (storage, solar, wind, gas, coal, nuclear, hydro, other), status (operating, planned, all), min_mw |
| large_loads | Large loads (data centers, crypto, LNG, industrial) in a county or around a site: announced data center campuses with coordinates, flagged at or above ERCOT's 75 MW large load threshold, plus campuses within 25 miles across county lines; load-driven transmission projects from ERCOT TPIT with TSP, substation, kV, stated MW and in-service date; data-center air permits; local news; Grid Report mentions; load zone and utility. Pro adds project names, MW and developers and the local sentiment score. list_counties=true ranks all 254 counties by signal and lists those with none. | county or location, radius_mi; include_completed; list_counties, kind |
| Data centers | ||
| data_centers | Texas data center projects near a site or in a county: locations, placed to the site where known and otherwise to the town or county. Pro adds project and company names (developer, end user, parents), status and dates, MW, acres, capex, utility and substation, tax abatements, local opposition, confidence and sources, plus status and company filters. Campuses list their buildings; MW totals count campuses only. Barrio Energy research compiled from utility and PUCT filings, county and city records, abatement agreements, TDLR and TCEQ records and news. 364 projects (274 campuses, 90 buildings) across 101 counties. | location + radius_mi or county; min_mw, limit; status and company (Pro) |
| company_footprint (Pro) | Which companies are building across Texas: companies ranked by number of projects (3 or more by default) with total stated MW, counties, and how many are operating or under construction. Or every project for one company. | company, min_projects |
| Local politics and news | ||
| local_sentiment (Pro) | How a Texas county or city treats data centers, or the county and city at an address: a score from every recorded public action since September 2024 (abatements, JETI, reinvestment zones, zoning and SUP votes, development and water agreements, EDC incentives, moratoria, restrictive ordinances, denials, withdrawals after opposition, lawsuits, organized opposition), a stance, counts of favorable, adverse and neutral actions, and recent actions with date, body, vote, project, summary and source links. Free shows which jurisdictions have a record. | county, city, or address or lat/lng; limit |
| data_center_news | Local and trade news on Texas data center projects near a site or in a county: headline, outlet, date and link, placed at the project, town or county, tagged by topic (abatement, zoning, opposition, water, power, jobs, construction, cancellation, moratorium, lawsuit). Pro adds a short summary and the linked projects. | county or location + radius_mi; since_days, limit |
| Search, detail and changes | ||
| find_building_land | Pro. Land for a warehouse or manufacturing building near a point: acres in a range, share under 5 percent slope from USGS lidar, FEMA floodplain acres and buildable acres after setbacks. Open Plan on a parcel to lay out the pad, cut and fill, parking, roads, your costs and a permit pre-plan. | |
| search_grid | Find anything by name: substations (name, owner, city, ERCOT code), planned projects (name, owner, utility, docket), batteries (name, developer, POI, INR), air permits (company, project, permit number), queue projects, pricing nodes, cities and counties. Returns coordinates for the other tools. | query, kinds, limit |
| substation_detail | One substation: kV, owner, lines, transmission within 2 mi, batteries at its POI, generation_queue_at_poi (total projects, mw_total, projects by fuel/mw/study_phase), queue nearby, 7-day prices, an inferred station class (distribution, transmission, switching, generation tie, customer-owned) with its evidence, and how likely_utility was derived, flagged when it disagrees with the station owner. Planned upgrades within 10 mi on Pro; landowners around it on Enterprise (free and Pro show counts). | name (+ county) or address or lat/lng Adds the OpenStreetMap osm block (class and whether a distribution bus is mapped; high and low side voltage and transformers on Pro) and uses the OpenStreetMap substation tag as strong evidence for station_class (basis says whether OSM agreed with or overrode the inference). Names are also matched against OpenStreetMap names (Normanna finds the station HIFLD calls Beek); a station mapped only in OpenStreetMap comes back as osm_only_substation. Pro lists osm_only_substations within 5 miles. |
| grid_projects (Pro) | New substations, approved lines and upgrades near a site, in a county or by utility: status, expected date, kV, cost, docket, driver, summary, sources, placement. Free shows totals and 3 names. | location + radius_mi, county, utility, kind, status, min_kv |
