Is SharePoint 2013 required to be able to do scheduled data refreshes?

[kfarynowski]

Having difficulty scheduling data refreshes, understanding what tools needed.  Attempted to install Personal gateway as another means but seems like something missing in our architecture as it never gets past the install to be able to configure. I have a SQL query in powever pivot, or could put the results in excel, but want to have the other users access the refreshed data without having to do a "refresh". 

[Greg_Deckler]

No, that is not a requirement, more likely it is this:

Personal Gateway fails to install - Personal Gateway fails to install if the user is in the Administrator group, but group policy does not allow that user to log on as a service.  At the moment, ensure the group policy allows a user to log on as a service. We’re working on a fix for this issue. 

From: https://support.powerbi.com/knowledgebase/articles/666367-troubleshooting-power-bi-personal-gateway

[andre]

You don't need SharePoint for scheduled refreshes. 

You need to install Gateway on a computer on your corporate network that has access to the internet (or your corporate laptop) in order to provide connectivity between your data set in the cloud and your corporate data.

Once that is set up, you can cick on three dots that show up next to the data set name when you mouse over it, then you can click on Schedule refresh and have your data set updated at the desired schedule.