How We Translated OpenADR XML to JSON in 47ms — Building the API Layer for the Power Grid

#api #backend #iot #performance

Every critical infrastructure system has been abstracted into programmable primitives.

Banking has Plaid. Payments have Stripe. Communications have Twilio.

The power grid? Nothing.

The grid speaks 8 major protocols — IEC 61850, DNP3, Modbus, OpenADR, OCPP, IEEE 2030.5, and more. They were built by different standards bodies, in different decades. A Modbus register read looks nothing like an OpenADR XML event.

We're building the translation layer.

The OpenADR Challenge

OpenADR 2.0b is the protocol utilities use for demand response. When a utility wants a data center to reduce power consumption, it sends this XML:

<oadr:oadrDistributeEvent>
  <oadr:oadrEvent>
    <ei:eiEvent>
      <ei:eventDescriptor>
        <ei:eventID>EVT-DR-001</ei:eventID>
        <ei:marketContext>http://dewa.gov.ae/DR</ei:marketContext>
      </ei:eventDescriptor>
      <ei:eiEventSignals>
        <ei:eiEventSignal>
          <ei:signalName>SIMPLE</ei:signalName>
          <ei:signalType>level</ei:signalType>
          <ei:currentValue>
            <ei:payloadFloat><ei:value>2.0</ei:value></ei:payloadFloat>
          </ei:currentValue>
        </ei:eiEventSignal>
      </ei:eiEventSignals>
    </ei:eiEvent>
  </oadr:oadrEvent>
</oadr:oadrDistributeEvent>

On the other side, we return:

{
  "eventId": "EVT-DR-001",
  "signalName": "SIMPLE",
  "signalType": "level",
  "signalValue": 2.0,
  "marketContext": "http://dewa.gov.ae/DR",
  "status": "active",
  "startDate": "2026-02-11T10:00:00Z",
  "durationSeconds": 3600
}

47ms. Full semantic translation, not just XML-to-JSON byte conversion.

Why Semantic Translation Matters

A naive XML-to-JSON converter gives you namespace-prefixed nesting five levels deep. Useless for developers.

Our translation engine does four things:

Parse — XML deserialization with namespace handling
Extract — Pull semantically meaningful fields
Normalize — Map to consistent JSON schema across all protocols
Enrich — Add context (what does signal level 2.0 mean?)

8 Protocols, One API

Protocol	Era	Format	Used For
OpenADR 2.0b	2009	XML	Utility demand response
Modbus TCP	1979	Binary registers	Industrial equipment, BESS
IEC 61850	2003	XML/binary	Substation automation
DNP3	1993	Binary	SCADA telemetry
OCPP 2.0	2020	JSON	EV charging
IEEE 2030.5	2013	XML	Smart inverters, DER
IEC 60870-5-104	2000	Binary	Wide-area grid telecontrol
ICCP/TASE.2	1996	Binary	Inter-utility data exchange

We sit at the intersection of all eight. One API. One JSON schema.

45 MCP Tools for AI Agents

We built 45 tools on Anthropic's Model Context Protocol:

// Dispatch a battery
await mcp.call("dispatch_command", {
  assetId: 42,
  commandType: "discharge",
  parameters: { powerMw: 5, durationMinutes: 60 }
});

// Carbon attestation
await mcp.call("attest_energy", {
  meterId: "MTR-DEWA-01",
  kwh: 1250.5,
  source: "grid"
});

// Find subsidies
await mcp.call("scan_subsidies", {
  facilityId: "fac-001"
});