| air_permits (Pro) | TCEQ generation and data-center air permits statewide, by county or near a site: company, project, permit number, new or renewal, pending or issued, dates, fuel, MW. Free shows totals. | location, county, status, new_facilities_only, data_centers_only, since or days, fuel, company |
| whats_new (Pro) | Events near a site or in a county in the last N days, by date: battery milestones, queue entries, permits filed or issued, new planned projects, Grid Report articles. Free shows counts. | location + radius_mi or county, days |
| Prices | ||
| node_prices | ERCOT day-ahead prices (hourly, $/MWh) for the load zone at a location, the nearest resource nodes and the hubs, with 7-day stats; or one settlement point's full series with rt15_stats (15-minute real-time TB4/TB2, spikes, max, min -- captures intra-hour spikes hourly averages wash out) and a scarcity block (intervals with a real-time reliability price adder since 5 Dec 2025) | address or lat/lng, or settlement_point; days (7) |
| volatile_nodes | Nodes ranked for storage and solar: TB2/TB4, volatility, spikes, negative hours, evening peak, solar capture, basis, real-time TB4, RT spikes, DART, plus 15-minute real-time metrics (rt15_tb4, rt15_spikes, rt15_over_1000, rt15_negative); each node carries queued and operating storage within 10 miles | metric (incl. rt15_tb4, rt15_spikes), days (30), load_zone or location + radius_mi |
| ancillary_prices | ERCOT day-ahead ancillary service clearing prices (RegUp, RegDown, RRS, ECRS, Non-Spin): averages, maxima, battery AS stack, daily series, monthly history back to 2024. Also a realtime block: 15-minute real-time clearing prices since RTC+B (5 Dec 2025) and scarcity intervals where the reliability deployment price adder was above zero | days (30), hourly, monthly_history, realtime (true) |
| binding_constraints | Transmission constraints and SCED/DAM shadow prices near a site or node: which lines bind, how often, and at what price. Explains congestion-driven price spikes; cross-reference with volatile_nodes and grid_projects | lat/lng or settlement_point, radius_mi (25), days (30), limit (20) |
| battery_performance | Realized battery revenue from ERCOT 60-day disclosure: energy and AS revenue, $/MW-month, cycles/day per ESR resource. Free: counts and area averages. Pro: per-battery detail | lat/lng or settlement_point, radius_mi (50), limit (20) |
| price_history | Monthly day-ahead price history for a node back to 2020: average, TB4/TB2, max, negative hours, hours over $100 and $1,000. Free: last 12 months. Pro: full history, year-over-year, annual and seasonality tables | lat/lng or settlement_point, months |
| land_value (Enterprise Lite) | Land value around a tract: appraised $/acre of nearby raw-land parcels (median, 25th-75th percentile, by size band) and the subject parcel's appraisal, plus current asking prices of nearby listings with links and a suggested offer range. Texas does not disclose sale prices, so these are appraisals and asking prices. Enterprise Lite and Enterprise (25 fresh listing searches a day on Enterprise Lite); Free and Pro get the sample size | lat/lng or address, radius_mi, min_acres, acres, listings |
| battery_revenue_estimate | Screening gross revenue for a battery at a node over the last 12 complete months: day-ahead energy arbitrage plus AS capacity on the share of MW you offer to AS. Free: annual total. Pro: monthly table and nearby-node comparison | lat/lng or settlement_point, mw, mwh, rte, cycles_per_day, as_share |
| solar_revenue_estimate | Screening energy revenue for a solar project at a Texas point: MWh per MW-ac from NASA POWER irradiance (DC/AC, losses, fixed or single-axis stated), the solar capture price at the nearest ERCOT node (last 12 complete months of day-ahead prices times the node's solar-hour price ratio), a system-wide curtailment haircut and annual day-ahead energy revenue. Every tier also gets solar_resource: the NASA POWER average next to the Global Solar Atlas value at the point (about 250 m), its Texas percentile and the difference in percent. Free: MWh per MW-ac and a capture price band. Pro: capture price, curtailment, revenue and the monthly table. | address or lat/lng or settlement_point, mw_ac, dc_ac, tracking, losses_pct, curtailment_pct (Pro) |
| solar_curtailment | Hourly solar output by ERCOT region and a system-wide curtailment estimate back to January 2024 (NP4-745-CD). Curtailment is a proxy: available solar minus output over midday hours 10-17. Regions show output and shape only. Free: last 30 days system-wide percent and regional output shares. Pro: monthly history by region, the hourly shape, worst hours and the daily series. | |
| News and account | ||
