The index answers one question: is powering a large load getting harder or easier, worldwide, month by month. It rises when power gets more expensive, grids run closer to their limits, or generation gets dirtier; every print shows which of the three moved it. Measured from live feeds, never modelled, never back-filled. Construction and weights are below.
What it captures. One number, base 100, for how hard it is to power a large electricity load across the major grids, compared with a fixed start date. When the index rises, power is getting more expensive, grids are running closer to their limits, or the energy is getting dirtier, usually some mix of the three. When it falls, conditions are easing. The three legs are published with every value, so you can always see which one moved it.
Who it is for. Anyone who needs a single, citable read on power-market conditions over time: analysts and journalists writing about energy and data centers, policy and infrastructure people tracking grid strain, and operators who want context for their own power costs. You do not need to be siting a data center to use it.
What you do with it. Quote it, chart it, and watch the monthly print. It is a barometer, not a siting tool. If the index tells you conditions are tightening and you are the one deciding where a large load goes next, the market-by-market answer is the PGIQ Rating.
The Index and the Rating. The Rating answers where to put a large load, market by market, today. The Index answers which way conditions are moving, everywhere, over time. Different question, different tempo: the Rating is refreshed weekly; the Index is a monthly print.
Three sub-indices, each a real measured signal, blended at fixed published weights. Nothing is estimated to fill a gap; a market only counts on a day when all three of its legs are actually live.
Each market enters the index weighted by its base-date share, then the three legs are blended 50 / 30 / 20. The full construction, base-setting, and the rebalancing rules are in the methodology and assessment specification.
Why the number may be flat, or missing, today. An index is only as good as its history, and history cannot be back-filled honestly, so we do not. The base is set to 100 on its start date and the series compounds forward from real daily captures. Daily values are provisional; the official value is a monthly print struck at month-end. Until enough months accrue, there is little to see, and that is the point: what you are watching is a measured record being built, not a modelled line drawn backward.
This is the same discipline we apply everywhere on the site: measured over modelled, and we would rather show a short honest series than a long invented one.
The live index is a public, CORS-open JSON endpoint. It returns the base, the weights, the constituents, the latest value, and the full series, with a status of recording until the base is set.
curl "https://powergridiq.com/api/v1/index"
Cite it as: "PGIQ Global Power Index (PowerGridIQ)", https://powergridiq.com/power-pressure, values at /api/v1/index.
Methodology and assessment spec: /index-methodology. The index is measured, never modelled.