When choosing to import data from OBIEE, Power BI imports the data into its in-memory cache. You can create visualizations from the imported data. To see the current data in OBIEE, you should refresh.

When you use DirectQuery, Power BI Desktop does not import or copy the OBIEE data. You can view the list of columns in Fact and Dimension tables. As you create visualizations by choosing the columns, data is queried from OBIEE via BI Connector. You always see the current data in OBIEE. DirectQuery works well with large multi-dimensional data sources such as OBIEE.

To learn more about the difference between Import and DirectQuery connections to OBIEE, please refer to our blog article on this topic.