| grid_news | Latest or keyword-matched Grid Report articles with links and summaries; full text by article_id. Unmetered. | query, since_days, limit, article_id |
| upgrade_to_pro | Pro checkout link | email (optional) |
| my_projects | Your places from the map, in three lists: Properties, Prospects and Saved places. List them (optionally one list), or read one project's features (name, type, representative point, acres for shapes, folder, note and details). With screen=true (Pro) runs site_screen on up to 25 features and ranks them by score, with the nearest substation; the strengths and risks behind each score are on Enterprise. Needs a key tied to your map account. Free: names and counts. See My places. | list, project (name or id), screen, use |
| save_site | Watches a site: saves an address or lat/lng with a radius (default 10 mi). Each Monday morning one email lists what changed within the radius (battery milestones, generation queue entries, air permits, planned grid projects, geolocated news within the radius or in the same county), only in weeks when something did. Pro and up, 25 sites; free accounts get an explanation. Not counted toward usage. | address or lat/lng, name, radius_mi, weekly_email, id |
| list_saved_sites | Lists your watched sites with ids, radius and whether the Monday email is on. Pro and up. Not counted toward usage. | none |
| remove_saved_site | Stops watching a site and turns off any price alerts tied to it. Pro and up. Not counted toward usage. | id |
| set_price_alert | Emails you once when a settlement point's metric (tb4 battery spread, rt_tb4, average day-ahead price, negative hours, real-time spikes over $100) is above or below your threshold on each of the last N days (default 3), checked each morning, then quiet for 7 days. Node by name or nearest to an address. Pro and up, 25 alerts; free accounts get an explanation. Not counted toward usage. | settlement_point or address or lat/lng, metric, op, threshold, days, site_id, id |
| list_price_alerts | Lists your price alerts with ids and when each last fired. Pro and up. | none |
| remove_price_alert | Deletes a price alert. Pro and up. | id |
| save_place | Saves a point to your Saved places, with a name and note, when you ask your assistant to save or pin a location. Returns a map link. Free keeps 10 saved places, Pro 500. Not counted toward usage. | address or lat/lng, name, note |
Locations: a street address, a Texas city or county name, or lat and lng. Texas only. Distances in miles.
Every answer with a location includes map_url, a link that opens that spot on the map with the grid and prices panel up. Settlement points link as /map?sp=NODE. Free accounts get the map with substations, transmission lines, city limits, node price colors and search, and 10 site clicks a day showing the likely utility and nearest substations. Pro adds new substations, approved lines and upgrades, the battery queue, air permits, the generation queue, gas pipelines, compressor stations and gas plants, parcel owners, node price history and unlimited clicks. The link is signed in for every account: it carries an encrypted, single-account token, so one click from the assistant opens the map at that account's level with no login. A signed link is valid for 7 days and 25 opens, and gives a 24-hour map-only session (no account page, keys or billing). Treat it like a password: share it with the person you are helping, not publicly.
Landowners (Enterprise Lite)
Landowner names, mailing addresses, appraisal records, parcel lists and owner rankings are on Barrio Grid Enterprise Lite ($999 a month total, everything in Pro plus these, self-serve on Pricing) and on Enterprise. Owner records are limited to 3,000 a month per account on Enterprise Lite, and the terms bar reselling the data. Free and Pro cover the grid itself and get the parcel record at a point without its owner. Site screen flags and weights stay on Enterprise, approved account by account; to ask about Enterprise, email ivan@barrioenergy.com.
Owner data comes from county appraisal district records (TNRIS StratMap 2025). Each owner is classified from the name as company, individual, trust_estate or public (government, school districts, public districts); owner_type=private excludes public owners.
group_by_owner takes every parcel of at least min_parcel_acres (default 5, minimum 1) whose center is within max_sub_mi of a substation of at least min_kv, groups them by the normalized owner name, and returns owners with at least min_total_acres (default 50): parcel count, total and largest acres, market value, up to 25 property IDs, nearest substation and mailing address. Undivided-interest accounts that share one parcel outline count once per owner. The same owner can appear under name variants across counties. Free and Pro get the number of parcels considered and owners matching.
