Can Power BI handle incremental data loads during the ETL process

Question

Can Power BI handle incremental data loads during the ETL process?
I’d like to enable incremental data refresh in Power BI to avoid full dataset reloads. I’m looking for setup requirements and any limitations to consider.

score 0 · Answer 1 · 2 days

Indeed, Power BI allows for incremental data refresh, which optimizes ETL by loading only updated or new data rather than the complete dataset.

Important Details for Setting Up an Incremental Refresh:

Requires licenses for Power BI Premium, Premium Per User (PPU), or Embedded.
To filter data by date or time, define the RangeStart and RangeEnd parameters in Power Query.
In the Power BI Desktop model, set up the incremental refresh policy (Table properties > Incremental refresh).
Power BI updates data in partitions according to the policy (for example, older data is static, and the last five days are fully refreshed).

Limitations & Considerations: Date/time columns are the most effective for filtering.

DirectQuery and Live Connection datasets are not supported.
A complete dataset refresh is necessary for modifications to historical data that fall outside of the refresh range.
Requires careful design to ensure source systems support query folding for efficient filtering.
Incremental refresh greatly reduces refresh times and resource consumption for large datasets. Let me know if you want a step-by-step guide!