Using Price Indices

Last updated: April 21, 2026

A Price Index is a dataset that defines the value of a price at regular time intervals across a specified time range. Each point on the index represents the price applicable for a particular interval, allowing systems to model, forecast, or apply prices that fluctuate over time.

Rather than representing a single static price, a price index captures temporal variation, enabling accurate representation of markets where prices change frequently due to supply, demand, or market conditions.

A Price Index can be historical, or a forward forecast.

Price indexes are referenced in Rate Sets.

Creating a Price Index

Supported Price Index file formats

There is currently one supported file format for importing price indices. This format is a csv format with the following header row:

periodStart,periodEnd,priceCurrency,price,kiloW-HR

  • periodStart is inclusive and must be in UTC time format, e.g. 2023-12-31T14:00:00.000Z

  • periodEnd is exclusive must be in UTC time format, e.g. 2023-12-31T14:05:00.000Z and represent

  • Currencies are represented using a namespaced ISO 4217 currency code format e.g. fibo-fnd-acc-4217:AUD

  • price is the price for the defined intervalPrice value supports up to 10dp.

  • kiloW-Hr is the volume of kWh the price purchases. E.g. for a per MWH price, this field would be set to 1000

Example row:

2023-12-31T14:00:00.000Z,2023-12-31T14:05:00.000Z,fibo-fnd-acc-4217:AUD,57.98,1000

Price index validations and common file issues

  1. There must be no time or date gaps in the data uploaded.

  2. There must be no overlaps between the dates or times or rows uploaded.

  3. There must no duplicate date or times.

  4. All price index uploads for existing price indices are a full replacement, the upload is not additive.

Steps to create a price index

  1. Navigate to the Price Index home page

  2. Select Add new and enter a price index name. Note, this name will appear in drop down selections elsewhere in the Factor UI:

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  1. Select your Price Index CSV and select Upload.

  2. The updated file will appear in the Price Index list after a short amount of time.

Updating a Price Index

  1. Navigate to the Price Index home page

  2. Find your price index file and select the Update Data

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  3. Upload the new file, the existing price index will be updated after a short time.

Any rate sets which reference a price index, will always use the latest version of the price index.

Referencing a Price Index in a Rate Set

To use a price index as a rate, it must be specified by a Rate Set.

Step 1: Create a rate set

Step 2: Configure the spot rate

  • For the rate type select Flat

  • For the price type, select Spot

  • Select the desired Price Index from the drop down menu

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