Confirm ownership with the appraisal district or a title search before contacting owners.
Jurisdiction, pipelines and neighbors
| Field | Source and caveat |
|---|---|
| city limits | TxDOT and StratMap city boundaries, 1,212 cities. |
| floodplains | FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer, effective FIRM data plus LOMRs, from the 144 Texas county and community map products (207,085 flood zone areas). Map layer: 100-year floodplain (1% annual chance, Zones A, AE, AH, AO, V, VE), regulatory floodway, 500-year floodplain (0.2% annual chance, shaded Zone X including levee-protected areas). 118 counties have no county-wide digital FEMA map and show grey. Screening only; confirm with the effective FIRM panel. Refreshed quarterly. |
| wetlands | USFWS National Wetlands Inventory, Texas state download (Apr 2026), 2,233,845 mapped wetland and deepwater areas, each with its type and Cowardin code. Map layer from zoom 8 (deep link layers=wetlands): forested/shrub, emergent marsh, estuarine, ponds, and rivers, lakes and bays. jurisdiction and the site card report the wetland at the point and acres within 0.5 mi; find_powered_land adds wetland_pct per parcel and a max_wetland_pct filter. Most Texas mapping is from 1980s aerial imagery. These are mapped potential wetlands, not a delineation, and many are not federally regulated since Sackett v. EPA (2023). Pro: the map layer and wetland type, acres and distance in results; free results say whether a mapped wetland is on the point or within 0.5 mi. Refreshed yearly. |
| critical habitat | USFWS ECOS critical habitat (Aug 2026), clipped to Texas: final and proposed designations for 59 listed and proposed species, with listing status and Federal Register citation. Map layer (deep link layers=habitat). jurisdiction and site_screen report units within 5 mi. Critical habitat restricts projects with a federal nexus (a Corps Section 404 permit, federal funding or license) through Section 7 consultation; it is not a species range map (see USFWS IPaC). Free for every tier. Refreshed quarterly. |
| distribution lines | Pro map layer (deep link layers=distribution). Two sources, drawn differently. Solid: OpenStreetMap power lines under 69 kV (8,566 segments statewide, Geofabrik extract Sep 2026), with voltage, overhead or underground, operator and phases where tagged; coverage is uneven. Dashed: the gridfinder predicted medium-voltage network (Arderne et al. 2020, CC BY 4.0), about 65,600 km in Texas, which routes likely lines along roads to places lit at night. Modeled lines show where distribution probably runs, not pole positions, voltage or capacity. No Texas utility publishes feeder maps; confirm with the utility. Refreshed quarterly. |
| communication towers | Pro map layer (deep link layers=towers). FCC Antenna Structure Registration, 16,832 constructed or granted structures in Texas (full database, 27 Sep 2026), plus 2,584 OpenStreetMap communication towers and masts more than about 150 m from a registered structure. Cards show structure type, owner, height above ground and ASR registration number. The FCC records the structure owner, not the carriers on it. Refreshed quarterly. |
| fiber routes | Provider and public GIS, real cable paths: FiberLight (network clip March 2022 plus current published layer), Comcast fiber cables (Houston region), Uniti, Windstream and Kinetic (national core, regional transport, IRU and dark fiber), Conterra, Unite Private Networks, Harris County, City of Pharr, El Paso (MCImetro design layer). About 256,000 mapped segments, 86,000 route miles in Texas, each tagged by tier: 1 backbone and long haul, 2 metro trunk and middle mile, 3 distribution. On the map, backbone shows from statewide zoom, trunk from zoom 9, distribution from zoom 12. Carrier long-haul routes known only from carrier maps and filings are reported on named highway corridors (path inferred) and returned by fiber_near but not drawn. Lit capacity and available strands are not public. |
| fiber facilities and FTTP | 104 carrier hotels, colocation facilities and data centers keyed to PeeringDB. Fiber-to-premises providers from the FCC Broadband Data Collection (technology 50, as of 2025-12-31), aggregated to H3 resolution 8 cells; they show who already has fiber in the ground near a site. Map layers: layers=fiber (routes and facilities), layers=fttp (adds FTTP cells, Pro, from zoom 9). |
| etj | Estimate: the statutory ETJ distance for the city's 2020 population (0.5 to 5 miles), minus other cities. Cities publish their actual ETJ, and landowners may have petitioned out under SB 2038 (2023). Confirm with the city. |
| school district | Census TIGER school districts, 1,016 ISDs. |
| groundwater district | TWDB groundwater conservation districts. Outside a district, rule of capture applies. |
| likely_utility | Inferred from the owners of nearby substations, not a certificated service territory. Confirm with the utility. |
| pipelines | Railroad Commission of Texas T-4 permit data, 497,000 segments in all 254 counties; abandoned lines excluded. Diameter is nominal; line capacity and available takeaway are not public, ask the operator. |
| gas infrastructure | Compressor stations: HIFLD/ORNL (interstate, certificated horsepower) and TCEQ emissions-inventory gas transmission sites. Processing plants: HIFLD/EIA-757 design capacity and throughput (MMcf/d). Pipeline capacity projects: EIA natural gas pipeline projects list, Texas rows since 2015. |
| industrial neighbors | TCEQ point-source emissions inventory and New Source Review air permit applications, geocoded. |
| battery_queue | ERCOT GIS report, battery projects, monthly. Located by POI substation. |
| power_plants | U.S. EIA Form 860M generator inventory (ERCOT balancing authority), monthly, rolled up by plant and technology. |
Large loads by county
ERCOT publishes its large load interconnection queue only as statewide totals by load zone and utility, not by county or project. large_loads assembles the public county-level evidence: announced data center campuses tracked by Barrio Energy Research with coordinates and a 75 MW flag, transmission projects that utilities have filed with ERCOT to serve new load (the monthly Transmission Project and Information Tracking report), TCEQ air permits flagged as data centers, local news and Grid Report coverage, and on Pro the county and city sentiment score. Each TPIT project is tagged data_center, large_load or load_serving from its filed description. A county with no signals can still have loads in the queue.
Local sentiment scoring
The score reflects what governments have done, not what residents have said. Only official actions score: votes and decisions by commissioners courts, city councils, planning and zoning commissions, EDCs, school districts, utility districts and state agencies. The one exception is a project withdrawn after opposition. Community opposition, petitions and lawsuits are listed with each jurisdiction but carry no points.
Each project counts once per jurisdiction: only its strongest positive and strongest negative action score, so a reinvestment zone, an abatement and its amendments on one project do not stack. Points decay with a 12-month half-life and drop out after 24 months. Counties and cities are scored separately; actions by an EDC, school district or utility district count toward the city or county it belongs to.
| Action | Points |
|---|---|
| Chapter 312 or 380/381 abatement, or JETI agreement, approved | +3 |
| Rezoning, SUP or planned development approved | +2 |
| Reinvestment zone, development agreement, EDC incentive or partnership | +2 |
| Permit issued, or utility or water agreement | +1 |
| Moratorium, or zoning ban on data centers | -4 |
| Nonbinding resolution opposing data centers or asking for a pause | -2 |
| Resolution asking the Legislature for authority over data centers | -1 |
| Rezoning, SUP or planned development denied | -3 |
| Project withdrawn after opposition | -2 |
| Abatement denied; policy of no abatements for data centers; zoning rules that allow data centers with conditions (SUP, setbacks, cooling rules); application filed; hearing noticed; item tabled | 0 |
| Community opposition, petition, lawsuit | listed, not scored |
Stance: 3 or more is favorable, 0.5 to 3 leaning favorable, -0.5 to 0.5 mixed or neutral, -3 to -0.5 leaning hostile, -3 or less hostile. A county or city with no recorded action is untested, not favorable. Every listed action shows its points and, when it does not score, why.
site_screen scoring
site_screen scores six components (grid, prices, gas, jurisdiction, queue, neighbors) and weights them by intended use: data center, battery, generation, solar or industrial. Enterprise accounts get the flags, weights and each component's points with the answer; free and Pro get the score.
A first-pass screen, not a capacity study. Free accounts can call the components one at a time.
ERCOT prices
Prices come from the ERCOT public API: day-ahead settlement point prices (NP4-190) for all 1,123 resource nodes, load zones and hubs, refreshed hourly, and real-time 15-minute prices (NP6-905) rolled up to hourly averages, and day-ahead ancillary service clearing prices (NP4-188) back to January 2024. Day-ahead is hourly by hour ending, Central time, in $/MWh.
| Metric | Meaning |
|---|---|
| tb2_avg, tb4_avg | Average daily top-minus-bottom 2-hour and 4-hour spread. What a 2h or 4h battery cycling once a day with perfect foresight captures. |
| tb4_annualized_per_mw | tb4_avg x 4 x 365: gross day-ahead arbitrage per MW-year before losses, degradation and real-time deviations. |
| stdev_hourly, cv, daily_range_avg | Within-day volatility: standard deviation of hourly prices, stdev divided by average, and average daily max minus min. |
| hours_over_100, hours_negative | Spike and negative-price hours in the window. |
| evening_peak_avg | Average price HE 17-21, when a battery discharges after sunset. |
| solar_capture_avg, solar_capture_ratio | Average node price over HE 9-18 and its ratio to the all-hours average. Below 1 means solar hours are the cheap hours. |
| basis_vs_zone | Node average minus load zone average. Generators are paid the node price, load pays the zone price. |
| rt_tb4, rt_spikes | Real-time 4-hour spread and real-time hours over $100, from 15-minute prices rolled up to hourly. |
| dart | Day-ahead minus real-time average. Negative means real time ran hotter than the day-ahead market. |
| queued_storage_10mi | MW of battery projects in the ERCOT queue within 10 miles of the node: competition for the same spread. |
| AS battery stack | ancillary_prices: the best-paid of RegUp, RRS and ECRS each hour, averaged and annualized per MW. System-wide, not nodal. AS prices fell from about $20/MW-h in early 2024 to $1 to $2 in 2026 as storage entered. |
| Real-time AS and scarcity | ancillary_prices realtime block: 15-minute real-time clearing prices per service since RTC+B went live on 5 Dec 2025 (ERCOT NP6-331-CD), average, maximum and intervals over $10, $50 and $100, plus scarcity intervals where the real-time reliability deployment adder (NP6-324-CD) was above zero. ORDC adders were retired by RTC+B. ERCOT's API has no real-time clearing prices for 31 Jul to 26 Aug 2026; those days are left out. Free: averages, maxima and counts over up to 30 days. Pro: daily series, adder sizes, highest-scarcity days, up to 365 days. node_prices for a single settlement point carries a scarcity block with the same counts. |
| top_constraints | volatile_nodes (Pro): top 5 binding transmission constraints at each node's substation. Shows constraint name, from/to stations, days binding, intervals binding and max shadow price. Explains why a node's spread exists. |
| binding_constraints | Standalone tool: all binding constraints near a site or settlement point. Free shows constraint names, stations and days binding. Pro adds shadow prices, SCED interval counts, DAM hours and 120-day history. Data from ERCOT NP6-86-CD (real-time SCED) and NP4-191-CD (day-ahead). |
| battery_performance | Realized battery revenue from ERCOT's 60-day post-settlement disclosure (NP3-966-ER). Per ESR resource: energy revenue (discharge/charge awards and prices), AS revenue by product (RegUp, RegDn, RRS, ECRS, Non-Spin with MCPC), total $/MW-month, cycles/day. Free: battery count and area-average $/MW-month. Pro: per-battery breakdown with daily detail. |
| price_history | Monthly day-ahead prices rolled up from ERCOT NP4-190-CD (archive for 2020-2023): average, TB4 and TB2 (mean over days of the top 4 or 2 hours minus the bottom 4 or 2), maximum and minimum, negative hours, hours over $100 and $1,000. A day counts only with at least 23 hours of data; days shows how many days the month has. Free: the last 12 months and a trailing 12-month average. Pro: every month since 2020 (Winter Storm Uri, summer 2023) with year-over-year change, an annual table with TB4 per MW-year (one cycle a day, no losses), and a seasonality table by calendar month. Day-ahead only; real-time 15-minute history starts 2026-09-05. |
| battery_revenue_estimate | Energy: duration (MWh/MW, capped at 4 h) x cycles per day (second cycle at half value) x node monthly top-N minus bottom-N DAM spread (between TB2 and TB4) less round-trip loss priced at the monthly average, x MW offered to energy x days. AS: MW offered to AS x the month's best average MCPC of RegUp, RRS and ECRS x hours. Gross and a screen only: no real-time revenue, degradation, opex or state-of-charge limits, and energy and AS compete for the same capacity. Source: ERCOT NP4-190-CD and NP4-188. Free: annual total. Pro: month-by-month table and a comparison with the nearest nodes. |
| solar_revenue_estimate | Energy per month = GHI x tracking gain (fixed 1.12, single axis 1.27) x days x (1 - temperature loss, 0.35% per C above 25 C, cell = ambient + 28) x (1 - losses, default 14%) x (1 - clipping, 1.5% fixed / 3.5% tracker) x DC/AC (default 1.3). Capture price = node monthly day-ahead average x the node's last-90-day ratio of solar-weighted to plain average price (weights: ERCOT system solar shape, last 30 days). Curtailment haircut = ERCOT system-wide midday proxy, trailing 12 months. Day-ahead only; no real-time, basis, RECs, PPA, degradation or opex. Not a forecast. |
| solar_curtailment | Curtailment proxy = HSL (system-wide available solar) minus actual solar output, summed over hours ending 10-17, as a percent of available. It includes forecast error and ramp limits, so it is an upper bound on economic curtailment. ERCOT publishes HSL only system-wide; regions carry output and a forecast but no usable availability. Refreshed daily. |
Resource node locations are matched to public substation and plant data; geo_method says how, and nodes without a confident location are not shown on the map or in radius searches. Free accounts get 7 days of history and 10 ranked nodes; Pro gets 120 days, 50 nodes and hourly real-time averages.
Views and the land filter
The Views chips at the top of the Layers panel (Battery, Solar, Data center) turn on the layers each kind of project is screened on. Pick one or more: a view only adds layers, and turning it off removes only the layers it turned on that no other selected view uses. A layer you switch on or off by hand stays the way you left it. The Solar view also colors nodal prices by solar capture ratio (solar-hours price over the all-hours price, last 7 days) and filters the generation queue to solar; both have their own controls under the layer. Link to views with ?views=solar,dc.
Land filter (Enterprise): with views selected, set parcel size, substation distance and voltage, gas line distance and flat ground share, then Find land in view. Fields show the strictest value across the selected views; a field you have not edited judges each view by its own default, so each parcel is listed with pass or fail per view and the reason (for example Data center: gas 6 mi). Searches parcels within 5 to 20 miles of the map center, depending on zoom.
Solar resource (GHI, Pro): statewide average daily sunshine on flat ground from Global Solar Atlas v2 (World Bank, Solargis, CC BY 4.0), about 250 m cells. Clicking any spot shows the value and its Texas percentile on every plan.
My places
Keep your own sites next to the grid. On the map, open My places. It has three lists: Properties (sites you own or control), Prospects (sites you are pursuing) and Saved places. On desktop, import a KMZ, KML or GeoJSON file from Google Earth, Land id or any GIS tool into Properties or Prospects. Points, lines and shapes show on the map with the grid around them; click one for the same site card as any other spot, with your own notes and fields on top. Drop more points with Add point, add another file to a project, export it back to KML, or copy a link that reopens it (/map?project=ID, for your account only).
To save a single spot, press Save on any card and give it a name and a note. It goes to Saved places. Connected assistants can do the same with save_place ("pin 1201 Main St as the Main Street option") and read everything back with my_projects. Free accounts keep one imported project of up to 50 features and 10 saved places; Pro keeps 50 projects, 500 saved places and screens every site in a project at once. Phones show your places view-only, and Save works there too.
Files are read in your browser; only the points, lines and shapes are saved, with their names, descriptions, folders and data fields (HTML and scripts are stripped). Projects are private to your account. Barrio does not view, use or market from them.
| Free | Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Imported projects | 1 | 50 |
| Features per project | 50 | 2,000 |
| Saved places | 10 | 500 |
| Screen every site | - | Up to 25 sites per run, 20 runs a day, ranked 0 to 100 for data center, battery, generation, solar or industrial use |
Assistants read the same projects through my_projects: "rank the tracts in my Edna project for a battery" works once your assistant is connected with the same email you use on the map.
Dub, the chat landman
Who he is, what he covers and a real answer: map.barrioenergy.com/dub.
You do not have to connect an assistant to ask a question. On the map, press Ask Dub at the bottom left. Dub Kittrell is an AI landman who runs the same tools this page documents, so "who serves this spot and how far is the nearest 138 kV substation" gets the same data your own assistant would pull.
Every answer that names a place moves the map there, drops a pin and turns on the layers that fit the question, with Show on map chips to jump back to any spot he mentioned. Follow-up questions keep the context, and the conversation stays in your browser until you reset it.
Tell him what you are building and he works from that. If you open with something broad, he asks one question first: what you are building, how many megawatts, and roughly where or when. What you tell him about your project is kept on your account so he does not ask twice, and Barrio Energy may use it to follow up with you about powered sites. Ask us and we will delete it. See the privacy policy.
Dub answers at your plan's level. Free accounts get the free view of every tool, so queue projects come back without names or capacity; Pro adds names, sizes and price history. Landowners, appraisal values and tract searches are on Enterprise Lite; site scores with their flags and weights are the Land Desk, on Enterprise. Below those plans he says so once, notes what you are looking for, works the grid side, and can email the upgrade link to your account's own address if you say yes. Ask him about Enterprise or a custom tool and he passes your request to Barrio, who replies directly. He can reach every tool on this page, up to five rounds of calls per question: power and parcels, gas pipelines and fiber, air permits and industrial neighbors, planned transmission, ancillary prices, data center projects and company footprints, how a county or city has acted on data centers, what changed lately near a spot, and the news. He can also read your places, save a spot when you ask, and log a feature request in your words.
| Plan | Questions a day |
|---|---|
| Free | 20 |
| Pro | 200 |
| Enterprise Lite | 200 |
| Enterprise | 500 |
The day resets at midnight Central. On a phone he opens as a sheet over the bottom of the map; press Map to put him away, and the conversation is still there when you come back. He is an AI character made by Barrio Energy, not a person, and he answers from Barrio Grid data (HIFLD, ERCOT, TNRIS, county appraisal rolls, TCEQ, RRC, FEMA). Screening data, not legal, title or investment advice: confirm capacity and service with the utility.
Site design and Marco (Enterprise)
The Plan workspace lays out battery, solar and data center sites on a tract: equipment on the buildable land, the tie, gas and fiber laterals, access, and economics or costs from your own models. Data center plans size from the power available, a gas supply, an IT target or the most the tract holds, and compare recip engines, turbines and fuel cells. Marco, the design engineer, changes the plan by conversation. Details and worked numbers: data center power planning.
Refer a colleague
Paying Pro and Enterprise Lite accounts have a referral link on the account page. Someone who signs up through it gets the normal first month at the current intro price. Once they are on their second paid month, the referrer gets $250 off their next bill ($500 if they go with Enterprise Lite). Colleagues at the same company count. Credit comes off before tax and rolls over, up to 12 months of your plan. Details on pricing.
Limits and errors
| Plan | Limit |
|---|---|
| Free | 20 calls a day and 100 a month; after 100, 5 a day until the 1st. 7 days of prices, 10 nodes, 10 parcels within 5 miles, first 5 queue projects with full totals. Map: base layers and 10 site clicks a day. |
| Pro key | 5,000 calls a month; every map layer except two, unlimited clicks |
| Enterprise Lite | As Pro (5,000 calls a month), plus tract search and up to 3,000 landowner records a month |
| Enterprise | Custom limits. Ask. |
Over the limit, REST returns 429 with Retry-After; MCP returns a tool error with the same message. No token, or an expired or revoked one, returns 401 with a WWW-Authenticate header pointing MCP clients to sign-in. Days reset at midnight Central. upgrade_to_pro is never counted.
Data
HIFLD substations and transmission with owners enriched by Barrio; transmission lines from OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL); ERCOT public API day-ahead, real-time and ancillary service prices; ERCOT GIS generation and battery queue; planned ERCOT and PUCT transmission projects; TxDOT, StratMap, Census and TWDB boundaries; Railroad Commission pipeline permits; TCEQ emissions inventory and air permits; TNRIS StratMap 2025 parcels with appraisal district owner and value fields (statewide load in progress, coverage listed in each find_powered_land answer). Screening data: confirm capacity with the utility.